Lectures on the ordinary agents of life : as applicable to therapeutics and hygiene, or, the uses of the atmosphere, habitations, baths, clothing, climate, exercise, foods, drinks, &c. in the treatment and prevention of disease / by Alexander Kilgour, M.D.

  • Kilgour, Alexander, 1803-1874.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the ordinary agents of life : as applicable to therapeutics and hygiene, or, the uses of the atmosphere, habitations, baths, clothing, climate, exercise, foods, drinks, &c. in the treatment and prevention of disease / by Alexander Kilgour, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    munity to such an extent as will place them beyond the reach of the poor. And., although government must afford protection, in some cases, to interests or occupations in the country which involve a large number of individuals ; yet this bolstering up of one interest is always at the expense of another, and should be as seldom as possible called into operation. Let every incum- brance be removed, let every freedom and facility be granted to enterprise and speculation; but let not others supply, from their pockets, an equivalent for the fertile earth or the warm sun. When this country will not furnish what we want, let us seek it in another. If Britain will not grow the vine, why should I be compelled to injure my health by drinking ardent spirits in place of wine ? Let me send to France for it. But, say some political philosophers, France will not take our produce, and we will not take her's. This is, in other words, we will do a silly thing because others do it. We will do an injury to ourselves, because France, in her ignorance, does one to herself Because a Frenchman chooses to tear his meat with his fingers rather than cut it with a Sheffield knife; because he chooses to go dirty and half naked rather than take a covering of Manchester cotton and Leeds cloth, we must deprive ourselves of the wines of France which we find good and agreeable. If he will not take the British goods, but only gold for his wine, I will give it to him if I can, and the greater fool is he that expects to gain wealth by discouraging an exchange of commodities. It is commerce which brings civilization—which brings wealth—and which brings health and prosperity, by bringing together from the east and the west, from the north and the south, all those things which are not to be found at home, and which can minister to the comfort, the welfare, and the health of the community. If this commerce compels us to hard b2