The Medical adviser and complete guide to health and long life : containing the most plain and easy directions for the treatment of every disorder incidental to the human frame in all its ages / by Alexr. Burnett, M.D.

Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Medical adviser and complete guide to health and long life : containing the most plain and easy directions for the treatment of every disorder incidental to the human frame in all its ages / by Alexr. Burnett, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Sequence of this, a large quantity of viscid blood is collected, and stag- nates in the lungs, which are of a soft and vascular texture; a circum- stance which gives rise to the above mentioned disorders; for a consump- tion, and most of the other disorders to which the English are subject, proceed from repletion, because the inhabitants generally neglect bleeding too much. Besides consumption of the lungs, the rickets are endemial to the English, especially in the western parts. This disorder seizes children, and discovers itself by rendering their heads preternaturally large, their flesh lax and spongious, their abdomens turgid, their eyes prominent, and their bodies weak and crooked. This disorder principally arises from a weak and flaccid state of the nerves and membranes, a defect of spirits, and an unequal distribution of the nutritious juices. Hence it is called rachitis, because its chief seat is thought to be fixed in the spine of the back. At Naples, besides the venereal dis- order, the endemial diseases are red spots on the skin, sometimes dis- appearing, and then breaking out afresh. These spots are ascribed to their houses and aliments. The for- mer of these are lofty and dark, and the latter consist of beef, pork, and cabbage, which the inhabitants feed on in large quantities. The Venetians are subject to the piles, and their several consequences, for which reason, leeches are so much used by them, that they frequently contract fistulas of the anus. The cause of this is justly ascribed to the liberal use of Italian wine. And in general, we may observe, that the inhabitants of those countries in which wines, especially of the sweet kind, are spontaneously produced, are more subject to the bleeding piles, than those who live in barren cli- mates, in which only water and malt liquors are drank; for wines of this kind generate large quantities of blood, and easily throw it into orgasms, or preternatural commotions. There is a species of fever at Rome, principally incident to the priests, nobility, courtiers, young persons, and such as lead an idle and luxurious life, and live in a hot climate; for which reason, it is also endemial in Ethiopia. In persons who lead idle and inactive lives, all rich and de- licate aliments generate large quan- tities of blood, which, producing con- stipation and obstructions of the vis- cera, lay a foundation for various terrible distempers. The epilepsy is very familiar and endemial to the inhabitants of Tuscany; for which reason, they cauterize the heads of new-born children, accord- ing to Malthasar de Vias, in Sylvia Kegia. In Spain the inhabitants are very subject to hypochondriac melancholy, which may be justly ascribed to their indolent and inactive turn, their se- dentary lives, and profound specula- tions: besides, they indulge them- selves too soon in venery, and drink but little wine. Many of their nobility, and those in opulent cir- cumstances, are cut off by apoplexies, which, without doubt, arise from a redundance of blood, generated by their delicate manner of living, their drinking rich and generous wines, and their daily use of chocolate.— But it is remarkable, that the itch and scurvy are not known in Spain, though they daily eat large quantities of fresh pork; for the air of that kingdom is highly subtil and pene- trating, their water pure and light, and the food used without salt. In consequence, therefore, of a free per- spiration, and an open and unob- structed state of the cutaneous pores, the coarse and thick particles of the serum are exhaled, which, when stagnating in the pores and glands of the skin, produce those eruptions that appear in the itch and scurvy. The United Provinces, and espe- cially Holland, are very subject to the scurvy, and it draws its origin partly from their strong food, sea- fishes, and smoaked flesh, and partly from their, dense and moist air, to- gether with their bad water. Besides