I had to take a break to do my taxes last week. For what its worth, it might be interesting to know that when this book was published, people did not have to file income taxes in the United States.
There were other forms of taxes, but not income taxes. I suspect that there may be a correlation to the introduction of income taxes and obesity and heart problems in the US. I doubt anyone will ever be able to fulfil a research project on that to prove it right or wrong any more than they might show that children that drive RC cars recklessly grow up to drive real cars recklessly, but it is an interesting historical perspective.
Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:
- Impure Ice As a Cause of Diarrhea.
Impure Ice As a Cause of Diarrhea. — the fact that ice is now used by almost all classes to an extent which entitles it to rank rather as a necessity than, as formally, as a luxury of life, renders it important that its purity should be is jealously guarded as the water supply. It is popularly believed that water freeze itself from dangerous organic matter, as it does to a great degree from certain saline contaminations during the process of freezing, and also that the vegetable or animal germs of typhoid and other fevers are killed, or at least rendered sterile, by congelation of the water in which they exist. Both these ideas are, however, unquestionably running us, as has been repeatedly proved by the various experiments which ignorant hotel keepers try without the least intending it, upon their guests, on a scale which would have the oldest vivisector stand aghast before the suffering inflicted, even if it were only upon the brutes which form the subjects of his researches.
- Use of the Leg Muscles
Use of the Leg Muscles. – Is and the muscles observed in this plate are the principal instruments for carrying out the behest of the will in the act of walking, running, leaping, climbing, and the graceful, gliding motions of the interesting and captivating waltz; and although we see a complicated piece of machinery, yet there is perfect order. Harmony, promptitude and exactness prevail, not only in the skillful manner in which they are individually and collectively range, but in the action of the different muscles, each one of which performs its duty either independently of, or in connection with, its fellow lever, and that, too, without interfering in the slightest degree with the functions of the others.
Later on in this book we will start to see some examples of muscle building exercise. There was some strength equipment used back then that largely consisted of free weights and many of the exercises could still be employed today despite the fact that many of the exercises have been perfected for form.
- THE PUBLIC TOWEL.
THE PUBLIC TOWEL.
The towels in toilets, bedrooms of hotels and boarding houses can spread disease unless they are thoroughly boiled and laundered after use, Most hotels, railroad stations, Pullman cars, etc., have done away with the public towels in toilets and use a heavy tissue paper, either as a single towel or in rolls and torn off as needed, which is not expensive and is thrown away after use.
In Pennsylvania the State Board of Health has urged saloonkeepers, etc., to do away with the forks and spoons which are placed in a tumbler of water and are used by all comers at the free lunch counter and then replaced in the tumbler of dirty water for the next victim to use.
Disease can be controlled better when our proprietors of saloons, restaurants, hotels, soda fountains, etc., employ only healthy employees, free from disease and take pains to boil or scald every public glass and chinaware used by not only dirty, but disease-spreading persons. The barroom towel which hangs in front of the bar in the cheaper saloons for customers to wipe their mouth and hands upon, must not be permitted.
Maybe in a few years, we will even have our own personal lighting systems or lasik eye procedures that install night vision and public outdoor lighting will become a thing of the past.