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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    with an idea that it is cooling, and will therefore relieve the heat and redness of the skin : whereas the disease itself may depend on debility, and may require ample nourishment, or even stimulants, for its re- moval. There are other cases in which the eruption is not red, and the patient imagining that it depends on poverty of the blood, may have indulged indis- creetly, and perhaps injuriously, in a rich diet. The pulse is sometimes an excellent guide in these cases. But, as a general rule, severe cases of scaly, papular, and vesicular disease (such as lepra, lichen, and ec- zema), require a low diet and cooling regimen ; while pustular, erythematous, and bullous disorders ordina- rily require a full diet. But there are exceptions, and these can only be diagnosed by the symptoms which indicate the state of the general system. But, apart from these two qualities of diet (the full and sparing), are there no articles of diet which ought to be avoided in all skin diseases ? Certainly the writer knows of none. There may be exceptional cases : but as a general rule, I hold it to be presump- tion to proscribe any particular article of diet. The instinct of each individual patient will, if implicitly trusted, almost infallibly guide him both as to the quality and quantity of the diet best suited to his case both in health and disease. He must be a much wiser man than the author, who can go beyond this. We hear much of plain food, simple food, mutton and beet, etc. If a man had been fitted by nature for plain and simple food, and for mutton and beef exclusively tor what purpose are we provided with such a host ot dainties, animal and vegetable,-fish, flesh, fowl fruit, seed, root, leaf, stem, etc., which our instinct