Volume 1

The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick.

  • M'Gregor-Robertson, J. (Joseph), 1858-1925
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    o THE CONDITIONS OF HEALTH. [Introduction. lie may, at one time, have had disease of the lungs which has been cui’ed, but has left in the lung some change in its structure, yet he may be quite healthy; and so of other organs. II. The second condition includes a great deal more than, at first sight, is apparent. It means, first of all, that the jierson must have a proper quantity of food, and food of the right sort. The food must be acted on in a certain way by the stomach, bowels, liver, and other digestive organs, so that the nourishing portion is separated from it and is prepared for admis- sion into the blood. So ]irepared it must gain entrance into the blood and form part of it. The blood is thus a nourishing fluid, which must be distributed through every part of the body, each part getting a sufficient amount of it. For this purpose a series of vessels is necessary to act as channels along which this fluid nourish- ment is to be driven, and there must be some kind of apparatus to drive it along to the re- motest parts of the body. This duty is per- formed by the blood-vessels and heart, the heart acting as the force-pump in the circulation of the fluid. Finally, the blood being sent through the whole body, each organ, and each little par- ticle forming the organ, must be able, when the blood is brought to it, to select from it what it needs for its continued life, and growth, and action. So that the blood is a nourishing stream flowdng through every portion of the body, and so thoroughly distributed that not the smallest particle of which the body is composed can fail to get its share, or fail to find what it requires. Under this second condition, therefore, is in- cluded food, digestion, the process of blood making, the circulation of the blood by the heart and blood-vessels, and nutrition proper, or the nourishment of the particles of which the various organs are composed. III. But the blood is more than a nourishing stream. When a muscle works—when it con- tracts—it uses up a certain amount of its sub- stance, and other substances are produced which would do harm if allowed to remain in the muscle—waste products. These waste products are continually being produced by every action of the body—the beating of the heart, the movements of breathing, the activity of the brain; and so the wa.ste materials of the whole body are of considerable amount. These are all poured into the blood, and it becomes therefore a drainage system also. By this means it is made impure, and if circulated in this state be- comes unfit for nourishment. It must, there- fore, be purified. There are, accordingly, a set of organs set apart for tlie j^urpose of continu- ally removing these waste materials and casting them out of the body. Thus the lungs remove fi’om the blood and expel one waste substance in particular—carbonic acid gas, the kidneys re- move others, and the skin takes its share in purifying. This is called a process of excretion, or removing from the blood substances which are afterwards to be cast out of the body. Be- sides this, certain ])arts of the food, which- after digestion remain as unnecessary for the blood or of no value for it, must also be expelled, and are passed out from the bowels. This tliird condi- tion, then, includes respiration, excretion by the lungs, kidneys, skin, bowels, &c. The conditions of health thus imply good structure of the body, proper food, diges- tion, blood making, blood circulation, nour- ishment of the tissues of the body, and puri- fication of the blood by the means last men- tioned. All these difterent processes ought also to be properly regulated and controlled, and this duty is performed by the nervous system. While over and above all there is the man him- self, who ought to be to his own body what the engineer is to his engine, who, if he has a perfect machine in his possession, may keep it so with at- tention and care, but who may sjooil the best pos- sible by mismanagement, carelessness, or abuse. To complete the comparison between the steam-engine and the body, it has been noticed thattheengine in thoi'ough order works smoothly. It seems to the engineer to glide along; he is hardly aware of its movement, so perfect is its working. So it is with the human body in health. The man hardly knows his heart is beating; he bi'eathes without effort. So perfect is his digestion he hardly knows he has a stomach. All the needful activities of the body go on without his interference, almost without his knowledge; in fact, he is almost uncon- scious of their existence. But as soon as some- thing is wrong, then, as a rule, he becomes some- how aware of it; the beating of his heart op- presses him ; pain tells him where his stomach lies; his brain seems on fire. In some way he becomes conscious of the actions within him. Health then consists in the perfection of the different organs of the body, and in their regu- lar, harmonious, and unconscious working. If we remember these conditions of health it will be seen how easily and in how many ways disease may arise. Look at the second condi- tion, that referring to the proper nourishment of the body, and notice how that condition is violated if bad food be given, or good food, but