An essay on the wear and tear of human life, and the real remedy for this complaint / by G.T. Hayden.

  • Hayden, G. T. (George Thomas), 1798-1857
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the wear and tear of human life, and the real remedy for this complaint / by G.T. Hayden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    Dr. Johnson has well observed— It is by studying the mind, the feelings, and passions of his patients with more than usual tenderness and sagacity, that one physician so often outstrips another in the extent and success of practice. We believe that the want of such a study is apt to be a besetting sin of those medical men more especially, who have been long occupied with hospital practice. M. Parise very per- tinently remarks on this subject, that ' patients in these institu- tions are almost quite unknown to the physician, and the] physi- cian to the patients; when they are once discharged, they-are completely forgotten ; there is no unbosoming of the heart either attempted on the one side, or encouraged on the other. The patient suffers, or is cured—dies, or leaves the hospital, bearing within his own breast the arrow that has wounded his feelings, and which has been the cause of the disturbed equilibrium of his bodily functions.' Climate has considerable influence upon man in reference to his appetite for different kinds of food and their illegi- bility. Nature, ever kind, supplies abundantly that species of food which is most suitable in relation to our wants, and the quarter of the world in which we happen to be located. The most striking contrast in this respect, is the difference in aliment provided for the inhabitants of the southern and northern quarters of the globe. How suitable are the pro- ducts of the vegetable kingdom for the former, the deli- cious fruit, the perfumed air, the verdant landscape, the endless and enchanting notes of the feathered tribe!—all prepare a refreshing banquet for the senses of the man whose frame, subjected to the heat of the southern climate, would soon become exhausted but for these precious aids and antidotes that the bountiful Creator supplies. Let us now look at the inhabitant of the northern region—pent up by icebergs—nought meets his eye save sky and snow