Impure Ice As a Cause of Diarrhea.  -- the fact that ice is now used by almost all classes to an extent which entitles it to rank rather as a necessity than, as formally, as a luxury of life, renders it important that its purity should be is jealously guarded as the water supply.  It is popularly believed that water freeze itself from dangerous organic matter, as it does to a great degree from certain saline contaminations during the process of freezing, and also that the vegetable or animal germs of typhoid and other fevers are killed, or at least rendered sterile, by congelation of the water in which they exist.  Both these ideas are, however, unquestionably running us, as has been repeatedly proved by the various experiments which ignorant hotel keepers try without the least intending it, upon their guests, on a scale which would have the oldest vivisector stand aghast before the suffering inflicted, even if it were only upon the brutes which form the subjects of his researches.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Muscular Arrangement and Blood Supply
  
  

  Muscles of the Trunk of the Human Body.

  Muscular Arrangement and Blood Supply.  — In this exquisite and magnificent colored engraving we had a grand view of the wonderful arrangement of the muscles of the trunk of the human body, together with the muscular arrangement of the arms and likewise their blood supply.  The trunk of the body is divided into two compartments — the thorax and the abdomen.

  I believe this opening segment is referring to the first image and charred two.  (see chart 2 first picture  )

  Now I am not a doctor nor I are very good artist, but as I look at this drawing or engraving as it’s referred to it seemed a little basic to me.  Sure I’m used to souped-up graphics and a number of other things that it developed in the last 90 years.  That difference I suppose is one of the remarkable things about the book.  I often point out the difference and grammar and punctuation and perspective to need a little bit and knowledge.
  This is another example of cultural differences spanning 90 years of time.  90 years ago this might have been a very accurate and high-tech picture, well today and 2007 it looks extremely basic almost like something that a grade school student might color with a crayon.

  It may be a little trite but like to point out also a diagram of the belly button, which strikes me as rather ludicrous looking even though it’s not all that bad.  Maybe it’s the two-dimensional rendering of the belly button that strikes me, or maybe it’s the juxtaposition of a section of skin on top of a section of the torso that has no skin.  I’m not really sure but it seems little funny to me.

• Diet Pill Support Groups
  
  

  Here is an interesting concept.  You have probably heard of weight watchers which brings people together in a support group like setting and teaches them to assign points to the food they eat.

  The PhenForum is a support group for women that use Phentermine diet pills.  They can come together and share their views and lessons learned about dieting, losing weight and diet pills. 

  Unlike Weight Watchers that is one part support and one part dietary education, the PhenForum mixes support group methods with the power of diet drugs.  Many times people receive a prescription for a long term drug and do not get to share notes with other patients.  They are completely at the mercy of their doctor.

  That’s not entirely bad, but sometimes it helps to see how the drug is impacting, helping or hurting other people.  In this regard the PhenForum provides a useful social setting where people taking this prescription drug can share knowledge about their conditions as well as the drugs they are taking to alleviate that condition and lose weight.

• THE HEART AND ITS WONDERS – What the Blood Is
  
  

  THE HEART AND ITS WONDERS.
  What the Blood Is.-The blood — the pabulum of life — has not inaptly been termed “Liquid Flesh.” But it is more than that, since it contains materials so essential and so requisite for the building up and repair of every organ tissue of which the body is composed. The blood is the liquid by means of which the circulation in the body is carried on; it permeates every note and corner of the system, and is composed of a pen, colorless fluid, the plasma, filled with red discs, so small, flat and thin that it requires 3,500, placed side by side, to measure 1 inch, and no less than 18,000, placed one upon the other, to make a column 1 inch in height. These discs are continually forming and as constantly dying.

  This section started off very strange with the reference to liquid flash, I think the author would have been wise to describe her point out this reference. As were only 50 pages into the book, I have the suspicion that there are going to be many very peculiar quoted references to sources that we will never know.

  Than the author goes into his rapture about the human body and emotions of being in awe of the blood. That was somewhat to be expected.

  Then we got to something interesting as they started to talk about the red discs. I suspect he’s referring to red blood cells, and the viewer perception that they were discs as they looked at it through a microscope. It probably didn’t really know what they were looking at yet and they could only get a descriptive name.