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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    fluence of the sun. A bed-room ought to be well ventilated in the day time, as it is principally occupied in the night, when all the doors and windows are shut. The windows should be kept open as much as the season will admit of, during the day ; and sleep will pro- bably be more beneficial, in proportion as this rule is practised. Indeed, no- thing is more material, not only for in- valids but for persons in health, than the admission of pure air into their bed- rooms by various ways, and in different degrees, according to circumstances. Keeping open the windows of bed- rooms during the night, ought never, however, to be attempted, but with the greatest caution. It is imprudent to sleep in a very warm room, as it makes one faint, and relaxes too much the whole system. Unless there is an apprehension of damp, a bed-room should rarely have a fire in it, as it has a tendency to vi- tiate the air, often fills the room with dust and ashes, and sometimes may be the means of setting the apartment on fire. If a fire is kept in a bed-chamber, the danger arising from a confined room becomes still greater; numbers have been stifled when asleep, by having a fire in a small close apartment. They who live in hot countries ought to be very particular regarding the place they sleep in. The apartment should be roomy, dark, shaded from the rays of the sun and moon; temperate as to heat and cold, and rather inclined to coolness than heat; while a free ad- mission of air is allowed during the day time, the windows should be care- fully closed as soon as the night sets in. It is a good rule for those who are obliged, on account of business, to spend the day in crowded cities, to sleep, if possible, in the country. Breathing fresh air in the night time will, in some measure, make up for the want of it through the day. This practice would have a greater effect in preserving the nealth of those who reside in cities, than is commonly imagined. It is hardly necessary to observe, that in conse- ouence of the chilly air of the first, and the noxious exhalations which fill the second, damp and filthy bed-rooms ought to be particularly avoided, as they are in the highest degree injurious to those who occupy them. DREAMING. Dreaming indicates an imperfect state of sleep, insufficient to produce that degree of refreshment which is es- sential to the maintenance of health. Many dreams, also, are of a peculiarly painful, disagreeable, or disgusting cha- racter ; on these accounts, therefore, dreaming should as much as possible be avoided. Dreams, especially those of a harassing and disagreeable kind, are most generally experienced by per- sons labouring under a state of nervous excitement, produced by indolent and luxurious living—by intemperance, or by the undue indulgence of the passions and other mental emotions. As a ge- neral rule, dreaming may be prevented by whatever causes perfect and unin- terrupted sleep ; such as sufficient ex- ercise during the day, temperance in eating and drinking, a cheerful and contented mind, and the avoidance of late or heavy supper, or of strong tea or coffee during the evening. It is very generally the individual who retires to bed with his stomach overloaded with food, or labouring under irritation from its contents, even when these are mo- derate in quantity, if they be of a very stimulating or indigestible nature, that suffers from attacks of the night-mare, which, independent of the agony they produce, are by no means unattended with danger. It has been presumed, and not without strong probability of truth, that many of the sudden deaths which take place during the night, in persons apparently in the full enjoy- ment of health, are to be attributed to night-mare. The night-mare is a certain uneasy feeling during sleep, as of great anxiety and difficulty of breathing, and of strong but ineffectual efforts to shake off some incumbent pressure, or to relieve one's-self from great inconve- nience. The imagination is generally