The family doctor, or, The home book of health and medicine : a popular treatise on the means of avoiding and curing diseases and of preserving the health and vigour of the body to the latest period : including an account of the nature and properties of remedies, the treatment of the diseases of women and children, and the management of pregnancy and parturition / by a physician of Philadelphia.

  • Horner, William E. (William Edmonds), 1793-1853.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The family doctor, or, The home book of health and medicine : a popular treatise on the means of avoiding and curing diseases and of preserving the health and vigour of the body to the latest period : including an account of the nature and properties of remedies, the treatment of the diseases of women and children, and the management of pregnancy and parturition / by a physician of Philadelphia. 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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    sugar produce effects the more perni- cious, in proportion to the extent to which the stomach has been weakened by previous excesses. After a night spent in punch drinking, a disordered condition of the digestive organs is more generally experienced, and to a greater extent, than after a debauch with any other intoxicating drink. To the sedentary and to dyspeptics, gene- rally, punch will prove a most danger- ous beverage. Cordials, or liqueurs, as they are termed by the French, are formed of distilled spirits, with the addition of su- gar or syrup, and some vegetable aro- matic, as the oil of cloves, cinnamon, roses, anise, and the like, or they are flavoured by the addition of bitter al- monds, bay leaves, peach kernels, and other articles containing a small quan- tity of prussic acid. When drank in moderation, they are apt to disorder the stomach, as well by their stimulat- ing effects, as by the rapidity with which they turn sour after being taken; used habitually, or drank to excess, they produce all the mischief which follows the use of ardent spirits. They have very properly been styled by a witty writer, ' disguised poisons.' INTEMPERANCE. 1 Living fast,' is a metaphorical phrase which, more accurately per- haps than is generally imagined, ex- presses a literal fact. Whatever hur- ries the action of the corporeal func- tions, must tend to abridge the period of their probable duration. Extraordi- nary longevity has seldom been known to occur, excepting in persons whose existence has been tranquil, and their vital energies seldom excited, either by physical or moral agents, beyond the healthy medium. But if intemperance curtailed merely the number of our days, many would have perhaps comparatively little rea- son to find fault with its effects. The idea of a short life and a merry one, is plausible enough, if it could be real- ized. Rut, unfortunately, what shortens existence, is calculated also to make it melancholy and miserable. There is no process by which we can distil life, so as to separate from it all foul or heterogeneous matter, and leave no- thing behind but drops of refined and perfect enjoyment and happiness. It is seldom that debauchery breaks at once the thread of life. There oc- curs, for the most part, a wearisome and painful interval between the first loss of a capacity for enjoying life, and the period of its ultimate and entire ex- tinction. This circumstance, it is to be presumed, is overlooked by those per- sons who, with a prodigality more ex- travagant than that of Cleopatra, dis- solve the pearl of health in the goblet of intemperance. The slope towards the grave is found, by these victims of indiscretion, to be no easy descent. The scene is darkened long before the curtain falls. Having exhausted all that is fine and delightful in the cup of life; they are obliged to swallow afterwards the bitter dregs. Death is the last, but not the worst result of intemperance. Punish- ment, in some instances, treads almost instantly upon the heels of transgres- sion ; at others, it follows with a more tardy, although with an equally certain step, the commission of moral irregula- rity. During the period of a long pro- tracted career of excess, the malignant power of intemperate enjoyment, slow and insidious in its operation, is gnaw- ing incessantly at the root, and often without spoiling the bloom, or seeming to impair the vigour of the frame, is secretly but surely hastening the period of its inevitable destruction. There is no imprudence with regard to health, that does not tell: and they are not unfrequently found to suffer in the event most essentially, who do not ap- pear to suffer immediately from every individual act of indiscretion. The work of decay is, in such instances, constantly going on, although it never loudly indicates its advance by any forcible impression upon the senses. The distinction, although incalcula- bly important, is not sufficiently re- cognized betwixt stimulation and nutri