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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    recreations, education, profession, exercise, walking, running, dancing, horseback exercise, driving, gymnastics, bowling, rowing, swimming. Let me try to give most briefly some general ideas on each of these topics. Residence. The physician must look well to the homestead,—its situa- tion, its surroundings, its construction. He must declare that the house should be in the country rather than on the sea-coast, and placed on a dry soil, or if situated on a wet soil, that it must be immediately and effectually subdrained in all the immediate vicinity, and the cellar must be cemented so as to be always dry. All draining, in fact, around and from the house must be arranged with the greatest care; for manifold evils may fall on a family when little attention is paid to this important matter. Especially should all refuse- matter from the kitchen and other sinks, from water-closet or privies, be effectually carried away, and at the same time be so far removed from the source of water-supply which is to be used for culinary purposes, that it will be impossible, by any percolation through the soil, that the one should mingle with the other. To avoid this contingency, closely cemented stone, brick or vitrified tile-drains should be used for the refuse-water, and the supply for culinary purposes should be drawn, if possible, from some distant spring or pond, and be conveyed to the house in wooden, iron or brass, and if possi- ble, not lead pipes. In future times, when Preventive Medi- cine has gained its full and legitimate influence over the com- munity, no city, town or large village will dare to carry on its government without taking immediate measures to procure an abundance of good, pure, soft water, and the same author- ity will carefully * watch to prevent all possible contamina- tions from houses or mills or other impurities. Having chosen a proper site for the house, and having carefully drained it and supplied it with pure drinking-water, arrange- ments should be made for an equally abundant supply at all * In this connection I would refer the raider to the Report by W. R. Nichols, in another part of this volume, on the “ Present Condition of Certain Rivers of Mas- sachusetts.”