By: Elizabeth Kate Switaj
that we cannot always clearly assign the limits
that of dead or inert Mineral bodies
that we notice the tendency to ‘vegetative repetition’
that water is an element of their structure
that water must have formed out of their substance
that a new arrangement of particles has been effected
that the ‘red snow’ and ‘gory dew’ inevitably form a peculiar red secretion
that sarcodic substance or protoplasm which seems to be the commons basis of all organic structure
that the germination of seeds takes place in darkness
that the young are brought-forth alive
that nerve is the instrument
that all pointed bodies within its influence exhibited a distinct luminosity
that the same power is exercised by blood-crystals
that hold the bones together
that they are composed of an aggregation of tubular prisms
that they are formed through the intermediation of cells
that air has no access to the wound
that the cartilage is superseded by bone
that the arteries are not destined to carry blood
that Alcohol cannot answer any one of those important purposes for which the use of Water is required
that there is little provision for the delay of food
that the saliva of the mouth will strike a blue colour with reddened litmus-paper
that the metamorphosis of the starch is actively renewed
that the secretion may be renewed
that the action of the Liver is constant
that the gall-bladder is almost invariably found turgid
that biliary matter is essentially a soap
that the proper faecal matter is the product of a retrograde metamorphosis
that light stimulates the exhaling process
that the blood which the body receives is never purely arterial
that the hand closed upon the heart is opened with violence
that gives origin to Bones and Teeth
that Frogs die if they be confined
that the air may exert its full influence on their skin
that the respiration has been known to be maintained through the fractured humerus of an Albatross
that the total amount of movement in each rib increases as we pass
that during pregnancy there is the same increase in the exhalation
that the yellowish hue of the cell is the deepest
that biliary matter does not pre-exist
that children of eight years old excrete
that the heat of the body sometimes increases after death
that the Placenta is to be regarded as an exerting organ;
* All lines taken from William Benjamin Carpenter, A Manual of Physiology: Including Physiological Anatomy (London : J. Churchill, 1865), http://archive.org/details/b20397598.
Elizabeth Kate Switaj (www.elizabethkateswitaj.net) is the Chair of Liberal Arts at the College of the Marshall Islands. She holds a PhD in English from Queen’s University Belfast and has taught in Japan and China. Her first collection, Magdalene & the Mermaids, is published by Paper Kite Press, and her poems have recently appeared in Hawaii Review, Corium Magazine, and Figure 1.
sidereal magazine 