Domestic medicine : $b 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 practitionersBuchan, William
Science
Domestic medicine : $b 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
Buchan, William
Medicine, Popular -- Early works to 1800
The best _medical antidote_ that we can recommend to sailors or
soldiers, on foreign coasts, especially where dampness prevails, is the
Peruvian bark. This will often prevent fevers, and other fatal diseases.
About a drachm of it may be chewed every day; or if this should prove
disagreeable, an ounce of bark, with half an ounce of orange peel, and
two drachms of snake-root coarsely powdered, may be infused for two or
three days in an English quart of brandy, and half a wine glass of it
taken twice or thrice a-day, when the stomach is empty. This has been
found to be an excellent antidote against fluxes, putrid, intermitting,
and other fevers, in unhealthy climates. It is not material in what form
this medicine is taken. It may either be infused in water, wine, or
spirits, as recommended above, or made into an electuary with syrup of
lemons, oranges, or the like.
THE SEDENTARY.
Though nothing can be more contrary to the nature of man than a
sedentary life, yet this class comprehends by far the greater part of
the species. Almost the whole female world, and in manufacturing
countries, the major part of the males, may be reckoned sedentary[25].
Agriculture, the first and most healthful of all employments, is now
followed by few who are able to carry on any other business. But those
who imagine that the culture of the earth is not sufficient to employ
all its inhabitants are greatly mistaken. An ancient Roman, we are told,
could maintain his family from the produce of one acre of ground. So
might a modern Briton, if he would be contented to live like a Roman.
This shews what an immense increase of inhabitants Britain might admit
of, and all of them live by the culture of the ground.
Agriculture is the great source of domestic riches. Where it is
neglected, whatever wealth may be imported from abroad, poverty and
misery will abound at home. Such is, and ever will be, the fluctuating
state of trade and manufactures, that thousands of people may be in full
employment to-day, and in beggary to-morrow. This can never happen to
those who cultivate the ground. They can eat the fruit of their labour,
and can always by industry obtain, at least, the necessaries of life.
Though sedentary employments are necessary, yet there seems to be no
reason why any person should be confined for life to these alone. Were
such employments intermixed with the more active and laborious, they
would never do hurt. It is constant confinement that ruins the health. A
man may not be hurt by sitting five or six hours a-day; but if he is
obliged to sit ten or twelve, he will soon become diseased.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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