The oracle of health and long life, or, Plain rules for the attainment and preservation of sound health and vigorous old age : with rational instructions for diet, regimen, &c. and the treatment of dyspepsy or indigestion, deduced from personal experience, and the best authors on dietetics / by Medicus.

Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The oracle of health and long life, or, Plain rules for the attainment and preservation of sound health and vigorous old age : with rational instructions for diet, regimen, &c. and the treatment of dyspepsy or indigestion, deduced from personal experience, and the best authors on dietetics / by Medicus. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    to fall short; for the damage of a more full diet is soon remedied, either by exercise or gentle evacuation; but the decay of strength, the natural consequence of too spare a diet, or too long abstinence, is not easily re- paired. Thousands have perished, as an intelligent physician observes, by being in- attentive to the calls of the stomach*. As soon, therefore, as the stages of action in the stomach are passed through, and the sensation of hunger begins to be present, every person who values his health should take some necessary refection. 5. The Nature and Qualities of Food. For the due preservation and enjoyment of health, much discrimination is necessary in the choice of food, whether animal or vegetable. The folly of those writers who attempt to bring this important part of dietetic administration into] disrepute, is as * The observation of Dr. Paris {Treatise on Diet, p. 72) on this subject, does not seem quite oracular. If it be said that a deficient quantity of food is indicated by our feelings,, and that an excess is carried off without inconvenience, I shall reply, that Nature rarely suffers from abstinence, but continually from repletion ; that while in one case she limits her expenditure to meet the exigencies of her income, in the other, she is called on to exercise an injurious liberality to throw off the useless burthen. In the vigour of health and youth, this expenditure is not felt; but the period will as- suredly arrive, when it must be paid with compound interest. In this sentence, it must be admitted that the Doctor has fallen into the error which, in an early part of his interest- ing volume, he imputes to another eminent and popular writer—that his doctrine is rather remarkable for playful- ness of style than soundness of argument.