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.

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    AL DHPARTM Atmospherical TrahsM'Sm. u' u-L1 G l:-» 3 ViCTf* ' 'aj 1 v F *8' ' lungs, the alimentary canal, and the liver. The sympathy between the skin and this last-mentioned organ, (which per- forms so important an office in the animal economy) or in other words, between the functions of perspiration and bili- ary secretion, has not been noticed, as far as I kjiow, by any author, till I traced it in my work on tlje Influence of Tropical Climates on European Constitutions ; though I trust that it will not be overlooked by future obseryers. But the effects thus produced by the rotation of the Rea- sons would occasion little inconvenience, were, they regular I y progressive, as the constitution adapts itself to the gradu.il revolution. It is the sudden diurnal, rather than the slow annual vicissitude that induces such disturbance in the move- ments of the living machine, and renders the climate of Engr land so disagreeable to foreigners, and peleterious to health., By a wonderful innate power, implanted by the hand of our Creator, the human frame can preserve its mean tempera- ture, (about 98° of Fahrenheit) although that of the extern?.! air may range from Zero to 150. But rapid transitjicjn^- as A have before observed, derange the functions of the, body .to, a great extent. Another point to be observed is,. t,hat ^Ke ope- ration of heat or cold, predisposes the lmman frame ,to be more easily affected by the opposite state. Th.usja.cgld win- ter succeeding a hot autumn, or a hot summer succeeding a cold spring, w ill render the usual diseases of the season in-r finitely more severe; and when, in addition to these, we have rapid transitions within the twenty-four, or indeed within a- few hours, then the effects will be conspicuous enough. To take a nearer view of this important subject. The heat of the blood is generally far above the -highest range of the thermometer in this country; but when in summer the mer- cury rises to 7'Cf or 80 degrees Fahr. it is evident that the heat perpetually generated in the system, [supposed to be in the lungs] cannot' be so rapidly abstracted from the sur- face of the body by the surrounding air, as when the tem- perature of that air is low. The sluices of the skin, however being opened, the superabundant heat is carried off by the process of perspiration, and the temperature of the body is maintained at its usual standard. But in proportion as the rano-e of the mercury is above the mean level [F)2°] and also in pro- portion to the time it continues there, so will the functions of the skin be preternaturally increased; and, when a transi- tion to cold takes place, the exhalents on the surface are the more easily struck torpid, so as to fail in performing the im- portant office in the animal economy, for which they were