Beauty Culture (Browning)/Chapter 4

An unimpaired circulation is absolutely necessary to perfect health. If the flow of blood to and from the heart is impeded in any way, we are overfeeding some organs and starving others; but before you will be able to fully understand how this is the case, you must let me tell you how the circulation of the blood is really carried on. A story is told of a trained nurse who answered the question in her examination paper: Describe the circulation of the blood, by saying: "It goes down one leg and up the other." Well, that is not exactly the case, although the blood ought ​certainly to make the whole circuit of the body in about thirty-two seconds. But before explaining the circulation of the blood, let me say a few words about the blood itself, and its formation from the food we eat. The seven constituents of normally healthy blood are:

Now you will, of course, easily see that if we are to keep ourselves in perfect health, we must take care that the blood is kept regularly supplied with all these elements in their due proportions. A lack of iron in the system means pallid cheeks and faded hair; too much of it would induce indigestion, and probably mean a red nose. Too little nitrogen means a deficiency of muscular power; too much, conduces to coarseness and ​greasiness of skin. "The blood is the life," undoubtedly, if it be healthy; but it may also be the death, if it be wanting in some elements and overloaded with others. The next thing to consider is the method of blood formation.

The stomach is a large muscular pouch, thirteen inches long, and five inches deep. It holds normally about five pints, and is situated below the heart, somewhat to the left side. The food we eat, after being partly prepared by mastication and salivation while in the mouth, passes down the gullet into the stomach, and its entrance there stimulates the nervous system, causing the gastric juices to exude from the numberless little cells in the sides of this organ. They mix with the food while it is being churned about by a peculiar involuntary action of the stomach. The hard, woody parts of grains and vegetables, the fibrous parts of meat, etc., are all softened and reduced to a semifluid mass called chyme. Milk becomes coagulated; and albuminoids are changed into peptones, thus liberating the nutritive properties of these foods. They are then soluble, and pass readily into the blood, where they are brought in ​contact with the various tissues, and absorbed or assimilated into the system. Starch and cane sugar are changed into glucose or grape sugar. The fatty elements are emulsified by the juice of the pancreas as the food passes into the small intestine, just after it leaves the stomach. Nervous influences (such as grief, fear, anger), or reflex influences (such as are produced by various feminine ailments) will produce a change both in the quality and quantity of the gastric juice. This explains why it is that any derangement of the reproductive organs is frequently attended by dyspepsia and constipation. Absorption is accomplished when the emulsified food, called chyle, comes in contact with the villi, each of which is supplied with a network of arteries and veins, as well as a lymphatic or absorbing vessel. The veins and the lymphatic vessels are the chief means of exit provided for the emulsified food. A set of small veins convey it into a large one called the portal vein, which enters the underside of the liver. The blood passes out from the liver through another large vein, and goes from there into the right upper chamber of the heart. The ​heart, by the way, consists of two stories, so to speak, with two chambers on each floor. The upper of which are called the right and left auricles, whilst the lower ones are designated the right and left ventricles. The chyle is also absorbed by the lacteals; they empty it into the thoracic duct, which, in its turn, empties its contents into the veins at the neck. It is then carried with the blood from the upper extremities downwards, and poured also into the right auricle of the heart, where it mingles with the blood from the lower extremities. The heart beats, or contracts, from sixty to seventy times in a minute, and at each heart-beat, the blood passes from this chamber into the lower one, called the right ventricle. At the next heart-beat it is pumped out through the big pulmonary arteries into the lungs to be purified in the air-cells there, and then passes back to the left auricle through the medium of the pulmonary veins; the next heart-beat forces it onwards into the left ventricle, whence it passes into the aorta, as the big artery is called, and is then carried by means of the smaller arteries to every part of the system. You see, ​therefore, that the body constantly contains two kinds of blood, or rather blood in two different conditions; black or venous blood which has become de-vitalised, and must be carried back to the lungs for purification; and scarlet or arterial blood, which ought to be perfectly pure, and full of life-giving elements, if we are to be either healthful or beautiful. It has been estimated that there are 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 of tiny air-vesicles in the lungs of a human being, having extremely thin walls. On the outside of these delicate walls there are numberless tiny hair-like blood-vessels called capillaries, into which the venous blood flows. The act of breathing occurs normally every three or four seconds, and the oxygen taken into the lungs through the mouth and nostrils by every inspiration passes through this delicate, intervening membrane into the venous blood, forcing out the carbon, and thus purifying it. You see, therefore, that we must inspire oxygen and expire carbon and other impurities from the lungs if we are to be healthy, and since we breathe, on an average, about 17 times a minute, and the heart contracts from 60 to 70 times a minute, there is a ​change of blood going on constantly throughout the entire body. When you begin to realise this you will easily understand the importance not only to the blood but also to the complexion, the nerves, and the general well-being of every woman, that these cells should be kept generously supplied with pure oxygen, by means of living in properly ventilated rooms, taking plenty of open-air exercise, etc., since the blood can only obtain the necessary oxygen during its passage through the lungs. Pure air is certainly the greatest means of strengthening and supporting life; while confined and corrupted air is the most subtle and deadly poison.

But besides this general circulating system, there is a secondary one through the liver called the portal circulation. A set of small veins take up the blood from the intestines and carry it into the portal vein, which takes it to the liver. Much of the nourishment from the food is still remaining in it, but it is not yet in that form in which it can feed the various parts of the body as they require to be fed. In fact, the liver has to act as a sort of coarse filter. It is here that the bile and sugar are ​separated from the blood, and the bile thus stored goes to assist digestion. When from improper feeding, want of exercise, or any other cause, the liver becomes clogged, an insufficient quantity of bile is secreted, and "liverishness," as well as other unpleasant ailments, is the result; moreover, the complexion becomes sallow, the temper gets ruined, pessimism sets in, and life is certainly not worth living for most people, under these circumstances. For them the science of beauty is a lost science, and happiness an "unknown quantity" that no algebraic calculation in the world will ever be able to bring out. If we wish to keep the blood pure, we must be sure that the liver is kept in good working order. Should the portal circulatory system get out of order, the liver will become clogged, so that the cells there cannot perform their share of work properly, and as a frequent result we shall find obstinate constipation or a chronic diarrhœtic condition of the bowels.

Constipation, when allowed to grow into a confirmed habit, is most injurious. The bowels and the kidneys (situated just above the waist line on each side) are the principal organs of excretion, ​and unless they do their duty regularly the blood cannot be thoroughly pure. You see, therefore, that although each organ has its own particular functions to perform in the internal economy, they are nevertheless each dependent on the other to a great extent for healthfulness. Should one single portion refuse to do its duty, every other part is gradually, but surely, put out of gear. When constipation does not give way to a regular course of diet, exercise, and baths, you may be sure that there is something wrong with some part of the feminine organisation, and the sooner this is remedied the better, not only for the general health, but also for the nerves, the temper, the complexion, and the moral well-being. The uterus itself is a small pear-shaped organ. The reason why congestion and inflammation is more frequent in this portion of the feminine system than in any other is accounted for by the peculiar arrangement of the blood-vessels in its substance. When the arteries enter the uterine body they expand into little canal-like vessels, and the blood, on passing into these, becomes stagnant very quickly if, from any cause whatever, the circulation should be impeded. ​The venous circulation there is also very dense and complicated; moreover, the veins in this part of the body have no valves to force the stream of blood onwards, so that it requires but a very tiny impediment, in addition to the laws of gravitation, to retard the flow, and hold a large amount of blood in them until the cells and tissues become relaxed, softened, and thoroughly broken down. We may fairly conclude, therefore, that a good circulation is one of the first things we should all endeavour to acquire, and that anything likely to impair the circulation should be strenuously avoided. Amongst other things to be recommended as beneficial to the feminine circulatory system is the wearing of cloth "knickers," instead of petticoats. Draughts are amongst the most pernicious of things, but the ordinary style of clothing worn with petticoats leaves the most delicate organs exposed to every current of air, and this is a frequent source of their catarrhal condition, leading, as it often does, to serious and chronic diseases. Moreover, heavy clothing hanging from the hips presses upon the network of veins and arteries in that portion of the body, partly closing them, and thus ​impairing the circulation. Congestion, inflammation, and ulceration, producing leucorrhœa, is the result of this.

A woman need not abrogate one iota of her femininity because she wears cloth knickers under her gown; on the contrary, the absence of petticoats adds grace and lightness to her figure and carriage in the majority of cases. Of course, if we are determined not to breathe fresh air, not to sleep in well-ventilated rooms, not to wear properly-made corsets, not to be careful of draughts, not to exercise any discretion during our menstrual periods, we cannot expect that Nature is going to work miracles and keep us healthy in spite of our defiant wilfulness. Sooner or later she will have her revenge, and when we find our health declining and our beauty ravaged, we shall have no right to expect either pity or sympathy, however much suffering may be entailed upon us, for those miseries will be not our misfortune but our own fault.

Indeed we cannot have too much air or too little draught. On entering a "stuffy" room, does not its de-vitalised atmosphere cause those who are sensitive, to gasp and feel faint? Whilst standing on ​the summit of a mountain, roaming over a gorse-scented moorland, walking over the cliffs against a stiff sea-breeze, drinking in copious draughts of delicious ozone, are we not tempted to exclaim involuntarily: