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 / by William Buchan, M.D. fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edingburgh.

  • William Buchan
Date:
1792
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 / by William Buchan, M.D. fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edingburgh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

    103/794 (page 63)
    Our intention here is not to inquire minutely into the nature and properties of the various kinds of aliment in ufe among mankind; nor to fhew their effects upon the different conftitutions of the human body; but to mark fome of the moll pernicious er- rors which people are apt to fall into, with refpeft both to the quantity and qualities of their food, and to point out their influence upon health. ]c is not indeed an eafy matter to afcertain the exaft quantity of food proper for every age, fex, and conftitution : but a fcrupulous nicety here is by no means neceflary. The beft rule is to avoid all extremes. Mankind were never intended to weisli and meafure their food. Nature teaches ever/ creature when it has enough, and the calls of thirft and hunger are fufBcient to inform them when more is neceffary* Though moderation is the chief rule with regard to the quantity, yet the quality of food merits a farther confideration. There are many ways by which provisions may be rendered unwholefome. Bad feafons may cither prevent the ripening of grain, or damage it afterwards. Thefe, indeed, are ads of Providence, and we muft fubmit to them; but furely no pumfhment can be too fevere for thofe who fuffer provifionsto fporl by hoarding them., on purpofe to raife the price, or who promote their own intercft by adulterating the neceffaries of life*, Animal, as well as vegetable food, may be ren- dered unwholefome, by being kept too long. AU animal fubftances have a conftant tendency to putre- faction i and, when that has proceeded too far, they * The poor, indeed, are generally the firft who fuffor by un- round provifions; but the lives of the labouring poor are cf great importance to the flat? : befides, difeafes occafioned by unwhole- fome fooJ often prove infectious, by which means they reach people in every fb.tion. it is therefore the intercft of all to take tare that nofpoilt provifions of any kind be expo-fed to fale. not