Volume 1

The influence of the atmosphere, more especially the atmosphere of the British Isles, on the health and functions of the human frame ... To which are added Practical researches on the pathology, treatment, and prevention of gout and rheumatism [partly translated and condensed from the French of MM. Guilbert and Hallé, as drawn up for the 'Dictionnaire des sciences médicales' in 1817] in all their proteian forms. An essay / By James Johnson.

  • Johnson, James, 1777-1845.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of the atmosphere, more especially the atmosphere of the British Isles, on the health and functions of the human frame ... To which are added Practical researches on the pathology, treatment, and prevention of gout and rheumatism [partly translated and condensed from the French of MM. Guilbert and Hallé, as drawn up for the 'Dictionnaire des sciences médicales' in 1817] in all their proteian forms. An essay / By James Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4 988 NITRO-MURIATIC ACID BATH ‘¢ The nitro-muriatic acid bath,” says Dr. Scott, * ap- ¢¢ nears, in a particular manner, to affect the glands, and to << alter their secretions ; and on this power a great part of its ‘¢ value, in derangements of the liver, seems to depend.— <¢ It sometimes very suddenly increases the secretion “of bile; and this effect may be kept up for a length “of time. Jt increases the perspiration, and often toa *¢ great extent.’ The almost instantaneous eftects that it <¢ noduces on some people, and its svddenly causing a © flow of bile, are all unlike a remedy that 1s conveyed by ‘¢ the known channels of absorption. J can suppose that ‘¢ the effects of this remedy do not arise from the transfer of ‘¢ matter by any set of vessels; but that they are the con- ** sequence of peculiar motions, which it has the power of “ exciting in the solids, ar the fluids of the body.” Now IT appeal to the professiona] reader whether the above be not a complete admission, in round-about terms, of the cvs taneo-hepatic sympathy, which I took such pains to eluci- date ; and as my work on tropical climates could hardly be unknown to the author of the above passages, I must say that Dr. Scott has hardly acted with professional candour or liberality in withholding all allusion to that part of my Essay, in which his opinions are corroborated, if not antici- pated. On this account, I deem it incumbent on me to shew that others have not overlooked the doctrine in question, if he has. In afew months after the publication of my work on Tropical Climates, the following passage appeared in a periodical Journal, from the pen of Dr. Perkins of Coventry, now a resident physician in Priniacei ‘¢ One recent writer ¢¢ has been duly sensible of this fact; and his doctrine of ¢ cutaneo-hepatic sympathy will produce more beneficial s¢ revolutions in physic, than have ever been effected by the s¢ Stahlian dreams, the inert phantasies of Hofmanic spasm, €¢ or the brilliant but delusive dogmas and dangerous hypo- “¢ theses of John Brown.” New Med. and Phys. Journal, April 1814, p. 307. ) In an excellent Latin thesis on Dysentery, by Dr. Archi- bald Robertson, written long before I had the honour of his acquaintance, the following passage occurs :—‘$ Omnibus ** sané erit voluptati librum totum sed presertim observa- ®* tones novas de consensu inter cutem et surculos vene Por- ““ tae, et nexu inter sudorem et secretionem fellis, seduld ¢ perlegere.” p. 21. Finally, I cannot be insensible to the opinion of such a manas Dr. Armstrong who, in page 171 of his Essay on 'Typhus, thus expresses himself :—‘ The medi- cal public, I conceive, is very much indebted to Mr. James