Thomas Garnett

“ From what I have said, it must appear, that life is a forced state, depending on the action of external powers upon the excitability; and that, by their continued action, if they are properly regulated, the excitability will be gradually and insensibly exhausted; and life will be resigned into the hands of him who gave it, without a struggle, and without a groan.
We see then, that nature operates in supporting the living part of the creation, by laws as simple and beautiful as those by which the inanimate world is governed. ”

“ To understand how this happens, let us consider for a moment the nature of heat, and cold.—Heat is one of those stimuli which act upon the excitability, and support life: for if it was totally withdrawn, we should not be able to exist even a few minutes; and cold is only a diminution of heat. When heat is present, in a proper degree, or the atmosphere is about that degree of heat which we call temperate, it just gives such a stimulus, and keeps the excitability exhausted to such a degree, as to preserve the body in health ”

“ But there are many whose occupations oblige them to reside in large towns; they, therefore, should make frequent excursions into the country, or to such situations as will enable them to enjoy, and to breathe air of a little more purity. I say enjoy, for who that has been for some time shut up in the town, without breathing the pure air of the country, does not feel his spirits revived the moment he emerges from the azote of the town. ”

“ But, a majority of the diseases to which we are subject, are the effects of our own ignorance or imprudence, and it is often very easy to prevent them; mere precepts however, have seldom much effect, unless the reasoning upon them be rendered evident; on this account, I shall first endeavour, in as plain and easy a manner as possible, to explain to you the laws by which life is governed; and when we see in what health consists, we shall be better enabled to take such methods as may preserve it. Health is the easy and pleasant exercise of all the functions of the body and mind ”

“ The air is the main-spring in the animal machine; the source of heat and activity, without which our blood would soon become a black and stagnant mass, and life would soon stop.
It is now known, that only a part of atmospheric air, is necessary for respiration: the atmosphere near the surface of the earth, consists of two kinds of air; one, which is highly proper for respiration, and combustion, and in which, an animal immersed, will live much longer than in the same quantity of common air; and one, which is perfectly improper for supporting respiration, or combustion, for an instant. ”

“ Night-working is undoubtedly a perversion of the laws of nature, renders the constitution feeble, and lays a foundation for bad health and disease: for it not only gives no time for ventilation, and in consequence the quantity of oxygen becomes more and more exhausted; but the number of candles used, contributes very much to contaminate the air. It has been found by experiment that a candle contaminates more air than a man. ”

“ The proof that these powers do produce the living functions, is in my opinion a very convincing one, namely, that when their actions are suspended, the living functions cease; take away, for instance, heat, air, and food from animals, and they soon become dead matter, and it is not necessary that an animal should be deprived of all these to put a stop to the living functions; if any one of them be taken away, the body sooner or later becomes dead matter: it is found by experience, that if a man be deprived of air, he dies in about three or four minutes ”

“ So long as that person continues in the cold air, he feels no bad effects; but if he come into a warm room, he first perceives a glow within his nostrils and breast, as well as all over the surface of the body. Soon afterwards, a disagreeable dryness and huskiness will be felt in the nostrils and breast. By and by a short, dry, tickling cough comes on. He feels a shivering, which makes him draw nearer to the fire, but all to no purpose; the more he tries to heat himself, the more chill he becomes. ”

“ Nothing is more common than to see, even very young children come to the table after dinner, to drink a glass of wine. The least quantity produces violent effects on their accumulated excitability, and by quickly exhausting it, ruins their constitutions through life, and often renders them habitual drinkers.
I can scarcely help attributing in some degree the many stomach complaints we meet with, among young people in the present age, and which were unknown to our forefathers, to the abominable practice of suffering children to drink fermented, or spirituous liquors. ”

“ When a person has been exposed to a severe degree of cold for some time, he ought to be cautious how he comes near a fire, for his excitability will be so much accumulated, that the heat will act violently; often producing a great degree of inflammation, and even sometimes mortification. We may by the way observe, that this is a very common cause of chilblains, and other inflammations. When the hands, or any other parts of the body have been exposed to violent cold, they ought first to be put into cold water, or even rubbed with the snow, and exposed to warmth in the gentlest manner possible. ”

“ In this lecture, I shall not attempt to teach you to become your own physicians, for when the barriers of health are once broken down, and disease has established itself, it requires the deepest attention, and an accurate acquaintance with the extensive science of medicine, to combat it; to attain this knowledge demands the labour of years. ”

“ We likewise see plants in the spring, while the exciting powers have acted on them, moderately, and for a short time, arrayed in their verdant robes, and adorned with flowers of "many mingling hues;" but, as the exciting powers which support the life of the plant, continue to be applied, and some of them, for instance heat, as the summer advances become increased, they first lose their verdure, then grow brown, and at the end of summer cease to live; because their excitability is exhausted by the long continued action of the exciting powers ”

“ Of all the various methods of preserving health, and of preventing diseases, which nature has suggested, there is none more efficacious than exercise; it puts the fluids all in motion, strengthens the solids, promotes perspiration, and occasions the decomposition of a larger quantity of atmospheric air in the lungs. ”

“ Colds would be much less frequent, were we to take more pains to accommodate our dress to the season: if we were warmly clothed in cold weather, our excitability would not be accumulated by the action of the cold. If a greater proportion of females fall victims to this disease, is it not because, losing sight, more than men, of its primary purpose, they regulate their dress solely by fantastic ideas of elegance? ”

“ All the mischief is here caused by the violent action of the heat on the accumulated excitability. For want of a knowledge of this law, these disagreeable, and often dangerous complaints are brought on; when they might be avoided with the greatest ease.
When you take a ride into the country on a cold day, you find yourselves very cold; as soon as you go into a house, you are invited to come to the fire, and warm yourselves; and what is still worse, to drink something warm and comfortable, to keep out the cold, as the saying is. ”

“ PREFACE. Most medical gentlemen will, it is supposed, agree that the greater part of the numerous train of diseases to which their patients are subject, have been brought on by improper conduct and imprudence. That this conduct often proceeds from ignorance of its bad effects, may be presumed; for though it cannot be denied that some persons are perfectly regardless with respect to their health, yet the great mass of mankind are too sensible of the enjoyment and loss of this greatest of blessings, to run headlong into danger with their eyes open. ”

“ But the softness and effeminacy of modern manners, has both deprived us of our natural defence against the diseases most incident to our climate, and subjected us to all the inconveniencies of a warm one.
People are afraid of going out into the cold air; but if they conduct themselves properly afterwards, they will never be in the least danger from it. Indeed the action of cold, unless it be excessive, never produces any bad effects. ”

“ Though the eye has been so dazzled by the splendour of light, that it cannot see an object moderately illuminated, yet, if it be shut for some time, the excitability of the optic nerve accumulates again, and we are again capable of seeing with an ordinary light.
We find, that we are not always equally capable of performing the functions of life. When we have been engaged in any exertion, either mental or corporeal, for some hours only, we find ourselves fatigued, and unfit to pursue our labours much longer ”

“ The earth must be laboured before it gives its increase, and when it is forced into its several products, how many hands must they pass through before they are fit for use? Manufactures, trade, and agriculture, naturally employ more than nineteen parts of the species out of twenty; and as for those who are not obliged to labour by the condition in which they are born, they are more miserable than the rest of mankind, unless they indulge themselves in that voluntary labour which goes by the name of exercise. ”

“ Here then, dead matter, when applied to a living body, produces living functions; for if the heat had not been applied, the snake would have continued senseless, and apparently lifeless. In more perfect animals, the effects produced by the action of dead matter on them, are more numerous, and are different in different living systems, but are in general the following—sense and motion in almost all animals, and in many the power of thinking, and other affections of the mind. The powers, or dead matters, which are applied, and which produce these functions, are chiefly, heat, food, and air. ”

“ If you handle some snow with one hand, while you keep the other in your bosom, that it may be of the same heat as the body, and then bring both within the same distance of the fire, the heat will affect the cold hand infinitely more than the warm one. ”

“ Let us next consider what happens with respect to heat; if heat be for some time abstracted, the excitability accumulates; or in other words, if the body be for some time exposed to cold, it is more liable to be affected by heat, afterwards applied; of this also you may be convinced by an easy experiment—put one of your hands into cold water, and then put both into water which is considerably warm; the hand which has been in cold water, will feel much warmer than the other. ”

“ When dead matter acts upon dead matter, the only effects we perceive are mechanical, or chemical; for though there may appear to be other kinds of attraction, or repulsion, such as electric and magnetic, yet these come under the head of mechanical attraction, as producing motion; we may therefore lay it down as a law, that when dead, or inanimate bodies act upon each other, no other than mechanical, or chemical effects are produced ”

“ Perhaps there would be scarcely such a thing as a bad cold, if people, when they found it coming on, were to keep cool, and avoid wine and strong liquors, and confine themselves for a short time to a simple diet of vegetable food, drinking only toast and water. Instances are by no means uncommon, where a heat of the nostrils, difficulty of breathing, a short, tickling cough, and other symptoms, threatening a violent cold, have gone off entirely in consequence of this plan being pursued. ”

“ Be therefore temperate in eating, and eat only of such foods as are the plainest; and let a proper quantity of vegetable food be mixed with animal. If you value the preservation of health, never satiate yourselves with eating; but let it be a rule from which you ought never to depart, always to rise from table with some remains of appetite: for, when the stomach is loaded with more food than it can easily digest, a crude and unassimilated chyle is taken into the blood, pregnant with diseases. ”

“ THE greatest blessing we enjoy is health, without it, wealth, honors, and every other consideration, would be insipid, and even irksome; the preservation of this state therefore, naturally concerns us all. ”

“ Life then, or those functions which we call living, are the effects of certain exciting powers, acting on the excitability, or property distinguishing living from dead matter. When those effects, namely, the functions, flow easily, pleasantly, and completely, from the action of the exciting powers, they indicate that state which we call Health. ”

“ When you come out of a very cold atmosphere, you should not at first go into a room that has a fire in it, or if you cannot avoid that, you should keep for a considerable time at as great a distance from the fire as possible, that the accumulated excitability may be gradually exhausted, by the moderate and gentle action of heat; and then you may bear the heat of the fire without any danger: but, above all, refrain from taking warm or strong liquors while you are cold. ”

“ The idea that it assists digestion, is false; those who are acquainted with chemistry know, that food is hardened, and rendered less digestible by these means, and the stimulus which wine gives to the stomach is not necessary, excepting to those who have exhausted the excitability of that organ by the excessive use of strong liquors. In these. The stomach can scarcely be excited to any action without the assistance of such a stimulus. If food wants diluting, water is the best diluent, and will prevent the rising, as it is called, of strong food, much better than wine or spirits. ”

“ On the contrary, if the atmosphere contained a much less proportion of vital air, it would not stimulate the body sufficiently; the excitability would morbidly accumulate, and diseases of debility would occur.
Combustion, putrefaction, and the breathing of animals, are processes which are continually diminishing the quantity of vital air contained in the atmosphere; and if the all-wise author of nature had not provided for its continual re-production, the atmosphere would in all probability have long since become too impure to support life ”