An inquiry concerning that disturbed state of the vital functions usually denominated constitutional irritation / by Benjamin Travers.

  • Benjamin Travers
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry concerning that disturbed state of the vital functions usually denominated constitutional irritation / by Benjamin Travers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    injury or operation. This is eminently the case in the states of pregnancy and of lactation. case. I operated in a case of exomphalos on a lady has had an opportunity of observing the change in the quality of the secretions, and in the tone of the capillary system, brought about by well-adapted food and medicine. It would too much prolong this di- gression to discuss several interesting questions connected with so important a subject. Suffice it, for my purpose, to say, mankind are sufficiently aware of the fact, that innutritious and superabundant food are productive of as serious evils as insufficient food ; and if we speak the truth, we shall say. that they who act in disregard of this principle, do so from a less venial pretext than ignorance. Nor is any extraordinary penetration required to foresee that, in pro- portion as the functions concerned in nutrition are performed com- pletely and naturally, and are less subject to interruption, the strength of the body, the energy of the mind, and the powers in re- serve (vires medicatrices) that are to support and restore the sys- tem under the assaults of injury and the breaches of time, are great- est and most effective. In some individuals, as in some climates, greater care and personal restraint are required than in others. The restrictions necessary to the recovery of health are seldom favoura- ble to its preservation. They that are whole need not a physi- cian. The system of la medicine expectante is a better friend to the college than the community. If longevity be regarded as a criterion of health, which, in an un- qualified sense, it certainly is not, it would be easy to show, by some splendid living examples, that a rigid abstemiousness has not been the prominent virtue of the aged. Of Cornaro it may be worth while to remark, since it is not generally known, that he was a wine-bibber : an early edition of his work represents this hero with a plump capon before him on the table, and a bottle of wine at his elbow. [Luigi Cornaro, overo Discorsi della vita Sobria. Paris. 1646.] If, how- ever, the exemplars of longevity have not been remarkable for tem- perance, neither have they been notorious sensualists. But how many of the aged, who have lived, as the phrase is, all the days of their lives, have been remarkable for an independence of habit op- posed to a slavish adherence to rules and formularies, and a total indifference about the 'juvantiaet leudentia' of our modern gas- tronomists !
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