Lead Diseases. -- the injurious effects of lead upon the human system are displayed first, in the production of dyspepsia; later, obstinate constipation and a peculiar kind of colic, so common among painters from the influence of lead that it has received the name of "painter's colic;" and finally, disturbance of the nervous system, especially that peculiar form of lead palsy called wrist drop, in which the power to lift up the hand is more or less completely lost. If that seems a little scary consider that this book was written right around the same time that life insurance became popular.  Now back then, life expectancy was much lower than it is today. Its increased by about 25 years give or take.  Today life insurance quotes might also be a lot more reliable due to the higher competition amongst many high quality insurance agencies that no longer sell insurance door to door like they did 100 years ago.  Regardless, I think most of us would just rather avoid lead diseases all together.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• 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.

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  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.

• Fleas
  
  

  Fleas.—There are one hundred varieties of this pest which live on dogs, cats, birds, squirrels, rats, mice, etc. It has been proven that fleas carry the germs of Bubonic Plague, which has caused as high as 113 deaths in 119 cases during an epidemic. The disease was found to be spread by means of rats, mice and squirrels of all species and the flea (pulen fasciatus) in the fur of the animals was the medium by which the disease was conveyed to human beings by biting them and injecting the germs of Plague into their blood.

  The forms which pester the American homes are the Rouse Flea (Pulen Irritans), the Cat Flea (Pulen Felinius), and the Dog Flea (Pulen Canis).
  

  While we have made major advances in the treatment and prevention of fleas, the speed of their prevention as not advanced along a path like Moore’s Law where we see advances in computer chips and flash memory doubling on a regular basis.

  Each female flea deposits from eight to twelve whitish ovoid eggs in dust or lint, under carpets and the larger crevices of wood­work. In the summer they develop in about four weeks from the egg to the adult flea, in winter they develop in about six weeks. Four to six broods, as a rule are hatched out during each summer.

  The House Flea occurs in dwellings, breeding in bedding, clothing, carpets, window curtains, etc. They attack their victims at night. The Cat and Dog Flea, though they annoy only their respective victims, are as troublesome to human beings as the human flea.

• Travels of the History of the Book of Medicine
  
  

  I have mentioned that I purchased the Book of Medicine years ago.  The Book of Medicine has traveled quite a bit since I picked it up.  It moved with me from Central Illinois to South Florida and then up to the Atlanta area.

  Those two moves were managed by GMAC’s moving specialists.  It was part of a fringe benefit of working for Motorola.  They provided a number of benefits from setting us up with a real estate broker, job placement and moving expense money. It was a good fringe benefit and enabled us to move what seemed like trivial things such as the Book of Medicine, which we might have thrown out in other circumstances.  All in all I’m glad I kept it and didn’t off load it at a garage sale or a recycling bin.