Observations on the preservation of health in infancy, youth, manhood and age. With a brief account of the principal British and continental spas and watering places / [John Harrison Curtis].

  • Curtis, John Harrison, 1778-approximately 1860
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the preservation of health in infancy, youth, manhood and age. With a brief account of the principal British and continental spas and watering places / [John Harrison Curtis]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    committed by bachelors ; and be adds that the same remark lias been made in this country. But “ to make marriages answer the purpose of health, and the other objects to be kept in view in the connubial state, there ought to be a parity of station, a similarity of temper, and no material disproportion in years. It is owing to the want of some of these most essential requi- sites, that the married state proves so often the source of misery, instead of joy and comfort.”* The opinions of physiologists as to the earliest age at which the contraction of marriage in this country is ad- visable, are various—some fixing it for the male at the age of 21, others at 25, and others even at 28 ; but most writers on the subject agree in regarding the 18th year of the female as the earliest at which it ought to take place. This, however, is a point which must depend upon a great variety of circumstances; and though marriages entered into while the frame is still rapidly developing are un- doubtedly injurious, yet varieties in constitution are so numerous and so great, that it is impossible to lay down a rule universally applicable. It may, however, be consi- dered as certain, that marriages on the part of males before the age of 21 are hurtful.f If we regard marriages as they affect the offspring, we must take into account many circumstances which do not affect the parties marrying. * Code of Health. f “ The second cause of the shortness of the average duration of life during .the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, is traced to the very early age at which marriages were then solemnised. The day of nature’s trial came before the constitution had gained strength for the struggle ; and an awful proportion of females was thus pre- maturely hurried to the grave, whilst the offspring also shared in the weakness of the parent.”'—Tyler’s Henry of Monmouth.