Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
Science
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
I have mentioned all the different species of exercise, not because
I think they all belong to the class of radical remedies for the
consumption, but because it is often necessary to use those which are
passive, before we recommend those of a mixed or active nature. That
physician does not err more who advises a patient to take physic,
without specifying its qualities and doses, than the physician does
who advises a patient, in a consumption, to use exercise, without
specifying its species and degrees. From the neglect of this direction,
we often find consumptive patients injured instead of being relieved by
exercises, which, if used with judgment, might have been attended with
the happiest effects.
I have before suggested that the stimulus of every medicine, which
is intended to excite action in the system, should always be in an
exact ratio to its excitability. The same rule should be applied to
the stimulus of exercise. I have heard a well-attested case of a young
lady, upon whose consumption the first salutary impression was made by
rocking her in a cradle; and I know another case in which a young lady,
in the lowest state of that debility which precedes an affection of the
lungs, was prepared for the use of the mixed and active exercises, by
being first moved gently backwards and forwards in a chariot without
horses, for an hour every day. Swinging appears to act in the same
gentle manner. In the case of a gardener, who was far advanced in
a consumption, in the Pennsylvania hospital, I had the pleasure of
observing its good effects, in an eminent degree. It so far restored
him, as to enable him to complete his recovery by working at his former
occupation.
In cases of extreme debility, the following order should be recommended
in the use of the different species of exercise.
1. Rocking in a cradle, or riding on an elastic board, commonly called a
chamber-horse.
2. Swinging.
3. Sailing.
4. Riding in a carriage.
5. Riding on horseback.
6. Walking.
7. Running and dancing.
In the use of each of those species of exercise great attention should
be paid to the _degree_ or _force_ of action with which they are applied
to the body. For example, in riding in a carriage, the exercise will be
less in a four-wheel carriage than in a single horse chair, and less
when the horses move in a walking, than a trotting gait. In riding on
horseback, the exercise will be less or greater according as the horse
walks, paces, canters, or trots, in passing over the ground.
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