A treatise of domestic medicine, intended for families : in which the treatment of common disorders are alphabetically enumerated ; to which is added, a practical system of domestic cookery, describing the best, most economical, and most wholesome methods of dressing victuals ; intended for the use of families who do not affect magnificence in their style of living / by Thomas Cooper, M.D. ; also, The art of preserving all kinds of animal and vegetable substances for many years, by M. Appert.

  • Cooper, Thomas, 1759-1839.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise of domestic medicine, intended for families : in which the treatment of common disorders are alphabetically enumerated ; to which is added, a practical system of domestic cookery, describing the best, most economical, and most wholesome methods of dressing victuals ; intended for the use of families who do not affect magnificence in their style of living / by Thomas Cooper, M.D. ; also, The art of preserving all kinds of animal and vegetable substances for many years, by M. Appert. 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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    a pipe in the lire-place, communicating With the air out of doors. Sheet iron stoves are a convenient method of quickly warming bed-rooms, and apartments not in constant use. It should be inculcated upon the poor, that tight windows, tight doors, and close walls, are great savings in point of health and of fuel. By these means, an uniform tempera- ture may be preserved in apartments, and the maladies arising from exposure to currents of cold air prevented. Floors made of tiles, neatly jointed and painted, such as are common on the continent of Europe, would save trouble, keep longer clean, be safer from fire, and harbour fewer insects, than our boarded floors, and might be made quite as neat, and even ornament- al. Generally, in washing our boarded floors, they are made to soak up dirty, filthy, soapy water : then they are said to be cleaned ! It is not in place here, but I can- not resist the inclination of saying that, for the poor, particularly, broken win- dows, doors that will not shut, air holes in the walls, and open fire-places, are equally unhealthy and uneconomical. They should be taught that, in an ear- then, a brick, or an iron stewing stove, nine inches long or round, and six inch- es across, and five inches deep, like the common cooking holes in a French kitchen, all their boiling, broiling, stew- ing, and frying, can be done with char- coal : and that one dollar in charcoal, will go as far in a kitchen, whether of the poor or the rich, as 4 dollars in wood. Every chimney should be swept monthly. The drier the wood, the more heat and the less smoke it gives. Green wood requires almost its own weight of wood in combustion, to dry it, so as to make it burn. It is the smoke of green wood that makes a chimney foul. The heat and the blaze of an open fire-place, well supplied with fuel, do more damage to the eyes, than any other circumstance I am aware of. 11< ni «• the superiority, in this respect, of stoves. Those who prefer the cheer ful aspect of open fire-places, ought to be aware cf the price they pay for them. Filter all the water you drink. A large tin funnel, with a sponge, will answer the purpose : or filtered through one sponge, the water may fall into a funnel, slightly stopped with another. I consider this as of great importance to health. Where the water is known to con- tain saline matters, not separable by a filter, add to each quart about 4 grains, of supercabonate of potash, a quarter of an hour before you filter it. Small beer, brewed from malt and hops, is an excellent and agreeable beverage : but there is good reason to believe that the ale and the porter commonly sold, is not brewed entirely from malt and hops; but too often con- tains ingredients narcotic and dele- terious. Old whiskey and water, in the pro- portion of 5 water and one spirit, is a beverage not to be found fault with. But if you go on to increase the strength, you incur the hazard of be- coming a sot or a drunkard. I have so often seen this, that I am fully persuaded of it. Whiskey and gin will shew no acidity when paper turned blue by litmus, by violets, by red cabbage juice, by archil, or by cudbear, is dipped into it: nei- ther will the best Cognac brandy : but Spanish brandy, rum, peach whiskey and apple whiskey will turn the blue colour red. Paper thus blued, is a good test of the acidity of wines. Paper thus blued, will also inform you when the perspiration, or other secretions, put on too much of an acid character; in which case, fly to mag- nesia, strong soda water, or Castile soap, for at least 4 days. All old people are subject to ve- nous plethora, from over eating and drinking: the languid circulation and secretions are not competent to the t3sk imposed on them : for what ap