The principles and practice of hydrotherapy : a guide to the application of water in disease for students and practitioners of medicine / by Simon Baruch ... ; with numerous illustrations.

  • Simon Baruch
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of hydrotherapy : a guide to the application of water in disease for students and practitioners of medicine / by Simon Baruch ... ; with numerous illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    tic advantages arising from this condition are self-evident. The re- spiration is as much affected by the hot-air bath as the circulation. The thermic irritation of the periphery excites reflexes which accelerate the breathing; besides this, the superheated blood stimu- lates the vagus also. I have often noted a respiration of 25 a min- ute, although the inspirations were deep. The subsequent cooling process reduces the number of respirations according to its intensity and rapidity, although they remain more frequent than normal for a time. It is fair to assume that the increased excretion of CO„ and increased demand for oxygen indicated by the enhanced respiratory processes are manifestations of increased oxidation. The urine affords corroborative evidence on this point, and this evidence is the more val- uable since we may obtain it with some degree of precision. The quantity of urine is reduced about one-fourth by the hot-air bath in persons who take constantly the same amount of fluid. This reduc- tion is not so great at the time of the bath as during the four or five days succeeding it. This may fairly be explained by the effort which the organism is called upon to make, in order to eliminate the waste products which the bath produces. The specific gravity of the urine increases in pro- portion to the diminution of the quantity, but this increase continues even after the urinary volume is restored to normal. Thus we have positive evidence of the increased production of the solid urinary constituents. Urea is excreted more abundantly; about one-third more is eliminated on the day of the bath, and this increased elimination continues in less quantity until the fifth day. If fluid is moder- ately drunk during the bath, the increase of urea is not so great immediately after the bath, but is greater during the five days succeed- ing it. There is evidently a retention of urea in consequence of insufficient urinary water, but the average for the six days is nearly the same, whether the patient drinks water or not, and affords a ]Josi- tive measure of the increase of tissue change. The uric-acid excretion produced is doubled and even trebled; it is greatest in the urine passed after the bath, but diminishes rapidly during the succeeding days. The quantity of sulphuric and phosphoric acids is also decidedly increased during and after the hot-air bath. Under the influence of hot-air baths a decided acceleration of oxi- dation of nitrogenous substances (nutrient and tissue albumin) is inaugurated, which lasts several days. Since, however, it would be impossible to maintain an increased heat supply necessitated by the continued heat diffusion for so long a time, an increased combustion of fat becomes necessary. This is entirely in accord with the daily obser- vation that hot-air baths are competent to produce rapidly a very con-
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