Water in All Substances.—Water was considered by the ancient philosophers as one of the four elements out of which all visible objects were constructed ; and, in reality, it enters to a greater or less extent into the composition of nearly all natural substances. Thus, for example, some vegetables, like cabbage or celery, contain as much as ninety-five per cent. of water ; and, on the other hand, close-grained marble may contain as much as four per cent. of water, or almost a quart to the cubic yard. On account of its remarkable solvent powers, which enable it to take up a smaller or larger quantity of nearly every substance with which it comes in contact, water is never found pure in a natural state; and, indeed, absolutely pure water for chemical purposes can only be obtained by repeated careful distillations.
Its hard to imagine that for your every day person, the concept that liquids were often comprised of water as opposed to be a completely different substance all together was relatively new. People may have suspected, but many scientists had not confirmed (or reconfirmed) this fact and they were just beginning to put together the concept of atoms and how they might form together. So for some people this apparently obvious paragraph today might have been as foreign if not more to them as a digital cameras function might have been 50 or 100 years ago.
Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:
- Who Were the People that wrote the Book of Medicine?
I haven’t had a lot of time to look into the authors of the book of medicine. One of the side projects I’d like to tackle with this book is identifying, who these people were that authored and edited the book, identify where they lived and worked and where they came from. Fortunately utilizing the powers of sites such as ancestry.com I can actually trace and get access to public records such as census records that might indicate who they were where they lived and what their lives were like. If they were recent immigrants to the United States or if they lived in the United Kingdom or whether they were from Germany or Ireland, etc.
I’d like to also determine where they went to school to learn medicine, I will admit that I have no idea how to go about the second part but I’m hoping that the first inquiry provides more background information that might lead to information on the second part.
Who knows it could even be possible that I will be able to find some people that knew them, maybe some relatives that will be able provides a personal perspective on the authors of this book. Who knows I might even come across these people running a Pigeon Forge vacation rentals company, or teaching at a university today or maybe they’re even somebody I know I just haven’t made the connection.
- How can the housewife protect her children from drinking germ laden milk?
How can the housewife protect her children from drinking germ-laden milk?-First make sure that the dairy from which the milk is applied is clean and up-to-date and the city dealer delivers the milk at her doorstep in clean bottles. Do not allow it sit in the sun in the early morning in warm weather, or about the kitchen at any time of the year, but place it immediately on ice in a clean refrigerator until ready to use. When taking a certain quantity of milk out of the bottle, if for the baby use a chappen in dipper, and do not allow it to stand uncovered for flies to contaminate. Milk may all so be contaminated by water from any source of pollution if their utensils are carelessly washed with a supply of water from an infected water supply as any dirty well or one contaminated by cesspool, outhouse, the newer pit which is infecting water to the soil or from drainage.
It is absolutely vital to a country to protect its milk supply as two thirds of the dust under two years of age are traceable to either germ laden milk from dairies were not properly handled by dealers, nurses, mothers, etc., who are careless or too ignorant to appreciate the danger of allowing babies milk bottle nipple being dirty, contaminated by flies or who allow a milk bottle to sit in the hot morning sun,-result a sick baby, followed by death.
Again another interesting section especially as it’s trying to convince people to keep no cold and keep refrigerated. Possibly a new concept for this time, being the turn-of-the-century and a long shot away from concepts such as diet drugs like Phentermine.
- How to Destroy the Breeding places of Mosquitoes-Part 1
How to Destroy the Breeding places of Mosquitoes.-No breeding places, no eggs and consequently known mosquitos. We consider that one mosquito can lay 200 to 300 eggs at a time and then figure the number of living pests we have seen in one evening, it can readily be seen how rapidly they can develop and in what numbers increase if they’re breeding places are allowed to remain about any premise is. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water, such as is found in cesspools, drains, open sewers, catch basins, foul street gutters, stable yard pools, tin cans, rain barrels or any object which holds water. And from a few hours to a day, depending on the temperature in surrounding conditions, the eggs open and what we know and are seen as “wrigglers” come out and can be seen in the water in which the eggs are developed, his tiny slender living bodies 18 inch in length. In five to seven more days, the “wrigglers” become “tumblers.” In another five to seven days the covering of the head of the “tumblers” cracks in the fully developed adult winged mosquito comes out and, in the case of the female of the species, flies off ready to annoy and bite.
This section does provide an interesting glimpse into the evolution of the names and descriptions used for the development stages of mosquitos which can still be seen today. That said the writer goes into a great level of detail about the places, listing them off. In the next paragraphs they repeat the litany and focus also on interior locations for mosquitos that almost make you want to go out and hire steam cleaners to visit your home to clean and then dry out your premises.