Nature's Treasures Open to Man.- all this is a very complicated and diversified process, the necessity for which can only be explained on the hypothesis that nature, in her exhaustless munificence, has opened her proud domains, and poured forth to man the treasures of every land and every sea for food; the cornfields waved their golden grain for him; the wheat, rye, oats, corn, maize, rice, each different, yet highly nutritious and sufficing; the Palm, the date, the banana, the fig, a pineapple, spread out a delicious harvest on the air; the luscious apple, peer, beach, plum, cherry, tempt his ready hand; the potato, the beat, the turnip, tomato, cabbage, the pea, cauliflower, and a thousand other good things, incite his appetite, whilst to this feast is added the flesh of birds, of oxen, of sheep, of swine and of fish; that before the waving wheat and corn, the flesh of other animals, the fruits and farinaceous foods, the running water, the luscious oyster and fish, etc., can be transformed into the refined in spiritual organization of man, it must be thoroughly prepared by the several steps in the digestive process -- then, and only then, is it permitted to enter into and co-mingle with the highly complex, nutritious and life-sustaining fluid, the blood.

Wow, now that was really a mouthful.  I thought I would never finish all of those extra long lists that attempted to catalog everything that was possible to be from each of the food groups in a single sentence.  You may not realize it but that entire paragraph up above was one single sentence or as any of my teachers throughout any of my classes with state, that was one great big freaking run on!

Absolutely ridiculous the number of semicolons and comas that were used throughout that entire mess.  I think I probably put on 5 pounds just reading that great big run on a sentence about food. I have to buy a new can of Miracle burn just to speed up my metabolism. I have to wake up in the morning and compete in an Ironman competition just get back on an even keel. Regardless Dragon Naturally Speaking definitely had a lot of fun with that one!

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Impurities in Rain Water
  
  

  In a world where rain water is polluted more and more by run off following the decimation of forests, trees, and large tracts of land, it is no wonder that we suffer from ozone at ground level and not at stratospheric levels, its only a matter of time before we all have to invest in portable oxygen concentrators to keep our homes habitable.

  Impurities in Rain-Water.–It contains, however, small quantities of organic matter, nitric acid and ammonia, all of which are washed out of the air through which it descends as rain. The source of the nitric acid is believed to be the nitrogen of the atmosphere, which combines with oxygen under the influence of the electric spark during thunder-storms. Nitric acid in rain-water exists in such insignificant amount as to be entirely unimportant in itself ; but it adds very seriously to the danger of impregnation with lead from lead pipes, roofs and cisterns by rapidly dissolving that metal and forming the very soluble and highly poisonous salt, nitrate of lead.

• Cholera Due to Impure Water
  
  

  Cholera Due to Impure Water. — among the remarkable outbreaks which goes to prove that this mode of cholera propagation is not at all uncommon, maybe mention the following, condensed from Mr. Simons eighth report as medical officer of the English privy Council, during the prevalence of cholera in England in 1865: A gentleman and his wife in the village of Theydon-Bois, and Essex, have been lodging at the town of Weymouth for two or three weeks, and returned home towards the end of September. On their way home they pass through Dorchester, where the gentleman was seized with diarrhea, vomiting and cramps, which continued more or less during the next day in the day following, when he reached his own home. During the journey to wife also began complaining of pains in the abdomen, which was followed by diarrhea and eventually by cholera, from which she died.

   

  Here’s the first paragraph from Wikipedia on Cholera which I’m providing just as a simple contrast in the information level known now versus 100 years ago…

  Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic cholera or epidemic cholera, is an infectious gastroenteritis caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.^[1][2] Transmission to humans occurs through ingesting food or water that is contaminated with cholera vibrios. The major reservoir for cholera was long assumed to be humans themselves, but considerable evidence exists that aquatic environments can serve as reservoirs of the bacteria. Vibrio cholerae is a Gram-negative bacterium that produces cholera toxin, an enterotoxin, whose action on the mucosal epithelium lining of the small intestine is responsible for the characteristic massive diarrhea of the disease.^[1] In its most severe forms, cholera is one of the most rapidly fatal illnesses known, and a healthy person may become hypotensive within an hour of the onset of symptoms; infected patients may die within three hours if medical treatment is not provided.^[1] In a common scenario, the disease progresses from the first liquid stool to shock in 4 to 12 hours, with death following in 18 hours to several days, unless oral rehydration therapy is provided.

  That contrast in detail and accuracy is pretty amazing in and of it self.  We live in an age where modern marvels in medical advancement such as the evolution from glasses to contact lenses to lasik corrective surgery demonstrate evolutionary and revolutionary change 3 times over. So it is no wonder that even when they were on the right track with a topic 100 years ago, the level of understanding was still exceptionally rudimentary.

• Distilled Water
  
  

  Distilled Water. At the present day, most sea-going vessels are provided with apparatus for distilling the water of the ocean, and so producing a pure and wholesome but insipid water, which can be rendered, however, more palatable by agitation with plenty of fresh air. Hence, the horrible agony of death by thirst among sailors is now much less frequent than formerly, although mariners in open boats, or cast upon small uninhabited islands, still sometimes scan with anxious eyes the briny waste around them, beholding
  

  “Water, water every where, but not a drop to drink.”

  —

  This article tells me something that I had never heard of before as they mention that sea going vessels at the turn of the last century had water distilling devices that they could use to generate water.  Today, we tend to think of swimming pools and home theater seating and tennis and buffets.  Definitely a difference in culture and technology and what you can do with it all.