The family physician, the household companion : being a treatise, in plain language, on the art of preserving health and prolonging life; a description of all the diseases of men, women & children, with the most approved and latest curative treatment. Prepared for the use of families / by M. Lafayette Bryn.

  • Byrn, M. Lafayette (Marcus Lafayette), 1826-1903.
Date:
1868, ©1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The family physician, the household companion : being a treatise, in plain language, on the art of preserving health and prolonging life; a description of all the diseases of men, women & children, with the most approved and latest curative treatment. Prepared for the use of families / by M. Lafayette Bryn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, Emory University.

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    quence, cold. From the bracing qualities of the prevailing winds, the inhabitants are robust, and disposed to inflamma- tory diseases: invalids, or persons coming from warm climates, should, therefore, prepare themselves gradually for mountain ous regions, by not coming abruptly into those colder parts. I CLOTHING. Clothing possesses no warmth in itself, but merely prevents the heat of the body from being carried off by the air, and other surrounding bodies, faster than it can be supplied by the' blood. The essential requisites for clothing are, that it be soft and pliable, so as not to obstruct the free and easy motion of the joints, or occasion inconvenience by its weight or tight- ness ; that it be adequate to protect the body from the external influence of the atmosphere, and preserve it in that degree of temperature which is most agreeable, as well as best adapted to the exercise of its different healthy functions and motions; and that it does not produce any detrimental effects, occasion any unnecessary degree of perspiration, or absorb the vapors of the atmosphere. Clothes of a light color, have the least attraction for heat; those of a black, the greatest; the first mentioned are, therefore, most proper in hot, the last in cold weather. But besides these general properties of commodious and comfortable clothing, it should be suited in quantity and ma- terial to the climate, the season of the year, the period of life, the constitution, and the habits and mode of living. Thus, a person who is engaged in a sedentary employment, will always require warmer clothing than one who is actively engaged in manual, or other labor demanding considerable muscular ex- ertion ; and the latter will always require an addition of clothing, the moment he has ceased from his active labors, to what is proper whilst engaged in them. Neither do young persons, or those in the prime of life, and in robust health, require clothing in the day, or covering in the night, of so warm a nature as persons advanced in years; because the per- formance of their functions is more equal and vigorous, and of course, the generation of heat in the body is quicker, and of greater extent, than is the case in old age. i One of the safest rules in the regulation of dress, is to adjust it to the vicissitudes or fluctuations of the season; and this rule should be carefully attended to by the invalid, the delicate, the infirm, and the old. The winter clothing should not be left off too early in the spring, nor the summer clothing worn too late in the autumn. Neither should this rule be disregard-