Applying the Test for Lead. -- the sulfide of ammonium may be purchased at a small cost, save for $.25 an ounce, of most dealers and chemicals; and, as its odor is extremely disagreeable, it should be carefully corked until the moment it is used. The experiment should be made upon half a pint of the suspected water; and, if the contamination is supposed to be caused by lead pipes, it is a good plan to test a portion of the liquid which has stood overnight in the conduits. The mode of discriminating the precipitate caused by iron from those due to the dangerous metals, lead and copper, is to let fall a few drop of hydrochloric acid, called also muriatic acid, into the fluid. If the brownish or yellowish brown tent disappears, we may know that innocent iron is the only metallic impurities; whilst if, on the contrary, no change is effected by the addition of the acid, one of the poisonous metals, better copper, is present. No water, however, in which the slightest change is produced by adding the sulfide of ammonium, should be swallowed by man or beast until a rigid investigation by a competent water analyst has proved it to be harmless.
I somehow doubt that sulfide of ammonium costs that amount today. Its probably either much more expensive or sold in ridiculous bulks at every grocery store, pharmacy and gas station next to the Phentermine in one of those combination aisles that sells just a little bit of everything, but never the thing you really need.
Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:
- How We Walk
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.
- The Knee-Pan
The Knee-Pan.-The patella toward me pan is seen held firmly in position, giving greater strength and security to this important joint. Around the ankle is observe the annular ligament, finding the long silvery thongs or tendons of the muscles of the legs, thus preventing their displacement. It also towards security and string to the ankle joint, but not interfering with its elasticity in motion. The foot shows us the natural position in shape in which the toes should be when encased in a boot or shoe.
This section relatively speaking does a decent job of sticking to the facts and avoids excessive and irrelevant language like I avoid beer pong tables.
- Typhoid Poison from a Well
Typhoid Poison from a Well. — in a report of the American public health Association, Dr. Austin Flynn gives an account of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Vermont which it was possible to trace, in the most circumstantial way, to the poisoning of a well in some such method as has been described. The young man traveling through the region by stagecoach was taken ill, and, when he could go no further, was left in a tavern and a little hamlet to be cared for, his illness soon proved to be typhoid fever. A small watercourse, a shallow valley, by the village into two portions, each of which consisted of half a dozen houses or less. In a few days new cases of the fever made their appearance in that part of the hamlet which the tavern along — every house, in fact, but one was invaded with this disease — whilst on the other side of the stream not a case occurred. It appears that the tavern well, which was the only one up on that side of the village, furnish the water supply to all the families belonging there but one. That one family had had a quarrel with the landlord of the hotel, and consequently deserted the tavern well for a more distant supply of drinking water, and so escape swallowing the specific poison of typhoid fever in the water by which all their neighbors were stricken down.
In case you’re wondering, typhoid fever is spread by people that shed typhoid bacteria area this can happen when they handle food or drinking water that other people consume, or when the bacteria is exhausted into a sewage system that contaminate the water supply. So it is possible that the people that became sick from typhoid fever in this example, became sick from close proximity with a very sick traveler, in addition to the pollution of that traveler with the water supply. We rarely think of these problems today when we book time in las vegas suites or at a beech cottage, but the bacteria could still be propogated by people handling food. This is one of the prime reasons why people should wash their hands. Due to water treatment procedures, we are currently fortunate to have less exposure to contaminated drinking water, however when sewer lines break in coastal areas and people swim in the ocean near these breaks, the risk could go up.
It is also very interesting to note, that in this passage a health association that Dr. Flynn worked with was noted as opposed to just a name. This is a distinct improvement, and I think the first time it has occurred in 158 pages!
