Preventive medicine and the physician of the future / by Henry I. Bowditch.

  • Bowditch, Henry I. (Henry Ingersoll), 1808-1892.
Date:
[1874]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Preventive medicine and the physician of the future / by Henry I. Bowditch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    by that still more pestilent apparatus, born of modern parsi- mony in the use of pure air, the air-tight stove. This latter contrivance, whether it be constructed to burn wood or coal, or whether made of wrought-iron or cast-iron, must be wholly condemned by Preventive Medicine. It is an instrument of torture at times for an invalid, and if continually used it is fraught with the worst consequences to a growing family. It wholly prevents ventilation, and heats too much. I have a decided belief that a consumptively inclined family may have its whole fate decided adversely by the exclusive use of the furnace, or air-tight, or steam apparatus to warm all the home- stead. Patients have told me that my orders for the removal of an air-tight stove, and for the use of an open fire have re- lieved them more than any drugs which I gave them. They felt grateful because I refused to prescribe unless my orders in this respect were immediately obeyed, as the first and most important measure to he adopted. Open fire-places, or the admirable substitute for that, the old-fashioned but philosophical Franklin fire-place, or open- grated stove or grate should therefore be in every room of the modern dwelling, and thus we should imitate in a degree at least our ancestral homes, and gain all the advantages with- out the few disadvantages of their ampler chimneys; for these old homes, I think (although I am not quite sure upon this point), failed in one respect, and in which we moderns have probably improved upon ancient modes. They made no arrangement for tempering the atmosphere all over the house. This certainly is a great comfort in modern days, and I can- not think it a detriment if we use small furnaces communicating with the open air, or if we place simply entry stoves so to slightly warm the corridors and chambers during the coldest of the Avintcr weather. Great caution, however, should always bo taken when using furnace or entry stoves to pro- vide thorough ventilation by opening the windows daily. Unless the weather bo intensely cold, a small crevice may be advantageously left open during the entire night. On this latter point so much depends on individual power and con- ditions that no general rule can be laid down save this, viz. : that many more die from the want of pure air than from a superabundance of it, even if it be cool.