A treatise on the stomach and its trials / by J.C. Eno.

  • Eno, J. C.
Date:
[1870?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the stomach and its trials / by J.C. Eno. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    44/82 (page 42)
    health, so prolific of disease, is not generally occasioned so mnch by too great an expenditure of vitality, as by an insufficient supply of vital materials, in the form of good food and good digestion. Invalids might expend much more than they now do with impunity, either mentally or muscularly, provided they kept the maintenance of the due relative pro¬ portion between supply and waste, according as the body is adolescent, adult, or aged. The proper performance and balance of these functions constitutes Health. It is the equilibrium of the conservative and de¬ structive powers—of the vital power or affinity, on the one hand, which is perpetually depositing, in the solid organism, the new materials of growth and strength, the nutritious elements of the blood; and of the destructive power of oxygen, on the other hand, its chemical affinity for the same tissues, which tend to break them down, and to carry them out of the system. There is an alternate predominance of the vital and chemical affinities; the vital affinity tending to retain the elements of the body, and the chemical affinity to decompose and remove them. MODES OF TREATING CONSUMPTION. When the disease has taken up its abode in the lungs, a favourite remedy of late years with physicians has been a change of clime ; sea voyages and warm sea-air are also recommended. But the statistics of several States show that the ratio of deaths by consumption is about the same in the inland and hilly parts of the country as on the sea-board. Dr. Hall has examined into this matter, and he affirms that 1 all ex¬ patriation is vain,’ that 4 our own island contains every various advan¬ tage of air, from Devon (where the roses bloom in winter), to parts of Scotland, which, for bracing air, rival the Pole.’ Residence in Italy is a perfectly futile resource for the consumptive. The bills of mortality show how fatal decline is in that climate. In no part of France is the disease more prevalent than among the natives of Montpellier. Of Nice, M. Yallery says: 4 It hastens the end of persons attacked by pulmo¬ nary consumption.’ Sir James Clark says: 4 That a warm climate is not in itself beneficial, is shown from the fact that the disease exists in all latitudes. In India and Africa, tropical climates, it is as frequent as in Europe and North America.’ The effect of sending patients from the comforts of home to a foreign land is thus forcibly depicted by Dr. Renton: 4 As regards the influence of clime, much diversity of opinion exists. Consumptive pa¬ tients seldom endure longer than three or four months in Italy. Out of forty-seven patients sent to the isle of Madeira, thirty-two died within six months after their arrival, six after the second winter’s trial, and six after their return to England. It has even become a remark among the