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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    next most important diseases of manhood. Although nervous diseases are common throughout life, paralyses of various kinds now become an important agent in producing death, and apoplexy is only a little less fatal. (5) Old Age.—Bronchitis, paralysis, and apoplexy are the great agents of death in old age, and in the order in which they are mentioned. Old people are extremely susceptible to cold. Their circulations and respirations are slow; the elasticity of the air-cells of the lungs is impaired ; the aerating surface of the lungs is less, owing to the permanent enlargement of some of the air-cells at the expense of the rest, so that the oxygenation of the blood is less perfect, and less animal heat is produced. They are therefore less able to resist cold, and so in severe winters large numbers of them die from bronchitis. The action of the skin as an excretory organ becomes more and more languid as age advances, and its work being thrown upon the other excretory organs, the lungs and kidneys, the tendency of these to become diseased is increased. It is therefore necessary, especially during the latter part of manhood and during old age, that the action of the skin should be stimulated by baths, by rubbing, and by exercise. Paralysis has been mentioned, but apart from this the signs of im- paired nervous action are very characteristic of old age. The senses gradually become blunted, as is most obvious in the cases of sight and hearing : and in extreme old age, known as decrepitude, the memory is lost, and the stage so graphically described by Shakespeare is arrived at:—
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