Volume 1

Health lectures for the people.

Date:
1883-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health lectures for the people. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/896 (page 3)
    selfish, but my impression is that the selfishness is utterly on the other side; that when people neglect to take care of their bodies, it is from indifference and ignorance that they do it. My impres- sion is, that idleness, indifference, and ignorance, are selfish, and therefore that there is little selfishness in taking care of our bodies, even if we are only looking after ourselves. There is little heroism in running needless risks. Let me take a case. The child of a Princess was suffering from diphtheria. The Princess took no precaution, and, with a certain heroism, kissed the child, caught the disease, and died. Now, did that Princess do her duty] I venture to think not. It is the duty of a mother to take care of her own health, for the sake of all those to whom she is dear; and, like all other duties, it calls for heroism, and for heroism of a higher kind, not to give way to the impulse of the moment. We could not but admire the Princess for what she did, but precisely because her action commands our admiration; on that very ground, I venture to say that it was not the truest duty that could have been performed under such circumstances. I have taken the strongest case I could find against my pro- position, because the sympathies of all will be for the mother. If we, then, owe this duty to ourselves, to look after* our own bodies, how much more do we owe the duty to others to take care of their health? We all know that we must take care of the minds and of the souls of our children, but we must also take care of their bodies, for all those arguments I have used with reference to ourselves apply with tenfold force to those under our charge. There are many ways in which this can be done, even by the poorest—choice of nourishment, the amount of sleep, the air they breathe, danger from infection;—all these things can be looked after to some extent by all, and it is the duty of all when they know what to do, to do it. Presh knowledge imposes fresh duties, and no one who attends the course to be delivered here, will go away without having been subjected to fresh duties. When they knov\ then they must do, and that is the reason why I ask you to cou.e here.