Pulmonary consumption; its prevention & cure : established on new views of the pathology of the disease.

  • Gilbert, Henry.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pulmonary consumption; its prevention & cure : established on new views of the pathology of the disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    turely, through excess in drinking ardent spirits. The stomach and bowels suffer first, says he, from the use of spirits ; and then their baneful influence is afterwards extended gradually to every part of the body, producing a variety of morbid phenomena. Well might Dr. Paris say— happy is the man who considers water the best drink, and salt the best sauce. But as I am convinced that neither argument nor example will overcome this, the most baneful of all habits, there can arise no good from further remarks on the subject. Excessive Fasting.—In considering the causes of inorganizable absorption, excessive fasting is well worthy of our notice. When the system de- mands a fresh supply of organizable matter, and this demand is not complied with, the mouths of the lacteals become excited, and on food being transmitted to the alimentary canal, they not only absorb inorganizable matter, but also inorganizable particles. They, in fact, do what a starved man would—namely, consume whatever comes within their reach, whether healthful or the reverse. But, fortunately, we have but few opportunities of ob- serving the effects of an imperfect supply of food.