A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School

exercise, afforded to her brothers in the open air, had been secured to her, during childhood and youth. NERVES. The nerves are the organs of sensation. They enable us to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell; and also combine with the bones and muscles in producing motion. The first engraving, on p. 77, (Fig. 6,) is a vertical section of the skull, and of the spinal column, or back bone, which supports the head, and through which runs the spinal cord, whence most of the nerves originate. It is a side view, and represents the head and spine, as they would appear, if they were cut through the middle, from front to back. Fig. 7, exhibits them as they would appear, if viewed from _behind_. In Fig. 6, _a_, represents the _cerebrum_, or great brain; _b_, the _cerebellum_, or little brain, which is situated directly under the great brain, at the back and lower part of the head; _c_, _d_, _e_, is the spinal marrow, which is connected with the brain at _c_, and runs through the whole length of the spinal column. This column consists, as has already been stated, of a large number of small bones, _f_, _f_, called _vertebrae_, laid one above another, and fastened together by _cartilage_, or _gristle_, _g_, between them. [Illustration: Fig. 6.] [Illustration: Fig. 7.] Between each two vertebrae, or spinal bones, there issues from the spine, on each side, a pair of nerves. The lower broad part of the spine, (see _p_, Fig. 1, p. 70, and Fig. 7, p. 77,) is called the _sacrum_; in this, are eight holes, through which the lower pairs of nerves pass off. The nerves of the head and lungs run directly from the brain; those of all other parts of the body proceed from the spine, passing out in the manner already mentioned. The nerves which thus proceed from the spine, branch out, like the limbs and twigs of a tree, till they extend over the whole body; and, so minutely are they divided and arranged, that a point, destitute of a nerve, cannot be