Abstract
THE proverb that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is especially true in regard to matters connected with health, and it might therefore be supposed that the issue of a series of health primers was a thing to be deprecated, as likely to do harm. But a little reflection will show that this series is intended, not to impart a little knowledge, but to replace the knowledge, not merely little, but confused and inaccurate, which every man supposes himself to possess, by something more definite and exact. Every one fancies that he knows the appearances of health and disease, and that he is able to decide upon the condition of those whom he daily meets. Every man supposes himself able to pronounce that such and such a house cannot be healthy, and believes that he is quite capable of judging for himself how much exercise he ought to take, whether he should or should not use a cold bath in the morning, and what is the proper allowance of beer, wine, or spirits, either for himself or for his neighbours. Now, despite the confidence with which most men will pronounce an opinion on all these subjects, the data on which they would found that opinion would really be very slight, and their knowledge of the subject probably very imperfect and inaccurate, and, consequently, the conclusions at which they would arrive would most likely be erroneous. It is just on such subjects as those we have mentioned that the books of this series afford accurate information. The first of them, βOn Premature Death, its Promotion and Prevention,β is of a less popular character than the others, and has, we think, suffered in consequence of its author not having seen the contents of the other primers. While the material it contains is very valuable, it deals, we think, too much with statistics and too little with the causes of premature death which are under the control of the individual, although occasionally, however, it gives these also, as at p. 46, where ventilation in a hospital is said to have put a stop to the convulsions from which the children died in great numbers, and reduced the mortality to 1/68 of its previous amount. But on the other hand, while we learn that 6 per cent, of the total mortality from all causes is due to diseases of the heart, the writer says nothing of the dangers incurred in running after an omnibus or in trying to catch a train.
Health Primers.
Edited by J. Langdon Down Henry Power J. Mortimer-Granville John Tweedy (London: Hardwicke and Bogue.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
B., T. Health Primers . Nature 20, 168 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/020168a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/020168a0