Buchan enlarged. Domestic medicine; or, The family physician, 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. To which is added ... rules and regulations to be observed ... in the management of infants, etc / [William Buchan].

  • Buchan, William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Buchan enlarged. Domestic medicine; or, The family physician, 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. To which is added ... rules and regulations to be observed ... in the management of infants, etc / [William Buchan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    « 4 The learned Dr. Arbuth'Mot asserts, that by a proper atfex?- tion to those things which are almost within the reach of every body, more good and less mischief will be done in acute diseases, than by medicines improperly and unseasonably administered; and tliat great cures may be affected in chronical distempers, by a proper regimen of the diet only. So entirely does the Doctor’s scnlimeiUs and mine agee, that I would advise every person, ig- Fior int of physic, to confine his practice solely to diet, and the Ollier parts of regimen; bv which means he may often do much, good, and can seldom do any hurt. I’his seems also to have been the opinion of the ingenious Dr. II uxHAM, who observes, that we often seek from Art what all- bountiful Nature most readily, and as effectually, offers us, had we diligence and sagacity enough'to observe and make use of them; that the dietetic part of Medicine is not so much studied as it ought to be; and that though less pompous, yet it is the most natural method of curing diseases. To render the book more generally useful, ho’wever, as well as more acceptable to tlic intelligent part of mankind, I have in most diseases, besides regimen, recommended some of the most simple and approved forms of medicine, and added such cautions and directions as seemed necessary for their safe ad- ministration. It w^oLild no doubt have been more acce])tablc to many, had it abounded with pompous prescriptions, and promised great cures in consequence of their use; but this was not my plan: 1 think the administration of medicines alw^ays doubtful, and often dangerous, and would much rather teach men how to avoid the necessity of using them, than how they should be used. Several medicines and those of considerable efficacy, may be administered with great freedom and safety. Physicians gene- rally trifle a long time with medicines bel'ore they learn tl)eir proper use. Many peasants at present know better how to use some of the most important articles in the materia medica, than physicians did a century ago; and doubtless the same observa- tion will hold with regard to others some time henec. Where- ever I w'as convinced that medicine might be used with safety,, or where the cure depended chiefly upon it, I have taken care to recommend it; hut where it was either highly dangerous, or not. very necessary, it is omitted. I have not troubled the reader Avllh an useless parade of quo- tations from different authors, but have in generaf adopted their observations where my owm were either defective, or totally wanting. Those to whom I am most obliged are, Ramazini, Aebuthkot, and Tissox; the last of which in his Avis au Peuple*^ comes the nearest to mv view^s of anv author which I have seen.