Second Use of Breathing. --Nor is the stupendousness all. Nature dislikes a waste of energy. In addition to and by a wise adaptation and economy, the process of respiration is made to sub serve a second use no less important than that of purifying the blood -- the power of speech. The exhaled air, laden though it may be with the human detritus and off-scourings of the body, and passing through the vocal organs can be transformed into pairs of faith, songs of hope and words of good cheer, kindly encouragement and expressions of love!

___________________

That section definitely fits into our bizarre grammar category. As I transcribed those words from the text using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the program really had to do some backflips. It definitely stumbled a few times on that one. there so many bizarre points of view and usages of grammar in that paragraph but I'm not sure where to begin.

I guess all start at the end. They jump into a weird peculiar and strange way of talking about the good things that people can say because they breathe air out of their lungs. Don't blame mer if I say a curse word, blame the air I'm breathing out?

The author didn't try to state that exactly, but they definitely used a bunch of mumbo-jumbo and so their real meaning or intention behind their words is probably lost to the ages.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• The Neck Muscles
  
  

  The next section sets out the goal of covering the Neck Muscles. As the section of the book is describing an image, it shouldn’t be assumed that this will entail the full discourse on these areas of the body. It’s much more likely that this is a simple overview of these areas and more details will follow as there are 1600 more pages to go. So as we read this we should look at this as the simple summary introduction of the professional doctor attempting to describe the subject matter of the human body to a laywoman as the book is set out to educate wives and mothers in the arts of family nursing.

  The neck muscles — this beautiful illustration brings out in bold relief is superficial and deep muscles of the neck, and, at the same time, we observe a faithful to litigation, not only of the relative position of the carotid artery and jugular vein, but also of the manner in which muscular and fleshy part of the neck receives its nervous supply.

  This is a short section wrapping up the primary section titled “the brain; and a vertical section of the face and neck.” Again this one paragraph mention something that was referenced in the previous paragraph. It references the idea of the nervous supply. The section that contain information on the “view of the eye” went into slight detail about the supply of nerves to the teeth, “we see the dental nerve distributing its nervous supply to their individual and collective roots,” and then again we see the same description of a nervous supply here in the section, “and fleshy part of the neck receives its nervous supply.”

  This reference to the nervous supply seems to describe something more than just a system of nerves as it might be described day and hints that a conceptual difference possibly stemming from a lack of knowledge about what the nervous system actually dozer performs. Scientists of the day were not ignorant of the electrical connections in the nervous system and the analogies to the movement of current, as many experiments have been done on animals and other systems of the day to identify the cause-and-effect associated with putting occurrence to a nerve for a muscle. To a certain degree this appears to be a choice of semantics probably utilized by the editors as opposed to an actual medical view. However based on the context that is not entirely possible to confirm or ascertain.

• The Itch Mite
  
  

  The Itch Mite.–This parasite which afflicts man causes the condition spoken of as “Itch,” “Seven Years Itch,” “Army Itch,” “Jackson Itch,” etc. It has an oval body with spine-like projections. The female is larger than the male and measures 1-70 of an inch in length by 1-50 of an inch in width. The female causes the development and pain of the afflicted person. She burrows into the superficial skin, forming a tortuous or a straight dotted line, slightly elevated which varies from 1/8 to 1/2 inch in length.

  I wonder if they had to invest in a Bugaboo stroller after scratching this itch fifty years ago?

  This line if observed closely appears dark gray or blackish in color and is slightly more elevated at one end. The eggs are laid in this furrow and at the elevated end is usually found the female, which has perished, as a rule. It takes almost 13 to 20 days for the eggs to develop into adult mites. The young mites feed upon the tissues of the body and move about causing discomfort until they reach the surface of the skin where they mate and females start a fresh burrow and deposit more eggs.

  The Itch Mite is commonly found in the skin between the fingers, hands, folds of the wrist, arm pits, around the stomach and about the neck. It is not known as a carrier of disease, but can be dangerous to health by causing burrows in the skin and abrasions due to scratching which afford an opening for germs to enter the system of the bitten individual.

  The Itch Mite can be conveyed from one person to another by means of towels, clothing, bathing suits, etc., carelessly washed, handled, or worn by anyone afflicted with the pests.

  TREATMENT.—To destroy them, have all bed linen and clothing used by the individual infested, thoroughly boiled or baked. Treat the region of the body by taking a bath, washing first with warm water and castile soap, using a brush to thoroughly open up the burrows and expose the eggs for destruction. After this, apply an ointment,

  Sublimed sulphur…….one drachm (teaspoonful)

  Balsam of Peru…….one drachm (teaspoonful)

  Vaseline …………one ounce (2 tablespoonfuls)

  Rub in morning and evening for from two to four days and repeat at end of a week if any itching continues.

• Fine View of Stomach Coatings
  
  

  Fine View of Stomach Coatings.  — On turning over the flap we obtain a very fine view of this remarkable membrane.  The areolar coat is placed between the mucous coats, and connects with both.  The muscular coat is very thick and stout, and composed of three sets of fibres,  the longitudinal, circular and oblique, which form three distinct layers.  The outer coat is a thin, smooth, transparent and elastic membrane, derived from the peritoneum, and well lubricated to prevent friction.  When the fibres of the muscular wall contract, a peculiar churning movement of the stomach is produced, thus securing the thorough mixing of its contents, that every particle may come into contact with the solvent properties of the gastric juice.

  _____________

  There’s not much to say about the section however from a chemistry perspective I wonder if the author understood what comprise the gastric juice.  Biology was never my strong suit however I seem to recall from chemistry class that hydrochloric acid is the actual chemical that constitutes the majority of the gastric juice,  I can’t remember what strength of HCl is in the stomach, but as I recall the lining of the stomach is strong enough to hold it without being burnt or damaged.  I must’ve missed the lesson that explained why your throat and esophagus and possibly your nostrils are burned when items in your stomach go the wrong way. 

  There are a lot of things that of been learned over the last 100 years and I want to mention that I’m not trying to point out the ignorance of the writer or the author or even demonstrate my own ignorance, I’m just trying to remark on the evolution of thought in the change that’s taken place over a hundred years.  I’m comparing the written knowledge of medical professionals as compared to a layman today.  It’s an apples to oranges comparison, or maybe a different way to put it with an even worse analogy is that it’s stone tool cutting versus a  plasma cutting way of achieving the same result.  The irony is that some stone tools actually have sharper and more precise blades and many of the tools that we’ve created over the last 100 years, and so I recognize that there are some things that we may have learned over the last 100 years that are actually a step backwards.  Maybe with a little bit of luck, if I find it in this book I’ll actually know it when I see it.