Hydropathy for the people : with plain observations on drugs, diet, water, air, and exercise / by William Horsell ; with notes and observations by R.T. Trall.

  • Horsell, William, 1808-1863.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hydropathy for the people : with plain observations on drugs, diet, water, air, and exercise / by William Horsell ; with notes and observations by R.T. Trall. 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.)

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    perpetual pulling down of the old materials, and a perpetual replacement of them by new; by perpetual disorganization, and perpetual reorganization. The first process therefore is, What ? Eating ? No: it is the wasting, the pulling down. You must waste before you can nourish it. Does not the appeftte precede the act of eating? And what is appetite but a sensation that the body has suffered waste, and calling upon us to repair it ? The natural means by which the body is dis- organized are, the exhalations from the lungs, of the several secretions required for the assimilation of our food, as the gastric juice, bile, etc. The natural law, therefore, appears to be, that every one who desires to enjoy the pleasures of health must expend in labor the energy which the Creator has in- fused into his limbs, which he may do in various ways. The penalty for neglecting this law of nature is imperfect digestion and disturbed sleep; debility of body and mental lassitude ; and if carried to a certain length, confirmed bad health and early death. Thus thousands are daily tampering with their health ; aggravating human depravity; creating or increasing disease; and then, laying the blame to Providence, they malign the character of the ever-blessed God. He merely maintains the law of his throne, that cause (the violation of his laws) shall produce effect (disease and early death). As society has not obeyed this law, the consequences are, the higher orders despise labor, and suffer as above; and the lower orders are oppressed with harder living, and more work than their mas- ters' horses, etc., and hence suffer exhaustion; a desire is created for stimulants, such as alcoholic drinks, tea, spices, etc., which produce disease and shorten life. In this we dis- cover the chief sources of disease and premature death. In this we discover also the chief sources of the enormous inequality of the distribution of property—one living, a mass of bloated disease, on, perhaps, £300,000 per annum, while another is doomed to a life of squalid misery, and drags out a wretched existence on some few pounds. And yet we are told these things are ordained by a merciful Providence! Im-