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. ... To which are now added, some important observations concerning sea-bathing, and the use of the mineral waters; with many other additions / by William Buchan.

  • Buchan William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1803
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. ... To which are now added, some important observations concerning sea-bathing, and the use of the mineral waters; with many other additions / 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.

    668/802 (page 622)
    properly fpeaking, an inflamroatory difeafe, yet it ge- nerally begins with fvmptoms of inflammation, and is often accompanied with them through its whole progrefs. But the difeafe moft common to this country is the- fcurvy. One finds a dafh of it in almofl: every family, and in fome the taint is very deep. A difeafe fo general muft have a general caufe, and there is none fo obvious as the great quantity of failed animal food devoured by the natives. As a proof that fcurvy arifes from this caufe, we are in poflTrfllon of no remedy for that difeafe equal to the free ufe of vegetables.' By the uninterruf^ited ufe of animal food, a putrid diathefis is induced in the fyftem, which predifpofes to a variety of diforders. I am foully convinced, that many of thofe obflinate complaints fbr which we are at a lofs to account, and find itflill more difficult to cure, are the effedls of a fcorbutic taint lurking in the habit. Improper diet affedls the mind as well as the body. The choleric difpofition of the Engliffi is almoffi proverbial. Were I to affign a caufe, it would be, their living fo much on animal food. There is no doubt but this induces a ferocity of temper unknown to men whofe food is chiefly taken from the vegetable kingdom. Though thefe and fimilar confequences may arilc from the excefs of animal diet, we are far from di(- couraging its ufe in moderation. In all cold coun- tries it is certainly neceffiary ; but the major part of the aliment ought neverthelefs to confill of vegetable lub- ffances. I here is a continual tendency in animal food, as well as in the human body itfelf, to putrefaftion, which can only be counteradled by the free ufe ot vegetables. , , r i ^ .u),. With regard to the proportion of vegetable food to th.. of animal, gitat nice.y is by no means requiied. It mu vary according to circumftances, as the heat of the ther, the warnith of the climate, and the like. The ectable parr, however, where nothing forbids, oug it cer fainly to preponderate, r.-id 1 think in the proportion at kaft of nvo to one.