Introductory lecture delivered at the commencement of the winter session 1864-65, in the Medical School, Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh / by Stevenson Macadam.
- Date:
- 1864
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Introductory lecture delivered at the commencement of the winter session 1864-65, in the Medical School, Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh / by Stevenson Macadam. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![cliemiciil composition ; and the relations of food to the animal .system in the building up and breaking down of the animal frame, can oidy be darkly determined Avithout a knowledge of the composition of diet and of the bodily structure. And more than that, the physi- cian and surgeon of the present day is required to Icani the lesson that bis duties demand that be shall not only be well versed in the treatment of serious ailments, and the performance of formidable operations, but that he should know well the common-sense .science of every-day life. That he should understand the natural relation.^ of man. to the world around him, and remember that prevention is better than cure. That he should intelligently advise and arrest the causes of those little illnesses which enfeeble the constitution and render it open to serious ailments. Much can undoubtedly be done by preventive measures; and though at first sight it would ajjpear to narrow-minded men to be bad policy for the physician and surgeon to keep people well and prevent them from getting ill, yet the intelligent and right-minded medical practitioner knows that, whilst much ill health in a family betokens, in most instances, pinched means and scanty fees, better health signifies family prosperity, more liberal fees, and grateful hearts and thanks besides. Much attention has recently been devoted to the important question of the diet of all classes; and the British Government has the credit of being the first to institute an official inquiry into the relative nutritive values of the various diets. This country is still the only one where the food of the people has been made the sub- ject of a Grovernment commission. The dietary scales adopted in this country are of the most varied description, not only in regard to kind or quality, but also in regard to quantity. And whilst each household is free to use what special article of diet they may fancy, even prisons, workhouses, and barracks conform to separate systems or scales, which often present the greatest anomalies. The inquiry is of great moment to all classes; not only to the under-fed class, who ought to be told what articles and mixtures of food are most profitable in a nutritive point of view, and how they can best spend their pence, but to the over-fed class of all grades, so that they may know what quantities of food are consistent Avith the healthy state of the system, and beyond which indulgence must lead to superfluity, which is surfeit, Avith the evils attendant thereon. The whole question of the diet of tlie people is of the greatest im- portance to the medical practitioner, Avho may be called upon to report upon the victualling of barracks at' home and abroad, av1k> may have the medical charge of men-of-Avar at home or at foreign stations, or Avho may have the medical convoy of emigrant or trooj) shii)S: Avho may also have the medical supervision of ])risons or Avorkliouses, or Avho may have the more general Avork of a parochial surgeon. Questions as to the sufficiency of the diet, or as to the advisability of an alteration tiiercin nuiy be submitted to him, and the many awkward changes Avhich have been made at times in the ^](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2191638x_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
