Monthly Archives: April 2014
175.WHY IS OUR BLOOD RED?
The blood which flows through the arteries, capillaries, and veins of your body contains many different materials and cells. Each part of the blood has its own special work and importance.
There is, first of all, the liquid part of the blood. This is called the plasma, and makes up a little more than half the blood. It is light yellow and a little thicker than water because many substances are dissolved in it.
174.WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE MIDGETS?
Dwarfs, or midgets, as people sometimes call them, have fascinated people since ancient times. Many royal courts kept dwarfs for the amusement of the royal family. And one of the most famous dwarfs of all time, General Tom Thumb, was seen by millions of people. His real name was Charles Stratton, and he was less than 100 centimeters tall and weighed 11 kilograms at the age of 25!
People may be very tall or very short and still be of normal height. Too much or too little growth is usually caused by disease or by the way certain glands do, or do not, work.
173.WHAT MAKES BLOOD CLOT?
We can’t afford to lose any blood. Even though a healthy person can lose as much as one third of all his blood and stilt live, a steady loss of blood, or loss of blood while we are sick, would be very dangerous.
Nature has protected us against this danger by giving blood the capacity to clot. If this clotting took place inside our circulatory system, it would be equally dangerous. So blood does not coagulate, or clot, when it is in contact with the-smooth walls of the blood vessels.
