Directions for medicine chests : with a treatise of the diseases most incident of seamen.

Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Directions for medicine chests : with a treatise of the diseases most incident of seamen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    INTRODUCTION. IT is necessary to observe here, that the most care- ful attention to the rules laid down in the following book, will often be unable to procure good health. But it must be remembered, that much is required, to render the remedies enumerated useful. To make them successful, when disease is present, it is not only necessary that they should be taken; but also, that nothing should be present to counteract their effect. But this is not all. The man who wishes to possess good health, must avoid any thing which can either immediately, or remotely render the body sub- ject to disease. By so doing, when sickness comes, the strength of the system will be such, as to enable it to bear with patience the attacks of disease. The most obvious and easy method of opposing diseases of any kind is regularity in every thing. This is pecu- liarly incumbent on the sailor, who in the space of a few days is transported from a frozen to a torrid clime, from diseases of an inflammatory nature, to those of a putrid cast, when if excess has marked the character, they often terminate so rapidly, as to disappoint the endeavours of the most active physi- cians. Regularity is also highly necessary, in those who travel by land; for even there, the state of climate is changed in a short space. It is necessary for the health of seamen to observe moderation in eating and drinking in warm climates: to avoid as much as possible being over heated in the middle of the day, and to keep out of the night air. It is proper to keep the body always open, that is, to have at least, one passage every two days, and, probably every day, and when at sea to eat vege- tables of some kind every day, with a large propor-