Typhoid Fever from Polluted Water. -- the remarks which have been already made with regard to the influence of impure water on the spread of cholera, apply still with greater force to the causation of typhoid fever. So, does this move propagation that the assertion may be ventured that few readers of these pages have not lost some near relative or beloved friend from the dreaded disease arising in this way, although the true source of the infection was perhaps, at the time it occurred, quite unsuspected.

Okay so if you have been following this recent series on typhoid fever and cholera, the general theme here is that polluted water and contaminants brought to water sources were extremely dangerous for what we would consider civilization just a hundred years ago.  It might be a little bit more difficult to picture something of an epidemic raging through London or New York City today.  However you might consider just how fragile ecosystems of the city's are today.  They rely on massive systems to clean the water.  If power to those systems were to fail for an extended period of time, the spread of disease could rapidly start up with population centers at levels that are much higher than they ever were one hundred years ago. There is only so much that any government agency or even the military for that matter can do to potentially help in a situation like that.  We have recently seen what happened in New Orleans were a population of just one million people were essentially left behind.  That occurred during a flood after a hurricane, and so there were aspects of that situation that definitely complicated things. However, if we consider just how big of a failure a given city might experience when it has a population of several million people in it, things could be much more dangerous.  I'm not just talking about the potential for riots and looting, and the necessary levels of police forces, National Guard, and other members needed to come in and secure the area.  I'm talking about the need of infrastructure and support systems necessary to keep the city functioning. A possible better example of a complete breakdown of the system, could probably be evidenced in the failure that took hold in Baghdad following the invasion of US troops.  Not only did the system fail from a water supply and electricity supply perspective, but the residents took to sabotaging and looting some of the equipment that made those systems work. We often times here about how the military was unprepared for that particular situation, and we think about soldiers going into battle without the proper Kevlar vests, or armor plating on Humvees or even little things like replacement Kevlar helmets, or 5.11 Tactical Knives, or night vision goggles.  We don’t always think about the fact that they don't go into a city armed with plumbers and engineers, and plumbers and engineers at levels large enough to actually run the city. So as we look back on this historical accounting of the perils of these diseases, we should not make the mistake of thinking, that this could not happen to us.  It is very possible that we are only a few days of electricity away from being reduced to a similar state or level of technology needed to protect us.  In Zimbabwe it actually took a couple years, as the President of that country systematically dismantled his country with one failed policy after the next, but we have also seen a President in the United States, whose bad policies have similarly brought an even larger more successful country down, it might not be impossible for a different President to finish the job.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• The Thorax
  
  

  The Thorax.  — The thorax derives its name from the Greek word thoreo, and signifies “I leap,” because the heart leaps in it.  It is covered on the front part by large muscles; the pectoralis major, or large muscle of the breast, is observed on the left side of the chest, Wilson on the right it is removed and exposes the pectoralis minor, or small muscle of the breast.  The dovetailed muscle observed on each side is the Seratus Magnus, and is employed in expanding and contracting the chest in the act of breathing.  The muscles of the chest walls, in a deep inspiration, exert a force equal to lifting a weight of 750 pounds.

  I do not know Greek but I found it interesting to learn that little bit of Greek above about the thorax.  It’s a very descriptive word actually and I suspect if I understand it correctly preferring to the movement of the Adam’s apple?  I would use the word Adam’s apple is a form of layman term, and I’m somewhat surprised that they didn’t use a layman term in their description as the audience for this book is supposed to be house wives and mothers.

• Medicine News
  
  

  
  

  Google News Feed TOS Attribution

  1. This Page is attributed to a Google News Feed.
  2. Each News reporting agency is properly attributed above in their respective clusters.
  3. A link to the Google news cluster is also available above.
  4. The search Term used for this News Feed cluster are “Michael Vick”

• Chart 3
  
  

  Here are the images as promised for Chart 3 covering the eye, the hands, the feet, the ear and the leg.