William Buchan

“ This disease seldom fails to be the companion of deep thought. It may rather be called a complication of maladies than a single one. To what a wretched condition are the best of men often reduced by it! Their strength and appetite fail; a perpetual gloom hangs over their minds; they live in the constant dread of death, and are continually in search of relief from medicine, where, alas! it is not to be found. Those who labour under this disorder, though they are often made the subject of ridicule, justly claim our highest sympathy and compassion. ”

“ Hence a repetition of the dose becomes necessary, and every fresh dose makes way for another, till the unhappy wretch becomes a slave to the bottle, and at length falls a sacrifice to what at first perhaps was taken only as a medicine. No man is so dejected as the drunkard when his debauch is gone off. Hence it is, that those who have the greatest flow of spirits while the glass circulates freely, are of all others the most melancholy when sober, and often put an end to their own miserable existence in a fit of spleen or ill humour. ”

“ How many wretched orphans are to be seen embracing dunghills, whose parents, regardless of the future, spent in riot and debauch what might have served to bring up their offspring in a decent manner? How often do we behold the miserable mother, with her helpless infants, pining in want, while the cruel father is indulging his insatiate appetites?
Families are not only reduced to misery, but even extirpated, by intemperance. Nothing tends so much to prevent propagation, and to shorten the lives of children, as the intemperance of parents. ”

“ The abominable custom of filling the cellular membrane of animals with air, in order to make them appear fat, is every day practised. This not only spoils the meat, and renders it unfit for keeping, but is such a dirty trick, that the very idea of it is sufficient to disgust a person of any delicacy at every thing which comes from the shambles. Who can bear the thought of eating meat which has been blown up with air from the lungs of a dirty fellow, perhaps labouring under the very worst of diseases? ”

“ If a girl about this time of life be confined to the house, kept constantly sitting, and neither allowed to romp about, nor employed in any active business, which gives exercise to the whole body, she becomes weak, relaxed, and puny; her blood not being duly prepared, she looks pale and wan; her health, spirits, and vigour decline, and she sinks into a valetudinarian for life. Such is the fate of numbers of those unhappy females, who, either from too much indulgence, or their own narrow circumstances, are, at this critical period, denied the benefit of exercise and free air. ”

“ Were the time that is generally spent by females in the acquisition of trifling accomplishments, employed in learning how to bring up their children; how to dress them so as not to hurt, cramp, or confine their motions; how to feed them with wholesome and nourishing food; how to exercise their tender bodies, so as best to promote their growth and strength: were these made the objects of female instruction, mankind would derive the greatest advantages from it. ”

“ We are sorry indeed to observe, that Medicine has hitherto hardly been considered as a popular science, but as a branch of knowledge solely confined to a particular set of men, while all the rest have been taught not only to neglect, but even to dread and despise it. It will however appear, upon a more strict examination, that no science better deserves their attention, or is more capable of being rendered generally useful.
People are told, that if they dip the least into medical knowledge, it will render them fanciful, and make them believe they have every disease of which they read. ”

“ An art founded on observation never can arrive at any high degree of improvement, while it is confined to a few who make a trade of it. The united observations of all the ingenious and sensible part of mankind, would do more in a few years towards the improvement of Medicine, than those of the Faculty alone in a great many. Any man can tell when a medicine gives him ease as well as a physician; and if he only knows the name and dose of the medicine, and the name of the disease, it is sufficient to perpetuate the fact. ”

“ Hence the epicure, the drunkard, and the debauchee, seldom stop in their career, till their money or their constitution fails: then indeed they generally see their error when too late.
It is impossible to lay down fixt rules with regard to diet, on account of the different constitutions of mankind. The most ignorant person, however, certainly knows what is meant by excess; and it is in the power of every man, if he chuses, to avoid it.
The great rule of diet is to study simplicity. Nature delights in the most plain and simple food, and every animal, except man, follows her dictates. ”

“ However long Medicine may have been known as a science, we will venture to say, that many of its most important purposes to society have either been overlooked, or very little attended to. The cure of diseases is doubtless a matter of great importance; but the preservation of health is of still greater. This is the concern of every man, and surely what relates to it ought to be rendered as plain and obvious to all as possible. It is not to be supposed, that men can be sufficiently upon their guard against diseases, who are totally ignorant of their causes. ”

“ Resentment preys upon the mind, and occasions the most obstinate chronical disorders, which gradually waste the constitution. Nothing shews true greatness of mind more than to forgive injuries; it promotes the peace of society, and greatly conduces to our own ease, health, and felicity.
Such as value health should avoid violent gusts of anger, as they would the most deadly poison. Neither ought they to indulge resentment, but to endeavour at all times to keep their minds calm and serene. Nothing tends so much to the health of the body as a constant tranquillity of mind. ”

“ Medicine has been studied by few, except those who intended to live by it as a trade. Such, either from a mistaken zeal for the honour of Medicine, or to raise their own importance, have endeavoured to disguise and conceal the art. Medical authors have generally written in a foreign language; and those who were unequal to this talk, have even valued themselves upon couching, at least, their prescriptions, in terms and characters unintelligible to the rest of mankind. ”

“ There are many people who have not exercise enough to keep their humours wholesome, who yet dare not venture to make a visit to their next neighbours, but in a coach or sedan, lest they should be looked down upon. Strange, that men should be such fools as to be laughed out of the use of their limbs, or to throw away their health, in order to gratify a piece of vanity, or to comply with a ridiculous fashion! ”

“ Indeed, the perpetual thinker seldom enjoys either health or spirits; while the person, who can hardly be said to think at all, generally enjoys both.
Perpetual thinkers, as they are called, seldom think long. In a few years they generally become quite stupid, and exhibit a melancholy proof how readily the greatest blessings may be abused. Thinking, like every thing else, when carried to extreme, becomes a vice: nor can any thing afford a greater proof of wisdom, than for a man frequently and reasonably to unbend his mind. ”

“ I have often seen very extraordinary effects in the land-scurvy from a milk diet. This preparation of Nature is a mixture of animal and vegetable properties, which of all others is the most fit for restoring a decayed constitution, and removing that particular acrimony of the humours, which seems to constitute the very essence of the scurvy, and many other diseases. But people despise this wholesome and nourishing food, because it is cheap, and devour with greediness, flesh, and fermented liquors, while milk is only deemed fit for their hogs. ”

“ The other obstacle is the fear of reflections. This has very great weight with the bulk of mankind. Should the child die, they think the world would blame them. This they cannot bear. Here lies the difficulty; and till that be removed, inoculation will make but small progress. Nothing however can remove it but custom. Make the practice fashionable, and all objections will soon vanish. It is fashion alone that has led the multitude since the beginning of the world, and will lead them to the end. We must therefore call upon the more enlightened part of mankind to set a pattern to the rest. ”

“ I have seen above forty children cooped up in one apartment all the while they had this disease, without any of them being admitted to breathe the fresh air. No one can be at a loss to see the impropriety of such conduct. It ought to be a rule, not only in hospitals for the small-pox, but likewise for other diseases, that no patient should be within sight or hearing of another. This is a matter to which too little regard is paid. In most hospitals and infirmaries, the sick, the dying, and the dead, are often to be seen in the same apartment. ”

“ When low fevers, in which it is difficult to support the patient’s spirits, prevail, what must be the effect of a funeral peal sounding five or six times a day in his ears? No doubt his imagination will suggest that others died of the same disease under which he labours. This apprehension will have a greater tendency to depress his spirits, than all the cordials of which medicine can boast will have to raise them. ”

“ One of the greatest faults of nurses is, concealing the diseases of children from their parents. This they are extremely ready to do, especially when the disease is the effect of their own negligence. Many instances might be given of persons who have been rendered lame for life by a fall from their nurse’s arms, which she, through fear, concealed till the misfortune was past cure. Every parent who intrusts a nurse with the care of a child, ought to give her the strictest charge not to conceal the most trifling disorder or misfortune that may befal it. ”

“ If we consider the body of an infant as a bundle of soft pipes, replenished with fluids in continual motion, the danger of pressure will appear in the strongest light. Nature, in order to make way for the growth of children, has formed their bodies soft and flexible; and lest they should receive any injury from pressure in the womb, has surrounded the fœtus every where with fluids. This shews the care which Nature takes to prevent all unequal pressure on the bodies of infants, and to defend them against every thing that might in the least cramp or confine their motions. ”

“ When we say that mothers are not always in a condition to suckle their own children, we would not be understood as discouraging that practice. Every mother who can, ought certainly to perform so tender and agreeable an office [3] . But, suppose it to be out of her power, she may, nevertheless, be of great service to her child. The business of nursing is by no means confined to giving suck. To a woman who abounds with milk, this is the easiest part of it. Numberless other offices are necessary for a child, which the mother ought at least to see done. ”

“ There are not however any where wanting well-disposed people, of better sense, who are willing to supply the defect of medical advice to the poor, did not their fear of doing ill often suppress their inclination to do good. Such people are often deterred from the most noble and praise-worthy actions, by the foolish alarms sounded in their ears by a set of men who, to raise their own importance, magnify the difficulties of doing good, find fault with what is truly commendable, and fleer at every attempt to relieve the sick which is not conducted by the precise rules of Medicine. ”

“ The veil of mystery, which still hangs over medicine, renders it not only a conjectural, but even a suspicious art. This has been long ago removed from the other sciences, which induces many to believe that Medicine is a mere trick, and that it will not bear a fair and candid examination. Medicine, however, needs only to be better known, in order to secure the general esteem of mankind. ”

“ Many persons have lost their lives, and others have brought on very tedious, and even incurable disorders, by retaining their urine too long, from a false delicacy. When the bladder has been over-distended, it often loses its power of action altogether, or becomes paralytic, by which means it is rendered unable either to retain the urine, or expel it properly. The calls of Nature ought never to be postponed. Delicacy is doubtless a virtue, but that can never be reckoned true delicacy, which induces any one to risk his health or hazard his life. ”

“ Medicine however has not, as far as I know, in any country, been reckoned a necessary part of the education of a gentleman. But surely no sufficient reason can be assigned for this omission. No science lays open a more extensive field of useful knowledge, or affords more ample entertainment to an inquisitive mind. Anatomy, Botany, Chymistry, and the Materia Medica, are all branches of Natural History, and are fraught with such amusement and utility, that the man who entirely neglects them has but a sorry claim either to taste or learning. ”

“ Grief is the most destructive of all the passions. Its effects are permanent, and when it sinks deep into the mind, it generally proves fatal. Anger and fear, being of a more violent nature, seldom last long; but grief often changes into a fixed melancholy, 117which preys upon the spirits, and wastes the constitution. This passion ought not to be indulged. It may generally be conquered at the beginning; but when it has gained strength, all attempts to remove it are vain.
No person can prevent misfortunes in life; but it shews true greatness of mind to bear them with serenity. ”

“ Nature often attempts to free the bodies of children from bad humours, by throwing them upon the skin: by this means fevers and other diseases are prevented. Nurses are apt to mistake such critical eruptions for an itch, or some other infectious disorder. Accordingly they take every method to drive them in. In this way many children lose their lives; and no wonder, as Nature is opposed in the very method she takes to relieve them. It ought to be a rule, which every nurse should observe, never to stop any eruption without proper advice, or being well assured that it is not of a critical nature. ”

“ Many patients are in a manner stifled to death in fevers for want of fresh air; yet such is the unaccountable infatuation of most people, that the moment they think a person in a fever, they imagine he should be kept in a close chamber, into which not one particle of fresh air must be admitted. Instead of this, there ought to be a constant stream of fresh air into a sick person’s chamber, so as to keep it moderately cool. Indeed its degree of warmth ought never to be greater than is agreeable to one in perfect health. ”

“ But even such of the labouring poor as can afford to take care of themselves, are often too hardy to do it; they affect to despise colds, and as long as they can crawl about, scorn to be confined by what they call a common cold. Hence it is, that colds destroy such numbers of mankind. Like an enemy despised, they gather strength from delay, till at length they become invincible. We often see this verified in travellers, who, rather than lose a day in the prosecution of their business, throw away their lives by pursuing their journey, even in the severest weather, with this disease upon them. ”