Good Health Or The Physiology Of Dietetics And Massage

Excerpt from Good Health: Or the Physiology of Dietetics Massage The original motive which prompted me to write this book arose from a contemplation of the increasingly large number of sudden deaths due to preventable diseases among people in the prime of life. On two different occasions I had myself been very near deaths door from, diseases which could have easily been prevented if I had at the time understood the physiology of digestion and principles of hygiene. As I was restored to health, strength, and vigour by adopting the system set forth in the following pages, and for fifteen years past have witnessed its good effects upon others, as well as upon myself the experience is here recorded with the hope that still larger numbers may benefit by the same means. The work is written in plain, simple language, and, as far as possible, void of technicalities, for the purpose of reaching the class of people who most require instruction upon the primary laws of health. It is interspersed with illustrations, anecdotes, and references designed to place the subject in a semi-novel form, so as to render it m.ore interesting and attractive to the general reader. At the same time, there is a close observance maintained to the proper principles of the most approved and up-to-date views of leading physiologists, with the object of securing, maintaining, and promoting health. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

From pre-historic grooming rituals to New Age medicine, from ascetics to cosmetics, Clean looks at how different cultures have interpreted and striven for personal cleanliness and shows how, throughout history, this striving for purity has brought immense social benefits as well as great tragedies. Looking at human history through the lens of public baths, lavatories, laundry, teeth cleaning, cosmetics, food storage and panty liners, Virginia Smith here combines archeology, psychology, biology, and other fields to illuminate our modern obsession cleanliness. She peppers her entertaining account with engaging and often surprising details. The book reveals, for instance, that even at the earliest stages of human development, our bodies produced pleasure-giving chemical opiates when things smelled or felt clean, inducing us to bathe or at least remove dirty clothes. She describes how, during the Bronze Age, an emerging hierarchy of wealthy elites turned their love of grooming into an explosion of the cosmetic and luxury goods industry, greatly affecting the culture and economy of Eurasia and leading to advances in chemistry and medicine. Likewise, in Greece and Rome, citizens focused much of their leisure time on perfecting, bathing, or just writing about the model athletic body. Even today, our enlightened medical knowledge could not stop an onslaught of health remedies, treatments, spas, and New Age nature cures--all in the pursuit of purity. This engrossing and highly original work will introduce you to the customs and ideas of a myriad of cultures across centuries of human history, providing a marvelous new perspective on the importance of cleanliness to human civilization.