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:

• Iron in Water
  
  

  Iron in Water. — the presence of iron in a water, rendering it what is called Chalybeate, from the old Greek name for iron, renders it to many persons only a useful topic, but in some people it causes severe headache and serious disturbance of the digestive organs.

  When I was younger I have distinct impressions of hand pumping old farm wells to water plants and things like that in my grandparents flower gardens. The water would be a very rusty brown and smell metallic. One of the things that I am unclear about here is whether or not that ‘rusty’ color of the water was actually iron in the water or something else. I think it might have been, and I’m under the impression that Iron is less dangerous than lead, but then again any metal in your body is likely to be a bad thing.

  These days, I suppose I’d rather see one of those old water pumps incorporated and recycled into modern furniture rather than have to pump water to water the flowers by hand let alone drink it, but its again another sign of the times and the progress that has been made in 100 years.

• The Collar Bone
  
  

  The Collar Bone.  — The collar bone is fast and that one into the breast bone in the first drip, and at the other into a shoulder blade.  It does holes the shoulder-joint out from the chest, eight in protecting the important vessels of the axilla, and gives the arm a greater range of freedom, mobility and play.

  In this section I first noted that the word collar bone is used as two separate words as opposed to the compound word in use today, collarbone .  You might also notice that the author regularly uses an excessive number of dashes in the text.  Unfortunately on occasion I lose her drop some of these when my spell checker and dictation service gets confused by the excessive number of dashes.

• How to Destroy Existing Mosquitoes
  
  

  How to Destroy Existing Mosquitoes.-Kill every mosquito seen about the house. Every mosquito killed in the winter or spring will lessen the number of mosquitoes in the summer by thousands. Use a paddle, made of an oblong sheet of wire gauze tacked on to a strip of wood, to serve as a handle, to kill both the fly and mosquito whenever seen. One of the best means of killing female mosquitoes (as they survive from one season to another) is to begin in the winter or early spring to fumigate the air with the following mixture :—Equal parts (by weight) of carbolic acid crystals and gum camphor. Liquify the carbolic acid crystals by gentle heat, break up gum. camphor into small pieces and then pour the liquid acid slowly over the camphor. The acid will dissolve the camphor completely and the solution formed is permanent and will evaporate slightly at ordinary temperatures.
  

  This may be one of the early books on the fight to attack mosquitoes and malaria.

  To fumigate a tightly sealed room, three ounces of this liquid will suffice for 1000 cubic feet of air space. Place it in a tin over an alcohol or other lamp and in addition place the lamp on a tin waiter or old pie plate, heat and it will require about one half hour to evaporate these three ounces of liquid. This solution is death to the mosquitoes and flies. It is not poisonous to man and is not destructive to fabrics and materials, furniture, etc. It is not explosive, but is inflammable and precaution should be taken to prevent fire. Mosquitoes found upon the ceilings of bedrooms in the evening may be quickly killed by taking a shallow tin cup or lip of a tin can, tacking it to a stick and then fill it with kerosene. Place quietly under the resting mosquito which either falls into or flies against the oil and is killed. Burn Chinese punk and mosquitoes will be driven away temporarily. Equal parts of olive oil and oil of citronella applied every half hour or so to the skin of the face, neck, hands and ankles will keep away mosquitoes. This method is useful to farmers, hunters, lumbermen or laborers about woods, swamps, etc., where mosquitoes are an annoying and disease carrying pest.