Outlines of general pathology / by George Freckleton.

  • Freckleton, George.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of general pathology / by George Freckleton. 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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    use of any one particular kind. A due and just admixture of the several species of simple food, is best suited to the full and healthy nutrition of the body, and the diet should be varied according to circumstances, as age, mode of life, occupation, &c. The meal which would be more than enough for one living in ease and quiet, would but ill suffice to allay the craving appetite of a stout labour- ing man. Any excess in diet is bad, for although occasional ones may be committed with impunity, any long perseverance in them would be attended with serious effects. Any defect in diet, either in quality or in quantity, is also injurious, and each of these errors gives predispositions to particular classes of disease. Strong and high seasoned meats, especially in great variety, not only in them- selves are injurious, but, from the temptation which they afford to partake of many, and to eat much more than is sufficient to allay the appetite, prove still more hurtful. In this way, in persons who naturally would be considered free from any such liability, a pre- disposition may be acquired to gout and apoplexy, which, in some instances, may be so strong, that the slightest exciting causes will induce an attack. The habitual use, to any excess, of the different intoxicating liquors which have long been the bane, and in many instances the curse of society, is even more dangei'ous than exces- sive indulgence in eating. It has been remarked by authors, that in Persia, where they follow strictly the law of Mohammed, and religiously abstain from wine, gout and calculous diseases are so rare as almost to be unknown, while on the contrary, they arc very common in wine districts. Bruce found the stone a very rare disease on the borders of the Nile, in Egypt, in Arabia, in Abys- sinia, and in the kingdom of Sennaar. He speaks, however, of an aga, whom he treated for a nephritic attack, and this man was a great drinker. Not only should great attention be paid to the various ingesta, but also to the egesta of the body. Slight changes may take place in the different evacuations, and no inconvenience be perceived. But if for any length of time they are scanty, and not proportioned to the quantity of food taken, and to the wants of the system, a degree of plethora will be produced, and a predisposition given to diseases consequent upon such a state. If, on the contrary, they are very copious, and sufficient nourishment is not afforded to the body, a train of opposite diseases may be the consequence. The excess or suppression of natural or artificial evacuations may pro- duce the same effect. In some cases, the regular occurrence of these evacuations may even produce a plethoric state. For the system having become habituated to them, lays up a store, as it were, to supply this evacuation, either by diminishing the others, or by assimilating to itself a greater proportion of the aliments, and thus the very means which may have been employed to prevent, may produce the effect wished to be avoided; as for instance, the habitual recourse which people often injudiciously have to bleed- ing and purgatives.