Breathing | AdventAI

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, Cal. · Apr 8, 1875

Breathing.

BECAUSE we are familiar with the process of inhaling and expelling air from the chest, it excites neither surprise nor thought; scarcely do we realize, indeed, that life depends upon movements so simple that they are completely involuntary. It is a curious fact that every living thing, from animals to the whole vegetable kingdom, is just as dependent for life on atmospheric air as men. Trees breathe through their leaves. If torn away, the trunk will languish and die. Were all the leaves of a fully grown apple tree placed side by side, were it possible to have their edges exactly touch so as to appear like a carpet, it is calculated they would cover more than an acre of ground. Some of the gigantic forest trees yield leaves enough to cover an area of two acres very nearly. Our own lungs afford an absorbing surface on which air infringes equal to almost one hundred square feet, as it is assumed by some physiologists. By taking a breath of air, about six millions of minute cells, which make up the body of the lungs, are distended, and at that instant of inflation oxygen is separated from it and taken into the system. Life, therefore, is sustained by that element; and yet so simply is the complicated process performed within us, that we forget to be thankful for the life so preserved, or to admire the wonderful human machinery.—Sel.