Manual of diet in health and disease / by Thomas King Chambers.

  • Chambers, Thomas King, 1818-1889.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual of diet in health and disease / by Thomas King Chambers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    by adding the elements of their substance ; which is done directly by nutriment containing these elements, indirectly by accessory food (such as alcohol, spices, flavourings) promotive of the assimilation of the former. On the other hand medicines have no thought of adding the means of life to the body ; they aim at restoring the balance of existing vital processes, usually by reducing the force of normal processes to the level of others enfeebled by disease. When they so far reduce the normal processes as to derange the balance they are called poisons. Such is the logical classification according to their uses of substances designed for absorption into the body, and I am sure it must never be lost sight of as a principle of selection in therapeutics. Let it be noticed that it is the intention, which places a substance in one or other of these classes. Many of our most trustworthy agents are capable of being employed in several capacities, sometimes in more than one at the same time ; and it contributes in no small degree to success to see clearly the separate motives of their use in the individual instance. Take for example ' coffee '—it is a nutriment, though a poor one; but it is a valuable accessory, making other food more available ; and it may also be used as a medicine to the nerves, as in neuralgia or opium poisoning. ' Alcohol' is mainly an accessory food, but it may be also a medicine, administered without stint to stupify the nerve action, which a fever patient is too weak to bear. It may unhappily also be a poison. * Olive oil' is also a nutriment, an accessory, and a medicine (in constipation). * Water' taken in the small quantities just enough to stay thirst, may be entirely used as a nutriment, supplying the blood with an essential part of its substance; in the larger supply usual in daily life it is an accessory, enabling other articles of diet to be easier digested ; in copious doses it is used as a medicine by crowds upon crowds ; if its medicinal action is pushed too far, it is also a poison. ' Strychnine' is never indeed a nutriment to the human race ; but its use in some cases of indigestion may class A A