Powers of the Hand. – and how very good and useful or its endowments! How wondrously adapted to the uses to which it is daily applied! It’s elegance of outline, delicacy of mold and beauty of color has ever made it the attractive study of the artist; whilst its elasticity, flexibility and strength, combined with its delicate and exquisite mobility, and perfect adaptation as an organ of pretension, have led many philosophers to attribute man’s high and graceful spear he worked he even more to the hand them to the mine. Glowing thoughts are penned up on the pages of history by means of the hand; it wheels the artist pencil and brush, and makes the bare canvas and attractive and valuable work of art; how it strikes the keyboard of the piano with so delicate a touch that low, sweet, plaintive strains of music are brought forth; now the force of the blow is much greater and firmer, and louder and louder and more thrilling musical strains.

Skill of the Hand. – the farmers toil, a housewife status, the dressmakers deafness, the mechanics skill, are all accomplished by the human hand. How constantly does the lives from an aids us in expressing our feelings. It is the orator’s chief aide and giving expression to his lofty strains of eloquence, or emphasizing his pathetic appeals.

At this point, for this session I am going to sign off.  The platitudes have finally gotten to me but don't fear.  We'll be back again and you can continue to read my droll commentary like subtitling on a bad Sundance Film Festival Marathon in Italian.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Diarrhea and Dysentery from Impure Water
  
  

  Diarrhea and Dysentery from Impure Water.  — the instances of outbreaks of these two diseases from contaminated water supply are very numerous, and probably most persons can recall examples of this kind.  The impurities which produce diarrhea and dysentery are suspended earthy matters, such as are found in most river waters after a rain; suspended animal and vegetable material; salty thing chlorides of Lyme and Magnesia, and nitrate of ammonia and of lime.  Besides the numerous outbreaks traceable to direct sewage contamination, there are several instances recorded of indirect poisoning the water supply from this source, as in the following curious case.

  Just as a note about the style of writing or documentation, this paragraph seems to be unnecessary as a stand alone topic.  Instead it is basically a transition paragraph, yet the author chooses to use it as a stand alone sub topic instead of just using it to work his way from one topic to a very slight tangent in the next topic.  This would again seem to reflect the author’s possible motivation for not only being paid by the word but also with a stipend for important bolded topics.  This surely does not seem to be practical like following a guide on replacing coilovers in a car or fixing a plumbing problem, and it must have driven some readers nuts as they used this book in semi-emergencies looking for the answer to serious problems only to be distracted by useless sections like this.

• Machinery of Digestion
  
  

  Machinery of Digestion.-From the number and differently formed structures which constitute the digestive organs, it will be observed that the function is a very highly complex process.  If the food were thrown directly into the circulating fluid, it could not be used for the purpose of nutrition.  It requires for its transformation into blood, bone and muscle, a series of complex machinery, each part of which is specially designed for the particular part it plays in this wonderful and complicated process.

   

  Use of Mouth and Teeth.- the mechanical part, which, although not shown in this chart, may be carefully studied in the chart giving the different views of the head, is performed by the mouth and teeth, and pulverized food is subject to the action of the saliva.  The lubricated morsel of food is now gathered into a ball and conveyed to the back of the mouth by the muscles of the cheek and tongue.  On its arrival here, the soft palate lifts upward and closes the posterior nasal openings; the epiglottis shuts down over the trachea or windpipe, forming a bridge over which the food passes, thus preventing it from falling into the respiratory tract.

   

  For this section I don’t really know to anything extraordinary, and I’m just going to move on to the next sections from here as we do have some interesting segments coming up shortly.

• A Case of Impure Ice Poison
  
  

  A Case of Impure Ice Poison.  — such was notably the case in an epidemic of intestinal disorder which occurred at the watering place of Rye Beach N. H.  from the account of Dr. Nichols, who attended most of the patients, it seems that, early in the season, a mild form of disturbance of the stomach and bowels made its appearance among the guests of a particular hotel at his favorite summer resort.  The symptoms were in general penis, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea and severe abdominal pain, accompanied by fever, loss of appetite and mental depression.  The well and drainage system of the establishment, which had recently been put in complete water, was found almost faultless, and the milk supply of unquestionable purity; but on the attention of the physician being directed to the stock of ice provided for the guests, conclusive proof of its dangers quality was promptly obtained.