• 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.)

• Bones of the Spinal Column
  
  

  Bones of the Spinal Column. — The twenty-four bones of which it consists are so stiffly locked together as to form a chain that will bear and support the heaviest burdens, yet so flexible that it will bend like India rubber; within this wondrous column heights of delicate error that would thrill at the gentlest touch, yet so securely does it rests in its bony couch that it feels not the slightest jar or shock; and resting upon this remarkable pillar of bones is born the brain, without a tremor or a fear of danger; to it are found clinging to vital organs of the chest and abdomen, secure in the protection it affords.

  In this section they author makes a remark that either the brain or the other organs of the body should fear the danger incumbent upon them for having attached themselves to the spinal column. This statement just seems rather bizarre to me and I can’t make heads or tails of it.

  I think its some vague reference to the altitude of the brain suspended above the body and held up by the spinal column, but its just a strange thing to say. I bet the author would truly be hysterical if they new how incumbent their physical existence was upon the DNA of their parents let alone the design and synthesis of peptides!

• Composition of the Chest
  
  

  Composition of the Chest– the chest is composed of bones, cartilages, and ligaments.  Its natural form is that of a cone diminishing upward; and it affords lodgment of the heart, lungs and large blood vessels.  Its walls are formed posteriorly by the seven dorsal bones of the spinal column, and the ribs as far as the angle, the sides by the body of the ribs, and front by the ribs, the costal cartilages and the breast bone.

  This section is about as exciting as you’d expect from a medical textbook.  It’s almost unique in the fact that it has no items comments or issues that don’t seem like they would appear in a medical textbook.  Some of the descriptions seem rather basic, but even that’s a bit of a stretch to find something unique about this section.

Dangers in Snow Water.  -- snow water, pure and fresh as it seems may be very dangerous to health and consequence of organic impurities contained in it.

Additional Articles from the Book of Medicine:

• Why the Library of Health?
  
  

  Archaelogical Journey into a Medical Text

  Close to 10 years ago I purchased an antique book at an auction,is about 6 inches thick it’s bound in green leather, and it’s titled library of health on the outside book cover. Inside the book its title library of health space complete guide to prevention and cure of disease. It’s said to contain practical information on

  anatomy, physiology and preventive medicine; curative medicine, first aid measures, diagnosis, nursing, sexology, simple home remedies, care of the teeth, occupational diseases, garden plant remedies, alcohol and narcotics, treatment by 15 schools of medicine, beauty culture, physical culture, the science of breathing and a dictionary of drugs.

  The book contains 21 books in one volume.

  I love old books, I love all books. There’s something about this book caught my eye that I couldn’t explain of the time. I picked it up and it’s been sitting in my library for years. Now I also love history and archaeology and over the last couple of months I’ve been coming up with the notion that I wanted to delve into this book from the perspective of an archaeologist studying what medical teachers or teaching future doctors a hundred years ago. His book was published in 1916 and it’s almost 100 years old I believe the first of the books from this set was originally published in 1860. The book is now in the public domain as it was published before 1923.

  I intend to proceed to go through the book and eventually cover many of the topics covered in the book from the perspective of looking at what was considered medical science at the turn of the century. I am not a doctor and I cannot verify the medical accuracy today of any of the items in this book nor do I recommend anyone use the items in this book for any form of cure or treatment.

  The purpose of this website is primarily educational from a historical perspectivenot a medical perspective except so much is that historical medical percept active might help current doctors understand where they’re body of knowledge evolved from years ago. I also think there will be some entertainment value in looking at some concepts both moral concepts and scientific concepts that existed at the turn of the century.

  I invite you to come along on my journey with me as we analyze this book and I think I might make this a hobby of mine looking at other books in the future. This volume is 1700 pages long and covers a wide body of knowledge on many different topics. I don’t think this journey will end any time soon…

• Vitality of the Heart
  
  

  Vitality of the Heart.  — its vitality is as amazing as its strength.  While life exists this tireless order never stops.  In disease, as long as a flutter of this wondrous organ exists, we know the spark of life is not altogether vanished, and new Hope is begotten that helped me be restored.  Airing such long lives as we sometimes see, the heart has propelled no less than 500,000 tons of blood; and yet, during all this patient, unfaltering and unflinching labor, it is her.  Self as the waste has occurred.

  Heart Rhythms.  –the rhythm of its beats never fails until death breaks into the casket and seizes the ever thriving pendulum at the command of the great Master Workman,  silencing the quivering muscles of the heart and compelling the wheels of like a standstill.

  ___________

  This closes out the introduction to the workings of the heart, and the author ends the section talking about heartbeats or heart rhythms, but in doing so doesn’t talk about heart rhythms or heartbeats at all.  Notice the capitalize reference to Master Workman.  I’m sure would’ve been some sort of sacrilege not to capitalize those two words and so they are capitalized.  But it’s still a little bizarre.  Next section were heading into the digestive system, which is probably just as mysterious to the author as the working of the heart!

• Mineral Springs
  
  

  Mineral Springs. — mineral springs, notwithstanding they are much used for drinking, are properly medicinal agents. They comprise all those waters which contain sufficient quantities of dissolved matters, such for example, as iron or sulfur, as to produce thereby a positive effect upon the systems of persons for taking of them. The mineral springs of this country are frequently valuable remedial agents and some chronic diseases.

   

  In this section they do kind of tell you something about the category and that this type of water has minerals or other matter that is dissolved in the water. It doesn’t happen to mention how those minerals may have a come to be there, such as those that are mingled with water by the Earth itself as opposed to water that is polluted by a person. In some regards I believe the author has at this point, deemed the actual term of mineral springs, to be a term that would be widely recognized by people and the author thereby hopes that the categorization of this type of water will take place in the readers mind such that the author or editor does not actually have to spell out why something is in a category at all. It’s a little backwards but almost like a person might expect that a living creature wearing baby clothes should be a baby as opposed to a dog dressed up in baby clothes. The assumption is that the object associated with something that is commonly known should lead the reader to accept categorization automatically. Again this is not terribly scientific and creates the imperative for an assumption, which might lead us to assume, that the author has not learned the lesson of making an ass out of you and me.