Men of every occupation and condition in life might avail themselves of a degree of medical knowledge; as it would teach them to avoid the dangers peculiar to their respective stations; which is always easier than to remove their effects. Medical knowledge, instead of being a check upon the enjoyments of life, only teaches men how to make the most of them. It has indeed been said, that to live medically is to live miserably: but it might with equal propriety be said, that to live rationally is to live miserably. If physicians obtrude their own ridiculous whims upon mankind, or lay down rules inconsistent with reason or common sense, no doubt they will be despised. But this is not the fault of Medicine. It proposes no rules that I know, but such as are perfectly consistent with the true enjoyment of life, and every way conducive to the real happiness of mankind.

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. This I am satisfied will seldom be the case with sensible people; and, suppose it were, they must soon be undeceived. A short time will shew them their error, and a little more reading will infallibly correct it. A single instance will shew the absurdity of this notion. A sensible lady, rather than read a medical performance, which would instruct her in the management of her children, must leave them entirely to the care and conduct of the most ignorant, credulous, and superstitious part of the human species.

No part of Medicine is of more general importance than that which relates to the nursing and management of children. Yet few parents pay a proper attention to it. They leave the sole care of their tender offspring, at the very time when care and attention are most necessary, to hirelings, who are either too careless to do their duty, or too ignorant to know it. We will venture to affirm, that more human lives are lost by the carelessness and inattention of parents and nurses, than are saved by the Faculty; and that the joint and well-conducted endeavours, both of private persons and the public, for the preservation of infant lives, would be of more advantage to society, than the whole art of Medicine, upon its present footing.

The benefits of Medicine, as a trade, will ever be confined to those who are able to pay for them; and of course, the far greater part of mankind will be every where deprived of them. Physicians, like other people, must live by their employment, and the poor must either want advice altogether, or take up with that which is worse than none. 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. These gentlemen must however excuse me for saying, that I have often known such well-disposed persons do much good; and that their practice, which is generally the result of good sense and observation, assisted by a little medical reading, is frequently more rational than that of the ignorant retainer to physic, who despises both reason and observation, that he may go wrong by rule; and who, while he is dosing his patient with medicines, often neglects other things of far greater importance.

Many things are necessary for the sick besides medicine. Nor is the person who takes care to procure those for them, of less importance than a physician. The poor oftener perish in diseases for want of proper nursing than of medicine. They are frequently in want of even the necessaries of life, and still more so of what is proper for a sickbed. No one can imagine, who has not been a witness of these situations, how much good a well-disposed person may do, by only taking care to have such wants supplied. There certainly cannot be a more necessary, a more noble, or a more godlike action, than to administer to the wants of our fellow-creatures in distress. While virtue or religion are known among mankind, this conduct will be approved; and while Heaven is just, it must be rewarded!

Persons who do not chuse to administer medicine to the sick, may nevertheless direct their regimen. An eminent medical author has said, That by diet alone all the intentions of Medicine may be answered[[2]]. No doubt a great many of them may; but there are other things beside diet, which ought by no means to be neglected. Many hurtful and destructive prejudices, with regard to the treatment of the sick, still prevail among the people, which persons of better sense and learning alone can eradicate. To guard the poor against the influence of these prejudices, and to instil into their minds some just ideas of the importance of proper food, fresh air, cleanliness, and other pieces of regimen necessary in diseases, would be a work of great merit, and productive of many happy consequences. A proper regimen, in most diseases, is at least equal to medicine, and in many of them it is greatly superior.

To assist the well-meant endeavours of the humane and benevolent in relieving distress; to eradicate dangerous and hurtful prejudices; to guard the ignorant and credulous against the frauds and impositions of quacks and impostors; and to shew men what is in their own power, both with regard to the prevention and cure of diseases, are certainly objects worthy of the physician’s attention. These were the leading views in composing and publishing the following sheets. They were suggested by an attention to the conduct of mankind, with regard to Medicine, in the course of a pretty long practice in different parts of this island, during which the author has often had occasion to wish that his patients, or those about them, had been possessed of some such plain directory for regulating their conduct. How far he has succeeded in his endeavours to supply this deficiency, must be left for others to determine; but if they be found to contribute in any measure towards alleviating the calamities of mankind, he will think his labour very well bestowed.

CONTENTS.

PART I.
Of the general Causes of Diseases.
CHAP. I.
Of Children Page [1]
— Diseased Parents [7]
— Clothing of Children [9]
— Food of ditto [15]
— Exercise of ditto [21]
— Bad Effects of unwholesome Air upon ditto [30]
— Nurses [33]
CHAP. II.
Of the Laborious, &c. [37]
— the Sedentary [47]
— the Studious [54]
CHAP. III.
Of Aliment [62]
CHAP. IV.
Of Air [75]
CHAP. V.
Of Exercise [81]
CHAP. VI.
Of Sleep [87]
— Clothing [89]
CHAP. VII.
Of Intemperance [94]
CHAP. VIII.
Of Cleanliness [100]
CHAP. IX.
Of Infection [106]
CHAP. X.
Of the Passions [111]
— Anger [112]
— Fear ib.
— Grief [116]
— Love [119]
— Religious Melancholy [120]
CHAP. XI.
Of the Common Evacuations [121]
— Stool ib.
— Urine [123]
— Perspiration [125]
— being affected by Changes in the Atmosphere [126]
— Wet Clothes [127]
— Wet Feet ib.
— Night Air [128]
— Damp Beds ib.
— Damp Houses [130]
— Sudden Transitions from Heat to Cold [131]
PART II.
Of Diseases.
CHAP. XII.
Of the Knowledge and Cure of Diseases [135]
CHAP. XIII.
Fevers in general [140]
CHAP. XIV.
Of intermitting Fevers or Agues [147]
CHAP. XV.
Of an Acute Continual Fever [157]
CHAP. XVI.
Of the Pleurisy [163]
—— Bastard ditto [169]
—— Paraphrenitis [170]
CHAP. XVII.
Inflammation of the Lungs [171]
CHAP. XVIII.
Of Consumptions [174]
CHAP. XIX.
Of the Slow or Nervous Fever [188]
CHAP. XX.
Malignant, Putrid, or Spotted Fever [195]
CHAP. XXI.
Miliary Fever [205]
CHAP. XXII.
Remitting Fever [210]
CHAP. XXIII.
The Small-pox [214]
Inoculation [227]
CHAP. XXIV.
The Measles [240]
— Scarlet Fever [245]
— Bilious Fever [247]
CHAP. XXV.
St. Anthony’s Fire [248]
CHAP. XXVI.
Inflammation of the Brain [254]
CHAP. XXVII.
Inflammation of the Eyes [258]
CHAP. XXVIII.
The Quinsey [264]
— Malignant ditto [271]
CHAP. XXIX.
Colds and Coughs [276]
A Common Cough [280]
Hooping-Cough [284]
CHAP. XXX.
Inflammation of the Stomach [289]
—— of the Intestines [291]
Of the Colic [295]
Inflammation of the Kidnies [301]
—— of the Bladder [304]
—— of the Liver [305]
CHAP. XXXI.
Of the Cholera Morbus, and other excessive Discharges from the Stomach and Bowels [309]
— a Diarrhœa, or Looseness [312]
— Vomiting [315]
CHAP. XXXII.
Disorders of the Kidnies and Bladder [319]
Of the Diabetes, or excessive Discharge of Urine ib.
— Suppression of ditto [322]
— the Gravel and Stone [324]
CHAP. XXXIII.
Involuntary Discharges of Blood [328]
Bleeding at the Nose [331]
Bleeding and Blind Piles [334]
Spitting of Blood [337]
Vomiting of ditto [341]
Bloody Urine [342]
—— Flux [345]
Cœliac Passion [351]
CHAP. XXXIV.
Of the Head-ach [352]
—— Tooth-ach [357]
—— Ear-ach [360]
Pain of the Stomach, &c. [362]
CHAP. XXXV.
Of Worms [365]
CHAP. XXXVI.
Of the Jaundice [370]
CHAP. XXXVII.
Of the Dropsy [374]
CHAP. XXXVIII.
Of the Gout [380]
—— Rheumatism [388]
CHAP. XXXIX.
Of the Scurvy [393]
—— Scrophula [398]
—— Itch [403]
CHAP. XL.
Of the Asthma [406]
CHAP. XLI.
Of the Apoplexy [410]
CHAP. XLII.
Of Costiveness [414]
— Want of Appetite [416]
— Heart-burn [418]
CHAP. XLIII.
Of Nervous Diseases [420]
— Melancholy [426]
— the Palsy [430]
— the Epilepsy, or Falling Sickness [432]
— the Hiccup [436]
— Cramp of the Stomach [438]
— the Night-mare [439]
— Swoonings [440]
— Flatulencies, or Wind [443]
— Low Spirits [446]
— Hysteric Affections [447]
— Hypochondriac Affections [451]
CHAP. XLIV.
Disorders of the Senses [456]
—— of the Eye ib.
A Gutta Serena [458]
A Cataract [458]
Short Sightedness [459]
Seeing only at too great a Distance ib.
Squinting ib.
Spots or Specks ib.
Bloodshot Eye ib.
Watery or Weeping Eye [460]
Of the Ear ib.
—— Taste and Smell [463]
—— Touch [465]
CHAP. XLV.
Of a Scirrhus and Cancer [466]
CHAP. XLVI.
Of Poisons [472]
— Mineral Poisons [474]
— Vegetable ditto [475]
Bites of poisonous Animals [477]
—— of the Mad Dog ib.
—— of the Viper [485]
—— of poisonous Infects [486]
—— of the Rattle-Snake [488]
CHAP. XLVII.
Of the Venereal Disease [489]
—— Virulent Gonorrhœa [490]
— Gleets [500]
— Swelled Testicle [503]
— Buboes [504]
— Chancres [506]
— A Confirmed Lues or Pox [510]
General Observations [515]
CHAP. XLVIII.
Diseases of Women [521]
Of the Menstrual Discharge [522]
— Pregnancy [530]
— Childbirth [533]
— Barrenness [542]
CHAP. XLIX.
Diseases of Children [544]
Of the Meconium [546]
— the Apthæ or Thrush [547]
— Acidities [548]
— Galling and Excoriation [550]
— Stoppage of the Nose ib.
— Vomiting [551]
— a Looseness [552]
— Eruptions [554]
— the Croup [557]
— Teething [559]
— the Rickets [562]
— Convulsions [565]
— Water in the Head [567]
CHAP. L.
Of Surgery [569]
— Bleeding [570]
— Inflammations and Abscesses [573]
— Wounds [575]
— Burns [580]
— Bruises [582]
Ulcers [583]
CHAP. LI.
Of Dislocations [586]
Dislocation of the Jaw [588]
—— of the Neck [589]
—— of the Ribs [590]
—— of the Shoulder ib.
—— of the Elbow [591]
—— of the Wrist and Fingers [592]
—— of the Thigh ib.
—— of the Knees ib.
—— of the Ancles ib.
—— of the Toes ib.
CHAP. LII.
Of broken Bones, &c. [593]
— Strains [597]
— Ruptures [598]
CHAP. LIII.
Of Casualties [600]
— Substances stopt between the Mouth and Stomach [602]
— Drowned Persons [608]
— Noxious Vapours [613]
Effects of Extreme Cold [616]
—— Heat [618]
CHAP. LIV.
Of Fainting Fits, and other Cases which require immediate Assistance [618]
— Intoxication [623]
— Suffocation and Strangling [626]
— Persons who expire in Convulsion Fits [629]
CHAP. LV.
Cautions concerning Cold Bathing, and drinking the Mineral Waters [633]