The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe.

  • Combe, Andrew, 1797-1847.
Date:
1860
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to patient the seeds of so intractable a malady. It appears to be produced by the introduction into the system of corrupt animal matter, which may be derived either from the diseased living body, or from one already dead. Hence practitioners of this branch of the medical art should guard against every possible source of contamina- tion, and not merely adopt precautions when they have been engaged in the treatment of a puerperal case. In looking forward to a still greater diminution of disease in the human family, it is cheering to fix attention on what has already been accom- plished by the hand of authority. Had the same persons who circum- navigated the globe with Cook, or braved the northern winters v^^ith Eoss and Parry, been left for an equal number of years to undergo the ordi- nary vicissitudes of life at home, un- restrained in their inclinations and conduct by the constantly operating and beneficent influence of a superior mind, it is morally certain that dis- ease and death would have made greater havoc among them than was actually the case, amidst physical pri- vations and sufferings much greater than they were likely to have ever encountered at home. This, then, is additional evidence of the pressing necessity for diffusing widely that species of knowledge which has proved so beneficial in the hands of those who were fortunate enough to possess it. If human health and happiness be thus effectually promoted by in- creased attention to the conditions which affect the vital and animal functions, nothing can be more use- ful than to communicate to every in- telligent person such a measure of knowledge as will enable him to do for his own safety and improvement that which the Government now does for the benefit of those whose services it requires. It cannot be too much impressed upon the mind, that health is the NATURAL AND INTENDED CONDITION OF THE HUMAN BODY, and that all deviations from this state must arise from causes having their origin in human ignorance or neglect; disease being the evil consequence attached by an all-wise Creator to wilful or ignorant disregard of those laws which have been established by Him as essential to human health and happi- ness.^ Even countries which are esteemed unhealthy by Europeans owe their bad character, in no small degree, to an ignorant deviation from the habits of the natives. The climate of India, says Colonel Sykes, *' is less to blame than individuals; for in case foreigners find the people in a country healthy, they should to a cer- tain extent conform to the habits of the natives to be healthy also.t Niebuhr the traveller, in the pre- face to the German, edition of his Description of Arabia, makes some ob- servations which pointedly illustrate this remark. Although, says he, our little company was almost wholly destroyed by death, yet I do not think that others ought to be de- terred, on this account, from travel- ling in Arabia. It would be an error to suppose that my companions were hurried off by contagious diseases because they died so rapidly one after another. I am much more of the opinion that our diseases were our own fault; and, consequently, that others may easily guard against them. Our company was too large to submit readily, at first, to live according to the customs of the country. At dif- ferent times we could obtain no fer- mented or strong liquors, to which we were regularly accustomed; and yet we continued constantly to eat meat, which is regarded in all warm countries as very unhealthy. The cold evening air was so pleasant to us after the hot days, that we exposed ourselves to it too much. We ought also to have been more attentive to the very perceptible difference of tem- perature, between the mountainous regions and the lower plains. We * On this subject, see Brit, and For. Med.- Cliir. Rev., Jan. 1850, p. 223. t Journal of the Statistical Society, vol. x. p. 124.