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.

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    he will show you the actual circulation of the blood by means of very beautiful apparatus. Dr Wilson will lecture on The Lungs. He will speak of the action of the air on the lungs, the kidneys, and the skin. He will say what pure air is, and how bad air acts. He will show how fresh air may be introduced into a poor house without pro- ducing draughts. There is a distinct scientific connection between the want of oxygen in the air and a desire for drink. Sleeping with an insufficient supply of air in a bed-room tends to produce consumption. In Vienna there were two prisons managed by the same authorities, and indeed there was no difference between them, so far as the evidence goes, except that the one was well ventilated and the other not. The result was, that six times as many died from consumption in the one as in the other. From day to day we get fresh facts bearing out this general conclusion, that want of fresh air tends to produce consumption. It is well known that in the ill-built* Highland cottages consumption is exceedingly rare. Some of the proprietors, however, improved the dwellings, and the death rate from consumption rose as soon as good windows and good walls were built. The people slept in close air, and the death rate from consumption immediately increased among the same population. There is no scientific fact better established than the connection between consumption and want of fresh air. I do not, however, ask you to believe that draughts are good, and it will be the duty of the lecturer to show how to avoid them. Dr Annandale will lecture on Accidents and Wounds. He will show that good health lessens the bad effects of accidents, and will give simple rules for emergencies and for nursing. He will also say when it would be best to take an injured person to the Hospital, and when it would be best for him to be taken to his own home. Dr Angus Macdonald has not sent me any notes of his lecture. It is, however, clear that a lecture treating specially of women's health ought to be one of the most valuable of the series. Women often fall into permanent ill health from ignorance of very simple matters, as when, and how far, to walk; how to avoid the