The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe.

Date:: 1852

Credit: The principles of physiology applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education / by Andrew Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$plication of the vapour-bath is produc- tive of great relief. Even in chronic pulmonai-y complaints, it is, according to the Continental physicians, not only safe, but very serviceable; particularly in those affections of the mucous mem- brane which resemble consumption in so many of their symptoms. It is also strongly recommended by Dr Daniell in the treatment of tropical fevers. After a careful observation, says he, of the good effects of this reme- dial system, I was led to pay more particular study to the utility of its application, and at length to try a modified adaptation of it for the cure of those adynamic remittent fevers so destructive to European life. I have no hesitation in asserting, that not only myself, but many others who have experienced its ctficacy by the speedy restoration to liealth, can vouch for its superiority over the ordinary practice of venesection, saline purgatives, and large doses of calomel.''''* Like all powerful remedies, however, the va- pour-bath must be administered with proper regard to the condition and circumstances of the individual; and care must be taken to have the feet sufficiently warm during its use. If, from an irregular distribution of the steam, the feet bo left cold, head- ach and flushing are almost sure to follow. It is, therefore, a good pre- caution to place the feet in a vessel of te])id water. Vapour is a much less perfect con- ductor of caloric than water, and there- fore requires to be at a higher tem- j)erature to give the skin as much of the feeling of heat. The sensation produced by vapour at 98° and at 122° F., is about equal to that pro- i duced by water at 88° and 100° ; and a considerably higher degree of heat can therefore be supported in the va- pour than in the warm bath. As a general rule, however, 120° F. is the highest limit within which the heat can be comfortably borne in the vajjour-bath in the sitting posture, * Sketches of the Medical Topogrrapliy and Native Diseases of the Gulf of Guinea, p. 101. London, 1849. though, when the patient is lying, an addition of several degrees may be supported. The vapour-hath is taken either by entering entirely a chamber into which the vapour is admitted, or by enclosing the body in a box from which the head is excluded. The former method is that generally adopted in Russia and the East; the latter is that which is chiefly used in this country. It happens occasionally, either from some peculiarity of constitution, or from an unusual condition of the skin, indicated by great dryness and a lia- bility to erysipelatous and scaly erup- tions, that the moisture of the water or vapour-bath is at first rather pre- judicial and unpleasant, and becomes grateful only in proportion as the skin regains its healthy state. In such cases the warm air-bath is said to be remarkably successful, and is rapidly gaining ground in the metropolis. Although the preceding remarks apply specially to the skin considered as an exhalant, yet most of them are equally applicable to it when viewed as the seat of an important nervous function. For, so intimately and beau- tifully are all the parts of the frame connected with each other, that what is really good for one, rarely if ever fails to be beneficial to the rest. Thus, while exercise, adequate clothing, the bath, friction, and cleanliness, are very efficacious in promoting the in- sensible perspiration, remoying the im2>urities which it leaves behind, and equalizing the circulation, they are almost equally influential in promot- ing the vital action of tiie innumerable nervous filaments ramified on the skin, and the tone of which is as essential as that of the blood-vessels to the \)vo- per discliarge of the cutaneous func- tions. In the large and afflicting class of nervous and mental diseases, at- tention to the skin becomes therefore almost a sine qua non of successful treatment. As a preservative, too, it is influential. In most nervous ail- ment.*, languor and inaction of the skin shew them.selves simultaneously with the earliest dawn of mental un- easiness, and often attract notice be-$