Domestic medicine and hygiene : being a short account of the more common diseases, their causes and treatment, written in plain language / by William J. Russell.

  • Russell, William J.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine and hygiene : being a short account of the more common diseases, their causes and treatment, written in plain language / by William J. Russell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    jurious, and it is to be preferred only when it is admin- istered in positive disease and under medical direction. Exercise.—All employed in sedentary occupa- tions should endeavour to have at least one hour a day in the open air either walking or riding, or, if this is impracticable, to use light dumb bells or practise gymnastics. Any action which quickens the breath- ing and pulse is exercise: the object being to eliminate the waste products from the blood by means of the lungs. Where too much food and too little exercise are taken, part of the carbon which ought to have been burnt off from the lungs as carbonic acid is stored up as fat, and often in the wrong place, as seen in the fatty livers of the Strasbourg geese used to make the famous pate de foie gras. For the weak and those above middle age exercise should be gentle and with rests, and not carried so far as to give a lasting sense of fatigue. After severe and long- continued exertion, the next meal should be light and digestible, and in continuous exertion for many hours light digestible food should be given every two hours to keep a continuous stream of chyle pouring into the blood like the fuel in the furnace of a steam boiler. In very severe exertion the nervous energy is exhausted so far that there is not enough left for proper digestion ; and if food is taken shortly before, the sudden demand for nervous energy stops diges- tion, or if taken soon after, the want of it prevents digestion, and the food lies fermenting in the stomach and causes irritation, or it may be vomited. Bathing.—The body should be washed all over daily and rubbed dry with a towel. With strong people cold water should be used except in winter, when a little warm should be added to take the chill off. Swimming both washes and exercises, and should be encouraged as much as possible. The length of time in the water varies with the person from one minute to an hour. After coming out of the water