The practical guide to health : a popular treatise on anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, with a scientific description of diseases, their causes and treatment; designed for nurses and for home use / by Frederick M. Rossiter.

  • Rossiter, Frederick M. (Frederick Magee), 1870-
Date:
[1913], ©1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The practical guide to health : a popular treatise on anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, with a scientific description of diseases, their causes and treatment; designed for nurses and for home use / by Frederick M. Rossiter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    This is in harmony with the theory of those who hold that a reasonably natural and moderate working life exempts from devoting special periods to recreation. Our distin- guished English author, however, thinks differently. He says: — This is said so beautifully, and seems so wise, that it may easily settle down into the mind as a maxim and rule of life. Had we been told in plain prose to take no rest, without the beautiful simile of the star, and without the wise restriction about haste, our common sense would have rebelled at once; but as both beauty and wisdom exist together, in the gem-like stanza, one's judgment remains silent in charmed acquiescence. Let us ask ourselves, however, about this stellar exam- ple, whether man is naturally so constituted as to be able to imitate it. A planet moves without haste, because it is incapable of excitement; and without rest, because it is in- capable of fatigue. A planet makes no effort, and encoun- ters no friction or resistance of any kind. Man is so consti- tuted as to feel frequently the stimulus of excitement, which immediately translates itself either into actual acceleration, or into the desire for acceleration,— a desire which can not be restrained without an effort. Whatever man under- takes to do, he encounters friction and resistance, which, for him, always sooner or later inevitably induce fatigue. Man is neither constituted like a star nor situated like a star, and it is not possible for him to exist as1 stars exist. If you will have a model for your living, take neither the stars, for they fly without ceasing, nor the ocean that ebbs and flows, nor the river that can not stay; but rather, let your life be like that of the summer air, which has times of noble energy and times of perfect peace. It fills the sails of ships upon the sea, and the miller thanks it on the breezy uplands; it works generously for the health and wealth of all men, yet it claims its hours of rest. * I have