The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English: or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred; and Fifty Thousand — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English: or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred; and Fifty Thousand
John Stuart Mill · en
6. While the use of tobacco is less pernicious than alcohol in its
effects, et it exerts a profound disturbing influence upon the nervous
system, and gives rise to various functional and organic diseases. This
is the verdict of those who have given the subject the most study, and
who have had the best opportunities for extensive observation. Suddenly
fatal results have followed excesses in the use of tobacco. Therefore,
the habit should be avoided, or if already acquired, it should be
immediately abandoned.
7. The clothing should be light and porous, adapted in warmth to the
season. It is especially important that persons in advanced life should
be well protected against vicissitudes of heat and cold. Exposure is the
cause of almost all those inflammatory diseases which occur during
winter, and take off the feeble and the aged. The under-garments should
be kept scrupulously clean by frequent changes. Corsets or bands which
impede the flow of blood, compress the organs of the chest or abdomen,
or restrict the movements of the body, are very injurious, and should
not be worn. Articles of dress which are colored with irritating
dye-stuffs, should be carefully avoided.
8. It matters not how varied a person's vocation may be, change,
recreation, and rest are required. It is an error to suppose that more
work can be done by omitting these. No single occupation which requires
special mental or physical work, should be followed for more than eight
hours out of the twenty-four. The physical organism is not constructed
to run its full cycle of years and labor under a heavier burden than
this. Physical and mental exercise is conducive to health and longevity,
if not carried too far. It is erroneous to suppose that excessive
physical exertion promotes health. Man was never intended to be a
running or a jumping machine. In mental work, variety should be
introduced. New work calls into play fresh portions of the brain, and
secures repose for those parts which have become exhausted. Idleness
should be avoided by all. Men should never retire from business as long
as they enjoy a fair degree of health. Idleness and inactivity are
opposed to nature.
9. The average length of time which a person ought to sleep is eight
hours out of the twenty-four, and, as a rule, those who take this amount
enjoy the best health. The most favorable time for sleep is between the
hours of 10 P.M. and 6 A.M. All excitement, the use of stimulants, and
excessive fatigue tend to prevent sleep. Sleeping rooms should be well
ventilated, and the air maintained at a equable temperature of as near
60° Fahr. as possible. An inability to sleep at the proper time, or a
regular inclination to sleep at other than the natural hours for it, is
a certain indication of errors of habit, or of nervous derangement.