The Shin Bone. -The Tibia or shinbone is also a very large, strong, triangular-shaped bone, enlarged at both ends; the lower end, however where it articulates and forms a hinge joint with the foot, is larger and more prominent than the upper end. And as if this bone was not sufficiently strong enough in itself to bear the weight of the body, our Creator, that boundless wisdom and forethought everywhere in the human frame you see revealed, strengthens the legs by an additional bone, which is seen running on the outer side of the shinbone, to which it is firmly found at both ends.

That is the Shin Bone and I must say that I will be happy when we get out of the glossary of body parts.  We are approaching diseases and their transmission next which should be a more interesting topic and less likely to make a person want to update cover letters from 10 years ago in their spare time.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Cause for Bright’s Disease
  
  

  Cause for Bright’s Disease. — it has long seemed probable that the increasing prevalence of that terribly fatal malady, "Bright’s disease," especially in cities and large towns, maybe due to the poisonous effects of exceeding minute quantities of lead, dissolved from the lead pipes so generally employed as service conduits, notwithstanding the protective coating, which usually forms so promptly upon them.

  In the year 2008, this paragraph would seem like something rather obvious. But it is remarkable to look back in time and see how people consider the potential for this problem to exist, before science had proven it out. We sometimes forget that our knowledge is built on many many different precursors and actions that were taken before we came to be. Humanity learns its lessons from the people that come before it and the actions that they take. Sometimes they learn those lessons quickly, and sometimes they learned those lessons very slowly, whether they are trying to understand lead poisoning or come up with better egg nog recipes. This is one of the reasons why history is so important for us to study, not only do we get to learn some of the items from the past to avoid making the same mistakes, we get to learn how people in the past recognize the problem and dealt with it so that we can recognize and deal with new problems today.

  Technorati tags: Bright’s Disease, Lead Poisoning History
• The Eye and Its Wonders
  
  

  Beautiful Plate of the Eye.–The beautiful flesh-colored engraving at the right-hand top corner of this exquisite anatomical plate gives a strikingly natural, life-size representation of the human eye, together with its external appendages, the eyebrows, the eyelids, and the lachrymal or tear glands.

  As I write this I have not published pictures of Chart 3, but will have it provided and uploaded shortly.  Let me just say that this engraving or plate is  well, a little under whelming.  Could I call it a beauty?

  No.  Is it life sized?  Oddly, not really.  You’ll see for yourself soon, that this medical book doesn’t do this particular diagram justice.

• How to Destroy the Breeding places of Mosquitoes-Part 1
  
  

  How to Destroy the Breeding places of Mosquitoes.-No breeding places, no eggs and consequently known mosquitos.  We consider that one mosquito can lay 200 to 300 eggs at a time and then figure the number of living pests we have seen in one evening, it can readily be seen how rapidly they can develop and in what numbers increase if they’re breeding places are allowed to remain about any premise is.  Mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water, such as is found in cesspools, drains, open sewers, catch basins, foul street gutters, stable yard pools, tin cans, rain barrels or any object which holds water.  And from a few hours to a day, depending on the temperature in surrounding conditions, the eggs open and what we know and are seen as “wrigglers” come out and can be seen in the water in which the eggs are developed, his tiny slender living bodies 18 inch in length.  In five to seven more days, the “wrigglers” become “tumblers.”  In another five to seven days the covering of the head of the “tumblers” cracks in the fully developed adult winged mosquito comes out and, in the case of the female of the species, flies off ready to annoy and bite.

  This section does provide an interesting glimpse into the evolution of the names and descriptions used for the development stages of mosquitos which can still be seen today.  That said the writer goes into a great level of detail about the places, listing them off.  In the next paragraphs they repeat the litany and focus also on interior locations for mosquitos that almost make you want to go out and hire steam cleaners to visit your home to clean and then dry out your premises.