Diarrhea and Dysentery from Impure Water.  -- the instances of outbreaks of these two diseases from contaminated water supply are very numerous, and probably most persons can recall examples of this kind.  The impurities which produce diarrhea and dysentery are suspended earthy matters, such as are found in most river waters after a rain; suspended animal and vegetable material; salty thing chlorides of Lyme and Magnesia, and nitrate of ammonia and of lime.  Besides the numerous outbreaks traceable to direct sewage contamination, there are several instances recorded of indirect poisoning the water supply from this source, as in the following curious case.

Just as a note about the style of writing or documentation, this paragraph seems to be unnecessary as a stand alone topic.  Instead it is basically a transition paragraph, yet the author chooses to use it as a stand alone sub topic instead of just using it to work his way from one topic to a very slight tangent in the next topic.  This would again seem to reflect the author’s possible motivation for not only being paid by the word but also with a stipend for important bolded topics.  This surely does not seem to be practical like following a guide on replacing coilovers in a car or fixing a plumbing problem, and it must have driven some readers nuts as they used this book in semi-emergencies looking for the answer to serious problems only to be distracted by useless sections like this.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Catching up and a small Setback
  
  

  I am working to catch up on some of my projects today, especially my writing.  I’ve been working literally night and day on several different web related projects and my hobby here at history of the book of medicine has taken a little to the backseat.  I’ve been helping several new bloggers get their blogs up and running, and I’ve been helping several clients initiate professional blogs, with a website and a shopping cart.  More importantly I’ve been working on several of my own business endeavors that help to fund my efforts here so I can spend the time cataloging the history of medicine is was taught a hundred years ago.  I’m also in the middle of a relocation from the Atlanta area to the Charlotte, North Carolina area and so I’ve been moving back and forth throughout all this preparing the new home and preparing to leave the old home.  In part this means that I have to setup and breakdown my office almost every day moving from one desk or location to the next.  One day I might find myself sitting on a couch and working, laptop and lap, and another day I might be sitting down to Kinko’s in front of a row of modern desks or even sitting on the dock by the lake underneath a ceiling fan watching the dogs chase after insects and each other.

   

  I noticed this week as google went through their update that our website here, got knocked down a peg or two and that doesn’t bother me terribly much.  I have not been promoting this website terribly hard, as this truly is a hobby and not so much a business, that said it was a good reminder that I need to network more with other  websites that might have a similar aim or focus or even some that are tangentially related.

   

  So if you have a medical related blog, and medical history blog or even alternative medicine blog or website, please leave me a comment I’d like to review possibly exchanging links and building up better network.  (Please no spamming comments, we can exchange more details off-line if necessary.)

• The Kidneys
  
  

  The Kidneys.– The kidneys are two glandular bodies, having for their functions the secretion of urine.  The form of the kidney resembles a French bean; its average length team from four to four and a half inches, two inches in breadth and one in thickness.  The two kidneys are situated one on each side of the spine and the lumbar region, opposite the last two dorsal and two first lumbar vertebrae; they are a brownish-read color flattened from before word, and grooved on the anterior border for the reception of the great vessels.

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  I do not know what a French bean looks like, but I suspect people to read the book 100 years ago probably did.  I suppose this is some sort of reference point is lost its way over the years even though I’m sure there are a few people that knows what this still is.  This book was written to be a common reference for the everyday person hundred years ago, but it probably would not connect home with everyday people in the current century.  There are a number of ways to look at this, but it is important to remember that a reference that can be understood is very important when you’re trying to help somebody possibly save their life or prevent further injury, if you give a reference to medical supplies describing what they look like and where they should be located, but the person that you tell doesn’t understand what you’re saying it could be the difference between life and death.  That said, this is more of an anatomy lesson and it is doubtful that the average person really needed to know what the kidneys look like in a human person.  This was probably more beneficial for a person that might actually consider studying it as an in depth later on down the road.

• THE BRAIN; AND A VERTICAL SECTION OF THE FACE AND NECK.
  
  

  in this section we start to follow the book as it starts to describe some of the basic functions in areas of the brain. The sexual be much more enlightening once we have the pictures up (chart 1). For now the language sounds somewhat overdone, however forth. The language was actually fairly straightforward and basic.

  What the Plate Shows – as we progress in our anatomical core says of study, our tension is firmly and deeply fixed in wonder and amazement at the marvelous mechanism revealed in the sublime profundity and grandeur brought out in this magnificent artistic plate. it brings before our astonished vision the beautiful proportions and symmetry of the human brain as it lays in situ within its bony castle; and as we look upon its way becalmed Aleutians we naturally turn our thoughts to the hidden mysteries of mind and to its superiority over matter, and to the illimitable intellectual properties,powers and capacity of the mind, that lay quietly slumbering in the depths of the human brain, for the mind of man surpasseth all things of human conception or construction. Below this mighty throne of reason and intelligence, on the left, we observed the cerebellum or lesser brain, I found from whence all the vegetative or organic functions of life — as respiration, beating of the heart, digestion, etc. — receive their inspiration and supply of vital force.

  there are two more parts that go along with this section of this chapter, the next section is the “view of the eye” and then the “the neck muscles” section. as these next two sections are relatively sure we will cover those together in the next article.