Volume 1

Domestic medicine : or, 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 / by William Buchan.

  • Buchan William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1791
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine : or, 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 / by William Buchan. 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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    lodge a long time in it, and afterwards produce very tragical efredbs. This fhews the danger of buying at random the clothes which have been worn by other people. Infectious diforders are frequently imported, Commerce, together with the riches of foreign climes, brings us alfo their difeafes. Thefe do often more than counterbalance all the advantages of that trade by means of which they are intro- duced. It is to be regretted, that fo little care is commonly beftowed, either to prevent the intro- ducftion or fpreading of infeftious maladies. Some attention indeed is generally paid to the plague ^ but other difeafes pafs unregarded*. Infedion is often fpread through cities, by jails, hofpicals, &c. T hefe are frequently fituated in the very middle of populous towns; and when infec- tious difeafes break out jn them, it is impofTible for* the inhabitants to efcape. Did magiftrates pay any regard to the health of the people, this evil might be eafily remedied. Many are the caufes which tend to diffufe infec- tion through populous cities. The whole atmo- fphete of a large town is one contaminated mafs, abounding with various |dnds of infedion, and * Were the tenth partof the care taken to prevent the importa- tion of difeafes, that there is to prevent fmuggling, it would be attended with many happy confequences. This might eafily be done by appointing a phyfician at every cpnfiderable fea-port, to infpedl the fliip’s company, paffengers, &c. before they came alhore, and, if any fever or other infedious diforder prevailed, tp Older the Ihip to perform a Ihort quarantine, and to fend the lick to Tome hofpital or proper place to be cured. He might likewife order all the clothes, bedding, &c. which had been ufed by the lick during the voyage, to ]?e either deftroyed, or thoroughly cleanfed by fumigation, &c. before any of it were fent alhore. A fcheme of this kind, if properly condu6led, would prevent many fevers, and other infedious difeafes, from being brought by failcrs into fea port tow?is, and by this means diffufed all over the country. muft