The family medical adviser : a practical treatise on hygiene, diet and medical treatment at home showing the anatomy and physiology of the body, and the functions of its different parts the steps necessary for the mintenance of health and the attainment of long life and the character, symptoms, and treatment of all diseases with hints and advice on the health and managemnt of women and children.

Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The family medical adviser : a practical treatise on hygiene, diet and medical treatment at home showing the anatomy and physiology of the body, and the functions of its different parts the steps necessary for the mintenance of health and the attainment of long life and the character, symptoms, and treatment of all diseases with hints and advice on the health and managemnt of women and children. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    diversity of operations of which man is capable, which are altogether dependent upon it, and the hand also forms one of the most powerful means of communi- cation with human kind. The number of digits in the hand is five, which is the highest number found in the mam- malia. They are distinguished by the names of pollex, or thumb, and index, middle, ring, and little fingers. Their skeleton consists of fourteen bones, of which the thumb possesses two and each of the other fingers three. The human hand is a perfect instru- ment of prehension : not only can the individual fingers be bent into hooks, but the thumb can be thrown across the rio> u# front of the palm, THE muscles of tiie so that it can be op- arm and hand. posed to the several fingers, and objects can therefore lie grasped between it and them ; but further, this power of opposing the thumb permits objects to be held in the palm of the hand, which may be hollowed into a cup or made to grasp a sphere. Every movement of the hand depends on the contraction of a muscle or com- bination of muscles. The anatomy of the hand, however, with its marvellous combination of joints, tendons, and muscles, is a subject regarding which the reader must consult some larger treatise. The muscles of the hand and arm are shown in Fig. 6 : n representing the pos- terior surface of the forearm ; g, the anconeus muscle ; i, the extensor ossis metacarpi pollicis ; /, the extensor primi internodii pollicis ; m, extensor secundi internodii pollicis and extensor indicis ; o, extensor carpi radialis brevior; 6, point of insertion of extensor carpi radialis brevior ; f, supinator brevis. In Fig. 7 the bones of a finger are shown in a state of partial contraction, with an indication of the means by which the contraction is effected. The Right Hand or the Left ?—There is a universal consent among all nations to give the preference to the right hand over the left. The question has been frequently dis- cussed whether this preference is the result of edu- cation or is given us by nature. “ That the prefer- ence for the right hand,” says Sir Charles Bell, “is not the result of education we may learn from those who by constitu- tion have a supe- riority in the left. They have a difficulty in accommodating them- selves to the mode of society; and although not only the precepts of parents but everything they see and handle conduces to make them choose the right hand, yet they will rather use the left. . . . On the whole, the preference of the right hand is not the effect of habit, but is a natural provision, and is bestowed for a very obvious purpose.” FIG. 7. A FINGER IN A STATE OF PARTIAL CONTRACTION. The Foot.—The structure of the foot is shown in Figs. 8 and 9. The bones of the foot are twenty-six in number. Where they articulate with one another they are covered with a tolerably thick layer of elastic cartilage, and by this means, together with the slight move- ments of which each bone is capable, a high degree of elasticity is given to the foot and consequently to the step. Fig. 8 shows the left foot viewed from above ; Fig. 9 displays the under surface. a, the astragalus ; b, the os calcis ; c, i,f> the tarsus ; g, the scaphoid ; i, g, /, the