PREVENTION OF DISEASE BY AN ACTIVE AND CHEERFUL STATE OF MIND,
SUFFICIENT CLOTHING, AND WHOLESOME DIET.
The bad effects of despondency and apprehension have been already
stated, and they were found to be very important and highly favourable
to the invasion of disease. Instances have already been given of disease
and general decline of health following depression of mind and long
continued apprehension, and it now remains to point out the salutary
action of an active and cheerful state of mind.
An active and cheerful state of mind imparts an activity to the various
organs of the body, whereby their functions are more perfectly
performed; it spreads a kindly glow over the entire system, and tends to
dispel any sluggishness of action present in any part which perhaps
would, under other circumstances, increase, and lead to the development
of disease.
On some occasions a cheerful state of mind, induced by sudden
improvement of prospects, or by the unexpected receipt of good
intelligence, has been the efficient instrument in dispelling the first
symptoms of disease which had been induced by depressing causes.
It has been often observed among soldiers and sailors, who, losing their
health and beginning to suffer from disease, under no other apparent
unwholesome cause than the distrust with which they regarded an
insufficient and unskilful commander, that their health has suddenly
improved, and disease has rapidly diminished when they have been put
under an able chief in whom they reposed confidence, and with whom they
were willing and ready to place the safety of their lives.
Soldiers and sailors suffering many privations, mortified with defeat,
failing in their energies, and beginning to drop under the influence of
disease, have, on the sudden and unexpected brightening of their
prospects, regained their lost strength, cast out the seeds of disease,
thrown off their despondency, and have achieved worlds of enterprise.
The following interesting case, which illustrates well the powerful
influence of hope, and a cheerful state of mind, is taken from Paris’s
Pharmacologia.
“In the celebrated siege of Breda in 1625 by Spinola, the garrison
suffered extreme distress from the ravages of scurvy, and the Prince of
Orange being unable to relieve the place, sent in, by a confidential
messenger, a preparation which was directed to be added to a very large
quantity of water, and to be given as a specific for the epidemic; the
remedy was administered, and the garrison recovered its health; when it
was afterwards acknowledged that the substance in question was no other
than a little colouring matter.”
That impaired state of health, and much of the disease, especially of
the digestive organs, which is so much experienced by persons who are
suddenly deprived of much occupation of the mind in business, and find
themselves totally unemployed, and who, from their previous habits, are
unable to derive enjoyment from literary and scientific pursuits, as
some retired tradesmen, have been suddenly removed, and health has been
fully re-established on the individuals being again immersed in
business, either from choice or by a happy reverse in their
circumstances rendering that step unavoidable.
During epidemics, that confident assurance which some persons are known
to entertain, that they will escape the prevalent distempers, there is
much reason to think, has on many occasions been a complete prophylactic
or preventive.
Instances are not uncommon where an assurance or settled conviction on
the part of the patient has gone far to promote, if not to produce,
recovery from very dangerous disease, when physicians have despaired of
life, and even when that opinion has been communicated to the unmoved
and still confident sufferer.
The history of amulets or charms and of the cures performed by the royal
touch, affords much amusing and interesting detail illustrative of
confidence and hope, in the prevention and cure of disease. Instances
are also familiar of naval and military officers who have lost their
health from the long continued suffering of “hope deferred” in respect
to promotion, and of neglect of meritorious services, where advancement
and the grant of their longing and earnest wishes has at length acted as
a charm upon every bodily ailment, and where a rapid succession of
cheerfulness and health has been the immediate consequence, to the joy
of anxious and apprehensive friends.
The beneficial effects of activity and cheerfulness of mind in warding
off the attack of disease, and in promoting recovery therefrom, having
been so strikingly illustrated in the above examples, there remains no
occasion to say more than to recommend them strongly for adoption, both
among those in health and in sickness.
CLOTHING.
The want of sufficient clothing as productive of disease has been
already noticed.
Clothing in this climate is used for the purpose of retaining the body
warm. Now this is an important purpose, and the means by which it is
attained are highly deserving of notice, and they exert a very powerful
influence upon health.
The temperature of the human body is generally about 98° Fahrenheit, and
that of the surrounding atmosphere being in this climate always below,
sometimes in severe winters, as for instance the last, being near zero.
Now, all bodies possess a property by which they are disposed to
maintain an equilibrium of temperature, that is, to be of the same
amount of heat, and the temperature of the human body being above that
of the surrounding atmosphere, in an amount varying at different times,
it parts with a portion of its heat, or caloric, as it is called by
chemists, which is communicated to the atmosphere and surrounding
bodies.
A portion of the heat of the body is constantly, and under all
circumstances, being abstracted by the atmosphere and other surrounding
bodies which are at a lower temperature, and were it not that the loss
of heat, which the body is thus constantly sustaining, is supplied by
the formation of heat in the system, which is ever going on, the body
would soon become so very cold as to be incapable of performing its
functions, and death would consequently ensue.
The amount of heat which the body loses, and the rapidity with which it
is abstracted, is proportionate to the coldness of the atmosphere and
surrounding bodies.
But the rapid and great abstraction of heat from the human body, which
is apt to take place when it is immersed in a very cold atmosphere, is
very hurtful, and often induces disease, especially fevers, colds,
coughs, and inflammations.
It is for the purpose of checking the rapid abstraction of heat from the
body, that the warm clothing used in these latitudes is adopted. It is a
bad conductor of heat, and the consequence is, that the temperature of
the body is not reduced so rapidly as it would be were it exposed
without any covering to the atmosphere, which, more especially when
damp, is a superior conductor of heat.
Clothing of a sufficient nature is useful in the preservation of health,
by preserving in its integrity the circulation of the blood on the
surface of the body, by maintaining the constant flow of the secretion
from the skin, or perspiration as it is commonly called, which is so
useful to the system in many different ways, and by preventing any
deviation from that balance in the distribution of the fluids of the
body which that process goes so far to maintain, much to the comfort and
freedom from disease of the individual.
Many instances of a very striking nature are known, where such
inveterate and mortal disease has supervened in consequence of the
privation, total and partial, of clothing, and from that being of a
texture and nature inadequate to meet the exigencies of the case. Some
have been referred to in this work where the want of sufficient clothing
has been one of many concurrent potent circumstances, the attendants and
consequences of poverty and destitution which have given rise to
epidemics. On occasions of great distress and destitution, the disease
which is then so very prevalent is not the product of one circumstance
merely, such as want of food, but is induced by the many concurrent
powerful and unwholesome influences to which poverty is ever sure to
give rise. One of the chief circumstances on which the wide prevalence
of disease depends on those occasions, there can be little doubt, is
insufficiency of clothing among the poorer classes. But it is the
advantages which are to be derived from sufficient clothing which should
here occupy attention. Of late years, it has been the practice in some
towns in this country, on occasions of fever and other diseases
prevailing during the cold and inclemency of winter, for funds to be
collected for the purchase and distribution of clothes among the poor
and ill-clad portion of the population.
The motives and feelings with which this form of charity has been
adopted, must of themselves be a sufficient and highly delightful return
for the liberality and exertions of its benevolent projectors and
supporters, but it must afford them much gratification and much
encouragement in their laudable and christian endeavours, to know that
the clothing which they have dispensed has had a powerful influence in
preserving many from becoming the victims of the prevalent distempers,
and of preventing the relapse of the convalescent.
The late Sir John Pringle, a distinguished army surgeon, states that
“the best clothed were generally among the most healthy regiments.”
The quantity of clothing should of course vary with the season, more
being used in winter than in summer. A minute account of the outer
clothing is unnecessary here, but a word may not be thrown away; the
body should at all times have that quantity of clothing which will
secure it from unpleasant feelings of cold and chilliness, and it would
be wise to be influenced more by comfort and a regard to health, and
less by fashion and caprice in the choice of clothing, which is so
intimately connected with the preservation of health and its unspeakable
comforts and enjoyments.
The clothing which is next the skin is more important, and will here
obtain some consideration. It may be laid down as a general rule that
flannel or some such woollen cloth should be used next the skin
throughout the entire year. It will be well to vary the cloth or flannel
in different seasons, perhaps using a thick flannel during winter, and a
material of lighter and less close texture during summer and autumn. A
fabric of fine flannel, or what is called “stocking,” answers very well
for the summer, when the flannel which is commonly used is felt to be
too warm and irritating to the skin. In the summer it is common for many
persons who use flannel during winter to discontinue its use, but it is
safer, merely to exchange the thick flannel which has been used during
winter for one of a finer fabric or some such equally fine material.
During winter when the weather is always cold, and in spring when it is
generally chilly, flannel or some such material should form an essential
portion of the clothing of every inhabitant of these islands.
It is safe to say that hundreds in this country are at present alive and
enjoy excellent health who, but for the use of flannel and such like
fabrics next the skin, would have been, ere this, numbered with the
dead; and it is not too much to say that thousands are at this moment in
perfect health through the kindly action of the same clothing, whose
lives were threatened with constant coughs, periodical colds, quinseys,
rheumatisms, and incipient disease of lungs, and other organs of the
chest, before this efficient guardian of health was adopted.
Flannel and fabrics of the same or like nature go far to preserve an
equable temperature at the surface of the body, promote the perspiration
of the skin, which they readily absorb when copiously secreted, and are
specially useful in preserving the balance of the secretions on the
surface and in the interior of the body. Now all these most important
conditions, which the use of flannel goes so far to maintain, are ever
liable to be subverted and disturbed, whenever the body is thinly or
inadequately covered, by changes in the ever varying temperature of the
atmosphere, and by the prevalence of winds and currents.
Most of the important constitutional diseases which occur in this
country, begin with a sensation of coldness with shivering and
trembling; now it is the usual property of flannel, and such fabrics,
when worn next the skin, and indeed of warm and general good clothing,
to obviate and prevent these conditions of the body, and thus disease
may be met at its very onset, and perhaps baffled ere it has time to
establish its dominion.
“In some situations my personal experience enables me to vouch for the
utility of flannel. Of this we had a very striking proof in the second
battalion of the Royals, while suffering from a most aggravated form of
dysentery in India. General Conran, the late Lieutenant-Governor of
Jamaica, who at that time commanded the Royals, was so fully persuaded
of the benefits likely to accrue from the general use of flannel, that
he went down from Wallajahabbad, where the regiment was then stationed,
to Madras, on purpose to represent to the government the distress of his
men, and to suggest the expediency of a supply of flannel shirts. This
he did with so much effect, backed by the late Dr Anderson, the
Physician-General, that the flannels were immediately ordered, and, in
my opinion, contributed much to check the alarming progress of the
disease.”[11]
Footnote 11:
Ballingall’s Military Surgery.
It is usual with many individuals to wear flannel only over the chest,
but it is wise to envelope the whole body in that most useful article of
clothing.
The poor or labouring man should endeavour to procure thick soled shoes,
in good repair, and substantial worsted stockings.
The latter are generally esteemed stronger and more durable when made at
home, and will form excellent work for his wife or daughter in the
winter nights.
The working man will find, that though clothing substantially, as has
been above recommended, takes a considerable proportion of his money
immediately out of his pocket, he will be a certain gainer in the end,
aye, probably in the course of a few years or months, by consequent
immunity from disease, and from continued capacity for labour.
FOOD.
It has been already shewn in this work, that the want of sufficient and
wholesome food is frequently attended and followed by disease. It is now
proposed to shew how important food and drink, of good quality, are to
the preservation of health; but the fact is so well known, and so
undoubted, that it is almost unnecessary to say that they are essential
to the preservation of the body in its strength and dimensions.
That sense of sinking and languor, which is so commonly experienced upon
long fasting, would soon be exchanged for the actual pains of disease,
were it not to be removed shortly by the taking of food.
When the body is exhausted from the want of food for some hours, a good
and ample repast imparts strength to the body, and cheerfulness to the
mind, and goes far to prevent the evasion of some forms of disease.
An individual who is well fed, is generally more secure against the
invasion of disease of a low character, than another who is only
scantily and occasionally supplied with food.
It is generally believed that individuals who have lately partaken of
food, are less subject to the operation of vitiated air, or as it is
commonly termed, “contagious air;” and it was commonly reported during
the late prevalence of cholera, that persons who took breakfast before
going out, suffered less from that disease than those who followed a
contrary course.
Many well authenticated instances are recorded of the health of armies
undergoing very great improvement, and of disease in these bodies being
greatly checked by the distribution of ample wholesome food, and by the
privation which they had suffered for some time previous, being ended,
by some accidental circumstances, as the gaining the enemy’s magazines,
or the reduction of a siege. Sir George Ballingall relates in his work
on Military Surgery, that “during the prevalence of a malignant fever in
this regiment (33d), then stationed in the garrison of Hull, in the
autumn of 1817, amongst other measures calculated to check the rapid
extension of the disease, I recommended the regular supply of breakfast
to the men. This was immediately ordered by the commanding officer, and
nothing appeared either to the officers, to the soldiers, or to myself,
to have so much effect in obviating attacks of the fever.”
The institution of soup kitchens in this country, for the distribution
of wholesome and nourishing food to the perishing poor, there is no
doubt, has a most salutary influence in the prevention of disease, by,
in short, so fortifying individuals, otherwise incapable of resistance,
as to render them proof against the influence of many causes of
pestilence.
There can be little doubt that the liberal distribution of nutritious
food, which of late years has happily taken place from these charitable
institutions, has gone far to check the ravages of fever, which is so
prevalent in this climate, during winter, when the labouring classes are
subject in so great a degree to cold, and the privation of food and
other necessaries of life.
It is stated on good medical authority, that no measure which was
instituted for the purpose of stopping the progress of typhus fever in
Glasgow, in the winter of 1837–8, then very prevalent and mortal, was so
useful, and so immediately and obviously efficient, as the establishment
of soup kitchens in that city.
Among the arrangements in Edinburgh in 1832, which tended apparently to
render cholera less extensive than in other large towns, a soup kitchen
formed one.
Fever has been much less prevalent in Tranent during the present, than
for many winters past, and this is to be attributed partly to a soup
kitchen which has been instituted in that village, and which has been in
operation for about two months (16th March 1839).
The excellent tendency of such establishments must be obvious to all who
are at all conversant with the nature of disease, and the animal
economy, and it can form no valid objection to that proposition, that
fever is still known to have raged where soup kitchens have been
established; for, though the pestilence may not have been extinguished,
still it may have been abated, and though the malignant character and
mortality may not have been reduced, still these excellent institutions
may have been the means of preventing their being increased.
Let not, therefore, those who are willing and able to support whatever
is calculated to reduce the sufferings and privations of the poor, be
driven from extending their support to soup kitchens, because they have
only diminished the number of the victims of disease, and made the stage
of convalescence more sure and less liable to relapse.
It would indeed be vain to expect, that the distribution of food would
act as an entire preventive of fever and disease, which is the result
not of scanty food only, but of that and many other circumstances of a
very different nature, whose operation, the supply of soup, in any
quantity, can go a very short way only, to remedy.
Some of the circumstances which exert the most important influence in
the production of pestilential disease, and the measures which are best
calculated to counteract their pestiferous tendencies, have now been
detailed.
It is hoped the enforcement of the hurtful operation of many
circumstances, erroneously thought to be innocent, may lead to their
being remedied in future, and it is expected, that if the suggestions
which have been thrown out in the latter part of this work, are duly
acted upon, or if others of a like nature, which may, at a future
period, emanate from another better qualified for the task, should meet
with the attention, which this object so well demands, the amount of
disease will be diminished, human suffering will be abated, and human
life extended nearer to that point of maturity which the Divinity has
decreed, and which the organization of the human body proclaims was
meant to be attained by one and all of the members of the human family.
By avoiding the causes of disease which have been detailed in this work,
and by attending to the rules which have been laid down here and
elsewhere for the preservation of health, disease will be greatly
abated, but a mighty revolution must be accomplished in the habits, the
dispositions, and minds of men, ere mankind will enjoy that course of
health, and all that greater freedom from pain and disease, of which
their lot is capable:—but far from the consideration of the manifold
changes and long course of time which will be required to make a very
great improvement in the health of the human race, leading to apathy and
inaction, it should serve to stimulate to powerful attempts, and
persevering and reiterated efforts for amelioration.
END.
PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO. OLD FISHMARKET, EDINBURGH.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.