Word: mucous
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...kiss symbolism in Western culture, it should be noted that not everyone has found mutual labial stimulation appealing. To the Chinese, for example, kissing had revolting associations with cannibalism. Even Dr. Freud seemed standoffish when he observed in his essay, "The Sexual Aberrations," that the lips are composed of mucous membrane and constitute the entrance to the digestive tract...
...leaves the ocean to swim up the rivers of the Northwest and spawn, the Pacific salmon is lithe and healthy. As little as two weeks later, it degenerates into an aged, colorless and almost lifeless fish. Its flesh wastes away, bones soften, and skin peels off. The secretion of mucous material that keeps scales healthy suddenly stops, and the fish falls prey to fungus infections. Tiny parasitic worms multiply and spread through the fish's body; some glands run wild, others cease functioning...
...which grants resistance to certain types of malaria, is only now beginning to wane among U.S. Negroes, who no longer have any need of it. The Negro's woolly black hair once provided insulation against the heat of the blazing tropical sun; his thick lips, by exposing more mucous membrane, may have increased the body's evaporative cooling powers in torrid climates; his characteristically long legs and lean frame were once distinctly helpful to some prehistoric race of hunters...
...McDivitt, he had a few flecks of caked blood in his nostrils. The medical men figured that this was caused by the dryness of his mucous membranes from inhaling pure oxygen for so long. Their solution for future space trips: a pinch of plain old petroleum jelly in the nostrils. X rays were taken of the astronauts' little fingers and heel bones both before and after the flight to see whether their long exposure to weight lessness and inactivity caused note worthy loss of calcium. The Soviet cosmonauts suffered such bone demineralization on their flights, and patients confined...
...physician can do for shortness of breath depends largely on its cause. Many cases of bronchitis are the result of infection, and can be largely relieved, if not actually cured, by treatment with antibacterial drugs. Other cases are relieved by inhaling substances that help to break up the mucous secretions. But emphysema is stubborn. Since its basic causes are still unknown, doctors have as yet no hope of finding a true cure or general preventive. Yet treating its effects is important because emphysema neglected overtaxes the heart in a manner that may cause death...