Domestic medicine, or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines : containing observations on the comparative advantages of vaccine inoculation, with instructions for performing the operation, an essay, enabling puptured [sic] persons to manage themselves, with engravings of bandages, which every person may prepare for himself, and a family herbal / by William Buchan, M.D. of the Royal College of Physicians, Edingburgh ; to which are added, such useful discoveries ... as have transpired since the demise of the author.
- Buchan, William, 1729-1805.
- Date:
- 1823
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Domestic medicine, or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines : containing observations on the comparative advantages of vaccine inoculation, with instructions for performing the operation, an essay, enabling puptured [sic] persons to manage themselves, with engravings of bandages, which every person may prepare for himself, and a family herbal / by William Buchan, M.D. of the Royal College of Physicians, Edingburgh ; to which are added, such useful discoveries ... as have transpired since the demise of the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.
![6on to breathe freely. In this situation they generally continue for many hours at a time, often witis the addition of several candles, which tend likewise to waste the air, and render it less fitfor respira- tion. Air that is breathed repeatedly becomes unfit for expanding the lungs. This is one cause of the phthisical coughs, and other com- plaints of the breast, so incident to Eedentary artificers. Even the perspiration from a great number of persons ])ent up to- gether, renders the air unwholesome. The danger from this quarter will be greatly increased, if a-ny one of t.hem happens to have bad lungs, or to be otherwise diseased. Those who sit near him being forced to breathe the same air, can hardly foil to be infected. It would be a rare thing, however, to find a dozen sedentary people all in good health. The danger of crowding them together must there- fore be evident to every one. Many of those who follow sedentary employments are constantly in a bending posture, as shoemakers, tailors, cutlers, &c. Such a situation is extremely hurtful. A bending posture obstructs all tiie vital motions, and of course must destroy the health. Accordingly wefind such artificers generally complainingof indigestions, flatuleu- cies, head-aolies, pains of the breast, &c. The aliment in sedentary people, instead of being pushed forwards by an erect posture, and the action of the muscles, is in a manner confined in the bowels. Hence indigestions, costiveness, wind, and other hypochondri>acal afi'ections, the constant companions of the se- dentary. Indeed none of the excretions can be duly perfijrmed tvhere exercise is wanting; and when the matter which ought to be -discharged in this way is retained too long in the body, it must have 6ad effects, as it is again taken up into the mass of humours. A bending posture is likewise hurtful to the lungs. When this or- gan is compressed, the air cannot have free excess into all its parts, so as to expand them properly. Hence tubercles, adhesions, &c. are formed, which often end in consumptions. Besides, the proper action of thelungsbeingabsolutely necessary for making good blood, when that organ fails, the humours soon become universally depra\'ed, and the whole constitution goes to wreck. Sedentary artificers are not only hurt by pressure on the bowels, but also on the inferior extremities, which obstructs the circulation in these parts, and renders them weak and feeble. Thus tailors, shoe- makers, &c. frequently lose the use of their legs altogether: besides, the blood and humours are, by stagnation, vitiated, and the perspi- ration is obstructed ; from whence proceed the scab, ulcerous sores, foul blotches, and other cutaneous diseases so common among this class of the community. A bad figure of body is a very common consequence of close appli- cation to sedentary employments. The spine, for example, by being continually bent, puts on a crooked shape, and generally remains so ever after. But a bad figure of body has already been observed to be hurtful to health, as the vital functions are thereby impeded. A sedentary life seldom fails to occasion an universal relaxation o£ the solids. This is the great source from wlience most of the disease*](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21441017_0034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
