Domestic medicine : a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicine. ... With remarks on the properties of food, vaccination, electricity, galvanism, bathing, &c / by William Buchan.

  • Buchan William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine : a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicine. ... With remarks on the properties of food, vaccination, electricity, galvanism, bathing, &c / 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.

    50/526 (page 56)
    Almost the whole of the female world, and in ma ufacturing countries the major part of the male as w ell as those called studious, may be reckon< sedentary. Agriculture, the first and most healthy of all ec ployments, is now followed by few who are ab to carry on any other business. \Vbere it is nej lected, whatever wealth may be imported fro. abroad, poverty and misery will abound at hom •Such is, and ever will be, the ductuating stale i trade and manufactures, that thousands of peopi may be full of employment to day, and in beggar to-morrow. This can never happen to those wh cultivate the ground. They can eat the fruit I of their labour, and can always by industry obtai at least the necessaries of life. It is not want of exercise alone which hurts se dentary people; they likewise suffer from the con lined air which they breathe. It is very common t see ten or a dozen tailors, or stayraakcrs, for exam pie, crowded into one small apartment, when there is scarcely room for one person to brealhi freely. In tliis situation they generally continue for many hours at a time, often w ith the addition o several candles, which tend likewise to waste the air, and render it less tit for respiration. Even the perspiration from a great number o ])crsoiis, pent up together, renders the air unw hole- •some. The danger from this quarter will be great- ly iuercased, if any one of them happen to have badi lungs, or to be otherw ise diseased. Tnosc w ho sit near him, being forced to bre.athc the same air. can liardly fail to be infected. It w ould be a rare thing to (ind a dozen of sedentary people all in good health. The danger of crowding them together must therefore be evident to evert one. .Many of those w lio follow sedentary employments are constantly itt a bending posture, as shoemakers, tailors, cutlers, Ac. Surii a situation is extreme- ly hurtful. A bending posture obstructs all the vital motioHS, and of course must destroy the health.