[Domestic medicine].

  • Buchan William, 1729-1805.
Date:
[1786+]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Domestic medicine]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    53/812 (page 9)
    If, to the delicacy of mothers, we add the irre- gular lives of tathers, we fliall lee further caufe to believe that children are often hurt by the confti- tution of their pai'ents. A fickly frame may be^ originally induced by hardfhips or intemperance, but chiefly by the latter. It is impolTible that a courfe of vice fiiould not fpoil the bell conftitu- tion : And, did the evil terminate here, it would be a juft punifhment for the folly of the fufferer; but, when once a difeafe is contradled and rivetted in the habit, it is entailed on pofterity. What a dreadful inheritance is the gout, the feurvy, or the kings-evil, to tranfmit to our offspring! How happy had it been for the heir of many a great eftate, had he been born a beggar, rather than to inherit his father’s fortunes at the expence of inheriting his difeales ! h No perfon who labours under any incurable malady ought to marry. He thereby not only fliortens his own lire, but tranfmits mifery to others : But, when both parties are deeply tainted with the fcrophula, the feurvy, or the dike, the effeds muft be ftill worfe. Such will either have no iffqe at all, or thofe whom they have muft be miftrable indeed. Waflt of attention to thefe things, ip forming connedions for life, has rooted out more families than plague, famine, or the Iword*, and, fo long as thefe connedions are formed from mercenary views, the evil will be continued. In our matrimonial contrads, it is amazing fo little regard is had to the heilth and form of the objed.