The Crab Lice.—These are a smaller type of the former species, as head or body lice. They are nearly as wide as long. They have strong legs spread out on the sides of the body, which makes them appear like crabs. They are of whitish color, slightly shaded on the shoulders and legs with a red tinge. Crab lice are found upon the hairy regions of the body other than the scalp. The spread of these pests can be checked by washing all toilet seats with scalding water, and boiling towels and linen from suspected persons. Laundries should be especially careful as to the thorough boiling and disinfection of all clothing, as the eggs of these parasites can be conveyed in bed-clothing, towels, etc. TREATMENT.--Shave the hair in the region of the itching and wash twice a day with a lotion made of

Tincture of Larkspur............1/2 ounce

Commercial Ether ........... 8 ounces

 

 WARNING  This treatment recommendation is over 100 years old.  We do not recommend it nor know how effective or safe it might be.  If you are cleaning clothing or Delsey luggage or something, use at your own risk, but if you try this stuff on your self, we think you are probably crazy.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• The Spinal Column
  
  

  The Spinal Column.  — The spinal column, the lumbar portion of which is here seeing, consists of twenty-four bones, the which are placed pads of cartilage.  Such is the elasticity of these cushions of cartilage, that, though they become condensed to the day, making a shorter in the evening then in the morning, they resume their normal thickness while you’re lying in bed at night.  The perfection in the architecture of the spine surpasses belief; its various uses seem a bundle of contradictions.

  This section starts to sound more like the book we are familiar with.  There are several excessive uses of the coma and once again we start to encounter the authors love of the human body in a way that is less than scientific.  I suppose a hundred years ago there may have been a little bit more passion for science than there is today, or maybe my own perception in this regards as biased.  I seem to recall an anthropology professor back in college that was possibly as passionate about his topic is the author is about this topic.

• Today’s Medical Assistant – Last Centuries Family Member Care Giver
  
  

  A hundred years ago, the Book of Medicine would have helped to guided anyone in the household capable of reading in the arts of care giving, preventive maintenance and even healing.  Today, every facet of the medical world has a specialization level associated with it from the level of medical assistant to general practice doctors to surgeons.

  These days it also takes a lot more effort.  There are medical assistant school options that provide medical assistant training in courses that can be completed in less than a few months for under a thousand dollars.

  The Book of Medicine was written to provide the general tools that your average person might be confronted with in a health emergency or even to prevent one.  Times have changed significantly and the opportunities to help people in many ways have become greater in number and easier to grab.

• The Stomach
  
  

  The Stomach.  — the stomach is an irregular expansion of the gullit or aesophagus, and is the receptacle which receives the food when swallowed.  Its shape has been, not inaptly, likened to the Scotch bagpipe.  It will hold about 3 pints, though it is capable of considerable distension.  When moderately filled with food it measures about 12 inches in length by 4 inches in diameter at its widest end.  The walls of the stomach consist of four distinct coats, held together by fine areolar tissue, and are arranged in the following order, from within out word: the mucous, the areolar, the muscular and the serous.  The inner mucous coat is a smooth, soft, rather thick, pulpy membrane, loosely connected with the muscular coat, and secretes the gastric digestive fluid of the stomach.
  _______

  The spelling in the section definitely gave me a few runaround’s.  The spelling of areolar and mucous and a esophagus oral spells slightly differently than they are today most of the time.  Either that or my medical contexts is extremely off base which is also possible, but I do think esophagus had a more antique like spelling as the ‘a’ and the ‘e’ were actually run together in the print as if they were one letter.  I’ve seen this printing technique before but I don’t exactly understand where or why it’s used other than for words like esophagus and even Egypt, it’s almost to signify that a hard he will follow at the beginning a word that starts with the as opposed to an egg which is not pronounced ‘eeegg’ and instead ‘ehhgg’.

  It’s not a real big thing, but it’s something that struck me as I was going through that section.  I’m sure somewhere in the world that spelling is perfectly normal.  New thing that caught my eye was the analogy of a Scottish bagpipe being similar to a stomach.  I’m not going to look it up as it’s a fact that I don’t really want to know I’d rather live with the mystery of it, but I suspect the bagpipes are made or lease were made from sheep stomachs or something like that anyway.  I could be completely wrong but like I said in this particular case it likely that mystery out there to savor for the rest of my days.  It almost picture myself taken a cross-country trip someday on a motorcycle, getting off my bike at the end of a long day of writing and walking into a café to order some food sitting down at the counter and removing my motorcycle sunglasses. 

  I’ll engage in some benign conversation with a local and will start stock about Scottish bagpipes.  My dinner guest to be the expert in Scottish bagpipes and I won’t know anything about them.  At that point in time I can finally end the mystery and I’ll ask my dinner guest if Scottish bagpipes are actually made from sheep stomach’s. I’ll probably get a ludicrous look, maybe a guffaw, and possibly a black eye.  That’s the type of thing makes life fun!