Temperance and total abstinence, or the use and abuse of alcoholic liquors in health and disease / By Spencer Thomson.

  • Spencer Thomson
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Temperance and total abstinence, or the use and abuse of alcoholic liquors in health and disease / By Spencer Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The primary physical stimuli of the above arrangement with the exception of the last, fall to be considered in our, future pages, and, therefore, require no further notice here. The beneficial stimulant effect exerted upon the human organ- ism by atmospheric changes, is fully and clearly insisted upon by Sir James Clark,* who says, “Long residence in a very equable climate is not congenial to health, even with all the advantages of exercise in the open air. A moderate range of temperature and of atmospheric changes seems necessary to the maintenance of health.” ‘“ Dr, Combe, during his residence in Madeira, remarked that the invalids were better when the temperature was less steady, and the weather more variable, than when the season was unusually mild and equable. I have remarked the same effects resulting from a long residence in some of the more sheltered spots in our own island.” In the vegetable world a similar observation has been made—“ A diurnal variable temperature, all else beg equal, is more favorable to vegetation than a uniform temperature.” The division of extraordinary mixed stimuli includes those which exert their activity on mind and body simultaneously, whether connected with some of the highest affections of our minds, or confined merely to the lowest propensities of our natures. Unquestionably the excitement of sexual feeling is a most powerful stimulant both of body and mind; it is, too, generally agreed by the highest medical authorities, that this excitement, controlled and regulated by the higher moral and religious feelings, is beneficial to a healthy individual, at the same time there is no doubt that the abuse is capable of in- flicting on man most direful evils; but neither in this case, * On Climate, p. 68.
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