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
easie and even Evacuation.
There is another Property of Riding, that it always gives a Freshness
to the Countenance of those who use it, which lasts for some time, and
will appear upon but once Riding, and the weakest and most infirm Person
shall discover something of this in his Cheeks after this Exercise; now
I would fain know, what Noble Cordial, whether Solid or Liquid, can
do thus? They may cause a Flushing, but can produce nothing of this
Natural Aspect; and what can more plainly discover to us, that there is
something inimitable which results from the equal and gentle Pressures
of the innumerable and invisible _Vascula_ of the whole Body together,
and that that Action which can produce such an Appearance upon but one
single Application to it, may be sufficient to display the greatest and
most wholsome effects when continued on gradually, as it ought to be;
and to object against the Certainty of these Measures, because they must
be slow, is just as Wise as it would be to assert, that the hand of the
Dial does not move, or the Budding Leaf encrease, because we cannot
discern the Motion of either of ’em. Nothing certainly could keep us
from Regarding these Tendencies of Nature, but the excessive Variety of
Medicines, with which we are so gloz’d, that we over look Her gradual
Progressions, either to Sickness or Health, and think to force Her in
all Cases by the Power of Art; whereas in a great many Cases, she will
baffle the boldest Administrators, when by gentle and suitable means she
may be reduc’d, to her true State. The Famous _Cornaro_’s Case, and many
others might be alledg’d to shew how great Changes may be procur’d, by
a strict attendance to the demands of Nature, and that it is seldom too
late to aid Her in a Natural way, agreeable to her Weakness and without
the Oppression as I may call it at such a time, instead of the Assistance
of much Physick.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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