The physiology of digestion considered with relation to the principles of dietetics / by Andrew Combe.

  • Combe, Andrew, 1797-1847.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiology of digestion considered with relation to the principles of dietetics / by Andrew Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    successful, I would afterward prepare a similar ac- count of others, in the right understanding and man- agement of which our interest is not less deeply in- volved, but in regard to which much ignorance con- tinues nevertheless to prevail, even among the most liberally educated classes of society. The numerous proofs which I received of the util- ity of my former work, not only from professional and lkerary journals, but also from individuals pre- viously unknown to me,—many of them guardians and instructers of youth, speaking from personal ex- perience,—together with the rapid sale of three edi- tions (the last consisting of 3000 copies) in two years, soon completely satisfied me that I had nei- ther been deceived as to the real importance of phys- iological knowledge to the general public, nor been altogether unsuccessful in the method of conveying it. Thus encouraged, accordingly, I cheerfully re- sumed my labours, and began the preparation of the treatise now submitted to the indulgent consideration of the reader. The matters discussed on the present occasion relate chiefly to the function of digestion and the principles of dietetics ; and in selecting them I have been guided by the same principle as before. It may, at first sight, be doubted whether I have not exceeded proper bounds in thus dedicating a whole volume to the consideration of a single subject; but the more we consider the real complication of the function of digestion,—the extensive influence which it exercises at every period of life over the whole of the bodily organization,—the degree to which its