A dictionary of practical medicine : comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases ... with numerous prescriptions ... a classification of diseases ... a copious bibliography, with references; and an appendix of approved formulae / ... By James Copland.
- James Copland
- Date:
- 1844-58
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of practical medicine : comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases ... with numerous prescriptions ... a classification of diseases ... a copious bibliography, with references; and an appendix of approved formulae / ... By James Copland. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
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![with the physical exhaustion, the mental torpor, and all but annihilation of exis^tence, which is the ultimate result of indulging them. From this source frequently spring, impotency hereafter; the extinction of families and hereditary honours — honours which such persons are incapable of achieving; the infliction, during after-life, of many of the diseases which proceed from de- bility, and the exhaustion of the nouri.-hment and vital energy of the various structures and organs ; numerous nervous and convulsive maladies, as hysteria, epilep>iy, neuralgia, chorea, melancholia, mania, idiotcy, 6cc. ; the dangerous or fatal visit- ation of fevers, diseases of the heart, disorders of the digestive organs, preniature baldness and old age, the formation of tubercles, and the pro- duction of pulmonary consumption; and, lastly, the transmissinn of weak and decre])it bodies and minds to the offspring, of scrofula, rickets, verm- inous complaints, marasmus, hydrocephalus, con- vulsions, tubercles, chorea, &c.: the curse is visited on the children to the third and fourth generation, until the perpetuated punishment ex- tinguishes the very name of the aggres-or. 25. b. The pnthotngical conditions of this age are especially characterised by exalted action. At the approach and commencement of puberty, the-glandular system is extremely prone to conge>tive inflammations, particularly the lymphatic glands of the neck and arm-pits. Tubercles are rapidly developed in the lungs; and these organs are m.uch disposed to acute and chronic inflammations of both their substance and mucous surfaces. Pulmonary liaamorrhages usurp the place of the epistaxis of earlier epochs ; and, in females, dysmenorrhoea, protracted or retained menstruation, chlorosis, hysteria, and occasion- ally menorrliugia or leucorrhoea, occur. The sanguineous diathesis and plethoric habit, in those of a sound constitution, and the sanguine, irri- table, and nervous temperaments, or the one associated with the other, most commonly prevail at this period of life. 26. The progress of disease is generally rapid, and its character acute. Inflammations are more prone to give rise to the formative processes; and febrile aft'ections, when they terminate by crises, evince a preference to hsEmorrhages and sweats. Idiopathic fevers, inflammations of the respira- tory organs and of the brain or its membranes, are the most common diseases of this age. 27. c The therapeutical indications require but little remark ; for the system has now nearly, or altogether, reached its full growth; and the general inferences which guide the practitioner in the employment of remedial means have now reference, especially, to states of habit, consti- tutional powers, temperament, and diathesis, ■— physical manifestations, which are now, in a great measure, developed, but which acquire their most predominant characters in adult age. As the maladies of this peiiod are frequently inflammatory, and evince a strong tendency to the formative process, and as the powers of life ai-e now most energetic, vascular depletions, with the antiphlogistic regimen, are often re(|uired, and are well borne ; excepting in those whose constitutions have been originally in fault, or who have greatly injured it by the injurious practice of masturbation, from which so many suffer, both at this and subsequent epochs of life. 28. V. PF.niOD.—Adui-t Age may be divided into the epochs, Isi, of early adult age ; and, 2d, of mature age, or cinijiimed virilily. Of each of these 1 shall take a brief notice. A. Early adult age may be dated from twenty to thiity in the female, and from twenty-four to thirty-five in the male. During this epoch, if the constitutional powers have not been injured previously, the whole frame and its individual organs continue to acquire strength ; and, al- though the body has ceased to grow in height, it increases in bulk, particularly the muscles of voluntary motion, and tlie parities of the large cavities. It is also more capable of enduring continued exertion and privations; its vital en- durance and resistance being greater than duiing the period of adolescence. The fealuies and ex- pression of the face ; the chai'acter, disposition, temperament, and dialliesis, are more unfolded, and towards the termination of this period fully di>play their manifestations. 29. B. Mature age, or confirmed virility, may be considered as being from thirty to foily, or forty-five, in the female, and from thirty-four to forty eight in the male. During this time of life, the features of the countenance fully assume those modifications of chaiacter arising from the influence of the passions and emotions of the mind ; and the appetites, habits, and occupa- tions of life imprint upon the frame generally certain appealances, arising from their continued influence on the constitution. The mu-cular organs, particularly the muscles of the extremities, are proniinently marked ; the chest fully de- veloped ; the body spaie and active ; liie adijjose structure extremely scanty, and the abdomen sm;ill, in those habitually devoted to laborious employments, not of a sedentary nature, and to active exercise, either on foot or horseback. The sedentary, those addicted to the indulgence of the appetites, and particularly those given to the gratifications of the table, have laige abdo- mens, small extremities, and large depositions of adipose matter beneath the inl( giiments, between the muscles, in the omentum, and suirounding the viscera, with a weak and defective developement of the muscular parts. The studious present the chief marks of tiieir occupations on the fea- tures of the countenance and character of the head ; the appearance of the rest of the frame varying with the habits and indulgei ces with which study or the prosecution of science may be conjoined. At tliis period of life also the feelings, the anxieties, the disappointments, the losses, and the vaiious moral emotions of life, begin to manifest those eflfpcts upon the frame, which become still more fully expressed during the following epoch. 30. This and the preceding period of adult age are, upon the whole, the most extmpt of ail others from disease ; but about the age of forty, and still more so as the age of fifty is approached, the sangumeous circulation becomes more and more languid, particularly in the veins; hence the frequency of venous coni;estions and visceral obstructions, with the various diseases depend i >j thereupon, particularly hemorrhoids ; bilious de- rangements ; bilious and gastric fevers ; inflam- mations ; aflections of the heart ; apopfexy and paralysis ; derangements of the stomach and liver ; haematemesis ; affections of the joints, as gout ami](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2119709x_0051.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
