The House We Live In; or, The Making of the Body

by Vesta J. Farnsworth

Mother: Yes, quite the same. You have all seen the marrow in the bones. The brain looks some like that, too. It is made of jelly-like matter, and seems to be all crumpled up, so it is full of ridges and creases, as you see in this picture. It is said a baby’s brain is quite smooth, but the more a person thinks, the more ridges and furrows his brain will have and the deeper they are. A frog’s brain is smooth, like this.

“A frog’s brain is smooth.”

Elmer: But I don’t see how the brain thinks.

Mother: That is one of the things we can never understand. God gave men life, and when we are alive we think. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being,” and to be able to think is one of the best gifts that comes with life. It is the life God gives us which makes the body-house worth more than the most costly palace in the world.

If we look carefully into the brain, we see that the outside is gray, and the inside is white. Wise men tell us this matter is made of cells, called nerve cells, or brain cells. The gray matter tells the muscles what to do, and the white part sends the orders to all parts of the body through the nerves.

Elmer: Have we more than one brain, mother?

Mother: I might say no, and yes. It is really one, and yet it is in several parts. One is the big brain, which is found above the ears in the top of the head. It is with this part we think and reason. Then there is a little brain, in the back part of the head under the large brain. It is about as big as a medium-sized orange. Each brain has two parts, a right and left half, so we really have two brains. It might be said we are “left brained” when we are “right handed,” for the right hand is ruled by the left half of the brain.

Amy: How large is the brain, mother?

Mother: That of a man weighs about three pounds. An elephant’s weighs eight or ten pounds, and that is the heaviest of any we know. The brain must be used, the same as the muscles, if we would have it do its work well. It makes it grow and does it good when we study and think. As it was made to think about something, we should give it good things to think about. If it is lazy, it will lose the power to work, just as the muscles do, and if used, it will grow stronger and can do still harder work.