Chapter I: Front Matter

Domestic Medicine:
OR, A
TREATISE
ON THE
PREVENTION AND CURE
OF
DISEASES
BY
REGIMEN AND SIMPLE MEDICINES.
WITH
An APPENDIX, containing a DISPENSATORY for the Use of Private
Practitioners.

BY WILLIAM BUCHAN, M. D.
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.

THE TWELFTH EDITION.

LONDON:

Printed for A. STRAHAN; T. CADELL in the Strand; and J. BALFOUR, and W.
CREECH, at Edinburgh.

M DCC XCI.

Omnes homines artem medicam nôsse oportet.——Sapientiæ cognitionem
medicinæ sororem ac contubernalem esse puto.

HIPPOCRATES.

Primoque medendi scientia, sapientiæ pars habebatur.——Rationalem
quidem puto medicinam esse debere.

CELSUS.

Quemadmodum sanitas omnium rerum pretium excedit, omnisque felicitas
fundamentum est, ita scientia vitæ ac sanitatis tuendæ omnium
nobilissima, omnibusque hominibus commendatissima esse debet.

HOFFMAN.

TO
Sir JOSEPH BANKS, Bart.
PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

SIR,

The DOMESTIC MEDICINE having been honoured, on its first appearance, with the patronage of your learned and worthy Predecessor, the late Sir JOHN PRINGLE, I beg leave, in a more improved state, to dedicate it to you, as a small, but sincere, testimony of that veneration and esteem with which I have long beheld the Man who, born to ease and affluence, had resolution to encounter the dangers of unknown seas and distant climes, in pursuit of useful Science; and whose constant object has been to render that Science subservient to the happiness and civilization of Society,

I have the honour to be, with great respect,

SIR,
Your most obedient servant,

London,
Nov. 10, 1783.

W. BUCHAN.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Twenty years have now elapsed since the first Edition of this Book made its appearance. During this period, the Author, having been in constant practice, has taken occasion to improve several articles, which were with less accuracy inserted in the more early impressions. For this he has been censured by some, but the more candid and discerning must approve his conduct. It would be unpardonable in an Author to suffer an error in a book, on which health and life may depend, to stand uncorrected; nor would it be much less so to perceive an omission, and leave it unsupplied. His improvements, however, are not the result of mercenary views. The same principle which prompted the Author to write the Book, will ever induce him to improve it to the utmost of his power.

The Author has indeed to regret, that the limits of one volume preclude many interesting observations, and likewise deprive him of the pleasure of inserting a number of very useful remarks made by his learned and ingenious friend Doctor DUPLANIL, of Paris, who has done him the honour of publishing an elegant translation of this Work, in five volumes octavo, accompanied with an excellent commentary.

The improvements of the later editions are chiefly inserted in the form of notes. These are intended either to illustrate the text, or to put people on their guard in dangerous situations, and prevent fatal mistakes in the practice of medicine, which it is to be regretted are but too common.

Some attention has likewise been paid to the language. Where that was either inaccurate or obscure, as far as was practicable, it has been corrected. Indeed, the Author has all along endeavoured to observe such simplicity and perspicuity in his style as might enable the reader clearly to understand it: a circumstance of the utmost importance in a performance of this nature.

Although the DOMESTIC MEDICINE was never intended to supercede the use of a physician, but to supply his place in situations where medical assistance could not easily be obtained; yet the Author is sorry to observe, that the jealousies and fears of the Faculty have prompted many of them to treat this Work in a manner altogether unbecoming the professors of a liberal science: notwithstanding their injurious treatment, he is determined to persist in his plan, being fully convinced of its utility; nor shall interest or prejudice ever deter him from exerting his best endeavours _to render the Medical Art more extensively beneficial to_ MANKIND.

But this illiberal treatment of the Faculty is not the only thing of which the Author has cause to complain. By some of them his Book has been served up mangled and mutilated, and its title, type, size, &c. so closely imitated, that purchasers are misled, and frequently buy these spurious productions instead of the real one. That a needy Author, incapable himself of producing an original work, should prey upon another, and that a mercenary Bookseller should vend such productions, knowing them to be stolen, are things not at all to be wondered at: but that all this can be done with impunity, shews that the laws of this country respecting literary property, are still in a very imperfect state, and stand much in need of amendment.

LONDON,
Dec. 10, 1789.