Sea chest

“ Into one of the nozzles, when the tide comes over it, is constantly sucked a current of sea-water which passes into a stomach-like cavity, where the minute particles of food in the water are caught and digested; then the water passes on through another cavity where the blood receives its oxygen, as in our lungs or a crab's or fish's gills, and then rushes out. ”

“ By some it is claimed to be a nervous disturbance, others contend that it is purely a stomachic affair and the nerves have nothing to do with it, and there are others who argue that the brain is the seat of the disorder and disturbs the stomach by sympathetic action. There are wise men who charge sea-sickness to the spleen, the liver, or other internal organs, and it is not impossible that we may yet hear of a savant who attributes it to corns on the toes. Sea-sickness is a mystery, and the more we study it the more are we at sea as to its exact operation. ”

“ The only point to which attention need be called in examining the Water Boatman is its method of taking in a supply of air. In looking at a dead specimen we shall see a ridge or keel running down the middle of the under side of the abdomen, and fringed with hair on each side. A similar fringe runs along each side of the abdomen, thus forming two passages along which the air taken in at the end of the body is conveyed to the spiracles, the largest of which are on the thorax. ”

“ But I am persuaded that there are also complete sea men, differing in no respect from us, but that they are stupid, and covered with scales: for, though our organization seems to exclude us essentially from the class of amphibious animals, yet anatomists well know that the foramen ovale may remain open in an adult, and that respiration is, in that case, not necessary to life: and how can it be otherwise explained that the Indian divers, employed in the pearl fishery, pass whole hours under the water? ”

“ If, on the other hand, the oar comes out clean, but the first thing which touches the chest is the knuckle, then the last part of the stroke will have been rowed in air, and not in the water.
9. Dealing now with recovery. The hands should rebound from the chest like a billiard-ball from a cushion. If the hands delay at the chest they hamper the recovery of the body—e.g. let any man try to push a weight away from him with his hands and body combined. ”

“ For under these circumstances the air which the air-bladder contains expands to such a degree, on being relieved from the pressure of the water, that deep-sea fishes with a closed air-bladder which are brought to the surface rapidly are sometimes fairly turned inside out by the immense distention, or even bursting, of the air-bladder. ”

“ In general, fishes which lie on the bottom, those which inhabit great depths, and those which swim freely in the open sea, as sharks and mackerel, lack the air-bladder. In the sharks, rays, and chimæras there is no trace of an air-bladder. In the mackerel and other bony fishes without it, it is lost in the process of development.
The air-bladder is composed of two layers of membrane, the outer one shining, silvery in color, with muscular fibres, the inner well supplied by blood-vessels. The gas within the air-bladder must be in most cases secreted from the blood-vessels. ”

“ A chest, in short, or the share of a chest, even though it be only a quarter, or a sixth part, is always so great a comfort that this indulgence ought to be granted when it can possibly be allowed. In single-decked ships, I conceive it may generally be permitted: in a line-of-battle ship hardly ever. ”

“ It is evident that such a dense and thick covering of fibrous connective tissue could not have come from any mobile part of any animal, but must have served for passive resistance to great pressure or concussion.
The structure of this integument is more like that of the upper part of the head of a sperm whale than any other known to me, and as the obvious use is the same, it is most probable that the whole mass represents the upper part of the head of such a whale, detached from the skull and jaw. ”

“ Now if we may be permitted to apply to the Gulf Stream and to the warm flows of water from the Indian Ocean an idea suggested by the functions of the human heart in the circulation of the blood, we perceive how these pulsations of the great seaheart may perhaps assist in giving circulation to its waters through the immense system of aqueous veins and arteries that run between the equatorial and polar regions. ”

“ A great part of the bulk of the head is composed of a large, thin, membraneous case, containing, during life, a thin oil of much less specific gravity than water, below which again is the junk, which, although heavier than the spermaceti, is still lighter than the element in which the whale moves; consequently, the head is lighter than any other part of the body, and will always have a tendency to rise, at least so far above the surface as to elevate the nostril, or “spout-hole,” sufficiently for all purposes of respiration. ”

“ It can not be doubted but that those parts which are constantly above water have gradually become more and more even, at the same time that the remaining surfaces of the joints must necessarily have been worn smoother, by the constant action of the air, and by the friction in walking over them, than where the sea, at every tide, beats on the causeway, continually removing some of the upper stones, and exposing fresh joints. ”

“ All over the shell you will see little rounded knobs. These show where the spines were fixed on; each spine fits into a hole in the shell, but so loosely that it is able to move about. The Sea-urchin can walk by moving its spines, tilting its body along from one place to another on the bed of the sea. ”

“ It has been observed that the female actively navigates her house upon the surface of the sea; she clings on with her 141thoracic legs inside, while the abdomen is pushed out through an opening of the Pyrosoma case behind, and by its alternate flexion and extension drives the boat forwards, the water being thus made to enter at the front aperture and supply the female and her brood with nourishment. ”

“ Thus, I have seen responsive contractions of the whole umbrella follow upon the exceedingly slight stimulus caused by a single drop of sea-water let fall upon the irritable surface from the height of one inch. As regards chemical stimulation, dilute spirit or other irritant, when dropped on the paralyzed swimming organ of Aurelia aurita, often gives rise to a whole series of rhythmical pulsations, the systoles and diastoles following one another at about the same rate as is observable in the normal swimming motions of the unmutilated animal. ”

“ In this place I cannot help mentioning also, that in case of great extremity it has been found that the blood may be diluted, and thirst removed, by wetting the surface of the body even with sea water, the vapour of which is always fresh, and is inhaled by those pores of the skin whose natural function it is to imbibe moisture, of which there is always more or less in the common air of the atmosphere. ”

“ In the section on osteology it has been explained how, in living cetaceans, the entire skeleton is loosely articulated so that great flexibility and freedom of movement is given to the body, how the neck 321is shortened and the vertebræ have become thin and closely packed together to support the large head, and how the breast bone is reduced and the ribs so loosely articulated to the vertebral column that the huge lungs have full power of expansion. ”

“ We continued still at our lodgings, but in the afternoon visited the ship in consequence of their telling us that our chest would be examined, as indeed took place. There were some passengers on shore whose chests were broken open, because they did not attend to them, and the inspectors would not wait. They cut to pieces the cords of their berth under which they found some things ”

“ The inner bladder sends up closed tubular folds into the crest, which, being invested by the membranous walls of the outer sac, give to the sail that appearance of vertical wrinkles which is conspicuous.
EFFECTS OF POISON.
Most formidable are the powers which reside in the [Pg 252] long tentacles. Each of these is an excessively slender ribbon of contractile substance, connected at its base with a translucent bag, and carrying at short intervals throughout its length semi-rings of thread-cells (cnidæ) , similar to those of our Sea-anemones, but of far more deadly virulence. Mr. ”

“ The salivary glands of a whale are rudimentary or wanting, the stomach is many-chambered and quite peculiar, the intestinal caecum is wanting or very small, the gall-bladder is wanting, the larynx has a peculiar shape, the blood system is remarkable for its plexuses, both arterial and venous, the brain is large and round, with numerous and complex cerebral surface convolutions, and the mammary glands are situated far back, one on each side of the female reproductive opening. ”

“ If a person is watched, it will [30] be seen that the chest expands during inspiration, and that its calibre diminishes during expiration. What happens is this. The lungs are contained in a cavity which contains no air. This cavity can be increased in size in two directions. When the ribs are moved out—which they can be by the movements of the muscles called intercostal, which lie between them—the cavity of the chest from before backwards is evidently enlarged. On the other hand there is the diaphragm, which we have already spoken of as bounding the chest cavity below. ”

“ When entire Star-fish are mutilated by a section of each nerve-trunk half-way up each ray, and the animal is then placed upon its back, the tetanic contraction of the muscles in the rays 298 before mentioned as occurring under this form of section in detached rays, has the effect, when now occurring in all the rays, of elevating the disc from the floor of the tank. This opisthotonous-like spasm is not, however, permanent; and the distal ends of the rays forming adhesions to the floor of the tank, thy animal eventually rights itself, though much more slowly than unmutilated specimens. ”

“ Most people can float in salt water, no matter what may be their build. In learning, the first movement is to gradually throw the body on the back, arching the spine, keeping the chest well inflated, crossing the arms over and back on the head, the thumbs locked or fingers touching, which latter movement tends to increase the expansion of the chest and thus make the body more floatable. ”

“ With us, for instance, the best divers one ever heard of, those who go to the bottom of the sea after the pearl-oyster, can scarcely stay below longer than two minutes; and even during that short time the veins of the head become so overcharged with the blood, which cannot return to the lungs owing to its forced inactivity, that when the diver comes back to the surface it is by no means unusual to see him streaming with blood from both nose and ears. The cetaceans remain under water for half an hour at a time without seeming to suffer in the least ”

“ Why such gradual motions should cause sea-sickness, while much more violent ones, such as horseback-riding, do not, can only be explained by saying that in the more violent ones the individual has a stimulus to adapt his positions to the motion, which he has not in the often unnoticed pitching of a ship. At any rate, this theory explains why lying down should afford relief, as the otoliths then rest at the back and less sensitive part of the canals ”

“ Each leaflet, conical in outline, is permeated with blood-vessels, and clothed with minute cilia, whose constant vibrations cause the circumambient water ever to play over the surface of these organs in ceaseless currents, bringing fresh supplies of oxygen to be respired; and this is absorbed by the blood through the thin membrane by which they are protected.
There is a very pretty little shell, not uncommon in [Pg 52] deep water off these coasts, but rarely found by the shore collector, though it does occasionally venture to peep at daylight at the verge of extreme low-tide. ”

“ There is a rudimentary blood-vessel system, beginning as a tube in the body of the star-fish, and which courses outwards. On the under surface of the arm is found a fine nervous thread, coming from a ring surrounding the mouth, and, finally, at the free end of each arm eyes are found. ”

“ The trunk at the head end is sheath-like, its terminating edges forming a sort of collar around the vast cable of muscles without a fragment of bone which connects it with the head. Through a large216 opening within this collar is pumped a jet of water, the pressure of which upon the surrounding sea is sufficiently great to drive the whole bulk of the creature, weighing perhaps sixty or seventy tons, backwards through the water, at the rate of sixteen to twenty miles per hour, not in steady progression, of course, but by successive leaps. ”

“ Its nervous and circulating forces are too feeble for the development of that vigorous reaction, without which sea-bathing is either useless or hurtful. In the absence of strength for such reaction a sea-bath tends to chill an infant’s body, and predispose to internal congestion. ”

“ A diver named Green worked in 145 feet in Lake Ontario, but he was paralyzed, and never did a day's work afterward. Most divers do not care to work much deeper than 120 feet, and even for [Pg 193] 30 or 40 feet, a moderate depth, considerable nerve and practice are requisite. The lower the depth, the more acute the pains felt in the ears and about the eyes, and symptoms of paralysis become more pronounced. An asthmatic man, on the other hand, may be cured by diving, the constant supply of fresh air, and the pressure which drives the blood so rapidly opening up the lungs. ”