The elements of modern domestic medicine / by Henry G. Hanchett ; carefully revised by A.H. Laidlaw.

  • Hanchett, Henry Granger, 1853-1918.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of modern domestic medicine / by Henry G. Hanchett ; carefully revised by A.H. Laidlaw. 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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    the vital organs, than at strengthening the muscles, and combined with a rational mode of life in other respects, will accomplish all that is needed. The man who, al- ready exhausted by wearing brain-work, expects to find recuperation in exhausting gymnastic exercises, will find that he is only burning his candle at both ends, al- though his plan, doubtless, will provide his brain with better blood, richer in nourishment than he would other- wise be able to send to it. But it is to be noticed that for the man whose daily duties involve abundance of physical exertion, health requires a certain amount of daily brain exercise of a sturdy and serious character, as certainly as it requires muscle exercise for the brain- worker ; and also that the amount of exercise here ad- vised is but one among a number of elements which must enter into the daily plan of life, if health is to be maintained. Freedom of the body involves a good many considera- tions. Dress is one. With regard to the mechanical im- pediments to muscular activity, the woman's dress is open to criticism more than the man's, not only on account of the compression at the waist and consequent fixation of the abdominal muscles upon whose motion depend, among other things, the activity of the digestive function and the support of the womb; but also on account of the weight, length, and form of skirts, which cling about the legs, drag upon the abdomen and hips, and expose a broad surface to every wind. All these things are hostile to freedom of the body; and hence to health, but they do not by any means end the catalogue of ob- jections to the prevailing style of dress among women.