Cockroaches.--Cockroaches are brownish or black in color, broad and flattened in shape and smooth and bard to the touch. All cockroaches should be destroyed. They not only annoy, but, even though it has not been proven, they, no doubt, carry disease germs by coming in contact with discharges, etc., from ill persons and convey filth and germs to food, etc.

When we lived in Boca Raton several years ago, we used to see extremely large 'palmetto bugs' which look a great deal like a cock roach but are a little different.  Many people only run into these bugs taking Orlando vacations or hit the beach in Florida or the gulf, but when you live there the relationship is up close and sometimes personal!

They are very numerous in pantries, kitchens and in the walls near a stove and fire places. They are apt to be abundant in oven rooms or bakeries and wherever the temperature is kept above normal. They usually appear at night or wherever light is absent and thus are protected from their common enemies. Owing to their shape they can squeeze into tiny cracks. They scurry away when surprised and generally escape capture or destruction, due to their speedy gait. They feed on animal matter, cereals and any food material ; also eat woolens, leather cloth and leather bindings of books (clue to the presence of paste). They give off a fetid, nauseous odor, which persists even after thorough cleaning. They taint food supplies, stain shelves and dishes and when present in large numbers, render the air of a room unbearable. This is duo not only to their excretion, but mostly to an oily liquid secreted in the scent gland and a dark colored fluid in the mouth. They will destroy bedbugs. No contagious disease can be said to be properly treated or isolated, if cock­roaches are scurrying about the walls, carpets, food, etc., of a sickroom and allowed to persist and possibly convey the germs of the disease to others in the house or to neighbors.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Lead Palsy
  
  

  Lead Palsy. — under some special circumstances, not at present well understood, extremely minute amounts of lead in water may prove injurious. Thus, for example, Dr. Angus Smith speaks of cases in which lead paralysis, or palsy, was apparently produced by water containing only 1/100TH of a grain of lead to the gallon.

  I’d like to veer off the topic of lead poisoning for a second and just meditate on the fact that until I engaged in reading this section of the book, I had not taken the time to learn the definition of ‘palsy’

  Is is actually an alternative to the word paralysis, and might even be a slang term or abbreviated version of the word.  My own apathetic ignorance as it relates to this word, which to my ears in 2008 even sounds a little politically incorrect, speaks to a decrease in the threat of cerebral palsy even though paralysis (palsy) is still a real problem as a result of injuries.  I might be more in tune with seeking a car insurance quote than fearing for the potential of developing palsy as a result of lead poisoning.

• Vitality of the Heart
  
  

  Vitality of the Heart.  — its vitality is as amazing as its strength.  While life exists this tireless order never stops.  In disease, as long as a flutter of this wondrous organ exists, we know the spark of life is not altogether vanished, and new Hope is begotten that helped me be restored.  Airing such long lives as we sometimes see, the heart has propelled no less than 500,000 tons of blood; and yet, during all this patient, unfaltering and unflinching labor, it is her.  Self as the waste has occurred.

  Heart Rhythms.  –the rhythm of its beats never fails until death breaks into the casket and seizes the ever thriving pendulum at the command of the great Master Workman,  silencing the quivering muscles of the heart and compelling the wheels of like a standstill.

  ___________

  This closes out the introduction to the workings of the heart, and the author ends the section talking about heartbeats or heart rhythms, but in doing so doesn’t talk about heart rhythms or heartbeats at all.  Notice the capitalize reference to Master Workman.  I’m sure would’ve been some sort of sacrilege not to capitalize those two words and so they are capitalized.  But it’s still a little bizarre.  Next section were heading into the digestive system, which is probably just as mysterious to the author as the working of the heart!

• The Intestines
  
  

  The Intestines.  — the next chart shows us the manner in which the intestines are arranged in the abdominal cavity.  The entire intestinal can now is about 30 feet in length, and is divided into two portions — the small intestines, and the large intestines; these again are each subdivided into three different portions.  Of the large intestines, the transfers portion is laid open, showing the internal arrangements.  A section of the bladder is even on this chart.

  _______

  I really don’t have any clue what they’re talking about when they refer to the three portions subdividing both the large and small intestines.  Is nothing in the chart that mentions this subdivision and I’ve never heard of anything like that before in regards to the intestines.  This could be my lame and ignorance or it could be some odd notion espoused in this book.  They also mention that the link to the intestines is approximately 30 feet.  I seem to recall from my grade school education 25 years ago, that the length was 26 feet for the small intestine and six to 7 feet for the large intestine or was that 3 feet for the large intestine?

  My fourth-grade education combined with my loss of memory over 25 years may be getting the best of me.  Maybe I spent too much time at the drive-in watching movies freezing my toes off as I laid on top of the roof of our van, clinging to a van rack.  I’m sure that would seem extremely strange to the writers of this book and possibly even to my readers is not been to a drive-in before during the fall.