Rudiments Of Animal Physiology

Author : George Hamilton
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332280735
Total Pages : 116 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (87 download)

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Download or read book Rudiments of Animal Physiology written by George Hamilton and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-05 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Rudiments of Animal Physiology: For Use in Schools, and for Private Instruction While it has been justly objected to popular medical guides and dictionaries, that, read under the influence of imperfect knowledge, they tend rather to mislead than to instruct, and probably induce more diseases than they cure, a candid mind must regard in a very different light the various works which have been published of late years for the purpose of conveying a popular knowledge of Animal Physiology. The sole and certain result of these must be, by giving a familiar knowledge of the human organisation and its laws, to put individuals into the best possible condition for avoiding diseases - a very different thing indeed from the attempt to cure them. The utility of this knowledge to the non-medical community is now beginning to be generally felt, though still some perhaps require to be convinced of it. To such persons, it might be pointed out that, though almost all, from the communications made to them in childhood, or from their own sensations and experience, are enabled to observe some of the more obvious laws of organisation - as, for a familiar instance, those respecting simple overloading of the stomach - there are others of those laws which most persons, for want of knowledge, are constantly breaking, to the great injury of their health. The general prevalence, amongst men of business, of an overtasking of the brain, amongst ladies of a neglect of out-of-doors exercise; the almost universal over-indulgence in stimuli of various kinds; and the tight-lacing of young females; are but a scantling of the errors which we every where see around us, as the result of a want of knowledge of the structure and functions of our physical frames. It is only, indeed, where the infraction of any organic law is followed very immediately by its appropriate penalty, as simple over-eating is by indigestion, that ordinary knowledge observes and records the fact. In the far more numerous, and generally much more important class of cases, where the effect is not to be readily traced to its cause, popular knowledge is completely at fault: nothing can there be of avail but a knowledge to some extent of the human organisation and its laws. It may be true that the knowledge itself will not be sufficient to produce, in all, a proper attention to the rules of health; yet it is pretty clear that the knowledge may have such an effect, while, without it, nothing of the kind can be hoped for. It might also be expected, that, were a knowledge of our internal organisation thoroughly familiarised and made present to every mind, public opinion would become engaged in causing individuals of a negligent disposition to observe the laws of health. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.