ON
DIGESTION
AND
DIETETICS.
THE
PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION
CONSIDERED WITH RELATION TO
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIETETICS.
By ANDREW COMBE, M. D.
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS IN EDINBURGH,
AND
CONSULTING PHYSICIAN TO THEIR MAJESTIES THE KING AND QUEEN
OF THE BELGIANS.
SECOND EDITION
REVISED AND ENLARGED.
“Nor is it left arbitrary, at the will and pleasure of every man, to do as he list; after the dictates of a depraved humour and extravagant phancy, to live at what rate he pleaseth; but every one is bound to observe the Injunctions and Law of Nature, upon the penalty of forfeiting their health, strength, and liberty,—the true and long enjoyment of themselves.”
Mainwayringe.
EDINBURGH:
MACLACHLAN & STEWART;
AND SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO. LONDON.
MDCCCXXXVI.
PRINTED BY NEILL & CO. OLD FISHMARKET.
ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE
SECOND EDITION.
The first edition of the present volume consisted of 2000 copies, and has been exhausted in little more than five months. Already, also, it has been twice reprinted in the United States. This success is extremely gratifying, and shews that the desire for information on the subject of the human constitution, is rapidly extending in proportion as it is discovered to be perfectly within the comprehension of every ordinary capacity, and to be directly and easily applicable to the farther improvement of the moral and physical condition of man.
The edition now offered to the public has been carefully revised, and about twenty pages of new matter have been added. Still, I fear, that many imperfections remain, which leisure and more confirmed health might have enabled me to remove, but which, under present circumstances, I feel compelled to leave to the good-natured indulgence of the reader.
It has been suggested by a professional critic for whose judgment I feel the utmost deference, that “the work would really have been more useful if the physiological or introductory part had been more condensed;” as much of it will, he thinks, be neither readily comprehended, nor usefully retained by the general reader.[1] My only reason for not acting on this suggestion is, that I regard the exposition of the laws of digestion of which that part consists, as the foundation on which all the dietetic rules contained in the second part must necessarily rest,—and am therefore extremely anxious that their nature and mode of operation should be thoroughly understood by the ordinary reader, even at the risk of too great minuteness. I am quite aware that the detail into which I have entered must appear tedious to every well educated practitioner; but as the book was intended more for the general than for the medical reader, the latter is evidently a less competent judge in this particular matter than the former. On referring, accordingly, to an unprofessional critic of no small ability and reputation, we find him of an entirely opposite opinion. For—“Of the two divisions of the book,” he thinks, “the FIRST is the most satisfactory and interesting, from the nature of its subject and the popular novelty of much of the information it imparts, or the force and freshness with which obvious truths are presented.”[2] And as other non-medical reviewers concur in this decision, I feel bound to attach more weight to them in what more especially concerns the class of readers to which they belong, and to retain the whole of the part objected to. In a purely medical question, on the other hand, I would as unhesitatingly have yielded to the judgment of the professional critic.
Edinburgh, 8 Alva Street,
November 1, 1836.