THE PRESERVATION OF GENERAL HEALTH WITH SOME REMARKS UPON HEALTHY SKIN AND SUBJECTS OF MEDICAL INTEREST TO THE PUBLIC GENERALLY, BY EDWIN PAYNE, M.D ST. AND NEW COLL: LOND. LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, EDINBURGH, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, LONDON, ASSISTANT PHYSICIAN TO THE ROYAL GENERAL DISPENSARY, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE, INTRODUCTION. THE following pages have been written for popular use. Their object is not to furnish matter by which any one may attempt to treat either himself or another medically, in a technical sense, but the intention has been to give such information as may be used by persons in health, for the preservation and improvement of the same, and to put this knowledge in a plain and understandable form; and, at the same time, a few remarks upon some subjects of medical interest to the public generally have been introduced. There is information connected with Medicine which may be fairly used by the public in general; again, there is a judicious limitation and boundary, beyond which it is well that those uninitiated in a science so extensive and practically important as medicine should not pass. It is the purpose of these pages to indicate in how far it is judicious or injudicious to manage the state of health and ill-health domestically; and it is hoped that the reader will find in them not declamation alone, but reason also. Upon such subjects, and treated of too in so short a space, it is impossible that there should be much of originality, nor is this necessary for the purpose of utility and truth, which it is hoped will be considered its compensator. 34, ARTILLERY PLACE, FINSBURY SQUARE, London. THE PRESERVATION OF GENERAL HEALTH. HEALTH is not readily defined; indeed, it may be said to admit of neither definition nor description-of none, at least, which can be applied to any useful purpose. If we define it as the integrity of every structure, and the perfect and harmonious play of every function, we give a true definition, but not a useful one. The more lengthened description in which some writers have indulged, answers no better end, for it establishes no standard of comparison; and that is what we are in want of. Perfect health, like perfect beauty, is perhaps, an ideal compounded of the perfections of many different individuals; or, if it exist, it falls to the lot of few, and its phenomena have met with no accurate description. Health, however, is regarded as a standard condition of the living body; and by health of |