Advice to the People in General, with Regard to Their Health

Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David), 1728-1797Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2
Word count
933K words
Chapters
94

Tags

English Originals Health Traditional MedicineHealthy EatingDaily WellnessHumanistic CareLife WisdomAcademic MonographPractical GuidePopular Narrative

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by S. A. D. TissotAuthor: Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David), 1728-1797,Language: English, Class: RC: Medicine: Internal medicine, Release Date: Mar 9, 2012

Editor's review

Written in the eighteenth century by the renowned Swiss physician Tissot, this book is a health guide addressed to the general public and belongs to the genre of early modern popular medical writing. In clear, exhortatory prose the author discusses everyday health matters such as diet, daily routine, exercise, environment, and disease prevention, reflecting the Enlightenment-era shift in medicine from humoral theory toward a hygiene of daily life. Its value is twofold: first, as a primary source for the history of medicine and public health, it shows how an eighteenth-century physician communicated health knowledge to a lay audience; second, its advice on moderation in diet, regular living, and attention to environment still carries some relevance today. Readers should note that many of the book's pathological notions and specific therapies have been superseded by modern medicine; it should be read as a historical document and not followed for self-diagnosis or treatment. It is suited to researchers in the history of medicine and the history of popular science, readers interested in the evolution of modern health ideas, and general readers who enjoy old popular texts.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read it as a historical text, focusing on how the author persuades ordinary readers rather than adopting specific therapies.
  2. Read it alongside general works on the history of medicine, comparing eighteenth-century and contemporary health concepts.
  3. Read selectively by topic—diet, exercise, environment—and take notes comparing continuities and changes between past and present advice.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Can the health advice in this book still be followed today? It cannot be adopted wholesale. Some hygiene advice, such as moderation in diet and regular hours, still has reference value, but many pathological notions and specific therapies have been superseded by modern medicine. Read it as a document in the history of medicine, and consult a modern professional doctor for any health problem.
Can readers without a medical background understand it? Yes. The book was originally written as popular reading for the general public, with an exhortatory tone and a clear structure, and it does not rely on technical terminology. Readers without a medical background can follow the gist; they need only avoid mistaking its old ideas for current medical knowledge.
What is the historical value of this book? It shows how an eighteenth-century physician communicated health knowledge to the public and reflects the concepts and rhetoric of Enlightenment-era hygiene. Researchers can use it to observe doctor-patient relations, the style of popular science writing, and contemporary understandings of diet, environment, and disease; it is a supplementary source for the history of medicine and public health.

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About the author

Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David), 1728-1797 Author · Swiss · 1728–1797

S. A. D. Tissot (Samuel Auguste David Tissot, 1728–1797) was a Swiss physician and professor of medicine. Two of his works are held in the collection: Advice to the People in General, with Regard to Their Health and Ang Mahusay na Paraan nang Pag-Gamot sa manga Maysaquit. The former explains everyday health care and disease prevention in a plain style aimed at ordinary readers, making it a representative eighteenth-century popular medical work; the title of the latter indicates that his medical writings were translated into Tagalog, suggesting the circulation of these texts beyond Europe. Because public information is limited, details of his life cannot be firmly established; yet the popular orientation of his works shows that he valued turning medical knowledge into practical guides accessible to the general public and helped advance the spread of popular medicine.