A treatise on domestic medicine : pointing out, in plain language, and as free from professional terms as possible, the nature, symptoms, causes, probable terminations, and treatment of all diseases incident to men, women, and children, in both cold and warm climates : as also, appropriate prescriptions in English, and the doses of medicine which are suitable to different ages : including likewise effectual means for preventing the extension of all infectious diseases, and annihilating the power of every kind of contagion, and rules for enabling Europeans who visit a warm climate to escape the yellow fever, and long enjoy a good state of health / by Robert Thomas.

  • Thomas, Robert, 1753-1835.
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on domestic medicine : pointing out, in plain language, and as free from professional terms as possible, the nature, symptoms, causes, probable terminations, and treatment of all diseases incident to men, women, and children, in both cold and warm climates : as also, appropriate prescriptions in English, and the doses of medicine which are suitable to different ages : including likewise effectual means for preventing the extension of all infectious diseases, and annihilating the power of every kind of contagion, and rules for enabling Europeans who visit a warm climate to escape the yellow fever, and long enjoy a good state of health / by Robert Thomas. 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.)

    20/508
    cold phlegmatic habits, where the digestion is weak, they have been recommended as very beneficial. Fish readily run into a putrid state, and, in this condition, are particularly unwholesome. Those that are caught in salt water are more nutritious than those which are taken from ponds and lakes; and such as contain the least fat or oily particles, are light- est, and most readily assimilated. The white sorts of fish, such as whiting, flounders, smelts, perch, haddock, turbot, and soals, may be considered as the lightest, most readily digested, and whole- some ; but the viscid kinds, such as eels, salmon, trout mackerel, and herrings, are apt to sit heavy on the stomach, and, therefore, when this organ is weakened, they may be likely to disagree, and prove somewhat prejudicial. The same objections may be addu- ced against salted fish as were before alleged against meats which have been salted. The preserving material not only deprives them of their nutritious juices, but hardens their fibres, and im- pregnates them with an excess of salt, beyond what is adapted to the operations of the stomach. Shell-fish, when perfectly fresh, form an agreeable article of diet, particularly oysters ; but they soon become tainted, and then are very apt to occasion surfeits, nettle rash, and erysipelas. With respect to sauces, these are much used, not only for ren- dering our aliment (particularly fish) more agreeable to the palate, but for the purpose of stimulating the appetite. By their aid, possibly digestion may also be somewhat assisted, if they are used moderately. Many of them are composed of vegetable acids, such as lemons, limes, Seville oranges, or vinegar, and not only give a relish to our food, but correct its tendency to rancidity. A good appetite, however, requires no sauce. Spices and aromatics, such as the different species of pepper, &c. although they contain no nutritive qualities, may probably be of service in assisting the digestion of our food, if used with mo- deration, and particularly in warm climates, where their stimulating effects on the stomach are more required; but, when used to ex- cess, they destroy by insensible degrees the tone of the stomach and intestinal canal. In all febrile and inflammatory complaints, they ought scrupulously to be avoided. Cheese is introduced at most tables after dinner, under the sup- position that it assists the stomach in digesting other matters, although it is itself digested with some difficulty. Cheese, by be- ing toasted, becomes very unwholesome, as its difficulty of diges- tion is very much increased thereby, and when taken in this state for supper, which is done by many, is very likely to prove injuri- ous. The newer and poorer that cheese is, so much the more difficult of digestion will it prove. Milk is the food destined by nature for the infant period and seems admirably adapted for the use of young children, as well as adults, whose powers of digestion are enfeebled either by dissipa- tion or disease. In its pure state, however, it is apt to disagree