A guide to the treatment of diseases of the skin : with suggestions for their prevention for the use of the student and general practitioner / by Thomas Hunt.

  • Hunt, Thomas, 1798-1879.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to the treatment of diseases of the skin : with suggestions for their prevention for the use of the student and general practitioner / by Thomas Hunt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER XVI. ON THE PREVENTION OF DISEASES OF THE SKIN. The prophylaxis of cutaneous, as of other diseases, is a branch of hygiene or sanitary science. What- ever is generally necessary for the preservation of human health, is also, in its degree, preventive of dis- eases of the skin. But over and above general sani- tary appliances, such as pure air and ventilation, wholesome food, temperance, exercise, bathing, pure water, sufficient rest, warm clothing, early hours, etc., etc., there are special rules to be observed for the prevention of special forms of cutaneous disease ; and whenever the patient has actually suffered from them, or is likely to suffer from them, from heredi- tary or other causes, it will be advisable for him to adopt very carefully these preventive measures. But in order to appreciate their value, it will be ne- cessary to reflect on the pathology of cutaneous dis- ease generally,* including the object which nature has in view in establishing it, and the method * By pathology, I mean not what the term is now supposed to mean, but what it was understood to mean in the last generation, namely, the study or science of disease; not in the anatomy of morbid changes, very properly called by Baillie and Hunter, and the great ones of their time, Morbid Anatomy; and I protest against the confusion of terms and the consequent obscurity produced by calling morbid anatomy by the misappropriate and pedantic term, Pathology. The society formed for collecting and observing the change of structure produced by disease, properly the Morbid Anatomy Society, has also affected the name of pathological. Among other evils attending this misnomer, may bo mentioned that the study of disease in its relations