Page:Hatha yoga - or the yogi philosophy of physical well-being, with numberous excercises.djvu/141

Rh gather around the enemy and carry it to some point of the body where it may be thrown out. Boils, pimples, etc., are instances of the throwing out of some intruding enemy or enemies by these policemen of the system.

There is much work for the red-blood cells to do. They carry the oxygen to the parts of the body; they push along the nourishment obtained from the food to the parts of the body where it is needed to build up and repair; they extract from the nourishment just the elements needed to manufacture gastric juice, saliva, pancreatic juices, bile, milk, etc., etc., and then combine them in the proper proportions for use. They do a thousand and one things and are busy continuously like a lot of ants in and around an anthill. The Oriental teachers have long known and taught of the existence and work of these "little lives," but it has remained for Western science to dig into the subject in such a way as to bring to light the details of their work.

Cells are being born and cells are dying every moment of our existence. Cells reproduce themselves by enlarging and subdividing, the original cell swelling until it finally forms two parts with a small connecting "waist"; then the connection parts and there are two independent cells instead of one. The new cell in turn divides itself up, and so on.

Cells enable the body to carry on its work of continual regeneration. Every part of the human body is undergoing a constant change and tissues are being continually renewed. Our skin, bones, hair, muscles, etc., are constantly being repaired and "made over." It takes about four months to