Next we will start to explore Chart III. This is a relatively short section and it will conclude book 1 on the Human body.
Just to give you a little hint of what is to come, each section here seems to kick off with the description of "something" and Its Wonders.
Example
The Eye and Its Wonders
The Ear and Its Wonders
The Hand its Mechanisms and its Wonderful Endowments
I'm not making that up. You'll see . . .
Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:
- THE LEG; ITS MECHANISM AND ITS WONDERFUL ENDOWMENTS
Leg Muscle.- In every part of the human brain there is witnessed ample evidence of design, beauty of architecture, great skill, Finnish workmanship, and a perfect adaptability to the duties he performed. This fact is strikingly illustrated in the beautifully executed color plates to which attention is now drawn, join as it does, at a glance, a thick, strong, muscular instruments employed in the manifold intricacies involved in the act of human locomotion. This exquisitely artistic anatomical plate represents a front view of the pie, leg and foot, and of the 54 fleshy lovers which give form, shape, symmetry, strength and mobility to this useful member of the body. Quite a number of the most important are seen exposed to view, after the scan and fatty tissues have been removed. We are deeply impressed with their large size and great strength, both of which correspond with the requirements demanded the very work which the lake is called onto the form.
In many ways this initial section of the book seems to read less like a medical book and more like a sales pitch trying to convince people to like the human body and accept the ‘beauty’ of the anatomy of the body. This sales pitch like style is reminiscent of reading a sales catalog for floor tile or a flyer on the latest model of Fords or something. Its more like copy writing than medical text.
- Lead Diseases
Lead Diseases. — the injurious effects of lead upon the human system are displayed first, in the production of dyspepsia; later,
obstinate constipation and a peculiar kind of colic, so common among painters from the influence of lead that it has received the name of “painter’s colic;” and finally, disturbance of the nervous system, especially that peculiar form of lead palsy called wrist drop, in which the power to lift up the hand is more or less completely lost.If that seems a little scary consider that this book was written right around the same time that life insurance became popular. Now back then, life expectancy was much lower than it is today. Its increased by about 25 years give or take. Today life insurance quotes might also be a lot more reliable due to the higher competition amongst many high quality insurance agencies that no longer sell insurance door to door like they did 100 years ago. Regardless, I think most of us would just rather avoid lead diseases all together.
- Blood Vessels
Blood-Vessels. –on the next lap we have a graphic illustration of the internal arrangements of the blood-vessels of the lungs and bronchial tubes. The pulmonary artery, arising from the right ventricle of the heart, conveys the venous blood to the lungs. It penetrates the lungs and divides and subdivides into branches, which accompanied the bronchial tubes and terminate in a dense capillary net-work upon the walls of their cells, where the blood undergoes that magical change, giving up its poisonous qualities and becoming revivified and healthful.
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Note the use of the word ‘net-work’, obviously an early predecessor to the very common word network. I found this little nugget of gold to be very interesting as networks are so synonymous in today’s world and speech, and found it very amusing to find an example of the early use of the word before it had truly come together into its modern-day form, which even today is now abbreviated to a more common usage of “net,” I guess we take the “work” in network for granted these days.
For more on the entymology of the word Network see http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=network&searchmode=none
