Chapter 4
4. Blind. In the United States there are about 65,000 blind persons, a little more than half of whom are totally blind. Of this number about 37,000 are males and about 28,000 females.
Blood heat. The normal temperature of man is about 98.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature is maintained with a variation of not more than 2 degrees, whether one lives or in the Arctic regions. Any great deviation is likely to prove fatal.
Animals have about the same temperature as man, while the blood of birds is from 8 to 10 degrees warmer. Reptiles, fishes, and all invertebrates maintain temperatures about the same as that of their environment. Blue grass region.
An undulating plateau in the north central part of Kentucky, covering about 10,000 square is known as the blue grass region. The underlying rock for 150 or more feet is blue limestone, very rich in phosphate of lime. This rock crumbles on exposure to the air and enriches the soil.
Tobacco and hemp have two crops a year and grow to a great height. Meadow grass grows continuously. The blue grass region for many years has been the center of the blooded stock of America. Boxers. A Chinese secret society supposed to be semi-religious and semi-patriotic.
The Boxers originally believed that they were immune from death or physical injury, and that they could, with safety, attack any foreign foe. Brain. As the action of the brain has not, as yet, been seen by man, no one, at the present day, knows just what it is beyond its merely physiological or mechanical substance.
It is said that the brain of a normal man contains over 300 million cells, and that about 3,000 are destroyed every minute. If this is the case, then a new brain appears once in 60 days. The normal brain has a volume of from 58 to 105 cubic inches. The brain of the Anglo-Saxon and German, and any other civilized nations, averages the
larger number, while the Negro brain occupies a space of about 96 cubic inches, and some Australian natives have brains of only about 58 cubic inches. The male brain is about 10% heavier or larger than that of the female. The most intelligent animals have only about 16 ounces of brains. The size of the brain, if it is not below normal, does not appear to influence the intellectuality
of its possessor. Men with small brains may have larger mind capacity than some of those possessing brains weighing several ounces more. It would appear, then, that the size of the brain, unless it be unusually small, has little to do with its quality.
Bread. It is said that the Chinese were the first bread makers, and that they made bread from wheat and rice as early as 1998 BC. Probably, the first bread made from yeast was baked in England in about 1634. Aerated bread, which rises from carbolic acid gas injected into the dough, became somewhat
common in 1857, but practically all bread, bakery-made or homemade, owes its leavening to yeast or baking powder. Breakfast foods. Breakfast foods, in the main, are composed of either corn, wheat or oat products, a few being made of barley, starch and tapioca.
They are sold under trade names and most of them need no cooking by the consumer, as they were properly cooked at the mill. Usually, they are made of only one grain and to some of them is added a small quantity of salt. Most of them are pure products and are unadulterated, but few, if any of them, are any better than
the grain sold in bulk, which can be purchased for about 4 cents per pound. Brook Farm. A famous socialistic community, originated by George Ripley and others in 1841 and located near West Roxbury, Massachusetts. The estate consisted of 200 acres and a company of educated men and women settled here to
work out an experiment in which each person performed a certain share of necessary manual labor. The enterprise was abandoned as an utter failure in 1846. Among the persons connected with the movement were George Ripley, Charles A. Danner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, George William Curtis, Theodore Parker, Margaret
Fuller and Dr. Channing. End of section 4
