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:

• Typhoid from Milk
  
  

  Typhoid from Milk.  — it is also been proven in late years the typhoid is transmitted from infected milk, cows have been allowed to drink from streams that have had the discharges from typhoid patients thrown into them here in the germs have been taken into the cows and finally into the milk.  This note was distributed to families and in many cases caused typhoid.

  

  If you think that is interesting check out this article from the New York times from 1913(pdf).  The timing is extraordinary as this could be close to the date of publication of this book. I suspect that since the book does not mention this experiment and finding the author either did not give merit to the experiment or the experiment had not yet been published, ergo the book was published first.  100 years from now someone will probably be trying to compare the traces of Apidexin or other drugs like we are typhoid

  

  That’s pretty amazing to find something that close in time frame.

  Extract from the Article:

  IMMUNIZED MILK KILLS TYPHOID AND TUBERCLE BACILLI; Dr. Julius Rosenberg’s Experiments Lead Him to Believe That the Milk of Immunized Animals Will Prevent These Infections and May Cure Them in Human Beings.

  By Van Buren Thorne, M.D.

  December 14, 1913, Sunday

  Section: Magazine Section, Page SM7, 3654 words

  DR. JULIUS ROSENBERG, a well-known physician of this city, is carrying on a series of experiments in the heart of the Catskill Mountains, the results of which are likely, in his opinion, to check the spread of typhoid fever and tuberculosis and reduce the mortality from these diseases.

• Use of the Auricles
  
  

  Use of the Auricles– The auricles serve as reservoirs to receive the blood — the right, as it comes dark and foul from its tour of the body; the left, as it filters bright and pure from the oxygenated forest of lungs — and to furnish it to the ventricles as they need it. This is graphically shown in the chart, the large blue vein, formed by the jugular and subclavian veins, is seen descending downward and emptying into the right auricle; the red pulmonary vein, formed by the coalescing of its numerous branches, conveying rich, pure blood for the lungs and depositing it in the left auricle.corresponding to the lightness of the work they perform, the walls of the auricles are comparatively thin and weak.

  ____________

  Referring to the blood as dark and foul seems a little overly dramatic for this particular description. Similarly it refers to the blue vein, which as we’ve pointed out in a past article is inaccurate. Other than those accommodation of odd and incorrect items section is in too bad. It’s a little overly descriptive in a literary sense but the most part seems to be fairly on-topic.

  If the author really wanted to see something that was foul or dangerous I wonder what they would’ve thought of a Def Leppard concert. In a way it’s too bad that the authors are not alive today, otherwise I would’ve sent them a def leppard tour schedule. I’m sure that would give them something to really write about.

• Typhoid Poison from a Well
  
  

  Typhoid Poison from a Well.  — in a report of the American public health Association, Dr. Austin Flynn gives an account of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Vermont which it was possible to trace, in the most circumstantial way, to the poisoning of a well in some such method as has been described.  The young man traveling through the region by stagecoach was taken ill, and, when he could go no further, was left in a tavern and a little hamlet to be cared for, his illness soon proved to be typhoid fever.  A small watercourse, a shallow valley, by the village into two portions, each of which consisted of half a dozen houses or less.  In a few days new cases of the fever made their appearance in that part of the hamlet which the tavern along — every house, in fact, but one was invaded with this disease — whilst on the other side of the stream not a case occurred.  It appears that the tavern well, which was the only one up on that side of the village, furnish the water supply to all the families belonging there but one.  That one family had had a quarrel with the landlord of the hotel, and consequently deserted the tavern well for a more distant supply of drinking water, and so escape swallowing the specific poison of typhoid fever in the water by which all their neighbors were stricken down.

   

  In case you’re wondering, typhoid fever is spread by people that shed typhoid bacteria area this can happen when they handle food or drinking water that other people consume, or when the bacteria is exhausted into a sewage system that contaminate the water supply.  So it is possible that the people that became sick from typhoid fever in this example, became sick from close proximity with a very sick traveler, in addition to the pollution of that traveler with the water supply.  We rarely think of these problems today when we book time in las vegas suites or at a beech cottage, but the bacteria could still be propogated by people handling food. This is one of the prime reasons why people should wash their hands. Due to water treatment procedures, we are currently fortunate to have less exposure to contaminated drinking water, however when sewer lines break in coastal areas and people swim in the ocean near these breaks, the risk could go up.

  It is also very interesting to note, that in this passage a health association that Dr. Flynn worked with was noted as opposed to just a name.  This is a distinct improvement, and I think the first time it has occurred in 158 pages!