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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    ® but, at the end of a longer period, the difference was striking enough. Thus encouraged, the author con- tinued true to his own principles, and in resisting every temptation to which improving health exposed him: and the ultimate result has been that every successive year from 1832 up to the present time, 1841, has, with one or two exceptions, found him more healthy and vigorous than before, and that many of his professional friends, who long regarded his partial convalescence as destined to be of very brief duration, cannot yet refrain from an expression of surprise on observing it to be still per- ceptibly advancing at the end of ten years. The author now publishes this example, both because, as an illustration of the advantages of acting 1n accord- ance with the laws of our nature, it is as instructive as any with which he is acquainted, and because it striking- ly shews the gradual accumulation of almost impercepti- ble influences operating surely though slowly in restor- ing him to a degree of health and enjoyment which has richly repaid him for all its attendant privations. Had he not been fully aware of the gravity of his own situa- adaptation of the physiological laws to carry on the ma- chinery of life, disposed to place implicit reliance on the superior advantages of fulfilling them as the direct dic- tates of Divine Wisdom, he never would have been able to persevere in the course chalked out for him, with that ready and long enduring regularity and cheerfulness which have contributed so much to their successful ful- filment and results. And, therefore, he feels himself entitled to call upon those who, impatient at the slow- ness of their progress, are apt after a time to disregard all restrictions, to take a sounder view of their true po- sition, to make themselves acquainted with the real dic- tates of the organic laws, and, having done so, to yield them full, implicit, and persevering obedience, in the certain assurance that they will reap their reward in renewed health, if recovery be still possible ; and if not, that they will thereby obtain more peace of mind and bodily ease than by any other means which they can use. From the preceding explanation of the slow but gra- dually increasing effect of both noxious and healthful influences on the human body, it is obvious that while we cannot infer from a single application of a remedy or single fulfilment of a physiological law being unpro- ductive of an instantly perceptible result, that it is therefore of no use; neither ought we to infer that be- cause a single excess of any kind does not produce a di- rect attack of disease, it is therefore necessarily harm- less; for it is only when the noxious agent is very powerful indeed that its deleterious influence on the system becomes instantly sensible. In the great majo- rity of situations to which man is exposed in social life, it is the continued or the reiterated application of less powerful causes which gradually, and often impercepti- bly, unless to the Vigilant eye, effects the change, and ruins the constitution before danger is dreamt of; and hence the great mass of human ailments is of slow growth, and slow progress, and admits only of a slow cure. Whereas those which are suddenly induced by violent causes, are urgent in their nature and rapid in their course. And yet so little are we accustomed to trace diseased action to its true causes, and to distinguish between the essential and the accidental in the list of consequences, that, as already observed, if no glaring mischief has followed any particular practice, within at most twenty-four hours, nine out of ten individuals will be found to have come to the conclusion that it is per- fectly harmless, even where it is capable of demonstra- tion that the reverse is the fact. The benevolence and wisdom of this arrangement are very conspicuous. There are many casual influences from the agency of which man will never be able entire- ly to protect himself. If they are speedily withdrawn from him, the slight disorder which they produce quickly ceases, and health remains essentially undisturbed. But, if they be left in operation for a considerable length of time, the derangement which they excite gradually and slowly increases, till at last a state of disease becomes established, which requires an equally long or longer period, ‘and a steady observance of the laws of health, for its removal. Such is the history of the rise and progress of most of the ailments which afflict the human family, and the source of the grand distinction between acute and chronic diseases. We are apt to wonder that a severe disease like inflammation should run its course in a few days, while dyspeptic and nervous ailments require months for their cure. But our wonder is diminished when we attend to the fact, that the one generally dates its rise from a strong cause applied within perhaps a few hours or a few days ; while the others are the slow and gradual results of months or years of previous anxiety or neglect of dietetic rules and exercise, during which the ailment was maturing unnoticed and unsuspected. Had the real state of the matter been early perceived, and the causes been removed, the dyspeptic and the nervous invalids would have regained health and serenity in proportion- In such cases, Nature kindly allows some latitude of ac- tion free of serious penalty, as if on purpose to protect us from being hurt by such occasional exposure as we are necessarily subjected to by the ordinary vicissitudes of life; but it is always on condition of returning to-obe- dience the moment the necessity is over. If we pre- sume on the indulgence being permanent, the evil accu- mulates, and health is destroyed; but if we return in time to the right path, little inconvenience results. Where, however, the injurious influences are of a more energetic kind, equal latitude of exposure is obviously incompatible with safety. Were they not to enforce im- mediate notice, our corporeal organs might be irrecover- ably altered by disease before we took the alarm, and it is therefore the purest benevolence to attach immediate suffering to them, in order to ensure that instant atten- In chronic or slowly arising diseases, then, the sepa- ration of the effect from its cause is only apparent and not real, and in practice it is essential to keep this in mind, A fit of insanity, for example, is often said to have come on without any cause, when, on minuter exa-\ mination, causes can be easily traced operating through many previous months, only not of so violent a nature as to have at once upset reason, and the same will be found to hold in almost all those slow and insidious ill- nesses which so often bafie our best efforts ; and although at present we cannot always discover their true origin, it is clear that we shail ultimately succeed much better or attention can ever explain. . It is this apparent but unreal separation of the effect from its cause which has given rise to the variety of opi- nions entertained in regard to the qualities of the same agents, and which has, perhaps, tended more than any preserving health; and yet this very variety is a proof at once of the absence of sound views of our own nature, and of the urgent necessity of possessing them. In so- ciety, accordingly, nothing is more common than to hear the most opposite opinions expressed in regard to the evils or advantages of particular kinds of clothing, food, and exercise. One person will affirm, with perfect sin- cerity, that flannel is pernicious, because it irritates the skin, and uniformly causes an eruption over the whole body ; and that linen or cotton is an excellent article of dress, because it produces no such consequences. An- other will tell us, with equal truth, that flannel is a capi- tal thing, because it is pleasant to the feeling, and affords