Handbook of rural sanitary science : illustrating the best means of securing health and of preventing disease / by C.F. Gardner [and others] ... edited by Lory Marsh.

Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of rural sanitary science : illustrating the best means of securing health and of preventing disease / by C.F. Gardner [and others] ... edited by Lory Marsh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    258/284 (page 242)
    also tend to diminish the humidity of the atmo- sphere. On the other hand, water and luxmious vegetation influence a climate in a very material degree. Dryness, a free circulation of air, and a full exposure to the sun, are the material circum- stances to be attended to in choosing a residence. Houses in confined, shady situations, with damp courts or gardens, or standing water adjoining them, are unhealthy in all climates and seasons, more especially in a country subject to intermittent fevers, and during summer and autumn. The source of this fever is often traced to the flat ground on the banks of rivers. It may be observed here that a healthy condition of the digestive organs is the best state of the constitution to overcome disease. The human constitution admits of a more vigorous degree of health than that usually enjoyed by persons living in damp or confined situations. Dys- pepsia, with its headaches, nervous irritability, languor, and depression of spirits, are some of the evils resulting from a residence in unhealthy situa- tions. A removal to a more elevated situation, and a drier, sharper, and a more bracing air, affords a speedy relief. A moist relaxing atmosphere dis- agrees with persons of a torpid or a relaxed habit of body, and of a gloomy, desponding state of mind; while, on the other hand, a keen, bracing, dry air proves favourable in some cases of chronic inter- mittent fever. The genial influence of a mild climate is one of the most powerful means of relief which physicians possess for a broken-down consti- tution.