The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / [Andrew Combe].

  • Combe, Andrew, 1797-1847
Date:
1844
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / [Andrew Combe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ~ fect which constitutes the order of nature” (p. 26). In like manner, Dr Davies, of the East India Company’s mature age, who has been some years at a trade before enlisting, and who has consequently gained some know- ledge of his own constitution, always makes the most valuable soldier, because “he not only conforms with more ease to the system of diet and restraint necessary to subordination, but, having more experience, he is more observant of health, learns sooner how to take care of himself, to avoid or diminish causes of disease, and, when ill, he gives more aid in bringing about a state of convalescence.’ Dr Davies adds afterwards, that this ““ knowing how to manage is an invaluable qualification to a soldier embarking for service in a tropical climate ;” and if it is invaluable to the soldier, it is assuredly not less safe and advantageous to the civilian. If, indeed, ignorance were itself a preventive of the danger, or could provide a remedy when it approached, then it might well be said that “ ignorance is bliss ;”” but as it gives only the kind of security which shutting the eyes affords against the dangers of a precipice, and conse- quently leaves its victim doubly exposed, it is high time tv renounce its friendship and protection, and to seek those of amore powerful and beneficent ally. If ignorance could divest us even of the sense of anxiety attending the apprehension of evil, the consequent tranquillity of mind, deceptive though it were, would be at least some com- pensation for submitting to its rule. But, unhappily, so far from ignorance of the nature and extent of the threatening danger saving us from gloomy anticipations, the fact is notoriously the reverse ; for the darkest pic- ture ever drawn is assuredly that delineated by an ill- directed imagination. Every medical man can testify that, natural character and other circumstances being alike, those whose knowledge is the most limited are the fullest of whims and fancies, the most alarmed at every trifling ailment, the most credulous respecting the efficacy of every senseless and preposterous remedy, the most impatient of restraint, and the most discontented at suffering. There are some, no doubt, whose consti- tutional sensibility prevents them ever controlling their feelings, or being guided by the dictates of reason ; but such persons are comparatively few in number, and even they become more tractable as well as more comfortable in spirit, when their minds are enlightened, and their true situation is distinctly understood. If any of my readers be still doubtful of the propriety or safety of communicating physiological knowledge to the public at large, and think that ignorance is in all circumstances to be preferred, I would beg to ask him whether it was knowledge or ignorance which induced the poorer classes in every country of Asia and of Europe to attempt to protect themselves from cholera, by com- mitting outrages on the medical attendants of the sick,, under the plea of their having poisoned the public foun- tains? And whether it was ignorance or knowledge which prompted the more rational part of the commu- nity to seek safety in increased attention to proper food, warmth, cleanliness, and clothing? In both classes, the desire of safety and the sense of danger were the same, but the modes resorted to by each were as different in kind as in result: the efficiency of the one having formed a glaring contrast to the failure of the other. In thus strongly advocating the benefits to be obtained by the wide diffusion of a general knowledge of the laws of health, I must, however, express my belief that the study of diseases, and their modes of cure, by unprofes- sional persons is not only unprofitable, but often deeply jnjurious—just because such persons cannot possibly pos- sess the collateral knowledge required to form a correct judgment of all the attending circumstances, and are therefore extremely liable to fall into error, where every error is attended with risk. Let us suppose, for ex- ample, what I have seen and what has often happened, that a person of an apprehensive disposition, who has been occasionally subject to palpitation, takes up a me. dical treatise, and there finds that palpitation is a symp- tom commonly present where the heart is diseased. It is almost certain that such-a person will, in his igno- rance, make no farther distinction, but hurry at once to the conclusion that his own heart is affected, and that he must speedily die. The notion being once implanted in his mind, he will become anxious and watchful of every sen- sation, deny himself necessary exercise from fear of over- exertion, and necessary food from fear of a bloodvessel giving way, and in no long time will fall into a state of weakness and disease which will confirm every one of his apprehensions. But had this individual, instead of acting on his own imperfect knowledge, consulted his medical adviser, whose business it is to make himself ac- quainted with the whole of the case, he would have dis- covered immediately that the dreaded source of all this suffering was originally a simple fit of indigestion, which __ nature would have cured in three days, had not the ma~- chine been so perversely deranged by the very want of exercise and food, in which the patient was ignorantly seeking for safety. Even here, be it observed,the dan- ger arises from the incompleteness of the knowledge pos- sessed; and I would condemn the perusal of medical books only because the general reader cannot, except by going through a course of professional study, become ; qualified to make a proper use of their contents. And accordingly it is well known that few students escape fits of hypochondriacal apprehension when they first se- riously enter on the study of diseases; and that they become free from them almost in proportion as their knowledge advances. It is then a most fallacious mode of arguing to contend that, because an imperfect ac- — quaintance with disease is hurtful, a knowledge of the conditions and laws of health must, therefore, be also — prejudicial. ee eee “« CHAPTER II. NATURE AND USES OF PHYSIOLOGY. Physiology, Vegetable, Comparative, and Human.—Animate and Inanimate Bodies.—Objeets of Physiology.—Useful- ness of Physiological knowledge.—lIllustrations.—Physio- logy ought to be a branch of general edueation.—Much suffering arises from its omission.—Proofs and examples of this in infancy, in general society, on ship-board, im fac- tories, and in Parliament.—Leonard Horner’s evidence.— Medical men blameable for the omission—dangerous fallas cies arising out of it.—Physiological knowledge necessary for understanding the causes and cure of disease.—The author’s case a good example of its utility in promoting re- covery.—Slow origin of chronic diseases in continued ne- glect of the organic laws—their cure by continued obe- dience to them.—Practical uses of physiology overlooked even in medical education—great injury thence arising.— — Causes of this oversight.— Quaint description of health and _ its value.—Physiology the basis of all educational measuresy ” and therefore indispensable to teachers and parents, ja ParysioLocy, from éve1s, nature, and Aoyos, discqurse, — signifies literally a discourse about natural powers, but, © as now used, it applies exclusively to the doctrine of the © uses or functions of the different constituent parts of — beings endowed with the principle of life. As applied — to the vegetable kingdom, it is called Vegetable Phy- siology; to the lower animals, Comparative Physiology; _ and to.man, Human Physiology. In all of these in. stances, however, the objects of physiology are the same, | viz. to unfold the mechanism and laws by which the va. rious functions which characterize living bodies are car. ried on, and to explain the manner in which each spe. . cies is fitted for the particular sphere of action in which _ the Creator intended it to exist. The grand mark of distinction between animate and : inanimate bodies, is to be found in the different rales