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.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Chart II – THE INTERNAL WONDERS OF THE HUMAN BODY REVEALED
  
  

  CHART II

  THE INTERNAL WONDERS OF THE HUMAN BODY REVEALED

  THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS MARVELOUS PERFECTION

  Wonderful Structure of the Body — The human body is the highest form of animal life.  It is full of beautiful proportions and divinely symmetrical in shape, form, mould and outline.  We look with honest pride and glowing admiration upon the many accomplishments that man is achieved in the world around us.  We see is skill displayed in the various arts and sciences, and we look with awe upon the projects of his intellect and reason, the realization of which is but a small question of time!  We boast of our ships, our steamboats and our steam cars; we are justly proud of our bridges, our viaducts and the progress of our engineering skill; we grow enthusiastic over our telegraphs, our telephones, our electric lights; we feel a degree of national pride in the achievements in successes of Edison, the wizard of Menlo Park; aware, let us ask, in the whole range of events, the acquirements of arts, the attainments of engineering, or the successes and promises of electrical sciences, can we find such an other structure as the human body, that curious, yet perfect world of wonders!

  As we closed up the section on chart 1, I marveled at the lack of verbosity (apparently it’s contagious upon reading this book) that the author had foregone.  The author must have sensed the fact that they missed an opportunity and rapidly work to make it up in the titles of this section and in this opening paragraph.  The flowery language is definitely back.

  Even more interesting are several anecdotes about the moral goals and accomplishments of the human race that distinctly date the book.  The author describes steamboats and steam cars as existing technologies and not technologies are long dead.  The author then goes on to describe new technologies such as electric lights, telephones, and even telegraphs, which are technologies that today are either dead or dying.  The author even speaks of Thomas Edison in a way that makes you think that Thomas Edison is actually alive or just recently passed, possibly someone at the author even knew.  For the record Thomas Edison did not pass away until 1931, and so the author was in fact dropping a name of a living hero to technology into the advances of not only science but practical applications of science. 

  Today we might mention people like Steve Wozniak or Steve Jobs were Bill Gates as people that are brought a modern marvel of technology in the personal computer into the homes and offices and/or rooms of almost every person in the United States.  In fact it’s probably more similar in that they did this from our perspective 27 to 30 years ago, this book was written in 1916, but earlier drafts had been written since the 1860s.  So in fact this book survived during the approximate timeframe that Thomas Edison survived, and at the time of this particular writing the lightbulb had been in existence for about 30 years.  I believe it was invented in 1878 in this book was written in 1916 so that’s actually about 38 years. 

  Comparably this is 2007 as I’m writing this today and the personal computer was invented somewhere between 1972 and 1976 depending on which organization or person you credit for creating the personal computer.  My personal vote goes to Xerox and the Palo Alto research Center which created essentially a desktop computer which they showed off to people like Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.  Like Edison our modern-day trio largely improved upon inventions and innovations created by others.  There are a number of remarkable similarities in that regards.

• Composition of the Chest
  
  

  Composition of the Chest– the chest is composed of bones, cartilages, and ligaments.  Its natural form is that of a cone diminishing upward; and it affords lodgment of the heart, lungs and large blood vessels.  Its walls are formed posteriorly by the seven dorsal bones of the spinal column, and the ribs as far as the angle, the sides by the body of the ribs, and front by the ribs, the costal cartilages and the breast bone.

  This section is about as exciting as you’d expect from a medical textbook.  It’s almost unique in the fact that it has no items comments or issues that don’t seem like they would appear in a medical textbook.  Some of the descriptions seem rather basic, but even that’s a bit of a stretch to find something unique about this section.

• How to Destroy Cockroaches
  
  

  WARNING!  THIS ARTICLE REPRESENTS A HISTORICAL REFERENCE TO THE PRACTICES USED OVER 100 YEARS AGO TO GET RID OF COCKROACHES.  THIS PRACTICE COULD BE DANGEROUS TO YOU, YOUR HOME, YOUR CHILDREN OR PETS OR MORE IF YOU UTILIZE THEM TODAY.  

  THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED FOR HISTORICAL RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY!

  How to Destroy Cockroaches.—

  Maybe in this modern age if we allowed more cock roaches to enter our abodes, our appetites would be cubed a bit and weight loss wouldn’t be so much of an issue.

  Take a quarter of a teaspoonful of phosphorous, two level tablespoonfuls of flour, mix and make into paste with well sweetened water. Phosphorous is very inflammable and should not be allowed near fire and being poisonous must not be placed where children and family pets can touch or eat it. Place the paste where the roaches can reach it.