Drowning means death by the air being prevented entering the lungs owing to the month and nostrils being immersed in a liquid, the liquid being commonly water. Death may, therefore, occur by drowning in a small quantity of water. Thus a child may fall head downwards into a tub and be drowned, though the tub is not half full of water, sufficient to cover the mouth and nostrils being all that is necessary, and an adult overcome by a fit or by drunkenness may fall on a road with their head in a ditch or pool of water, and drown. Death is thus due to suffocation, to the stoppage of breathing, and to the entrance of water into the lungs. When death has been caused by drowning, the skin presents the appearance called goose-skin (cutis anserina), the face and surface of the body generally are usually pale, a frothy liquid is found in the lungs and air-passages, and about the lips and nostrils; water may be found in the stomach, and clenched fingers, holding substances grasped at, may serve to show that a struggle has taken place in the water, and that the body was alive at the time of immersion.
Drowning was formerly a mode of capital punishment in Europe. The last person executed by drowning in Scotland was executed in 1685. In Ireland there was an execution by drowning so lately as 1777. Research Drowning
Function is the specific office or action which any organ or system of organs is fitted to perform in the animal or vegetable economy. Vital functions are functions immediately necessary to life, as those of the brain, heart, lungs, etc. Natural or vegetative functions, functions less instantly necessary to life, as digestion, absorption, assimilation, expulsion, etc. Animal functions are those which relate to the external world, as the senses, voluntary motions, etc. Research Function
In its narrow, everyday use, vegetable is a word indicating any herb that is cultivated specially for table use in whole or part, such as the turnip (root), cabbage (leaves), broccoli (flowers), peas and beans (fruit). In its widest sense it includes all living things that are not animals - trees, shrubs, herbs, ferns, mosses, seaweeds, fungi, and the microscopic diatoms.
The unit of structure, the cell, is essentially the same in both animals and plants, but the combination of the cells into tissues and organs shows marked differences.
All animals depend for their food upon material originally elaborated by plants. The green plants alone have the power to construct this basic food material from elemental substances, and physiological processes different from those of animal assimilation are rendered necessary. The fungi approach the animals in this respect: they must feed upon material that has already done service as part of the structure of other plants or of animals.
The fine divisions of roots explore the soil in search of water in which are dissolved the salts of sodium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, sulphur, etc. The hairs with which the rootlets are clothed absorb this fluid by osmosis, and it is passed upward through the long vessels of the wood bundles until it reaches the cells of the leaf. These cells contain green bodies (chloroplasts) in their protoplasm, and it is these that impart the green colour to leaves and soft shoots. In the leaf-skin (epidermis) there are innumerable pores or stomata through which surplus water from the roots is evaporated and through which atmospheric air is admitted to the spaces between the leaf-cells.
The chloroplasts in these cells have the power to utilise solar energy in decomposing the carbon dioxide of the air, and the cells retain the carbon, setting free the oxygen. Water from the roots is broken up also into its elements, hydrogen and oxygen, and with these plus carbonstarch is formed. This, converted into grape sugar, is passed from cell to cell to parts of the plant whore it is needed for the production of new cells, wood, bark, leaves, or fruit. Starch is the material from which are made all the organic substances produced by the plant.
The surplus over present requirements is stored up as reserves in seeds, enlarged roots or stems, bulbs, or tubers for renewed growth or floral display at a later season. Waste products are converted into resins, oils/wax, or alkaloids - many of these being of considerable economic value to man. Part of the water stream from the roots passes by osmosis from cell to cell, where it is necessary in order to keep the protoplasm in an active condition; any insufficiency is followed by a flagging of the tissues, the drooping of leaves and young shoots. In addition to the absorption of carbon by the protoplasts for building purposes, the leaf-cells also take up oxygen from the atmosphere and give off carbon much as animals do.
As the plant respires without lungs and assimilates without digestive organs, so also it can effect movements without a muscular system and react to external stimuli without a nervous system. It is sensitive to light and heat; many plants have distinct night and day positions for their leaves. It responds positively and negatively to the force of gravity, the root going down into the earth and the stem rising into the air. The growing tip of a stem or shoot commonly nutates, i.e. moves from side to side or in a circle or ellipse. The plant can orientate itself, i.e. take up a definite position in regard to the incidence of light or other external stimulus. These movements appear to be controlled largely by alterations in the position of the mobile chloroplasts.
The reproductive process is, in essentials, similar to that of animals, the ovules or seed-eggs in the ovary requiring to be fertilised by male sperms represented by the pollen grains produced in the anthers. The result of such fertilisation is to cause the ovule to develop into an embryo capable of further development under suitable conditions into a plant resembling the parent. Research Vegetable
Amphibia (the amphibians) is a class of vertebrate animals, which in their early life breathe by gills or branchiae, and afterwards partly or entirely by lungs. The Frog, breathing in its tadpole state by gills and afterwards throwing off these organs and breathing entirely by lungs in its adult state, is an example of the latter phase of amphibian existence. The Proteus of the underground caves of Central Europe exemplifies forms in which the gills of early life are retained throughout life, and in which lungs are developed in addition to the gills. A second character of this group consists in the presence of two occipital condyles, or processes by means of which the skull articulates with the spine or vertebral column; Reptiles possessing one condyle only. The class is divided into four orders: the Ophiomorpha (or serpentiform), represented by the Blind-worms, in which limbs are wanting and the body is snake-like ; the Urodela or Tailed Amphibians, including the Newts, Proteus, Siren, etc; theAnoura, or Tailless Amphibia, represented by the Frogs and Toads; and the Labyrinthodontia, which includes the extinct forms known as Labyrinthodons. Research Amphibia
Cetacea is an order of marine animals, surpassing in size all others in existence. They are true mammals, since they suckle their young, have warm blood, and respire by means of lungs, for which purpose they come to the surface of the water to take in fresh supplies of air.
The body is fish-like in form, but ends in a bilobate tail, which is placed horizontally, not, as in the fishes, vertically. The posterior limbs are wanting - though not unfrequently stumps are present in individuals - and the anterior are converted into broad paddles or flippers, consisting of a continuous sheath of the thick integument, within which are present representatives of all the bones usually found in the fore-limb of mammals. The fish-like aspect is further increased by the presence of a dorsal fin, but this is a simple fold of integument, and does not contain bony spines.
The right whale and its allies have no teeth in the adult state, their place being taken by the triangular plates of baleen or whalebone which are developed on transverse ridges of the palate, but the foetal whales possess minute teeth, which are very soon lost. The nostrils open directly upwards on the top of the head, and are closed by valvular folds of integument which are under the control of the animal. When it comes to the surface to breathe it expels the air violently (popularly known as 'blowing' or 'spouting'), and the vapour it contains becomes condensed into a cloud, which resembles a column of water and spray. The blood-vessels in these animals break up into extensive plexuses or net-works, in which a large amount of oxygenated blood is delayed, and they are thus enabled to remain a considerable time under water. Injury to these dilated vessels leads to profuse hemorrhage, and hence the whale is killed by the comparatively trifling wound of the harpoon.
The Cetacea (which are grouped broadly as Mysticeti or toothless whales; and Odontoceti, Denticeti, or toothed whales) are commonly divided into five families: (1) Balaenidce, or whalebone whales, divided into two sections: smooth whales, with smooth skin and no dorsal fin, and furrowed whales, with furrowed skin and a dorsal fin; (2) Physeteridae, Catodontidae, sperm-whales or cachalots, the palates of which have no baleen-plates, and which are furnished with teeth, developed in the lower jaw only; (3) Delphinidae, a family possessing teeth in both jaws, and including the dolphins, porpoises, and narwhal; (4) Rhynchoceti, a family allied to the sperm-whales, but having only a pair or two pairs of teeth in the lower jaw, a pointed snout or beak, a single blow-hole, etc; (5) Zeuglodontidae, an extinct family, distinguished from all the tooth-bearing whales by the possession of molar teeth implanted by two distinct fangs, etc. The last family is exclusively confined to the Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene periods. The Sirenia, or manatees and dugongs, have sometimes been classified among the Cetacea, but they must be regarded as forming a separate order. Research Cetacea
The Dipnoi are an order of fishes, including only the singular mud-fishes (Lepidosiren), important as exhibiting the transition, between fishes and the amphibia. Formerly Lepidosiren was reckoned the lowest of the amphibia, now it constitutes the highest order of fishes. The body is fish-like in shape, covered with small horny scales of a cycloid character; the pectoral and ventral fins are represented by two pairs of long filiform organs; the heart has two auricles and one ventricle, and the respiratory organs are twofold, consisting of ordinary gills opening externally, and of true lungs - formed by the modified swimming-bladder - communicating with the oesophagus by means of an air-duct or trachea, whence the name. They are also called Protopteri. The combination of respiratory organs is similar to that which is presented by the tailed amphibians with persistent gills (perennibranchiate), as the axolotl. This interesting group is allied to the ganoids through the Ceratodus of Queensland. The Lepidosiren paradoxa is found in the Amazon; Lepidosiren annectens in the Gambia. Research Dipnoi
Fish (Pisces) are an aquatic class of vertebrates, the lowest class of vertebrates. Fish may be briefly described as vertebrate animals living in water and respiring the air therein contained by means of gills or branchiae, having cold red blood, and a heart consisting of one auricle and one ventricle; and having those organs which take the form of limbs in the higher vertebrata represented by fins.
There are more kinds of fish than all other kinds of aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates put together. The smallest fish is the Trimmaton nanus, a goby of the Indian Ocean, which grows to about one centimetre long. The largest fish is the whaleshark, which may grow more than 12 metres long and weigh over 14 metric tons. It feeds on plankton and is completely harmless to most other fish and to human beings. The most dangerous fish weigh only a few kilograms. They include the deadly stonefish, whose poisonous spines can kill a human being in minutes.
Fish live almost anywhere there is water. They are found in the near- freezing waters of the Arctic and in the steaming waters of tropical jungles. They live in roaring mountain streams and in quiet underground rivers. Some fish make long journeys across the ocean. Others spend most of their life buried in sand on the bottom of the ocean. Most fish never leave water. Yet some fish are able to survive for months in dried-up riverbeds.
Fish have enormous importance to human beings. They provide food for millions of people. Fishing enthusiasts catch them for sport, and people keep them as pets. In addition, fish are important in the balance of nature. They eat plants and animals and, in turn, become food for plants and animals.
Fish thus help keep in balance the total number of plants and animals on the earth. All fish have two main features in common. (1) They have a backbone, and so they are vertebrates. (2) They breathe mainly by means of gills. Nearly all fish are also cold-blooded animals - that is, they cannot regulate their body temperature, which changes with the temperature of their surroundings. In addition, almost all fish have fins, which they use for swimming. All other water animals differ from fish in at least one of these ways. Dolphins, porpoises, and whales look like fish and have a backbone and fins, but they are mammals. Mammals breathe with lungs rather than gills. They are also warm-blooded - their body temperature remains about the same when the air or water temperature changes. Some water animals are called fish, but they do not have a backbone and so are not fish. These animals include jellyfish and starfish. Clams, crabs, lobsters, oysters, scallops, and shrimps are called shellfish. But they also lack a backbone.
The first fish appeared on the earth about 500 million years ago. They were the first animals to have a backbone. Most scientists believe that these early fish became the ancestors of all other vertebrates. Research Fish
Frog is the common English name of a number of animals belonging to the class Amphibia, having four legs with four toes on the fore feet and five on the hind, more or less webbed, a naked body, no ribs, and no tail. Owing to the last peculiarity frogs belong to the order of amphibians known as Anura or tailless Amphibia. The tongue is fleshy, and is attached in front to the jaw, but is free behind, so that the hinder extremity of the tongue can be protruded.
Frogs are remarkable for the transformations they undergo before arriving at maturity. In the spring the spawn is deposited in ponds and other stagnant waters in large masses of gelatinous matter. These masses, with black globules scattered through them, soon manifest change, and after a time the young escapes as a tadpole, as an animal with short body, circular suctorial mouth, and long tail, compressed from side to side. Gillsproject on either side of the head from a cleft which answers in position to the gill opening of fishes. The hind limbs first appear as buds, later the fore limbs project, the gills disappear, the lungs becoming more fully developed; the tail gradually shrinks and disappears, and the animal, which was at first fish-like, then closely resembled a newt (or tailed Amphibian), finally assumes the adult or tailless form.
The mature frog breathes by lungs, and cannot exist in water without coming to the surface for air. The only British species is the common frog (Rana temporaria), but the tribe is very numerous, other varieties being the edible frog (Rana esculenta) of the south of Europe, eaten in France and South Germany, the hind quarters being the part chiefly used; the bull-frog of America (Rana pipiens), 8 to 12 inches long, so named from its voice resembling the lowing of a bull; the blacksmith frog of Janeiro; the Argus frog of America, etc. Of the tree-frogs most belong to the genus Hyla. Frogs swim with rapidity, and move by long bounds, being able from the power of the muscles of their hind-legs to leap many times their own length. Research Frog
The horse (Equus caballus) is a hoofed, odd toed grass eating mammal of the family Equidae subdivision Perissodactyla (odd-toed); characterized by an undivided hoof formed by the third toe and its enlarged horny nail, a simple stomach, a mane on the neck, and by six incisor teeth in each jaw, seven molars on either side of both jaws, and by two small canine teeth in the upper jaw of the male, rarely in the female.
There are a number of varieties of horse, popularly known as breeds. The adult male horse is called a stallion, the adult female a mare. A stallion used for breeding is known as a stud. A castrated stallion is popularly called a gelding. A young horse is called a foal, with a male foal being called a colt and a female foal being called a filly.
Horses are among the best adapted of the 'flight' mammals. They have very large eyes capable of seeing in two directions at once, ears which can rotate through 180 degrees and judge distance to a perceived sound, and can reach a speed of 30 mph from a standing still position in less than one second. The horse has a very large heart and enormous lungs powering very large rear leg muscles which allow it to run very fast to escape danger. The horse's long head allows it to graze and see over the top of the grass at the same time, keeping watch for approaching danger. The horse's tail is used as a rudder to help with stearing when running fast, and also as a fly-whisk to whip away flies and other irritations.
When bored or agitated, horses' paw the ground with their rear leags. Stallions fight with their front legs and also bite, trying to ham string their opponent. When a horse wants to harm an opponent, or person, they use their front legs. The rear legs may be used to brush away irritations, and while powerful and dangerous are not used with the intention of causing real harm. War horses, used by mounted soldiers in the Mediaeval period, were trained to attack the enemy and would bite the face off foot soldiers who got close. Research Horse
Demosthenes was an ancient Greek orator. He was born in 382 or 385 BC at Athens and died in 322 BC. He was the son of a sword-cutler at Athens. His father left him a considerable fortune, of which his guardians attempted to defraud him. Demosthenes, at the age of seventeen, conducted a suit against them himself, and gained his cause. He then set himself to study eloquence, and though his lungs were weak, his articulation defective, and his gestures awkward, by perseverance he at length surpassed all other orators in power and grace. He thundered against Philip of Macedon in his orations known as the Phi lippics, and endeavoured to instil into his fellow-citizens the hatred which animated his own bosom. He laboured to get all the Greeks to combine against the encroachments of Philip, but their want of patriotism and Macedonian gold frustrated his efforts.
He was present at the battle of Chaeroneia in 380 BC in which the Athenians and Boeotians were defeated by Philip, and Greek liberty crushed. On the accession of Alexander in 336 Demosthenes tried to stir up a general rising against the Macedonians, but Alexander at once adopted measures of extreme severity, and Athens sued for mercy. It was with difficulty that Demosthenes escaped being delivered up to the conqueror.
In 324 he was imprisoned on a false charge of having received a bribe from one of Alexander's generals, but managed to escape into exile. On the death of Alexander next year he was recalled, but the defeat of the Greeks by Antipater caused him to seek refuge in the temple of Poseidon, in the island of Oalauria, on the coast of Greece, where he poisoned himself to escape from the emissaries of Antipater in 322 BC.
The character of Demosthenes is by most modern scholars considered almost spotless. His fame as an orator is equal to that of Homer as a poet. Cicero pronounces him to be the most perfect of all orators. He carried Greek prose to a degree of perfection which it never before had reached. Everything in his speeches is natural, vigorous, concise, symmetrical. We have under his name sixty-one orations, some of which are not genuine. The great opponent - and indeed enemy - of Demosthenes as an orator was AEschines. Research Demosthenes
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Drowning
