The large triangular muscle of the shoulder -- the deltoid -- is one of great strength, as in fact are all the muscles of the arm.  If you grasp the arm tightly just above the elbow joint, and then bend the forearm, you will feel the biceps muscle of the arm become firm, hard and prominent; now straighten it again and it becomes relaxed, whilst the muscles on the back of the arm become hard and prominent. The muscles of the forearm are the flexors and pronators; that is, they flex the arm and turn the palm downward.  In each upper extremity or arm there are fifty-three muscles, and we observe here the nicest and most economical method of packing away the muscles that could be improvised, securing strength, giving elegance to its form and shape and facilitating its mobility.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• THE EAR AND IT’S WONDERS – The External Ear
  
  

  THE EAR AND IT’S WONDERS.

  The External Ear. – the organ of hearing consists of three parts: the external ear, the middle ear or tympanum, and the internal ear or a labyrinth. The external part of the air represented in the colored engraving is very realistic of that essential appendage to this important special organ of sense and man. It consists of an expanded sheet of cartilage, folded and true trumpet fashion, for collecting the sound waves in conveying them to the external meatus or mouth of the auditory canal.

  It probably took me about 4 tries to get my voice recognition program to pick up on the word tympanum and get it spelled correctly!  That software has been one of my best buys ever, but it still makes mistakes on weird words from time to time.

  del.icio.us tags: history of medicine, medicine, ear, external ear, meatus, teaching medicine
• Walls of the Abdomen
  
  

  Walls of the Abdomen.  — The muscular walls of the abdomen are nicely arranged and beautifully adapted to the functions they perform.  On the left side we see the large oblique muscle, so named because of the direction it’s fibres run, and on the right side we observe the rectus muscle, transverse muscle and internal oblique muscle, all of which are strong, broad muscles, will split manner in which they are so scientifically arranged gives additional string to the abdominal walls, without deteriorating from its great mobility, and at the same time avoiding all pressure of the organs contained within this large cavity.  There are ninety-one muscles on each side of the trunk, or one hundred and eighty-two in all, ninety of which are pairs, and two are single.

  I noted a slight difference in spelling for the word “fibres” in the section.  I’m not certain if this is a medical spelling or if it’s just a difference in spelling that’s evolved over the last 90 years.  In addition the section also has a reference again to the beauty and perfection of design which doesn’t overdo it too much in this particular paragraph but given the history of the book so far seems to have more of a enthralled tone than you might expect.

• THE PUBLIC TOWEL.
  
  

  THE PUBLIC TOWEL.

  The towels in toilets, bedrooms of hotels and boarding houses can spread disease unless they are thoroughly boiled and laundered after use, Most hotels, railroad stations, Pullman cars, etc., have done away with the public towels in toilets and use a heavy tissue paper, either as a single towel or in rolls and torn off as needed, which is not expensive and is thrown away after use.

  In Pennsylvania the State Board of Health has urged saloonkeepers, etc., to do away with the forks and spoons which are placed in a tumbler of water and are used by all comers at the free lunch counter and then replaced in the tumbler of dirty water for the next victim to use.

  Disease can be controlled better when our proprietors of saloons, restaurants, hotels, soda fountains, etc., employ only healthy employees, free from disease and take pains to boil or scald every public glass and chinaware used by not only dirty, but disease-spreading persons. The barroom towel which hangs in front of the bar in the cheaper saloons for customers to wipe their mouth and hands upon, must not be permitted.

  Maybe in a few years, we will even have our own personal lighting systems or lasik eye procedures that install night vision and public outdoor lighting will become a thing of the past.