The muscular system constitutes three-sevenths of the structure, contains half the water and half the proteid of the entire body, and weighs, in a ten-stone-ten man, between 63 and 64 lbs.
Fat is taken from the blood mostly ready-formed, and is stored away as packing material and reserve food. It is the most inconstant of all tissues in quantity, and varies with every change of health, air, diet, work, and with each important life-event. But, usually, it averages from one-fortieth to one-twentieth of the body weight, or from 3¾ to 7½ lbs. in a ten-stone-ten man, enough to make several pounds of candles like those we have photographed.
8,064 BOXES OF MATCHES LIKE THESE CAN BE MADE FROM THE PHOSPHORUS IN A MAN.
The blood itself is manufactured in the body, one part by certain organs, another part by other organs. The making of it is still not fully understood. But the body knows when it has and has not sufficient. If one loses a pint of blood, the vessels take in a pint of water from the tissues in a very short period, and soon they have that water loaded with ingredients to bring it up to standard strength.
So the actual bulk and weight of blood scarcely ever varies in the same person, although it may be quite different in different individuals. For the average man it may be set down at from one-fourteenth to one-twelfth of the body weight—that is, between 10¾ and 12½ lbs. Women and fat men have proportionately less.
The remainder of the body-weight is made up of the heavy liver, the light lungs, the heart, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, intestines, brain, nerves, skin, hair, nails. And all these sundries weigh from 45 to 51 lbs.
It will be seen that a man is made on a different principle from that on which he makes most of the structures of civilised life. He builds them for long endurance; he builds himself for quick destruction. Nothing in him is permanent, or intended to be, except the skeleton and teeth. Westminster Abbey contains all the materials of a man's body, but it has been made into a compound edifice out of simple lime, wood, stone, etc., with the intention that it shall remain compound as long as possible. A man's body is constructed of compound substances so placed together that, by their interaction, they shall speedily and without ceasing break each other down into simple substances; and life is thus, as was said, essentially a process of destruction.
All these facts will help us to realise the wonders of the human body, and will substantiate the somewhat startling statement that the body is something of a chandler's shop.