The laws of health / by W.H. Corfield.

  • William Henry Corfield
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The laws of health / by W.H. Corfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    seven ages, and this is generally accepted as the most natural division that has been proposed ; but for our purpose, that given by Halle, into five periods, is quite sufficient. These are (i) infancy ; (2) childhood; (3) youth; (4) manhood; (5) old age. (1) Infancy.—The first great danger to life is from the external cold. Although the circulation and respiration of infants are so quick, and the amount of oxidation going on in their blood so great that they produce a very large amount of animal heat, yet they run a much greater risk of being chilled than adults do, and the reason is that they are small, and that small bodies have large surfaces. The smaller a body is, the larger is its surface in proportion to its contents. Now, we lose heat very largely from the sur- face of the skin, and a child’s external surface being so much larger than an adult’s in proportion to his size, he loses heat a great deal faster, and so gets chilled more easily. The normal temperature of the blood is about roo° Fahrenheit. If it is chilled more than a very few degrees death ensues, as happens when infants are wilfully exposed to the cold, and are said to be frozen to death. But what happens much more frequently is that they catch cold, and in some in- ternal organ, generally the lungs,—bronchitis, or in- flammation of the lining membrane of the air-passages, being their most common complaint, and one from which great numbers of infants die. It is very im- portant, then, that infants and young children should not be exposed to cold. Every part of their bodies except the head should be covered warmly in winter,
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