THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS AND ITS WONDERS Values of the Plates. -- seeing is believing; nay, it is more, it is knowing and remembering. The mere reading of his statement on any particular subject is not always advance our knowledge of the matter in question. The observation of the facts, or its proper illustration by appropriate diagrams, such as we observed these anatomical charts to be, not only emphasizes the point considered, but aides us and remembering the principal features connected with the functions performed, does advancing our knowledge of the subject discussed, and educational progress is made._________________ In this section the author is referring to the medical charts and diagrams that come with the book. This is actually an interesting excerpt. I'm sure it was a bit of conventional wisdom that combining pictures with text would help people understand and learn. Today I work in part as a MindManager trainer. My manager is a software program that enables people to mind map on their computer. My maps enable people to put text in words and pictures and colors together so that they can learn and digest the topic faster. The interesting thing is in the 1960s a scientist won a Nobel peace prize for putting all that information together in proving that people do learn better when they look at pictures and colors as opposed to just flat black text. I'm sure the monks of the dark ages could've probably confirm that, but it hadn't gone to the scientific process yet.
Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:
- Show of Ear Canals
Show of Ear Canals. – the semicircular canals, and the cochlea, so named for its resemblance to a snail shell, are also typically shown. And the nice colored illustration we observe a graphic and truthful view of the delicate internal arrangement and mechanism of the internal part of the organ of hearing. Here we observe the winding stair of the cochlea, over the surface of which the delicate fibrils of the auditory nerve expand, and the minute fibers of the Corti, called from their discoverer, are seeing a range with geometrical precision, the longest at the bottom in the shortest at the top.
We are cruising through this section and making up on lost time after our recent trip to Vegas where we managed to come down with a nice cold at one of the older Vegas hotels on the strip. You should definitely just pick one there and stick with it!
- The Pancreas, or "Sweetbread"
The Pancreas, or “Sweetbread.” — The pancreas, or “sweetbread,” is a single glandular organ, situated transversely across the upper and back part of the abdomen, on a level with the last dorsal spine bone. It is of an irregular, elongated form, from six to 8 inches in length, an inch and a half in breadth, and from a half to 1 inch in thickness. It secretes about 7 ounces daily of a slightly alkaline fluid containing the organic principle — pancreatin, which is the property of changing the starchy food into sugar. Whilst it has this power, yet its chief work in the digestive process seems to be the breaking up of the fat globules into myriad of my new particles which mix freely with water, and thereby promote their absorption by the lacteals.
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This section definitely exhibits a lack of understanding of the workings of the pancreas. It’s not too far off and its description and characteristic described within it are not too far off. You can can understand where they were going with their logic based on what they were observing. I suppose if someone were to cut open some golf balls, they might as them that the plastic white shell is there to protect the rubber bands inside from the bludgeon of the golf club. That’s not incorrect but it’s not exactly the purpose either.
- Work of the Heart
Work of the Heart. –no slave ever performed his work more patiently than the heart. It’s quivering task is essential to life and health. It is the fountain from whence the spirit flows, and on the faithful performance of its functions every part of the body depends for the warm stream of life, motion and vigor which it unstintingly furnishes. The ancients believed the heart to be the seat of love. Within its walls were located all that was pure, true, good and noble, as well as the evil passions of the soul. And although modern scientist on the seat of mind, reason, consciousness and the mental powers be located in the brain, and does rob the heart of its romance, yet it has revealed wonder is connected with the small organ, that certainly it clips the mysteries associated with it in the past. Pit-a-Pat! pit-a-pat! drops this marvelous engine, and in response to its constant dropping the blood bounce along the myriad of tubes, conveying messages of life and health.
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There’s a little bit of irony in this particular section. The author is reviewing the ancients perception of what the heart did, and I’m reviewing what the authors.the heart did a hundred years ago. The irony is probably compounded by the fact that I’m a layman and know very little about medicine in the authors were probably fairly informed about medicine in their day, however many of the things that they describe seem ludicrous to me just like some of the things they thought the ancients describe probably seem ludicrous to them. I can’t wait for generations in the future to come along and find the ludicrous things that I’ve created!