The influence of civic life, sedentary habits, and intellectual refinement, on human health, and human happiness : including an estimate of the balance of enjoyment and suffering in the different gradations of society / by James Johnson, Esq. surgeon to His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence.

  • Johnson, James, 1777-1845.
Date:
[1820]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of civic life, sedentary habits, and intellectual refinement, on human health, and human happiness : including an estimate of the balance of enjoyment and suffering in the different gradations of society / by James Johnson, Esq. surgeon to His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    45/118
    returning to town, can doubt that a heavy tax is levied on the health of man in civic society ! Its most visible effects are depicted in the com- plexion, which is pale and eranguious ; and this uniformly obtains wherever man is excluded from the pure breath of heaven. Its influence then on the digestive organs, through the medium of the skin (between which and the stomach, liver, and other internal organs, there is a most intimate sym- pathy) must be great, and really is so. The whole digestive apparatus is enfeebled in function, partly through the medium of the skin, and partly through the influence of that nervous depression whicli re- sults from the inhalation of a civic atmosphere, and exerts a most powerful effect on the digestive or- gans. It is a source of great satisfaction to the philan- thropist to see that the construction of modern streets, and of modern houses, is well calculated to obviate the effects of contaminated air, and ensure a free ventilation. Every citizen, and particularly every valetudinarian, should endeavour, if possible, to em- erge from the confines of the smoke once a day, were it for ever so short a time, and enjoy the air and exer- F