Chloride of Sodium 28.05

Chloride of Magnesium…………………….. 3.66

Sulphate of Magnesia 2.29

Sulphate of Lime ……………………………. 1.40

Other Saline Materials ……………………….. .76

Total Solid Matter…………………….. 36. 16

Besides these, and perhaps contributing largely to the healthful qualities of sea-water, there exist in the ocean small quantities of iodine and bromide, and extremely minute amounts of some of the common metals. It has been found that, by dissolving a little common salt and carbonate of soda, lime and magnesia in distilled sea-water, its taste is rendered much more agreeable; and this plan, it is said, is adopted in the Russian navy.

Distilled Water. At the present day, most sea-going vessels are provided with apparatus for distilling the water of the ocean, and so producing a pure and wholesome but insipid water, which can be rendered, however, more palatable by agitation with plenty of fresh air. Hence, the horrible agony of death by thirst among sailors is now much less frequent than formerly, although mariners in open boats, or cast upon small uninhabited islands, still sometimes scan with anxious eyes the briny waste around them, beholding

“Water, water every where, but not a drop to drink.”

Boiled Water.-The insipid taste of water which has been boiled is due to the absence of air. Many gases besides air may be artificially or naturally mingled with water, and some, like ammonia or nitric acid, are freely soluble in it. In sea-water, the presence of common salt, with small quantities of sulphate of soda or Glauber’s salt, and, of the compound of magnesia and chlorine, called chloride of magnesium, render it entirely unfit for drinking, as many a hapless shipwrecked sailor has found to his cost.

Separating substances from liquids a hundred years ago was still a novel chore and not even as easy as a car insurance comparison is today.

 

Air and Gases in Water.-A considerable amount of air generally exists in water, and is taken up by the gills of fishes, assisting them to accomplish the proper aeration, or rather oxygenation, of their blood. The air usually mingled with water may be expelled by boiling, but is absorbed again if the boiled water is agitated with access of the atmos­phere.

 

Now, that particular segment doesn’t make a great deal of sense in the grand sense of things, but it would appear that the author is trying to talk about the purification or the impurities that can be found or removed from water.

Water in All Substances.—Water was considered by the ancient philosophers as one of the four elements out of which all visible objects were constructed ; and, in reality, it enters to a greater or less extent into the composition of nearly all natural substances. Thus, for example, some vegetables, like cabbage or celery, contain as much as ninety-five per cent. of water ; and, on the other hand, close-grained marble may contain as much as four per cent. of water, or almost a quart to the cubic yard. On account of its remarkable solvent powers, which enable it to take up a smaller or larger quantity of nearly every substance with which it comes in contact, water is never found pure in a natural state; and, indeed, absolutely pure water for chemical purposes can only be obtained by repeated careful distillations.

Its hard to imagine that for your every day person, the concept that liquids were often comprised of water as opposed to be a completely different substance all together was relatively new.  People may have suspected, but many scientists had not confirmed (or reconfirmed) this fact and they were just beginning to put together the concept of atoms and how they might form together.  So for some people this apparently obvious paragraph today might have been as foreign if not more to them as a digital cameras function might have been 50 or 100 years ago.

THE USES OF WATER.
Adaptation of Water to Human Needs. Few people who enjoy the benefits of water think what a wonderful and unanswerable argument is afforded by them in favor of the goodness of an all-wise Creator to his creature, man. Of all the fluids with which we are acquainted water is by far the best adapted to the almost infinite variety of human wants, and it is the one of all others most abundant in nature, constituting as it does about three-fifths of the surface of our globe, and nearly seven-tenths of the bodies of man and of most animals. If the common fluid upon which we had to depend were quicksilver, or oil, its boiling-point would be so high that articles of food which we attempted to cook in it would be seriously injured in the effort to prepare them by its aid; and, on the other hand, nearly all the advantages of ice would fail us, in consequence of the exceedingly low temperature at which these substances remain fluid.

This is the beginning of a new section book 3 and in this book they extensively cover the uses of water.  Its a resource that we often take for granted but its not as unimportant as say a tv stand or even a second pair of shoes.  Understanding how to protect and keep this resource safe was extremely important for every day life.

These days it also takes a lot more effort.  There are medical assistant school options that provide medical assistant training in courses that can be completed in less than a few months for under a thousand dollars.

The Book of Medicine was written to provide the general tools that your average person might be confronted with in a health emergency or even to prevent one.  Times have changed significantly and the opportunities to help people in many ways have become greater in number and easier to grab.

Syphilis and gonorrhcea are so largely dependent on immoral Inter‑course that their prevention is largely a matter of moral uplifting of the people. But, pending this morat uplifting, much is possible by the State and municipal governments placing these diseases on the list of contagious diseases which must be reported to the authorities, as is now required in respect of small-pox, scarlet fever and other diseases which are neither so loathsome nor have such far-reaching results for ill to mankind.

All parents should carefully read the articles on Syphilis, Gonorrhoea and Opthalmia, to be found elsewhere in this work (see Index), and then they should carefully guard their children and at proper age thoroughly instruct them in the fearful ravages of venereal disease. There is too much false modesty in these matters on the part of parents. The general discussion. of sexual matters in novels, in sensational books on eugenics and in ordinary conversation is to be condemned, but it is the duty of every mother to her daughter and of every father to his son, to not only keep constant guard over them in these matters, but, at the beginning of puberty, to instil into their minds the real truths that they may become imbued with the horrors of venereal disease, yet realize the nobility of true sexual life. Professors and teachers in resident schools and colleges where youth is congregated should also have regard to this vital subject and take means to properly impart useful knowledge, and not only adopt every possible precaution to prevent students from meeting lewd persons, but by periodical medical examination discover if any venereal disease is existent, and if found in any individual then suspend such student until the disease be eradicated beyond the possibility of contagion.

Syphilis is a more horrible disease than small-pox and may be easily communicated to the innocent by a common towel, by a brother kissing his sister or a son his mother, and in many other ways, and yet the syphilitically diseased may go where they please and little or no pre­cautions are taken as to the spreading of the disease. It is estimated that in New York City alone 250,000 people are suffering from this loath­some disease, either inherited or acquired, and when it is borne in mind that large numbers of these have innocently acquired it and are now in turn transmitting it to others, the enormity of the evil and the imperative need of preventive measures, will be realized.

Today, fighting venereal diseases begins with a much more solid foundation for education, but is solidly supported by a host of drugs and treatments that can fight many venereal diseases.  In some ways venereal diseases today have a stigma significantly less than 100 years ago, because they can be treated better and do not result in death.  Popping an antibiotic is as easy as popping a diet pill or taking cold medication.

The towels in toilets, bedrooms of hotels and boarding houses can spread disease unless they are thoroughly boiled and laundered after use, Most hotels, railroad stations, Pullman cars, etc., have done away with the public towels in toilets and use a heavy tissue paper, either as a single towel or in rolls and torn off as needed, which is not expensive and is thrown away after use.

In Pennsylvania the State Board of Health has urged saloonkeepers, etc., to do away with the forks and spoons which are placed in a tumbler of water and are used by all comers at the free lunch counter and then replaced in the tumbler of dirty water for the next victim to use.

Disease can be controlled better when our proprietors of saloons, restaurants, hotels, soda fountains, etc., employ only healthy employees, free from disease and take pains to boil or scald every public glass and chinaware used by not only dirty, but disease-spreading persons. The barroom towel which hangs in front of the bar in the cheaper saloons for customers to wipe their mouth and hands upon, must not be permitted.

Maybe in a few years, we will even have our own personal lighting systems or lasik eye procedures that install night vision and public outdoor lighting will become a thing of the past.

The drinking cup is a common carrier of disease. It can and does spread consumption, syphilis and typhoid fever. Any child or adult suffering from tonsilitis, diphtheria, scarlet fever or other communicable diseases can infect another by using a public tumbler or cup, whether at a public railroad station, school house, ball park, pump, railroad train, ferry boat or steamship of any kind, etc.

The most of the State Boards of Health have had laws passed in recent years to abolish the public drinking cup and those states which have not done so are neglecting the public health by not enforcing this preventive measure, which would aid iu checking the spread of disease.
The drinking cup should be replaced by a sterile paper cup which can be purchased in sealed packages or containers and are given away free of charge in trains, etc., and can be purchased for one penny from the slot machines in stations. They are destroyed after use and a more refreshing and sanitary drink is obtained and the danger of contracting disease eliminated. The Public Drinking Cup Must Go.

The concept of a Public Drinking cup is extremely foreign to many of us in the US today.  In fact it is often difficult in this age of dishwashing machines to even get a person to use the same cup themselves more than once.  We live in an era where drinking out of a fresh drinking bottle or soda bottle or coffee cup is the norm and not the exception.  We can hardly conceive of going on Vegas vacations or trips to Disney World or even a trip to Wal-mart or McDonalds or wherevere and entering into a casino or ’saloon’ or restaraunt and drinking out of the same cup that hundreds or even thousands of others had utilized before us.