Domestic medicine. Or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines : With an appendix containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. To which is now first added the following new treatises: sea-bathing, etc / By J. Baker.

  • Buchan, William, 1729-1805
Date:
1809
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine. Or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines : With an appendix containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. To which is now first added the following new treatises: sea-bathing, etc / By J. Baker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    it is furely in the power of every perfon to be clean. The continual difcharge from our bodies by perfpira- tion, renders frequent change of apparel ncceffary. Changing apparel greatly promotes the fecretion from the fldn, fo neceffary for health. When th^at matter which ought to be carried off by perfpiration is either retained in the body, or re-abforbed from dirty clothes, it muff occafion difeafes. Difeafes of the fl<in are chiefly owing to want of cleanliness 'Fhcy may indeed be caught by infec- tion, or brought on by poor living, unwholefome food, &c. but they will feldom continue long where cleanli: nefs prevails. To the famccaufe muft we impute the various kinds of vermin which infefl the human body, houfes, &c., Thefe may alway be banifhed by cleanli- nefs alone, and wherever they abound we may have rea- lon to believe it is neglected. One common caufe of putrid and malignant fevers is the want of cleanlinefs. Thefe fevers commonly begin among the inhabitants of clofe dirty houfes, who breathe unvC'holefome air, take little exercife, and wear dirty clothes. There the infeaion is generally hatched, which often fpreads far and wide to the deftruftion of many. ’ Hence cleanlinefs may be confidered as an ob- jed: of public attention. ‘ It is not fufheient that I be clean myfelf, while the want of it in my neighbour af- fects my health as w^ell as his. If dirty people cannot: be removed as a common miifance, they ought at leaft to be avoided as infeftious. All who regard their healfni fhould keep, at a diflance even from their habitations. In places where great numbers of people are collcdtecl, cleanlinefs becomes of the utmofl importance. Il is wellj known that infefSlious difeafes' are cpmmunicatcd bvi tainted air. Every thing, therefore, which tends toi pollute the air, or fpread the infection, ought with the i Mr. PotL In his surgical observations, rnentlons a disease he calls the chimney sweepers^ cancer, as it is almost peculiar to that unhappy set of people. 'I his he attributes to neglect of ch anli^s', and with great justice. I am convinced, if that pert of ihe bo } vhich is the seatot this cruel disease were kept clean by Ircquc ^vashing, il would never happen.