Bøker av William Buchan

Domestic medicine, or, The family physician: - Being an attempt to render the medical art more generally useful, by shewing people what is their own power both with respect to the prevention and cure of diseases is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1774.Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

Taking the view that medicine is as much the art of avoiding ill health as it is the cure of disease, physician William Buchan (1729-1805) published this home health guide in 1769. The first part is devoted to preventing ailments through proper diet and exercise, while the second part helps families diagnose and treat maladies ranging from coughs and hiccups to jaundice and gout. Buchan showed particular concern for the health of women and children, whom he believed were often misunderstood and neglected. He condemned corsets and restrictive infant swaddling, discouraged 'high living' and indolence, and blamed the high child-mortality rate on upper-class ignorance of child-rearing wisdom. His book became the most popular health guide prior to the twentieth century, with over a hundred editions by 1871. This reissue is of the first edition. Its diagnoses of physical (and cultural) ailments will illuminate eighteenth-century concerns for modern readers.