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:

• Natural Health Supplements
  
  

  We are still working our way through the anatomy section of the Library of Health. I am going to launch a new section of this site to dive into the Library of Health’s coverage of herbs and natural remedies soon. There is one thing that has changed a great deal over the last year and in doing so has almost not changed at all.

  For hundreds maybe thousands of years people have been looking for better natural health supplements. A hundred years ago people around the world were using all sorts of natural supplements. My great grandfather for example used to hunt ginseng and sell it at market.

  These days ginseng related natural health supplements are extremely common again after decades where they were hardly touched by western medicine. Today’s health supplements have changed in some ways. They are starting to mix natural ingredients with soft science to try potential new products out.

  Many natural health supplements do not undergo rigorous levels of scientific review or study for the effectiveness. They are not regulated as drugs. This creates the potential for risk but also puts the burden on the consumer for experimentation. Its a classic case of buyer beware. Sometimes the buyer may experience something that provides a benefit, sometimes they may experience nothing and sometimes an item may cause them some form of harm.

  The FDA came into existence about 100 years ago to stem the flow of cure all remedies that were often times laced with opiates or cocaine without any labels to indicate these primary ingredients. Natural supplements today do not include opiates or cocaine, but the FDA does not review most of them either. This means that consumers need to be extra diligent about their review of products and companies. It also means that they should consult with their health care provider or physician before mixing any type of supplement into their diet or current medicinal regimes.

• Rain-Water
  
  

  VARIETIES OF WATER.

  Rain-Water. — in classifying waters, we have first to consider them as regards their sources. Rain-water, as already mentioned, is sweet and soft, and when filtered is perfectly adapted to all the purposes of life; the one difficulty about its use being the impossibility of collecting the cure and preserving it without contamination for the long periods of time and in the large quantities which would often be necessary.

   

  That is a relatively poor description for a classification of anything. The author mentions that we should consider the source, and then promptly this drives how Rainwater tastes and what can and can’t be done with it in a very vague and general way. So with that worthless description we proceed to the next section where the author will probably talk about wind chimes or something completely unrelated to the topic at hand.

• Transformation of Food Into Flesh
  
  

  Transformation of Food Into Flesh.– How strange this is — the transformation of food into human flesh, into human thoughts!  We eat a meal; it is composed of meat, bread, vegetables and liquids.  The more solid part is ground by the teeth, mixed with the different juices, dissolved, changed, organize and is swept through the body and the circulation of the blood.  Each organ sees as its own particular food as it passes.  Within the cells of the various tissues it is transformed into the soft, sensitive brain, or the hard, callous bone; here into the nerve of sight, there into gristle or tendon; here briny tears are formed, they are bland saliva; in the stomach, acid juice; in the skin, acrid perspiration; bile for digestion, oil for the hair, nails for the fingers, muscle for the strong arm of toil, and flesh and fat to give shade, form and beauty to the face.

   

  I think the previous section prepared me actually for this section.  In the previous set action the author sounded like he was speaking gibberish.  In this section the author or marbles at the ability of the body to turn one type of matter into another matter which is part of the human body or system.  Today I look at this process as a function, a program if you will run by the programmed DNA of the human system and control by the major organs.  In some ways my own interpretation is only slightly less obscure than the authors interpretation.  The other marvels at something that is relatively new and highly misunderstood where is I take it for granted.

   

  Neither one of our perspectives in that regard are more accurate than the other or may be a better way to say that is that we both have a perspective that equally valuable or valid.  The author doesn’t actually offer up any interpretation as to how the systems work or how it performs any of these items that they discuss, instead the author chooses just to remark on the fact that the actions are interesting even amazing.

  In many ways almost any system that we talk about today might have appeared equally as amazing to the author a hundred years ago.  Some of those systems could be interpreted better back then than they could stay such as the workings of kitchen faucets possibly as opposed to the workings of a Turing machine or computer neither of which had been invented as of the writing of this book, but both of which had been speculated on for many years.

   

  In many ways it’s these types of remarks it illustrates that the book is filled in large parts with what I might call science fiction or scientific interpretation or even a scientific editorial and not scientific fact.