Domestic medicine, or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines : containing observations on the comparative advantages of vaccine inoculation, with instructions for performing the operation, an essay, enabling puptured [sic] persons to manage themselves, with engravings of bandages, which every person may prepare for himself, and a family herbal / by William Buchan, M.D. of the Royal College of Physicians, Edingburgh ; to which are added, such useful discoveries ... as have transpired since the demise of the author.

  • Buchan, William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine, or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines : containing observations on the comparative advantages of vaccine inoculation, with instructions for performing the operation, an essay, enabling puptured [sic] persons to manage themselves, with engravings of bandages, which every person may prepare for himself, and a family herbal / by William Buchan, M.D. of the Royal College of Physicians, Edingburgh ; to which are added, such useful discoveries ... as have transpired since the demise of the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    PART I. Of the General Causes of Diseases. CHAPTER' I. OF CHILDREN. The better to trace diseases from their original causes, we shall take a view of the common treatment of mankind in the state of infancy. In this period of our lives, the foundations of a good or bad constitution are generally laid; it is therefore of importance, that parents be well acquainted with the various causes which may injure the health of their offspring. It appears from the annual registers of the dead, that almost one half of the children born in Great Britain die under twelve years of age. To many, indeed, this may appear a natural evil; but on due examination, it will be found to be one of our own creating. Were the death of infants a natural evil, other animals would be as liable to die young as man; but this we find is by no means the case. It may seem strange that man, notwithstanding his superior rea- son, should fall so far short of other animals in the management of his young; but our surprise will soon cease; if we consider that brutes, guided by instinct, never err in this respect; while man, trusting solely to art, is seldom right. Were a catalogue of those infants who perish annually by art alone exhibited to public view, it would astonish most people. If parents are above taking care of their children, others must be employed for that purpose: these will always endeavour to recom- mend themselves by the appearance of extraordinary skill and ad- dress. By this means such a number of unnecessary and destructive articles have been introduced into the diet, clothing, &c. of infants, that it is no wonder so many of them perish. Nothing can be more preposterous than a mother who thinks it be- low her to take care cf her own child, or who is so ignorant as not to know what is proper to be done for it. If we search Nature throughout, we cannot find a parallel to this. Every other animal IS the nurse of its own offspring, and they thrive accordingly. Were the brutes to bring up their young by proxy, they would share the same fate with those of the human species. Vv'e mean not, however, to impose it as a task upon every mother to juckle her own child. This, whatever speculative writers may allege, is in some cases impracticable, and would inevitably prove B