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:

• Bed Bugs
  
  

  Bed Bugs.–The bedbug is a small but plainly visible ovoid-shaped bug, giving off a peculiar nauseous odor. It is of a reddish brown or rusty color with some discoloration on the abdomen and is furnished with a puncturing or sucking apparatus. The eggs are tiny white oval bodies. As many as 6 to 50 batches are laid in cracks of beds, furniture, picture frames, wall paper, crevices of woodwork, floors, etc. Each batch of eggs develops in from 6 to 11 weeks, and several batches may be hatched in a season. One generation succeeds another as long as the temperature remains sufficiently elevated.

  Not exactly the type of thing that many people worry about much in the twentieth century a hundred years after the writing of this article, but these pests are possible in modern times from foreign countries to Mediterranean cruises to homes and beds that are infested accidentally or through neglect.

  They hibernate during cold weather, during which season the insect is merely stupefied and renews its activities upon the return of warm surroundings. It is found in the dwellings of man, but other species of the same family have been found upon birds, as the common chimney swallow, pigeons and bats.

  The bedbug comes out at night and begins to bite and annoy. It conceals itself very cleverly and quickly in the day time or when surprised by a sudden light at night. It lives on the blood of man particularly, but can exist on food of other insects. It thrives best on filth and in old houses can keep alive without food for a year.

  Bedbugs are said to transmit smallpox. There is a possibility of their carrying the germs of typhoid fever and leprosy, but this fact has not been proven as yet. The bite is poisonous to some individuals, resulting in inflammation at the seat of the bite. This is supposed to be due to the same secretion which gives the characteristic nauseous odor.

• Goitre in Switzerland
  
  

  Goitre in Switzerland. — Dr. Coindet, a Geneva Switzerland, asserts that Goitre is speedily produced in persons who drink the hard pump water in the lower parts of that town, whilst in other parts of Switzerland the use of spring water has been followed by the development of augmentation of Goitre in a very few days. In India also it has been shown conclusively to prevail, to any marked extent, only where the magnesium limestone rocks underlie the soil; but whether it is the line and magnesium salts or whether, as has been suggested, it is the presence of sulfide of iron and the bedrock formation, which is the direct cause of the development of Goitre, has not yet been positively determined. It appears certain however, that Goitre is originated by some water and purity, and that this contamination is of an inorganic and not of an animal or vegetable nature.

  So it would appear, that English not the only ones that were hung up on this magnesium and salt issue causing Goitre. They were frankly barking up the wrong tree, and here is yet another reference to an unknown Doctor.  For my new and make it to the fitness section of this book, it’s not follow any of the prescriptions for fitness nor consider constructing any of the fitness equipment. They couldn’t even figure out table salt after all. Our poor ancestors…

• Delicacy of the Organs
  
  

  Again this next section has a title that doesn’t sound like something you’d find in a medical textbook. If I were to read this title is where I would think I was preparing to read a book about Hannibal Lecter. In fact maybe it was medical textbooks like this that inspired some evil doctor to become a cannibal somewhere.
  

  Delicacy of the Organs. –the protection of the organs which carry on the stupendous office challenges our warmest admiration. So delicately are they arranged that the slightest pressure will cause intense pain, yet tons of air surged to and fro through their intricate passages, and bathe their innumerable cells without our knowledge, so to speak, of its coming and going. We annually perform over 8,400,000 acts of breathing, inhale over 150,000 feet of air, and purify nearly 4000 tons of blood! This gigantic and unburdensome process goes on constantly, never wearying or worrying us when in robust health, we are struck dumb founded with amazement when the cold calculations of science reveal to us its magnitude and marvelousness.

  _____________________
  So it does appear that the title for this action was completely inept. The section actually is a off topic. It jumps from the concept that our organs are designed with sensors to indicate pain when the organs or threaten, and then jumped into the statistics section talking about just how much the organs process. Nothing in this section talked about how fragile the organs might be, and much to the chagrin of many cannibalistic psychologists, there is no talk about how to cook up a meal.