The code of health and longevity, or a general view of the rules and principles calculated for the preservation of health, and the attainment of long life / by Sir John Sinclair.

  • Sinclair, John, Sir, 1754-1835.
Date:
1816
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The code of health and longevity, or a general view of the rules and principles calculated for the preservation of health, and the attainment of long life / by Sir John Sinclair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    nol to be neglected, if the complaint is either violent, or likely to continue. Mr. White strongly recommends a simple remedy, with the strongest conviction of its efficacy, if taken before the disease lias made much progress, namely, frequent draughts of cold fluids, combined with nauseating closes of emetics*. Indeed he has known symptoms of a catarrh, which threatened to be of the most severe nature, entirely removed, by simply drinking three glasses of cold water, at short intervals; and in many parts of England, among the lower order of people, a large glass of cold spring water, taken going to bed, is found to be a success- ful remedy. It is the more necessary to attend to these observations, as external cold generally constitutes the chief exciting cause- of the epidemic, and other prevailing diseases in (ireat Britain. At the same time, distempers of great ma- lignity, are much greater strangers here, than in most countries on the continent. The weather is seldom hot or cold in extremes, being so much tempered by sea winds, which fan the whole circumference of the island. The moisture of the British air also, by its tendency to relax the fibres, promotes growth; and the coldness of the tempera- ture, which seldom prevails to any immoderate height, con- denses the solids and fluids, and strengthens the whole body. Hence, in some measure it is, that the natives of Great Britain, in general, are bigger bodied f, broader chested;};, and more robust than those of most other coun- * The dose recommended by Mr. White, in common cases, is as follows: Take of emetic tartar (antimonium tartar'uatum) four grains; of pure cold water, two pints. Dissolve the emetic Tartar in the water by trituration, of this solution from a quarter to half a pint, may be taken every five or six hours. For other receipts, the work itself must be consulted. f Bisset’s Essay on the Medical Constitution of Great Britain, p. 11, and 12. X The advantage of being broad chested, both for men and other animals, is very great. The size of the lungs depends upon that of the chest, and the quantity of nourishment received by an animal, depends upon the size of the lungs; for, in proportion to those organs, is the quantity of blood conveyed to every pait of the animal. As all the blood passes through the lungs in the course of circulation, before it can be conveyed to the different parts of the body, the animal, therefore, can receive no more of this fluid than the ca- pacity of the lungs is capable of transmitting. An animal that has lungs one-tenth part larger than the lungs of another animal, must have one-tenth more blood distributed through the body at each complete circulation, which consequently, must make a material difference in the quantity of nourish- ment with which that animal is supplied. This is the opinion of that res- pectable surgeon, Mr. Cline, and seems to be confirmed by experience, as the broadest chested men are always the strongest; and in regard to animals, those which have the broadest chests uniformly get the soonest fat, from the greater quantity of nourishment they receive.