The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe, M.D...
- Combe, Andrew, 1797-1847.
- Date:
- 1845
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe, M.D... 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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![the term allotted to those by whom they are employed? It also illustrates, strikingly, what I have said about bad health being more frequently the result of gradual causes long in unperceived operation, than of-any sud- den or accidental exposure ; and proves that a mode of life or degree of labour is not to be rashly pronounced harmless, merely because its injurious effects are not immediately seen, and because years may elapse before it breaks down the constitution. It is blindness to the existence of this principle which still misleads man- kind, and renders them insensible to the agency of nu- merous hurtful influences, from which, by a little exer- tion, they might easily be relieved. Much angry discussion has token place at different times as to the reality of the mischief inflicted by the protracted and unremitting exertion required in our fac- tories and spinning-mills, where an unerring test might easily be found. If those who contend that the times of labour are not too long for either the children or the adults, could produce evidence to shew that, among oper- ative cotton and flax spinners, for example, the average of life is equally high as among the apparently more favoured classes, there would be at once and forever an end of the argument; while, should the result prove different, the system of labour may justly be deemed oppressive, in the precise ratio in which the mortality among the operatives exceeds that among their wealth- ier countrymen. No criterion can be so infallible as the one here proposed; and as the Government now pos- sesses the means of obtaining accurate returns, it is very desirable that the fact should be tested. In the two first reports of the Registrar-General, a comparison is made between the mortality of town and country dis- tricts, which shews the superiority to be greatly in favour of the countrjn But as no attempt is made to separate the mortality among the manufacturing population from that of the poor generally, data are still wanting to de- cide the question conclusively. The French returns, however, are more specific, and they afford direct evi- dence of both diminished stature and an increased mor- tality as results of the introduction and spread of manu- factures ; and I wish much it were in my power to lay some of them before the reader. As it is, I can only refer to the excellent work of Villerme on the physical and moral condition of the manufacturing population of France, as a storehouse of valuable information bearing directly upon the question at issue. Everything which tends strongly to call attention to the conditions which influence public and individual health, is calculated to do great good to the community. In this point of view, I am disposed to consider the visi- tation of cholera to the British Isles, some years ago, rather as one of those remarkable instances in which a beneficent Providence brings good out of evil, and con- verts an apparent calamity into a positive blessing, than as the public scourge which it was generally pro- claimed to be. True it is that many individuals perishr ed, and that others suffered by it in their affections and in their worldly circumstances ; but I question if any thing short of the dread which cholera produced, could have combined all classes so efficiently and ardently in their efforts to discover and remove every thing in the condition of the poor and labouring portions of the com- munity, which could prove detrimental to health. In the season of apparent danger, not only did the im- portance of cleanliness, ventilation, warmth, clothing, and nourishment, as preservatives of health, become manifest to minds on which nothing else could have made an impression ; but their experienced efficacy gave an impetus to the exertions of the lower orders in their own behalf, which will continue to be productive of good long after the cause from which it sprung shall be forgotten. The comparative exemption of the wealthier classes from cholera is itself sufficient to shew how much it is in the power of man, by the proper exercise of reason and the application of his knowledge, to obviate the | dangers to which his health is exposed ; how closely his bodily welfare is dependent on his own conduct and ex- ternal situation ; and how very little, comparatively, it is the result of circumstances which he cannot control or modify. In fact, every one who has investigated the subject with attention, will readily testify, that, but for the establishment of soup kitchens, the supplies of warm clothing, and the whitewashing, cleuning, and ventilat- ing of the houses of the poor, before and during the epide- mic, a much greater number would have fallen victims to its ravages. And it is consoling to know, that even those who regard such visitations as direct inflictions of a vengeful Providence, and as nowise connected with mere neglect of the laws of health, were nevertheless not the least active in enforcing and superintending the removal of every external cause of disease, an(j pro- moting the comforts and supplying the wants of the needy and destitute ; so that whatever differences in mere belief there might be, all parties were content to act as if the Creator had intended the health of the race to depend, in a very high degree, on the care which was taken to fulfil the conditions which He has decreed to be essential to the due action and preservation of the various bodily organs. Many individuals exist, who, from hereditary defi- ciencies, can scarcely attain tolerable health, even with the best care ; and many more are to be met w'ith who are exposed to bad health from the hurtful nature of the pro- fessions in which they are engaged. Many suffer, also, from vicissitudes of the weather, and other causes which we may never be able entirely to guard against. But all these united are few, when compared to the number of those whose health is ruined b}' causes capable of re- moval or of modification, and to which they are now ex- posed from ignorance of their nature, from apathy, or from the want of the comforts and necessaries of life. If I have succeeded in calling attention to this import- ant truth, one great object of these pages will be accom- plished ; and here I cannot help repeating the remark already made more than once, that health is more fre- quentlg undermined bg the gradual operation of constant though disregarded causes, than bg any great or marked ex- posures of an accidental kind, and is consequently more effectually to be preserved by a judicious and steady ob- servance of the organic laws in daily life, than by ex- clusive attention to any particular function to the ne- glect of all the rest. It may be said, that I allow nothing for the influence of habit in rendering situations and causes comparatively innocuous, which were dungerous at first, it is quite true that the human constitution possesses a power of adapting itself within certain limits to a change of cir- cumstances j but it is not less true that sudden and ex- treme changes often destroy health and life before the system can adapt itself to the exigency, and that after making the most ample allowance for this sort of safety, the protection which it affords against the active causes of disease is comparatively trifling. Where the change is sudden, as in passing from a temperate to a tropical climate, or even from very line to very inconstant weather, the consequences to health are well known to be highly injurious. But where it is gradual and not extreme in degree, as in passing from winter to summer, health is not mu<b endangered, be- cause the system has time to accomn odute itself to its new circumstances. Different organs predominate in activity in different climates and sea.'ons, and time is thus required to admit of the necessaiy changes taking place without disturbing the general balance of the cir- culation. In hot countries, for exam] le, the skin pre- dominates greatly in activity in comparison with the kidneys; whereas, in a cold country, the case is pre- cisely reversed. If, therefore, a sudden transition be made from the one to the other without due preparation and attention to the requisite change of dress, the rapid](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22470190_0109.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
