Reviewing the Medical Books and Journals that constituted Medical understanding a century back.

History of the Book of Medicine

June 18th, 2007 at 5:48 pm

Interior Arrangement of Lungs

Interior Arrangement of Lungs. -- On turning this flap over we find a vertical section of lungs, showing their anterior arrangements. The lower end of the trachea divides, one portion going to each long. These again subdividing continue to subdivide in geometrical order, growing smaller and smaller with each division, and extending to every part of the lungs, finally terminating in a cluster of air cells, bound together by cellular tissue and forming a lobule. These lobules vary in size accordingly as they are located on the surface of the lung or deeper in its tissues. Each lobule is separate and distinct from the other, and forms in itself a perfect and independent lung in miniature Function Of the Lobules. -- In this arrangement we see the boundless wisdom of the Creator displayed, for were it not for this wise and perfect; provision -- one of the very greatest importance in the process of respiration, since it enables each individual lobule to perform its functions independently of the rest -- tubercular disease, bronchitis and inflammation of the lungs would not only be incurable, but would prove to be very rapidly fatal.
______________ The last paragraph of this section is written with very peculiar grammar, some of it seems to be due to its age of a hundred years or more and the rest seems to be bad grammar that slip by the editor, this mixed in with the nonsecular reference makes what would probably be an important statement somewhat obscure.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

  • SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE BRAIN, FACE AND THROAT

    Today were looking at another section, this one reviewing the brain, face and throat. I warn you in advance that the review is somewhat incomplete by the authors of the book and it’s more a review of the image that of any actual body parts. Before you too far into this section I just mention that this seems to be an initial trend of using many words to describe nothing. It’s possible that this medical book was the Seinfeld of its day.

    The Brain And Its Bony Citadel.- the arches, with true anatomical instinct in a rare technical ability in regard to accuracy in minute detail, has performed as part of the work in this illustration with such faithful fidelity to nature that one cannot withhold a word of praise at the grand style and elaborate manner of its execution. This elegant and artistic anatomical plate represents the brain held firmly in position within its strong bony citadel, but collect and 20 from above downward, thus showing its internal mechanism and construction; besides which it gives the internal arrangements of the nose, tongue, throat and neck.

    This initial section, or rather the first paragraph of the of this section provides more praise to the artist and description of the actual topic, which in case you missed it is a picture showing a cross-section of the human head and neck to include the spinal column.  The image is labeled correctly and is in color.the same picture could’ve been provided in a textbook as late as 20 or 30 years ago at a grade school or high school level.  The diagram is accurate as far as labels and body parts are concerned, however they’re drawing and rendering are somewhat untrue to form and don’t exactly provide the insights into the function of the movable parts quite like we may see a representation today.

    The diagram for the tongue in particular is somewhat peculiar looking and seems to show an example of the tongue lopped off or half swallowed.  This aspect of the drying is a little odd, and I suspect the artist may have taken some liberties in their drawing to expedite the process and that all the pieces in their approximate space.

  • Quantity of Water Needed

    Quantity of Water Needed.-the quantity of water needed by man and animals must therefore be very carefully calculated. Repeated experiments upon a very extended scale in England have shown that a healthy man requires daily as drink from 2 to 4 pints of water, this amount being in addition to that which is swallowed as moisture and food. The amount required for cooking is estimated at from having gallantly gallon or more. To this quantity, Dr. Parkes considers should be added for daily ablution, including a sponge bath, 5 gallons; daily share of kitchen and other utensils, and house washing, 3 gallons; and share of clothes washing, another 3 gallons; making up a total of a little over 12 gallons for each individual daily. In the poorer districts of the city of London, the amount used is stated to be only about 5 gallons daily. A shower-bath will require about 4 gallons extra, and a plunge-bath from 40 to 60 gallons. Where water-closets are used in additional quantity of from 4 to 6 gallons daily for each person must be provided.

    In general this is actually one of the more interesting paragraphs that I found in this book. It describes several things that I believe could be rather unique. First it discusses the quantity of water needed for human consumption. It describes experiments done in England and considering that this book was published sometime around the turn-of-the-century around 1916 by my estimates, this would seem to indicate a human water consumption estimates of 2 to 4 pints presented 20 years before the FDA guidelines written by a bureaucrat that suggested that people should drink 8 cups of water a day.

    Furthermore I find this one interesting from the perspective that it discusses how much water people may have used around the turn-of-the-century. I live in the Southeast of the United States and today we are in a drought.. Water consumption is definitely an important issue for the Southeast United States and many other areas of the world. And therefore when I listen to and read some of the items here that describe how much water should be used or could be used, it seems strikingly different than what we might use today, especially as we have many more appliances that use water, and many newer appliances that are designed to be energy-efficient.  Very very interesting section, some of those water estimates seemed very high by todays standards and some seemed relatively low, at dollhouses levels.

  • Ventricles of the Heart

    Ventricles of the Heart. — the walls of the left ventricle, which propels the blood to the remotest corners of the human frame, are correspondingly thicker and stronger than those of the right, which forces the blood to the lungs only. Arising from the right ventricle is seeing the blue pulmonary artery, conveying its foul, poisonous, vitiated and venous stream to the lungs, well from the left ventricle is observed a large main artery of the circulatory system — the aorta — from the arch of which arise the right and left carotid arteries.

    __________
    So in the section they jump back into describing parts of the heart as foul and poisonous? There definitely seems to be a lack of knowledge or understanding of what’s going on here, I’m no medical professional bottom of aspirin in about five minutes when the world people might have thought that the ventricles of a heart deliver poisonous blood to the lungs? Seems absurd.

    And was an aside, our blog is currently funded in part through blog advertising. You may notice is from time to time, we work with an excellent firm that provides us with ad placements throughout our blog. These ad placements are very unobtrusive and help keep us working to delve further into an understanding of medicine as it was taught a hundred years ago and as our culture looks at medicine today.

 

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