A treatise on derangements of the liver, internal organs, and nervous system : pathological and therapeutical.

  • James Johnson
Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on derangements of the liver, internal organs, and nervous system : pathological and therapeutical. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    10/236 (page 2)
    Bflnilaarity of result! By habit, the most potent poison may be taken in doses that otherwise would destroy life at once: so it is to sudden changes in the temperature, and occasional deleterious impregnations in the composition of the atmo- sphere, that nine-tenths of its injurious effects on the human constitution are to be attributed. It is time, that the degrees of rarity and density have considerable effect on the gene- rality of constitutions, and that drought and moistiiire are still more important circumstances ; but these may be fairly merged in one head. ATMOSPHERICAL VICISSITUDES. The sudden transitions-from Heat to cold, and vice versa, which we so frequently experience in this uncertain climate, though doubtless occasioned, principally, by the absence or presence, or rather the variations of solar heat, and electrical changes in the atmosphere, have not been satisfactorily ac- counted for by natural philosophers. It is our business, however, to trace their.operations on the human constitution, and point out the most practicable means of obviatingwthjeir effects. The mean temperature of England being/ about 52 de- grees of Fahrenheit, it is reasonable to suppose, that when the mercury rises to above 70 in summer, or sinks below 30 in winter; the functions of those organs which are more immediately exposed to atmospherical impressions,. must be considerably influenced] Observation confirms tliis reason- ing. In summer we find the functions of the skin, or the process of perspiration, conspicuously increased, and the uri- nary secretion diminished. In winter it is just the reverse; the functions of the skin are then confined, and a vicarious augmentation of urine keeps up the equilibrium of the fluids. The lungs, which are ever in immediate contact with at- mospheric air, experience the most unequivocal impressions from the change of the seasons. In summer, when the air is mild and warm, the skin in a perspirable state, and the fluids determined to the surface of the body, the lungs are free, and the chest expansive. In winter and spring the fluids are determined from the surface of the body towards the internal organs, and then the lungs become oppressed, (particularly in delicate people) and the extensive catalogue of pulmonic complaints attains its zenith. TJxese, however, are only the first links in the chain of cause and effect. With the surface of the body some of the woMfdtofciderable interior organs sympathize, particularly the