The cyclopaedia of practical medicine : comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc. / Edited by John Forbes, Alexander Tweedie, John Conolly.

Date:: 1848

Credit: The cyclopaedia of practical medicine : comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc. / Edited by John Forbes, Alexander Tweedie, John Conolly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

763/828 (page 761)

$surprise should be that any escape; and instead of the inherent delicac)^ so often imputed to the constitution of females as explanatory of their peculiar ailments, we have ample proof, in their powers of resisting such noxious influences, that they possess conservative energies not inferior to those of the most robust male. Were men to be so laced, so imperfectly exercised, so inadequately clothed, so sulibcated, so exposed, their superiority of bodily vigour would soon cease to have any existence. Defect of clothing, though most signal in the chest and shoulders, is not confined to the upper part of the body. The feet require warmth, which subservience to fashion prevents. They cannot be compressed but at the cost of much suffering, some distortion, and the infliction of positive disease. Fashion also permits the legs to be covered with only the thinnest materials. Thus the capillary circulation of the feet, rendered suffi- ciently languid by the general weakness, becomes further impeded by the pressure of tight shoes, and the debilitating elfects of cold. The crippled state, too, thus occasioned, is a further obstacle to effi- cient exercise, and so adds to the general debility. Food.—The food of the young of both sexes, as indeed of every age, should be suited to the particular constitution. The general principles for regulating it have been already laid down. It should, for reasons already assigned, be rather nutritious than spare. The effects of casual reple- tion are less prejudicial, and more easily corrected than those of inanition; still the bounds of tem- perance should never be exceeded. There should be a due admixture of animal food, but wine and stimulants are needless and improper. It is to be hoped that no caution is needed at the present day against a practice, not unknown in the last cen- tury, of females inclinmg to corpulency reducing themselves by abuse of acids. The eflect was pro- duced by destroying the tone and injuring the structure of the digestive organs, and from the evils which resulted, we would fain hope that a practice so pernicious has been for ever abolished. At the ages under consideration the state of the bowels requires to be attended to; and here again, girls suffer in a much greater degree than boys. The abdominal congestions to which their whole course of discipline subjects them, have no means of relief save the increase of alvine excretions. There is, therefore, even more to be carried off through this outlet than a state of health would supply. Yet from the general debility and defi- cient exercise the alvine discharges are very prone to be irregular and inadequate. Much disease would at this age be averted, and the conservative powers of the constitution would have a far better chance of being effectively exercised, if a regular and healthful state of bowels was maintained. For this there should be not only daily evacuation in sufficient quantity, but, what is still more im- portant, the matter discharged should be of a healthy character. And here we would caution medical men against being misled by false delicacy so as to trust to reports, which are never to be relied on. Ocidar inspection furnishes an indica- tion of the highest value, both in exhibiting and withholding medicines; and so assured are we of its absolute necessity as a guide to medical judg- VoL. I. —96 3o* ment, that we cannot understand how a medical practitioner can conscientiously perform his duty who disregards it. As it is the duty of the medi- cal practitioner to avail himself of this source cf information when attending patients under disease, it is equally so to point out to convalescents the importance of it to the maintenance of general health. Were the state of bowels in young females more attended to, ample evidence would be furnished of the necessity of some evacuant or corrective discipline, long before the accession of actual disease; and, what is of more importance, much accumulated and tfio often intractable disease might thus be altogether averted. Exercise.—What has been already stated with respect to air and temperature in infancy and childhood can be so readily applied to the more advanced ages, that they need not here be further discussed. Exercise, however, demands some additional notice. Boys enjoy this freely, and of the best kind, in the unrestrained indul- gence of their youthful sports. By means of these every muscle of the frame comes in for its share of active exercise, and free growth, vigour, and health are the result. It would be happy for girls if some portion of such latitude were allowed to them also. But it is far otherwise. Even under the more favourable circumstances of country life, they are too much restricted from the free exercise which health requires. Their very dress unfits them from taking it, and the alleged indecorum of those active movements to which youth and spirits instinctively incite, is a bar to even tkc attempt being made. At their age the measured, slow-paced, daily walk is quite insufficient even for the muscles specially engaged, while it leaves, many others wholly unexercised. If this be true of the more hale and robust inhabitants of the- country, how much more forcibly does it apply to. the delicate and attenuated residents of towns, and: especially to the inmates of female schools. Of these establishments the systems and habits re- quire much revision, and until some effective re- formation takes place, of which there is yet but little prospect, they will not fail to excite our sympathy and regret for the blanched aspects, shadowy forms, and sickly constitutions so con- tinually presented, and which it is so painful to witness. Such beings are as little fitted for en- countering the toils or fulfilling the duties of life, as are plants of a hothouse for being transferred to the open borders.* * The amount of exercise, or rather the extent to which the want of exercise is carried, in many lioanling-schools, will appear incredible to those who have not personally investigated the subject. The following is the carte of a young ladies' boarding-school, drawn upon the spot, a few years since, from the report of several of its inmates:— At 6 in tlie morning the girls are called, and rise. From 6 to 8, learning or saying lessons, in scAooA 8 to i^\, at breakfast. 8j to 9, preparing lessons oiif o/scAoo^, (some of the girls permitted to do so in the garden ) 9 to 1, at various tasks, in school. 1 to ]i, out of school, hut must not go out ol doors; reading or working, and preparing for dinner. I5 to 2, at dinner. 2 to 5, in school, various tasks. 5 to 5^, tea. Sj to 6, preparing to go out; dressing, or reading, or playing in school. 6 to 7, walking, generally arm-in-arm, on the high-road, many with their books in their hands, and reading.$