Part 4 (2/2)

When once minced up by the teeth and moistened by the saliva, the food is reduced to a state of pulp, and having nothing further to do in theout of the etting into it by the _front door_, as it did at first Sing is in fact a complicated action, and not to be explained in half a dozen words, and I think we have already chatted enough for to-day I only wish I may not have tired you out with these inter quite nehen I begin again

LETTER VII

THE THROAT

You remember a certain door-keeper, or porter, of e have already spoken a good deal, who resides in the mouth--the sense of taste, I mean?

Well, it is a porter's business to sweep out the entrance to a house, and you nize hily our porter too has a brooue; and an unrivalled broo, never wears out, andin any brooms of our own manufacture

When the time has come for the pounded mouthful (described in the last chapter) to travel forward (the teeth having properly prepared it), the broo and turning right and left, backwards and forwards, up and down; picking up the least grains of the pulp which have been manufactured in the mouth; and as the heap increases, it makes itself into a shovel--another accomplishathers together thus, rolls by degrees on its surface into a ball, which at last finds itself fixed between the palate and the tongue in such a ue presses its tip against the upper front teeth, for on too fast

At the back of the mouth, (which is the antechamber, as we said before,) is a sort of lobby, separated froue_let_, suspended to the palate, exactly like those tapestry curtains which are so between two roo them up

If this lobby led only fro would be the siue would be raised, the pounded ball would glide on, would pass under the curtain, and then good-bye to it Unfortunately, however, the architect of the house seems to have economized his construction-apparatus here

The lobby serves two purposes; it is the passage from the s

The air we breathe has its two separate doors there--one opening towards the nose, the other towards the lungs; through neither of which is any sort of food allowed to pass But, as youof such spiteful restraints, and it is a h which of the doors it passes

Not unlike a good h they are reasonable creatures, will push their way into places where they have been forbidden to go; and who can expect a pulpy food-ball to be more reasonable than a child? It was necessary, therefore, so to arrange matters that there should be no choice on the subject; that when the food-ball got into the lobby it should find no door open but its own, namely, that which led to the stomach And that is exactly what is done

You have not, perhaps, re rises and contracts itself at the sa a kind of internal convulsion which jerks whatever is inside People do not think about it when they are eating, because it is an involuntary action, and their attention is otherwise engaged

But try to shen there is nothing in your mouth, and you will perceive what I ine our lobby at the back of the throat as a small closet, with a doorway in its wall, half-way up, the doorway being closed by a curtain In the ceiling is a hole, which leads to the nose; in the floor two large tubes open out; the front one leading to the lungs, the one behind, to the stomach

No, and I will tell you what happens The curtain rises up and clings to the ceiling, and thus the passage to the nose is stopped up The lung-tube rises along the wall, and hides itself under the door, contracting itself, anditself quite small, as if it wished to leave plenty of room for the mouthful of food which is about to pass over it; and, for still greater security, at the very ainst a small trap-door which shuts up its h the tube which leads to the stoht therein, without risk ofreadjusts itself as before

These are very ingenious contrivances, and I will venture to say that if ould but study the wonders of the marvellous and varied machinery which is constantly at work in our behalf within us, we should be s froood can be derived Moreover, we should be ashamed to trust, like the lower animals, only to our instinct, (which, after all, isthe thousand chances of destruction that beset a structure so fragile and delicate in its contrivances as the human body Besides, it is not only our own machinery that is entrusted to us, we are liable to be responsible for that of others, whose developuard and watch; and how can we do this with a safe conscience, if we are ignorant of the construction, the action, the laws of all sorts which the great Artificer has, so to speak,our bodies?

When you, in your turn, are awide your bright eyes, and not colad that you were taught when you were little, how your own little girl ought to be ood use, in her behalf, of what you and I are learning together, and in the meantime there is no reason why you should not yourself profit by the knowledge you have gained

I a to your child the simple rule of politeness, hich everybody is acquainted, ”_Never talk when you are eating_,” you will be very careful to add, ”_and especially when you are sing_,” for reasons I am about to detail

When ant to speak we have to drive the air fros into the mouth, and our words are sounds produced by this air as it passes through This is the reason why I advise you to go on gently, andaloud: to _take breath_, in fact, as it is called; otherwise, breath would all at once fail you, and you would be obliged to stop short in the middle of a sentence and wait like a si

It was for this purpose, also, and not for ht, that the little cross-road of four doors has been placed at the back of theit to cos or the sto their way to the stomach; but if you could substitute for it, as itdirectly to the stomach,--behold! you would find yourself duirl! But corown-up people ould be at least as sorry as yourself

To return to our subject We have said that, in order to guard against accidents, the lung-tube is closed at the moment we are about to s But if by any unlucky chance the air is cos at the sae Its tube cannot help returning to its place; the little trap-door which shuts up the opening opens whether or no, and then adieu to all the precautions of good Mother Nature! The mouthful when it drops, falls outside of its proper tube--that is to say, into the other, which is exactly in front of it, and we find that we have _sed the wrong way_

You knohat happens in such a case You cough and cough till you are torn to pieces, till you grow scarlet, or even blue in the face; till you lose your breath; till your body trembles; till your eyes start out of their sockets Let ill be there, there is no resource but to hide your face in your handkerchief The tube, which was onlyan entrance, does its uts, which would be destroyed by its getting to them, coling for their protection: they agitate theusts of air which drive all before theh, and by this means at last the enemy is thrust out of the mouth, like dust before the wind And it is only when the passages are cleared that the stor matter, I assure you; for if one had sed a little _too far_ the wrong way, or if the substance sed had been too heavy for the air-tube, aided by the lungs, to eject within a certain time, death would have ensued: instances of which are by noin vain; this is no case of aconcentrating its efforts to one point, and betraying such distress, at an accident apparently so trifling, you er too; and if you doubt it, that makes no difference--happily for you

Now you have learned why little girls should not attempt to talk and s at the sais a kind of sos, and is always accoreat deal , so that the jerks it occasions derange still more the wise provisions , and therefore we arethan while speaking

Need I say that we ought equally to guard againstthe to create a sudden shock which s, and cause the way? Politeness requires this from us, and what I have now said will fix the lesson still ly on your mind What would become of you if you were to see a person die in your presence in consequence of some foolish joke, however apparently innocent?

Not to conclude with so painful a picture, I will, before we part, give you the right names of the _curtain_, the _lobby_ or _closet_, and the _tubes_ of which we have been speaking