How We Walk.- the foot is in raised from the ground and swung forward into true pendulum fashion. The leg in so doing becomes flexed at the knee joint, and considerably shorter, and the whole weight of the body is transferred to and supported by the leg and foot, which is planted firmly on the ground. The leg in the foot which was swinging in the air is now brought down to the ground, the muscles passing through changes just the reverse of those employed in raising it. Planting this foot firmly on the ground, to prevent the body from failing, we raise the other foot, swing it forward, like describing the same movements as before, repeating the process alternatively with each leg. These movements constitute the act of walking; the complexity of which is fully illustrated by the consultative machinery employed for its performance, as we've seen in the beautiful place join the wonderful unskillful arrangements of the bones and muscles of the leg.
This description sounds slightly unscientific. I picture a man standing there and slowly lifting his leg while the author slowly writes in perfect form each word describing the movement, but the entire time failing to recognize the chaotic nature of walking or running which is at best an exercise in repeated controlled falling. Its much easier today to analyze true movement with the benefit of cameras and slow motion. The author might not even be suited for practicing medicine today and could possibly be better suited to accounting or banking working with mortgage lenders.
Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:
- Difficulty of Obviating Lead Poisoning
Difficulty of Obviating Lead Poisoning. — attempts have been made to obviate the danger of water contamination from lead pipes in various ways, but not as yet with complete success. In some instances the pipes have been lined with other metals, such as tin or zinc; but, at least in some instances, a galvanic action has thus been set up, which corroded the conduits with great rapidity, and probably lead, therefore, still more dangerous pollution of the water supply. Coating the pipes on the inside with coal tar, bituminous varnish, solution of gutta-percha and the India rubber, have also been experimented with, as yet with but partial success.
Well those prescriptions sound about as useful as most prescriptions for acne treatments today. Again, I would remind everyone that the quote above is from a 100 year old medical book and the preventative steps offered really only offer historical perspective.
- Spread of Typhoid
Spread of Typhoid. — Sir William Jenner, than whom no higher medical authority could well be quoted, in commenting upon this point, says: the spread of typhoid fever is, if possible, less disputable than the spread of cholera by the same means; solitary cases, outbreaks confined to single houses, to small villages into parts of large towns, cases are isolated it seems from all sources of policy, and epidemics affecting the inhabitants of large though limited localities, have all united to support, either testimony, the truth of the opinion that the admixture of a trace of excrement, but especially of excrement from a typhoid fever patient, with the water supply for drinking purposes, is the most efficient cause of the spread of the disease, and that the diffusion of them lady in a given locality is limited or otherwise, and limited just in proportion as the dwellers in that locality to write their supply of drinking water from polluted sources.
As we transition away from the topic of cholera and further into typhoid fever, it is apparent that the book draws a number of similarities. Again though we see references to people that are quoted as authorities, however we have no other attribute nation to those people other than their given name. One hundred years ago, there may have been few people with the name of William Jenner, I suspect that is no longer the case.
- Insects As Common Carriers
Insects As Common Carriers.- great strides have been made in recent years by scientists in regards to the further prevention of disease by studying the life habits of insects. It has been clearly proven that the poison or germ of certain diseases are carried by them, such as tuberculosis, typhoid fever, bowel complaints of children, by the common housefly; malaria and yellow fever by the mosquito; the bubonic plague by the rat flea, of which there are several varieties, and the squirrel flea, of which there are also several.
It is easily understood that to prevent the spread of a contagious disease from one individual to another, the precautions are not complete unless he or she be protected against either the bite of a mosquito or fleet which is received into its own blood the poison or the germ causing the disease, which conveys by biting another person. Fly should be kept out as, by coming in contact with the spittle or discharges from a patient, they carry the germ of poison upon their feet, etc. to the food, milk, water and by direct contact to another person.
As to aid in the prevention of disease, the numerous boards of health of city and state have issued regulations and instructions whereby these insects can be destroyed and then every person, sick or well, can be protected. If well, the flight is a danger by bringing disease into her home, if ill, it can convey our disease to another screen is home and start an epidemic.
There is distinctly different set of priorities that are being covered in this book than those we might consider today. Typically malaria for example is only known in the tropics, but that definitive line on the globe might not have been known about back then. Installing screens on Windows had a dual benefit of keeping out mosquitoes as well as flies. Today we might worry about getting a discount on budget software or spending less time in traffic, but back then mosquitoes had much larger impact on the lives of people in the west much as the same insects have a great impact on people that live in Africa today.