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:

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• Purifying Ingredients
  
  

  DISEASES FROM MINERAL IMPURITIES IN WATER.

  Purifying Ingredients.-since all rivers, spring- and well-waters contain a certain amount of dissolved matters, taken up from the soil through and over which they pass, it becomes a very important consideration to determine what these ingredients are in any particular sample of water, and also the kind and degree of such impurity which will not prove injurious to health. Dr. Letheby, from investigations made in 65 English and Scotch towns, arrived at the conclusion that from 5 to 20 grains to the gallon of the compounds of line and magnesia are necessary to render drinking water in the highest degree wholesome.

  It does point I want to remark on something that is seen within the last two or three sections. The book is making references to several different doctors, apparently doctors from England, and the book doesn’t necessarily mention the doctors first names. It doesn’t mention where the doctors work, what they’re employed at or why they have the credentials to be referenced in this particular book. I’m assuming that since this is a medical book and these are doctors that these doctors have medical degrees.  That said, for all I know these could be philosophers, or professors of natural philosophy, for paella pan handlers for all I know.

  Regardless, I do find it interesting, and it do appreciate the way that we source insight articles and texts and people as sources today. Having gone through law school, I never thought I would say those words before.

• Ventricles of the Heart
  
  

  Ventricles of the Heart. — the walls of the left ventricle, which propels the blood to the remotest corners of the human frame, are correspondingly thicker and stronger than those of the right, which forces the blood to the lungs only. Arising from the right ventricle is seeing the blue pulmonary artery, conveying its foul, poisonous, vitiated and venous stream to the lungs, well from the left ventricle is observed a large main artery of the circulatory system — the aorta — from the arch of which arise the right and left carotid arteries.

  __________
  So in the section they jump back into describing parts of the heart as foul and poisonous? There definitely seems to be a lack of knowledge or understanding of what’s going on here, I’m no medical professional bottom of aspirin in about five minutes when the world people might have thought that the ventricles of a heart deliver poisonous blood to the lungs? Seems absurd.

  And was an aside, our blog is currently funded in part through blog advertising. You may notice is from time to time, we work with an excellent firm that provides us with ad placements throughout our blog. These ad placements are very unobtrusive and help keep us working to delve further into an understanding of medicine as it was taught a hundred years ago and as our culture looks at medicine today.