Intercostal Arteries.--the intercostal arteries and veins are beautifully illustrated in the chart. The veins return the blood to the heart. The large ascending and descending venae cavae are seen in this illustration.
Meaning of artery.--from the fact that death arteries are empty, the ancients believed in to contain air, whence their name, derived from aer, air, and terco, I keep, which literally means, air ducts.
The Spleen.-- the spleen is a spongy organ, of a living color, oval in figure and situated in the left upper part of the abdomen and immediately behind the stomach. It's weight very from four to 10 ounces. It is largely composed of cells, but it's function is little understood, though from its position is believed to be in some way useful to the stomach during the process of digestion.
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We are moving rapidfire through the section and were just about ready to come up on the next section of charts, chart 3. Shortly after chart 3 we will then hit two of the book of medicine and we will move into anatomy and physiology.
So sit back, if you've got any questions stop by our reception desks and ask her receptionist in the meantime enjoy our translation of the book of medicine.
As to the known purpose of the spleen today (according to Ask Yahoo! the definitive answer on everything and nothing at all)
- filtering out foreign organisms that infect your blood
- removing your old or damaged platelets and red blood cells
- storing extra blood and releasing it as needed
- forming some types of white blood cells
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.
- Wonders of the Eye.
Wonders of the Eye. – the human eye is one of the most wonderful, as well as delicate, organs of the body. It is the window through which the heart, mind and soul of man shines. Sorrow or joy, reformers, pain or pleasure, sunshine or shadow or reflected through this wondrous camera of light; the human passions hold their orgies in this window; truth and love dance they’re happy and joyous daydreams before its luminous curtain; and through it accurate to limitations of every object comes within its range are carried to and photographed on the brain, the great Art Gallery of the soul! Can man, with all of his great and scientific achievements, conceive of anything in the arcana of his accomplishments more beautiful, more wonderful, or more perfect than the human eye!
Just a quick refresher, our transcription strives to be great but is still not fool proof. If you spot an error or something that looks wrong, please drop us a comment and let us know and we will review it again. As we cover writing from 100 years ago, it sometimes becomes difficult to spot an error created now from one that was borderline then. In the meantime, we’ll try not to pull the roller shades down over our own eyes . . .
- Quantity of Water Needed
Quantity of Water Needed.-the quantity of water needed by man and animals must therefore be very carefully calculated. Repeated experiments upon a very extended scale in England have shown that a healthy man requires daily as drink from 2 to 4 pints of water, this amount being in addition to that which is swallowed as moisture and food. The amount required for cooking is estimated at from having gallantly gallon or more. To this quantity, Dr. Parkes considers should be added for daily ablution, including a sponge bath, 5 gallons; daily share of kitchen and other utensils, and house washing, 3 gallons; and share of clothes washing, another 3 gallons; making up a total of a little over 12 gallons for each individual daily. In the poorer districts of the city of London, the amount used is stated to be only about 5 gallons daily. A shower-bath will require about 4 gallons extra, and a plunge-bath from 40 to 60 gallons. Where water-closets are used in additional quantity of from 4 to 6 gallons daily for each person must be provided.
In general this is actually one of the more interesting paragraphs that I found in this book. It describes several things that I believe could be rather unique. First it discusses the quantity of water needed for human consumption. It describes experiments done in England and considering that this book was published sometime around the turn-of-the-century around 1916 by my estimates, this would seem to indicate a human water consumption estimates of 2 to 4 pints presented 20 years before the FDA guidelines written by a bureaucrat that suggested that people should drink 8 cups of water a day.
Furthermore I find this one interesting from the perspective that it discusses how much water people may have used around the turn-of-the-century. I live in the Southeast of the United States and today we are in a drought.. Water consumption is definitely an important issue for the Southeast United States and many other areas of the world. And therefore when I listen to and read some of the items here that describe how much water should be used or could be used, it seems strikingly different than what we might use today, especially as we have many more appliances that use water, and many newer appliances that are designed to be energy-efficient. Very very interesting section, some of those water estimates seemed very high by todays standards and some seemed relatively low, at dollhouses levels.
