Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/165

140 means employed by the same great and wise Artist deliberately determined to preserve what he has made."

"If we are asked," says a scientific authority, "which of the many necessaries of life is best entitled to the chief place we must surely reply, oxygen. This gas forms about one fifth of the bulk of the atmosphere, and our wants are supplied by the act of breathing, so regularly and  ceaselessly performed by every one. It is possible to live for a long time without the protection of a house or of clothing; it is even possible to  live for many days without food; but if we are deprived for only one or two minutes of oxygen, the consequences are serious, and may be fatal.  . . . Again, oxygen is so closely connected with the great vital processes upon which our growth and daily energy depend, that food itself is useless unless accompanied by a large supply of it. Indeed, when the quantity of oxygen which a man consumes in his lungs daily is calculated, it is found to be greater in weight than all the dry food he requires during the same period. Yet, again, if we wish a house and clothing and food, we must work for them; but for oxygen there is nothing to pay. It is free to all, and lies around us in such abundance that it never runs short. Here, then, we see every means taken to