Domestic medicine, or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines : with observations on sea-bathing, and the use of mineral waters, to which is annexed a dispensary for the use of private practitioners / by William Buchan ... From the 22nd Engl. ed., with additions and notes.

  • William Buchan
Date:
1832
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 observations on sea-bathing, and the use of mineral waters, to which is annexed a dispensary for the use of private practitioners / by William Buchan ... From the 22nd Engl. ed., with additions and notes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/552 (page 6)
    , { vi | : a PO: ath ws oh Sth Se DUO NOPE Tile ATOR oes. ee) t 8) : : Wey bine whe, inti ry now Paks 5 Arts wa) Let } ; hii & i, CPP REPRE { oth bay f oa 8. ion t halavaegdy +i ha Fs ds j RG | eas ete M4 th] Ree SY Wiliae a . ty ch | \ i x 4 =* _ AUTHOR'S PREFACE * Se rr i 4 ‘Wuen I first signified my a tepte of penttyiny the following | heh, I was told by my friends it would draw on me/the resent- ment of the whole Faculty. As I never could entertain such an unfavourable idea, I was resolyed to make the experiment, which indeed came out pretty much as might have been expected. Many whose learning and liherality of sentiments do honour to medi- cine, received the book in a manner which at once showed their in- dulgence, and the falsity of the opinion that every Physician wish- « es to conceal his art ; while the more selfish and narrow-minded, generally the most numerous in every profession, have not bv to ‘persecute both the book and its author. The reception, however, which this work has met with from ‘the Public, merits my most grateful acknowledgments. As the best way of expressing these, I have endeavoured to render it more generally useful, by enlarging the prophs ylaxis, or that part which treats of preventing diseases ; and by adding many articles which had been entirely omitted in the former impressions. It is needless to enumerate these additions; I shall only say, that I hope shox. will be found real improvements. . The. obseryations relative to Nursing and the Management of Childremwere chiefly suggested by an extensive practice among in- fants, in a large branch of the Foundling Hospital, were I had an ' , opportunity not only of treating the diseases incident to childhood, ~ but likewise of trying different plans of nursing, and observing their effects. Whenever I had it in my power to place the children under the care of proper nurses, to instruct these nurses in their duty, and to be satisfied that they performed it, very few of them died ; but when, from distance of place, and other unavoidable cir- biiasianees:, ‘the children were left to the sole care of mercenary nurses, without any person to instruct or superintend them, scarce- ly any of them lived. »., — This was so apparent, as with me to amount to a wee of the. following melancholy fact ; that ulmost one half of the human spe- cies perish in infancy, by improper management or neglect. This re- : fiection has made me often wish to be the happy instrument of alle- viating the miseries of those sufferi ing innocents, or of rescuing them, ~~ i from an untimely grave. No one, who has not had an opportunity © of observing them, can imagine what absurd and ridiculous prac- tices still prevail in the nursing anda management of infants, and what numbers of lives are by that means lost to society. As these practices are chiefly owing to ignorance, it is to be, hoped, that when nurses are better informed, ‘their conduct will be more proper. | The application of medicine to the various occupations of life has been in general the result of oe anon, An extensive prac- % f a Si “d i f ~ aa wa e r & y ey , ie ott ‘ , : ik = - ¢ r ee PFs Pry mane: }