Domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines: With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners / by William Buchan.

  • Buchan William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines: With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners / by William Buchan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    though a year and a half old, could scarcely put a foot to the ground, while her neighbour’s child, only nine months old, but nursed in the north-country manner, could, by a hold of the finger, run all over the house. I have taken notice of this powder, to shew the influence of fashion even in the feeding of an infant. I wish it were the only instance I could give of the fatal effects of the same cause. Ten thousand infants in this island, before they are out of the nurse’s arms, sip tea twice a-day ■, which, to be sure, is the true way to propagate heroes ! CHAP. II. . • , OF THE LABORIOUS, THE SEDENTARY, AND THE STUDIOUS. That .men are exposed to particular diseases from the occu- pations which they follow, is a fact well known ; but to remedy this'evil is a matter of some difficulty. Most people are under the necessity of following those employments to which they have been bred, whether they be favourable to health or not. For this reason, instead of inveighing, in a general way, as some authors have done, against those occupations which are hurtful to health, we shall endeavour to point out the circum- stances in each of them from which the danger chiefly arises, and to propose the most rational methods of preventing it. Chymists, founders, forgers, glass-makers, and several other artists, are hurt by the unwholesome air which they are obliged to breathe. This air is not only loaded with the noxious ex- halations arising from metals and minerals, but is so charged with, phlogiston as to be rendered unfit for expanding the lungs sufficiently, and answering the other important purposes of re- spiration. Hence proceed asthmas, coughs, and consumptions of the lungs, so incident to persons who follow these employ- ments. To prevent such consequences as far as possible, the places where these occupations are carried on ought to be constructed in such a manner as to discharge the smoke and other exhala- tions, and admit a free current of fresh air. Such artists ought never to continue long at work ; and when they give over, they should suffer themselves to cool gradually, and put on their clothes before they go into the open air. They ought never To drink large quantities of cold, weak, or watery liquors, while