Horse-Back Riding; From a Medical Point of View (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 Excerpt: ...system? d. Cachexia.--Here seems a fit place to say a few words upon a subject to which a proper amount of attention appears not to have been directed, but which is quite important. However severely we may judge Galen, Borden, or the others who have multiplied beyond measure, and without reason, the varieties of-cachexia, we cannot deny their existence or their influence, following, as they do, certain chronic maladies, which impress profound modifications upon the economy. It is unnecessary to examine in detail each form, but it will suffice to simply name the commoner ones, of whose existence there can be no doubt. They are the paludean, the syphilitic, the mercuric, and the scorbutic. In each of these, this exercise strikes at once at the one element common to all, that state or condition of languor or inertia of all the functions which is the chief characteristic of the disease--a condition which persists long after removal of the disease which caused it. We are all aware of the great difficulty of removing this cachectic taint from the system when its origin has been miasmatic, as in fever and ague, for example. All is not done when the disease itself has been met and overcome; the harder task of reanimating the disordered functions, especially the assimilative, yet remains, for without this the sufferer cannot regain his lost health and strength. This is one of the cases in which we truly believe that, by suitable equestrian exercise, we shall see convalescence go on with a rapidity almost impossible without the aid of this powerful auxiliary. e. Lymphatism (scrofula).--Lymphatism is the neutral ground between the lymphatic temperament, which is proposed as a normal type of health, and its morbid perversion, which constitutes the scrofulous diathesis....