Advice on the care of the health ; with remarks on the present state of hygiology ; showing the necessity for the adoption of public sanatory measures ; on the causes and prevention of disease ; and on air, exercise, diet, bathing, etc / [John Harrison Curtis].

  • Curtis, John Harrison, 1778-approximately 1860
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Advice on the care of the health ; with remarks on the present state of hygiology ; showing the necessity for the adoption of public sanatory measures ; on the causes and prevention of disease ; and on air, exercise, diet, bathing, etc / [John Harrison Curtis]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    exercises vast influence upon the mind, which, in its turn, reacts upon the body. It follows, as an evident corollary, that it is vain to think of bringing about any change in the physical or moral condition of men, without taking into consideration both the parts of which their constitution is com- posed, and that every plan for their amelioration must be based upon their bodily as well as upon their intellectual qualities. It is at length beginning to be seen and acknowledged that those who have for half a century or more been striving to effect improvements in the intellectual and moral condition of the great mass of society, by means of religious, moral, and intellectual in- struction, have sadly mistaken the true method of procedure : the little result produced by their sincere labours has forced this un- welcome truth upon the minds of most men ; and many have set themselves to discover the causes of this lamentable failure, and better modes of procedure for the future. The conclusion to which most inquirers have come is that which I have already in- dicated, namely, that the want of success on the part of those who have been engaged in instructing the people arises from their neglect of the bodily condition of the community, and that the first step towards a more cheering state of things is to provide means for increasing the physical well-being and comfort of the people. To this conviction are due the inquiries into the sanatory condition of towns, which have been conducted under the auspices of the government, the efforts to procure an abridgment of the hours of labour, to improve the habitations of the working classes, to provide open spaces for large towns, to establish public baths, &c , &c. ; efforts which promise to be of the greatest service, and to lead to the most beneficial results. In writing the following pages, it has been my design to for- ward this good work by briefly setting forth the chief objects to be kept in view by those who are anxious to improve the sanatory condition of our country, and at the same time to furnish a short manual of health for individual use. I do not pretend to give minute directions, which can seldom be of much use, but only to lay down the broad, general principles by which those who wish to preserve their health must direct their actions ; the individual circumstances of each can alone determine the particular modifi- cations of these principles that are necessary. I am the more in- duced to confine myself, in the present instance, to the leading points of this subject, because I have already, in my work on “ Simplicity of Living,” entered fully into its details, so that any one who wishes for more minute information, may find it in that book, which, I am proud to say, has done much to awaken public at- tention to a subject which previously was comparatively neglected, and which may fairly be considered as having contributed in no slight degree to the movement now everywhere apparent towards