Page:Hatha yoga - or the yogi philosophy of physical well-being, with numberous excercises.djvu/143

Rh results in the direction of renewing diseased parts and weakened portions of the body.

But even ordinary man still possesses a wonderful degree of recuperative power, which is constantly being manifested, although the average man pays no attention to it. Let us take the healing of a wound for example. Let us see how it is performed. It is well worth your consideration and study. It is so common that we are apt to overlook it, and yet so wonderful as to cause the student to realize the greatness of the intelligence displayed and called into force in the work.

Let us suppose that a human body is wounded—that is, cut or torn by some outside agency. The tissues, lymphatic and blood vessels, glands, muscles, nerves, and sometimes even the bone, is severed, and the continuity interrupted. The wound bleeds, gapes and causes pain. The nerves carry the message to the brain, calling loudly for immediate help, and the Instinctive Mind sends messages here and there in the body, calling out a sufficient force of repair workmen, who are hurried to the scene of danger. In the meantime the blood pouring from the injured blood vessels washes away, or at least tries to wash away, the foreign substances that have entered the organism, such as dirt, bacteria, etc., which would act as poisons if allowed to remain. The blood, coming in contact with the outside air, coagulates and forms a sticky sort of substance, somewhat resembling glue, and forms the beginning of the coming crust or scab. The millions of blood cells whose duty it is to do the repair work arrive on the scene on the "double-quick" and at once begin