The sweating cure : the physiological basis and curative effects of the Turkish bath / by John Balbirnie.

  • John Balbirnie
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The sweating cure : the physiological basis and curative effects of the Turkish bath / by John Balbirnie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    so material—to subserve nutrition, even by refuse drainage-matter. It serves to sift and clarify ihe dissolved contents of the stomach and bowels. It checks the influx into the general system of excess of carbon coming directly from the sources of supply ; and so takes the strain off organs already sufficiently charged with the body s impurities. The THOKAcic DUCT, or great main-pipe of the lacteal system, carries the chyle (the newly absoibed nutrient principles) directly to the venous trunk terminating in the heart. But the otherwise disposable carbon is absorbed by the mesenteric veins, and so finds summary exit by the liver— multitudinous and complex ends accomplished by simple means that shew wondrous vlesign—mingled Wisdom and Goodness ! The immense quantity of blood the liver receives from the coats of the intestines, and which it decarbonizes, places in a strong light the relief the due performance of its allotted work affords to its coadjutors the skin and lungs. These three j grand allies in the living economy intimately co-operate with each other, play into each other, substitute each other, sympathize with each other, suffer with each other, and have their diseases cured by the relief of each other. The failure of any one of this '* triple alliance'^ imposes upon the others vicarious duty—i e., if they can do it; and where they cannot, disease is the consequence. The prevalence of liver-complaints among the indolent, luxurious, and high-fed classes, and in Europeans living in hot climates after the dietetic fashion of cold countries, is not now difficult to account for. In the first place, their food abounds in rich carbonaceous compounds—the error being not less in quantity than quality. In the second place, the amount of stimulant liquors taken to propel along their heavy indigestible meals, aggravates the intestinal iriitation by determining an undue amount of blood in the alimentary raucous membrane. In this case, the skin loses what the intestine gains—the sanguineous excess of the one causing its deficit in the other. In the third place, the want of adequate exercise of the limbs, lungs, and skin, fills up the measure of these evils. This it does by preventing that due waste of the body, that ' activity of the excernaiit functions which passes off, with the least bane , to the Constitution, the superfluities of a fuL or pernicious diet—oxydiziug i and eliminating the impeded products of decomposition. Herein precisely ] lies the error people commit in hot weather at home, or in burning climates j abroad. Herein is the philoso[»hy of the bilious diseases then and there prevalent. Under a high temperature, the cutaneous functions require the most unimpeded scope ; instead of being diminished, or paralysed, by diversions of blood to the interior, by congested mucous membranes, &c.— all the efft-cts of table excesses—of iriitant food, drinks, or drugs. Hence the twofold source of the accumulation of c irbon in the system. 1st., that • in the liver directly, from a too heating, full, and fatty diet, especially in ; warm ueather or in hot climates. Snd, that in the general circulation, or ( in conj^ested viscera, from its impeded exit by the skin and lungs. In cold i veaiher, on the other hand, or in cold climates, people are less bilious, j The La'i itsare necessarily much more active, to enable them to resist the j coIU. Tilt) iiuibe, luuj^s, and skiu, are all ia mwe vi^rcnia pla^, aad ^ \