Diseases of winter : on consumption, coughs, colds, asthma, and other diseases of the chest : their remedial and avertive treatment : addressed in popular language to non-medical readers, with copious observations on the diet and regimen necessary for invalids : also an appendix containing two hundred formulae of the latest and most approved remedies, many valuable domestic recipes, and full directions for the practice of inhalation / by R.J. Culverwell.

  • Culverwell, Robert James, 1802-1852.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of winter : on consumption, coughs, colds, asthma, and other diseases of the chest : their remedial and avertive treatment : addressed in popular language to non-medical readers, with copious observations on the diet and regimen necessary for invalids : also an appendix containing two hundred formulae of the latest and most approved remedies, many valuable domestic recipes, and full directions for the practice of inhalation / by R.J. Culverwell. 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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    with all manner of evil, the miracle is not how pulmonary disease should, under such circumstances, be induced, hut rather how it could be otherwise. How little do mothers think, as they bend in anxious solicitude over the sick-bed of a beloved child, that her wasted frame and ruined health are the consequences of parental incaution, the inevitable result of the neg.ect ot clothingin atmospheric alterations, which, instead of prohibiting, she perhaps more than countenanced ! But no man ever yet stemmed the tide by talk- ing; and he may with much about the same success rail against the ordinan- ces of that Moloch—Fashion. If, however, he can not cure the evil, it is no reason why he should not proclaim it; and, if young ladies must be gay on such wise, they ought at least to be made sensible of the costly price of their ecstasies. Nature is wonderfully provident in all her designs ; but, though she permits the African savage to live unclad, it does not follow that our Kamtschatkan brethren may dispense with their furs and fish-skins. We must conform ourselves to the climate we live in, be it torrid or frigid. We have the power of accommodating ourselves to extraordinaiw changes of temperature and condition by degrees ; by degrees, we might accustom our- selves to inspire the fresh breezes of the north-pole with Captain Ross, or to discuss our mutton-chop with M. Chabert, in a baker's oven of 220° Fahr- enheit; yet, when heated to the perspiring point, we dare not suddenly swal- low an ice-cream, but at the body's peril. If we live in a variable climate, we must adapt ourselves to every important atmospheric transition; or the neglect, sooner or later, will inevitably lead to the disturbance of health. There is another point which ought to receive much attention ; namely, the importance of wearing shoes and stockings of stronger material than is generally employed, even though it do somewhat conceal the beauty of a finely-turned ankle. These portions, especially, of a lady's attire are gen- erally far too thin and fragile to resist the cold and damp which so often occur in this climate. There is a wonderful sympathy between the feet and the surface of the body; so that if the former he cold the whole skin is wont to be affected in temperature; and from the consent existing between the skin and lungs, the frequency of coughs, colds, and chest affections, arising from getting wet or damp or cold in the feet, is attributable. In wet or damp weather especial care should therefore be adopted, by wearing leather clogs and thicker stockings, so as not only to prevent the wet, hut to retain the natural heat of the foot. This precaution will be found an effectual an- tagonist to the aggression of colds. The blamable absurdity of sitting in damp shoes or stockings is too proverbial to be dilated upon. It is surely unnecessary for me to go into every particular of common attire; the feelings of every individual, healthy or invalided, will be the best criterion of the description and quantity of clothing most suitable to their condition and to the changes of climate, season, or situation in which thev may find themselves. If they will but pause and reflect awhile, prudence, like the voice of conscience, will whisper what is wisest, and they must be prepared to take the consequence of every violation of its commands. Though insufficient clothing is necessarily attended by evil consequences, we must not proceed to the other extreme, of using an incrdinate quantity of clothing, which is equally pernicious, as tending to relax the system and to produce a vitiated susceptibility to injurious external impressions together with a predisposition to those diseases which most readily attack persons of debilitated constitutions. Too much care, also, can not be taken to avoid alternations of light and heavy clothing; the shocks imparted to the frame by such changes, the sudden chills consequent thereupon, and the checks given to cutaneous perspiration, are dangers of too great importance to be overlooked. The attire should always be adapted to the climate season