Medicina Gymnastica: or, A treatise concerning the power of exercise, with respect to the animal oeconomy; and the great necessity of it in the cure of several distempersFuller, Francis
Science
Medicina Gymnastica: or, A treatise concerning the power of exercise, with respect to the animal oeconomy; and the great necessity of it in the cure of several distempers
Fuller, Francis
Exercise therapy -- Early works to 1800
a Management worthy of a Physician; but yet I will appeal to any that are
Sober, Calm, and free from Prejudice, whether if they allow that this
Exercise, does dispose to Sleep as I affirm, upon this Supposal, any
thing can more exactly hit the miserable Circumstances of those Persons.
To the Sick, these little things are of great Moment, and in such
seemingly little things as these, the Accurate Management of the Ancients
consisted, by which they were sometimes enabled to accomplish, that which
we, for want of those Measures, do sometimes fall short of.
As to the other Property of this Exercise, it may be convenient for me
to make some Apology, before I enter upon the Mention of it, because it
is such, as cannot be well understood, but by those who are Conversant
with _Sanctorius_, upon one of whose above-mention’d Maxims it does
depend, _viz._ Upon that which shews the great Increase of the insensible
Perspiration by _Pandiculation_ and Gauping; now I hope the taking
Notice of this, will not be thought odd in an Age, of which it is one of
the Good Qualities, that Men will not take up with the old superficial
Way of accounting for things by Occult Qualities, _Putredo_’s, and the
like, but enquire into the _Modus_ of the more Abstruse Actions of
Nature, and will be convinc’d, that whatever are the legitimate Measures
that she takes, they cannot be thought little or uncouth, seeing ’tis by
such _Minima_, that she comes to be able to compleat her great Things.
If therefore by Gauping, this Perspiration is so very much promoted, as
has been discovered, and adjusted by the Experiments of that Admirable
Author, we may reflect upon how little things our Deliverance from
Feavers, and other Inconveniences, does depend; nothing being more
common upon taking Cold, Surfeits, or the like, than for People to Gaup
often, till the offensive Matter is let out, and consequently it is
very apparent, that whatsoever will promote the Pandiculation must be
beneficial, when the Perspiration is obstructed; and this, tho’ it cannot
be effected by any Internal, may be done by Riding, which will dispose
all People, the Healthy as well the Sick, more or less to it. I know it
may be alledg’d, that all People when they are tyr’d, are more or less
apt to Gaup and Retch, but yet it cannot be said, that Thirty Miles
Riding is a Tyring to a Healthy Man; and yet let any one observe, if that
or less will not dispose all People to this Affect, unless they over-rule
it by Drinking of great Quantities of good Liquor, which I believe will
not always suppress it neither; but for those who are Sickly, the least
Use of this Exercise disposes ’em to this Method of Nature, which perhaps
no other Exercise will do, unless they are tyr’d by it; which shews how
much Riding is preferable to other Exercises for Sick People, because it
does some way or other act upon the Secret Springs of Nature, after a
more peculiar manner, and therefore more proper for the promoting that
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