The influence of civic life, sedentary habits, and intellectual refinement, on human health, and human happiness : including an estimate of the balance of enjoyment and suffering in the different gradations of society / by James Johnson, Esq. surgeon to His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence.

  • James Johnson
Date:
[1820]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of civic life, sedentary habits, and intellectual refinement, on human health, and human happiness : including an estimate of the balance of enjoyment and suffering in the different gradations of society / by James Johnson, Esq. surgeon to His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    With ceaseless change the restless atoms pass, From lite to life a transmigrating- mass; Hence the same organs which to day compose The poisonous henbane or the fragrant rose May, with to-morrow's sun, new forms compile, Frown in the Hero—in the Beauty smile ! A single glance over the various nations of the earth will convince us that Man is completely an omnivoreus animal. The human stomach will draw nutriment from the ground we tread on, when imbued with animal and vegetable exuviae; and from every thing else between this ottomaque fare and that of the most pampered London Epicure! This wonderful power of the digestive apparatus to assimilate every thing which air, earth, or ocean yields, to the support of Man, is a striking proof of the wisdom as well as the beneficence of our Cre- ator. But it is most erroneous in principle, and pernicious in practice, to infer from this, that be- cause we can eat all things, we therefore may eat all things with impunity. And here one of the evils of civilization becomes manifest. Not only is every thing that can allure the sense, or stimu- late the appetite, brought to view in congregated society; but the (i dishes tortured from their na- tive taste are indulged in by those who, of all others, are least capable of digesting them. The C
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