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

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.

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$“monly answer the purpose of a mild purgative. ‘The quantity may be augmented, or the dose repeated, if requisite, with perfect safe- » ty, and little inconvenience. It excites thirst, but seldom nausea, unless the stomach is:very irritable, or the patient very squeamish. In chronic diseases, where a cure cannot be expected but from the long-continued use of any remedy, it is a great recommenda- tion of the sea-water, that it may be persevered:in for a considera- ble time, without weakening the stomach, the .utestines, or the con- stitution in general. Instances frequently occur of persons who keep the body moderately open by its daily use for months together, and yet enjoy during the whole time a good appetite, and excellent powers of digestion, with increased vigour both of body and mind. It's always most advisable to make use of the sea-water externally and internally, in the manner here directed, only twice or three times a-week, till) the patient is encouraged by degrees to employ the salutary process every day. It should also be gradually discon- tinued in the same manner, after the desired end is obtained. There are severc] disorders, besides those already mentioned, particularly ardent fevers, and various cases of local inflammation _ and muscular rigidity, in whicl the external application of cold water may produce good effects. But many of them require great accuracy of distinction, as well as the utmost judgment and caution in the use of a remedy, which. a small mistake, or a small change signed for popular instruction, it would be improper to encourage rash experiments, by pointing out such niceties in medical practice as are safe only when under the guidance of medical skill. I. do not know any thing in its own nature so salutary, and yet so liable to be abused, as the. cold-bath. I shall therefore proceed'to touch upon the cases, where the inconsiderate or improper application of\such a remedy may prove injurious, and sometimes fatal. It is not merely in the critical cases just alluded to, ‘but in many slighter indispositions, that injudicious immersion in cold water much oftener produced than. cured by cold-bathing, if rashly. re- sorted to. Disorders of the intellectual functions, palsies, apoplex- ies, and death, may be, and are frequently occasioned by a single dip, in cases either of extreme nervous debility or of extreme fulness. many pers ‘ns of very weak, and others of very plethoric habit, after a,rapid journey from London to some watering-place, plunge: instantly into the sea, without the least preparation, so far from being surprised at the numbers who suffer, I am rather astonished: that. any should. escape. In ordeér to prevent the ignorant and of an. improper medicine, I shall point, out the principal indisposi- tions, in which the cold-bath would be likely to aggravate the Bib toms, and even to endanger the life of the patient. a ai it ‘waesy i Sis) peti «« Eaffects of Cald-Bathing, §c. _, When a person in the ordinary state of health is immersed in a: *,$

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