The Ribs.-- the ribs are twenty-four in number, arranged in pairs, well moneyed set in the chest.  At the back they are fastened to the spine, confront the seven upper pairs are tied by cartilages to the breast bone, three are fastened to each other in the cartilage above, and two, the floating ribs, are loose.  The long, slender ribs give lightness; their arched form confers strength, and the cartilages and parts of elasticity; thus the three most essential prerequisites of the chest for the protection of the delicate organs contained within this cavity are secured, whilst the freest motion in respiration is ensured.

This section starts to get back to some of the vocabulary that is less known today.  Words such as "whilst" and "freest" sound like something out of a bad movie about pilgrims.  In general several other sentences in this section have what I would refer to as emotional connotations that are descriptive but are not necessarily accurate and definitely do not have the cold medical sound that you would expect in a text today.  In other words it doesn't sound very scientific.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Cause for Bright’s Disease
  
  

  Cause for Bright’s Disease. — it has long seemed probable that the increasing prevalence of that terribly fatal malady, "Bright’s disease," especially in cities and large towns, maybe due to the poisonous effects of exceeding minute quantities of lead, dissolved from the lead pipes so generally employed as service conduits, notwithstanding the protective coating, which usually forms so promptly upon them.

  In the year 2008, this paragraph would seem like something rather obvious. But it is remarkable to look back in time and see how people consider the potential for this problem to exist, before science had proven it out. We sometimes forget that our knowledge is built on many many different precursors and actions that were taken before we came to be. Humanity learns its lessons from the people that come before it and the actions that they take. Sometimes they learn those lessons quickly, and sometimes they learned those lessons very slowly, whether they are trying to understand lead poisoning or come up with better egg nog recipes. This is one of the reasons why history is so important for us to study, not only do we get to learn some of the items from the past to avoid making the same mistakes, we get to learn how people in the past recognize the problem and dealt with it so that we can recognize and deal with new problems today.

  Technorati tags: Bright’s Disease, Lead Poisoning History
• Use of the Auricles
  
  

  Use of the Auricles– The auricles serve as reservoirs to receive the blood — the right, as it comes dark and foul from its tour of the body; the left, as it filters bright and pure from the oxygenated forest of lungs — and to furnish it to the ventricles as they need it. This is graphically shown in the chart, the large blue vein, formed by the jugular and subclavian veins, is seen descending downward and emptying into the right auricle; the red pulmonary vein, formed by the coalescing of its numerous branches, conveying rich, pure blood for the lungs and depositing it in the left auricle.corresponding to the lightness of the work they perform, the walls of the auricles are comparatively thin and weak.

  ____________

  Referring to the blood as dark and foul seems a little overly dramatic for this particular description. Similarly it refers to the blue vein, which as we’ve pointed out in a past article is inaccurate. Other than those accommodation of odd and incorrect items section is in too bad. It’s a little overly descriptive in a literary sense but the most part seems to be fairly on-topic.

  If the author really wanted to see something that was foul or dangerous I wonder what they would’ve thought of a Def Leppard concert. In a way it’s too bad that the authors are not alive today, otherwise I would’ve sent them a def leppard tour schedule. I’m sure that would give them something to really write about.

• Outbreak at Salford Jail
  
  

  Outbreak at Salford Jail.  — In the Salford, England, jail there was a sudden outbreak of diarrhea of a choleric type, which affected more than half of the prisoners; while of the officers and their families, who were distributed throughout the building, not one was attacked.  The food of the convicts was examined and found to be good; it was evident, also, that the air to not contain the cause of the disease, as both classes above mentioned were under the same conditions in that respect.  Suspicion was therefore directed to the drinking water.  It was then discovered that, though the water supply in all parts of the prison was derived from the same source, there was one sister for the use of the officers, and another’s covered cistern for furnishing to the prisoners their allowance, and that the un-trapped overflow pipe of the latter communicated with an open sewer.  On the day of the outbreak of diarrhea in the jail, the water from the cistern was observed to be colored and to taste unpleasantly.

  This is definitely an interesting historical footnote, even though it would appear that this case was likely at least 20-50 years old when the author covered it 100 years from the publication of this internet article.  Never the less, it is interesting to learn again how this case was tracked and gain some additional historical perspective.  It helps us to understand the actual situations that led to policy and change and codes in plumbing and more over the years and helps make the current code less distant as if its there for the simple practice of bureaucracy as if we were reading actuarial tables about term life insurance and not a medical guide that might have saved some people’s lives as they put this into practice.