Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3101 RULES AND OBSERVANCES FOR THE PREVENTION OF HEADACHS. Having thus concluded my observations on the varied nature and treatment of headachs, I shall now make a few remarks on the means of their prevention. In doing this, it will be necessary to refer briefly to the different originating causes, and more especially to those which we have it most in our power either to avoid or to counteract. I have already observed, that there are certain temperaments of the atmosphere against which we can take no effectual precautions; but we can avoid the influence of some of these, and partially counteract that of others:?we can escape the effects of atmospheric impurity by not frequenting crowded assemblies in heated rooms; and we can protect ourselves from the morbid influence of cold by warm clothing; by wearing flannel next the skin, we can solicit the circulation to the periphery of the body, and keep up the perspiration; and we can favour the same healthy function by proper exercise. Indulgence in indolent habits induces bad health, and then bad health confirmsthe disposition to inactivity, through the very debility it has caused. Excessive susceptibility of the system, as a predisposing cause of headachs, is to be subdued by adopting those means and observances which conduce to strengthen the body, and by renouncing those pursuits, habits, and occupations, which weaken it. When this morbid state of sensibility is confined to the stomach, it requires from the patient the utmost regard to regimen; his diet should be nutritive, and yet easy of digestion; the stomach should neither be overloaded with the quantity, nor disordered by the quality of its food; and all salted meats, and rich and high-seasoned dishes, should be carefully avoided. When headach is not very severe, the appetite is often not m...