A dialogue between a bilious patient and a physician / by James Henry.

  • James Henry
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dialogue between a bilious patient and a physician / by James Henry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    medicines, but by the substitution of wholesome habits for those which are injurious to health. Patient. You deceive yourself if you expect that my health can be restored by diet and regimen. I have already paid the most scrupulous attention to those points, and yet I continue bilious notwithstanding. I am no doubt better when I live by rule, and worse when I do not, but still I am more or less bilious, let me live in what manner I may; more bilious when I take but little exercise, or when I eat of two or three dishes at dinner, particularly if there are ragouts or other made dishes among them, and also when I eat pastry or drink porter; less bilious when I take more exercise, and when I eat only of a single joint/abstain from pastry and made dishes, and drink only water. Physician. As you have already experienced so much benefit from attending to regimen, might it not be worth your while to try whether you would not derive still further advantage from a regimen more judiciously regulated, and more steadily and strictly adhered to ? Patient. A strict adherence to regimen requires more resolution than I possess. I cannot resist the constant- ly occurring temptations to deviate from the strict rule. Besides, under any regimen, medicine is indispen- sable to me, for the purpose of opening the bowels and carrying away the bile when it accumulates. Nothing gives me such speedy relief, even when I am at the worst, as a dose of opening medicine. Unfortunately, however, all the opening medicines to which I have hitherto had recourse, whether quack medicines, or domestic remedies, or the prescriptions of physicians, have one common defect; they all lose their power by use. Give me an opening medicine free from this defect, and I shall be content. I shall then possess the best means which I expect ever to possess/of
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