Domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. To which are added, observations on the diet of the common people; recommending a method of living less expensive, and more conducive to health, than the present / by William Buchan.

  • Buchan William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1800
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. To which are added, observations on the diet of the common people; recommending a method of living less expensive, and more conducive to health, than the present / by William Buchan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    herit his father’s fortunes at the expence of inheriting his difeafes! A perfon labouring under any incurable malady ought not to marry. He thereby not only fliortens his own life, but tranfmits mifery to others : but when both parties are deeply tainted with the fcrophula, the fcurvy, or the like, the effects muff be ftill worfe. If fuch have any iffue, they muff be miferable indeed. Want of attention to thefe things, in forming con- nections for life, has rooted out more families than plague, famine, or the fword *, and as long as thefe connections are formed from mercenary views, the evil will be continued In our matrimonial contracts, it is amazing fo little regard is had to the health and form of the objeCt. Our fportfmen know that the generous courier cannot be bred out of the foundered jade, nor the fagacious fpaniel out of the fnarling cur. This is fettled upon immutable laws. The man who marries a woman of a fickly conftitution, and defcended of unhealthy parents,* whatever his views may be, cannot be faid to aCt a prudent part. A difeafed woman may prove fertile ; fliould this be the cafe, the family muff be- come an infirmary : what profpeCt of happinefs the father of fuch a family has, we lhall leave any one to judge f. Such children as have the misfortune to be born of difeafed parents, will require to be nurfed with greater care than others. This is the only way to * Tlie Lacedemonians condemned their king Archidamus for having married a weak, puny woman ; becaufe, faid they, inftead of propagating a race of heroes, you will fill the throne with a progeny of changelings. _ • r c . t The Jews, by their laws, were, in certain caIes,_torbid to have any manner of commerce with the difeafed ; and indeed to this all wife Icgifiators ought to have a fpecial regard. In fomc countries, difeafed perfons have aftually been forbid to^ marrj. This is an evil of a complicated kind, a natural deformity, and political mifehief j arid therefore requires a public conlideration. make