Domestic medicine; or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines ; With an appendix containing a dispensatory. For the use of private practitioners / [William Buchan].

  • Buchan, William, 1729-1805
Date:
1786
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine; or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines ; With an appendix containing a dispensatory. For the use of private practitioners / [William Buchan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/862 (page 9)
    No perfon who labours under any incurable malady ought to marry. He thereby not only fhortens his own life, but tranfmits mifery to others; Byt, when both parties are deeply tainted with the fcrophula, the fcurvy, or the like, the effects mud be dill worfe. If fuch have any iflue? they mud be miferable indeed, y/ant of attention to thefe things, in forming con- nexions for life, has rooted out more families than plague, famine, or the fword; and, as long as theie connexions are formed from mercenary views, the evil will be continued *. In our matrimonial contra&s, it is amazing fo little regard is had to the health and form of the objeclo Our fportfmen know, that the generous courfer cannot be bred out of the foundered jade, nor the fagacious fpaniel out of the lnarling cur. This is fettled upon immutable laws. The man who mar- ries a woman of a fickly conditution, and defcended of unhealthy parents, whatever his views may be, cannot be faid to ad a prudent part. A difeafed woman may prove fertile j fhould this be the cafe, the family mud become an infirmary : What pro- fped of happinefs the father of fuch a family has? we ftiall leave any one to jud^e f. * The Lacedemonians condemned their king Archidamus for haying married a weak, puny woman, becaufe, faid they, in- head of propagating a race of heroes, you will fill the throne with a progeny of changelings. f The Jews, by their laws, were, in certain cafes, forbid to have any manner of commerce with the difeafed ; and indeed to this all wife legillators ought to have a fpecial regard. In fome countries, difeafed perfons have actually been forbid to marry. This is an evil of a complicated kind, a natural deformity,, and political mifchief 5 and therefore requires a public confideration. ‘ ’ * $UCIJ