On diseases of the mucous membrane of the throat, and their treatment by topical medication / by William R. Wagstaff.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On diseases of the mucous membrane of the throat, and their treatment by topical medication / by William R. Wagstaff. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    to become morbidly altered by the influence of a sudden change of temperature, or an expo- sure to the moist and cold atmosphere to which allusion has just been made. In such an in- stance climate would be the exciting and not the predisposing cause. Among these predis- posing causes, general debility of the system, severe and protracted mental labour, a seden- tary mode of life, continuous confinement to the house, and the wearing of high, close- fitting, and warm neck-cloths or furs are the most prominent. Few causes have a more powerful tendency to depress the vital energies, to weaken the nervous system, and to dispose the organs to take on diseased action, than an intense ap- plication of the powers of the mind, united with considerable mental disquietude. Per- sons whose position in life imposes upon them the most arduous mental duties, for which they are able to obtain so slight a pecuniary remu- neration, that with the most rigid economy it is found barely adequate to supply themselves and those dependent upon them with the ne- cessaries of life, become the easy and almost certain prey to disease.