The Abernethian code of health and longevity, or, every one's health in his own keeping, by the proper regulation of the stomach and bowels ... Containing full rules for the application of this system ... with an introductory view of the living functions of the animal economy / [John Abernethy].

  • Abernethy, John, 1764-1831
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Abernethian code of health and longevity, or, every one's health in his own keeping, by the proper regulation of the stomach and bowels ... Containing full rules for the application of this system ... with an introductory view of the living functions of the animal economy / [John Abernethy]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ADVERTISEMENT. That every man becomes his own physician at forty is an old proverb, or at least that he should be able by that age, to know his own constitution, and what will agree or disagree with him, is obvious’, otherwise his observations of himself, have been made to little purpose: but to teach a man from his youth to preserve his health, strength and vigour unim¬ paired, is the grand secret worth acquiring. This Hippocrates, the father of physic first laid down, and returning to his precepts, Mr. Abernethy has said, and on every occasion enforced it, that it can only be done by a strict attention to the regulation of what may be termed the primary organs, which constitute the elaboratory of the machine, and on this principle, the whole of his system is built—a system simple and clear, and which every man can carry into effect in hi» own person, without the aid of the profession at all. The cele¬ brated maxim of the great Boerhaave, to keep the head cool and the feet warm, was directed solely to the equable circulation of the blood, or to lessen the accumulation of blood in the head and preserve the energy or vital powers of the extreme parts. It is evident, however, that the same maxim is more com¬ pletely and successfully carried into effect by the regulation of the primary organs, or the functions of the stomach and bowels being properly performed ; for thus no morbid accumulation will take place to produce congestion in any part: the cir¬ culation, on the contrary, will go on free and unobstructed through every series of vessels destined for it, and the fluid be transmitted at the same time in a pure and healthy stream. The same observations may be extended to all popular sys¬ tems of medicine; for even the primitive medicine of Westley, and of authors of the same class, as regarded the preservation of health, has depended solely on the cure of disease—not on its prevention. Hence the unmeaning farrago of medical recipes for this purpose with which such works abound, while the pre¬ sent Reading and simple principle does away the whole complex machinery of such architects of health, and buries them in rubbish, as swerving from the path of nature and common sense in their mode of proceeding.