An inaugural essay on the effects of cold upon the human body : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. provost, the medical professors and trustees, of the University of Pennsylvania, for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, on the 12th day of May, 1797 / by John Edmonds Stock, of Gloucestshire, England ; member of the medical and natural history societies of Edinburgh.

  • Stock, John Edmonds, 1774-1835.
Date:
1797
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural essay on the effects of cold upon the human body : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. provost, the medical professors and trustees, of the University of Pennsylvania, for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, on the 12th day of May, 1797 / by John Edmonds Stock, of Gloucestshire, England ; member of the medical and natural history societies of Edinburgh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    fo many fages and philofophers, have confumed a long and laborious life in exploring the receifes of the temple of Medical Science, new difcoveries can fcarcely be expected from him, who, with trembling and uncertain fteps, is yet lingering on the threfhold. An Inquiry into the Effetts of Cold upon the Human Body, naturally divides itfelf into two parts. The firft, fhould comprife the principal fafts of its operation upon the fyftem in a healthy flate; the fecond, mould apply the facts thus collected, in order to regulate the ufe of it as a remedy in a morbid flate. Under the firft head it may be neceffary to in- quire, what point in the temperature of the at- mofphere, produces the fenfation of cold, when applied to the human body. The 6oth degree of Fahrenheit may perhaps be aflumed as a ftandard, fmce various writers have obferved, that in tem- perate climates, the body conftantly retains its natural heat in a man of middle age, when the thermometer ftands at 62 degrees.* A temperature inferior to this, gradually abflracls the fenfible heat of the body. Although this definition be general, it is perhaps fufnciently accurate for the prefent purpofe. When the body is expofed for a time to any de- gree of temperature inferior to the point above- mentioned, one of its mofl evident effects is a weakened action of the heart and arteries. This is more particularly obvious when the cold ap- plied, be either violent in its' degree or long in its duration. Various experiments prove this fact. In cold countries the pulfe is uniformly flow. In Greenland it feldom beats above forty ftrokes in a minute. Of the effects of cold water in weakening the * Cullen's Firft Lines, Se&. 88, DifTertatio Inauguralis dc Frigore, Edinburgi 1780.