Art of Walking.- walking requires the nicest adjustment, prompt action, and the finest calculations to maintain the dignity, proper attitude, equipoise and balance of the body.  This is well illustrated when one runs up against any obstacle in the dark.  We observed then with what had long force the body is propelled forward.  In walking the first thing that occurs as the incline of the body for work; the foot is then gradually raised on the toes, and brought from a horizontal position into an almost vertical one; at the same time Denis, which was at first considerably bent, straightened out by the advancing forward movement.  Every part of the leg and thigh is changed its position except the toes; that part far this for the toes and most of all; and gradually diminishing in geometrical proportions downward.

Nice descriptions here even a reference to a commonality in 1910, the blacksmith.  Today, we'd be more likely to discover a career mom on a tread mill with a husband at home taking nuphedrine to lose weight.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Values of the Plates
  
  

  THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS AND ITS WONDERS

  Values of the Plates.  — seeing is believing; nay, it is more, it is knowing and remembering.  The mere reading of his statement on any particular subject is not always advance our knowledge of the matter in question.  The observation of the facts, or its proper illustration by appropriate diagrams, such as we observed these anatomical charts to be, not only emphasizes the point considered, but aides us and remembering the principal features connected with the functions performed, does advancing our knowledge of the subject discussed, and educational progress is made.

  _________________

  In this section the author is referring to the medical charts and diagrams that come with the book.  This is actually an interesting excerpt.  I’m sure it was a bit of conventional wisdom that combining pictures with text would help people understand and learn.  Today I work in part as a MindManager trainer.  My manager is a software program that enables people to mind map on their computer.  My maps enable people to put text in words and pictures and colors together so that they can learn and digest the topic faster.  The interesting thing is in the 1960s a scientist won a Nobel peace prize for putting all that information together in proving that people do learn better when they look at pictures and colors as opposed to just flat black text.  I’m sure the monks of the dark ages could’ve probably confirm that, but it hadn’t gone to the scientific process yet.

• Another Case of Infection (Cholera Reference to teawater pump in London 1854)
  
  

  Another Case of Infection.-Another famous illustration is found in the history of the "tea water pump" of broad Street, Near Golden square, London, which during the cholera visitation of 1854, killed nearly 500 persons in a single week, in one of the fashionable localities of the city. It has long been known that water containing five or six grains of lime and magnesium to the gallon is much to be preferred for making tea to water of any other quality.  This is because the line precipitates the astringent matter of the leaf, yet does not interfere with the solution of the desirable constituents; and hence certain wells which have the proper proportion of mineral matter come to be valued very highly by persons of nice taste.

  

  The images represent a tea water pump in New York(left) placed over a natural spring (right) that had existed in Manhattan long before Europeans came to the colonies and helped create situations where cholera could break out. 

  This reference to the 1854 Cholera outbreak would have been relatively recent in the minds of many.  It would have only been about 60 years old at the time of this articles printing, however, when this book was first published, it may have been referenced when the epidemic was only 20 – 30 years old possibly.  In terms of recency or relevancy, we today might have a similar perspective on the massacre at Jonestown or the Kennedy killing.  It would have made a much bigger impression on people that heard the news than say a case of food poisoning resulting from a problem with popcorn machines or something in a bar or movie theater.

• The Veins
  
  

  The Veins.–The venal arteries are derived direct from the aorta; and the large veins terminate in the ascending large vein. On the right kidney is seeing the super-renal capsule; whilst the left is cut vertically into showing the uriniferous tubes, much convoluted and inosculating with each other.  The ureter is seen arising from the pelvis of the kidney, descending in an oblique manner to the bladder.  These wonderful little organs appear to act as filters, and thus assist to keep the vital stream of life and as pure and as healthy a condition as possible.

  The Bladder.–The bladder is a thin, membranous bag, which serves as he receiver of the year and secreted by the kidneys, and which remains there until voided by your nation through the urethra.

  Bone Sections.– the sections of the bones show their cancellated appearance, which combines lightness with strength.

   

  As I was putting together the section and transcribing it from the book, the translation software had quit the difficulty with several of the words in this section.  Uriniferous actually stood out as eight extra troubling word.