Domestic medicine. Or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines : containing observations on the comparative advantages of vaccine inoculation, with instructions for performing the operation an essay, enabling puptured [sic] persons to manage themselves, with engravings of bandages, which every person may prepare for himself and a family herbal. To which are added, such useful discoveries ... as have transpired since the demise of the author / by William Buchan.

  • Buchan, William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine. Or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines : containing observations on the comparative advantages of vaccine inoculation, with instructions for performing the operation an essay, enabling puptured [sic] persons to manage themselves, with engravings of bandages, which every person may prepare for himself and a family herbal. To which are added, such useful discoveries ... as have transpired since the demise of the author / by William Buchan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    suited. The diseases of children are generally acute, and the least delay is dangerous. Were physicians more attentive to the diseases of infants, they would not only be better qualified to treat them properly when sick, but likewise to give useful directions for their management when well. The disease* of children are by no means so difficult to be understood as many imagine. It is true, children cannot tell their complaints; but the causes of them may be pretty certainly disco- vered by observing the symptoms, aud putting proper questions to the muses. Besides, the diseases of infants being less complicated, are easier cured than those of adults. The common opinion, that the diseases of infants are hard to discover and difficult to cure, has deterred many physicians from paying that attention to them which they deserve. I can, however, jfiom experience declare, that this opinion is without foundation ; and that the diseases of infants are neither so difficult to discover, nor so ill to cure, as those of adults. It is really astonishing, that sq little attention should in general be paid to the preservation of infants. What labour and expence are daily bestowed to prop an old tottering carcase for a few years, whde thousands of those who might be useful in life, perish without being regarded! Mankind are too apt to value things according to their present, not their future, usefulness. Though this is of all others the most erroneous method of estimation, yet upon no other principle is it possible to account for the general indifference with respect to the death of infants. OF DISEASED PARENTS. One great source of the diseases of children is, the unhealthi- NESS of parents. It would be as reasonable to expect a rich crop from a barren soil, as that strong and healthy children should be born of parents whose constitutions have been worn out with in- temperance or disease. An ingenious writer (Rosseau) observes, that on the constitution of mothers depends originally that of their offspring. No one who believes this, will be surprised, on a view of the female w orld, to find diseases aud death so frequent among children. A delicate female, brought up within doors, an utter stranger to exercise and open air, who lives on tea and other slops, may bring a child into the world, but it will hardly be fit to live. The first blast of disease will nip the tender plant in the bud; or should it struggle through a few years* existence, its feeble frame, shaken with convulsions fr un every tri- via] cause, will be unable to perform the common func ions of life, and prove a burden to society. If to the delicacy of mothers we add the irregular lives t f fathers, we shall see further cause to believe that children are often hurt by the constitution of their parents. A sickly frame may be oiiginally induced by hardships or intemperance, but chiefly by the latter. It is impossible that a course of vice should not spoil the best consti- tution; and, did the evil terminate here, it would be a just punish-