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

  • Combe, Andrew, 1797-1847
Date:
1844
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

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    INFLUENCE OF THE STATE OF THE SKIN ON THE GENERAL HEALTH, © blood circulates freely through its minuter vessels, and that the perspiration is healthy and active. When, on the other hand, the surface is chilled and pale, we may be perfectly certain that its circulation is inactive, and perspiration deficient. Hence the proper regulation of its temperature is, in one sense, the first requisite to the The skin being the seat, and the nerve the immediatPreservation of its health. instrument, of sensation or sensibility, it becomes an ob , When the skin is habitually cold, not only are the ject of interest to ascertain in what manner the nerve j circulation and perspiration impeded or obstructed, and distributed over the skin so as to enable it to come int the injurious waste matter thus retained within the sys- contact with external bodies without the risk of sustain 6€™ ; but the great mass of blood is thrown in undue ing injury from their roughness or hardness. On thi PrOPOr tion upon the internal organs, and, by over-dis- point we shall find much information in the work « tending their bloodvessels, tends directly to impair their CHAPTER IV. ENCE ON THE GENERAT. SVSTEM. Breschet already referred to. On examining the woodcut on page 12, a great nun ber of pointed or conical eminences, /, will be seen ° cover the surface of the skin. These are called, fro their shape, papille, or little paps, and very often, fro their structure, nervous papille. These papille consi of minute nervous ramifications, separated from ear other by the space which gives passage to the perspir tory pores. Their shape is that of a small cone with i base resting on the dermis, and its apex terminating : an obtuse point. Every nervous branch entering a p pilla penetrates into the epidermis like a sword into i scabbard, so that the depressions on the internal surfa of the epidermis represent exactly the number and di position of the papillae. On entering the papille, tl nerves lose their common investing membrane or sheai (neurilema), and are then protected by a covering fro the epidermis itself. By this arrangement, the tacti extremity of the nerve which enters into the papille, allowed to come into more direct contact with the qu lities of the external objects which it is intended to r cognise, and thus to appreciate them more correctly. 1 this way, touch is exercised by thousands of these litt organs, all placed side by side, as it were, and comm nicating together by means of the nervous netwo1 spread over the whole surface of the body from one From the foregoing exposition of the structure and functions of the skia, the principles on which its phy- siological management ought to be conducted will be sufficiently apparent; but as knowledge becomes valu- able only in proportion as it is rendered subservient to the improvement and happiness of man, I shall offer no apology for now directing the attention of the reader to some of the advantages which may be derived from the practical application of the information which has just been communicated. Assuming the natural constitution of the skin for our guide, it follows that the conditions essential to its healthy action are, first, that a free and equal circula- tion, of blood shall take place over every part of its sur- face; secondly, that a free and equal perspiration shall be kept up in every part in due proportion to the cir- cumstances in which the individual is placed; thirdly, that the residuum, or remains of the perspired matter, and all external impurities accidentally deposited on the surface of the body, shall be scrupulously and timeously removed ; and, lastly, that the contact of noxious exter- nal agents likely to be absorbed by the skin should be caréfully avoided and removed. As the means which are most effectual in ensuring a free and equal circulation of blood over the whole surface of the skin, are, at the same time, more or less directly efficacious in keeping up a due degree of perspiration, and in removing impurities from the surface, I shall, to avoid unnecessary complication, treat of them all under the same head. Those among them which chiefly require our attention, are bpdily exercise, suitable clothing, friction, and bathing. The temperature of the skin is a pretty gdod test of the state of both circulation and perspiration on its sur- face. When the skin is comfortably warm, its depth of ealth, and induce serious and often fatal disease. The most frequent causes of this injurious coldness of the surface, are bodily inactivity, or a want of active exercise in the open air, want of sufficient clothing, and sitting in cold rooms. When a person sits all day ata desk or in a drawing-room, especially in winter, cold- ness of the feet and a chilly dry paleness of the skin are almost sure to be produced. But on going into the open air and taking active and invigorating exercise, the chill soon begins to disappear, the complexion deepens, and a genial heat and moisture of the skin succeed; and these results become habitual if the exercise be re- peated with sufficient regularity and frequency. Exer- cise, then, is an indispensable requisite to the health of the skin ; but as I shall have occasion to treat of it very ully in a subsequent chapter I shall not enter farther upon its consideration here. The influence of unsuitable or inadequate clothing in impairing, and of switable clothing in protecting and re- f fancy, and especially among the poor, want of proper clothing and the consequent exposure to cold are fre- quent causes of death, and still more frequent causes of sickness. From the recent Reports of the Registrar- 1838-9, it appears that one-third of ali the deaths regis- tered, or 342 per 1000, occur under two years of age. On inquiry, it is found that the proportion of such deaths among the poor is far greater than among the middle and richer classes. A very influential, although by no means the only, cause in producing this excess among the poor, is the inadequate protection afforded to the new-born infant against the effects of the sudden transitiun which it makes in passing from a high and almost unvarying temperature in the mother’s womb, to one greatly inferior and constantly liable to change. At birth the skin is delicate, extremely vascular, and highly susceptible of impressions, so much so that cases have occurred in which a leech-bite has caused a fatal he- morrhage. The circulation is, in fact, cutaneous ; for the lungs, the stomach, the liver, and the kidneys, are as yet newly brought into activity, and feeble in their functions. If the infant then be rashly exposed to a cold atmosphere, the mass of blood previously circulat- ing on the surface of the body is immediately driven inwards by the contraction of the cutaneous vessels, and, by over-stimulating the internal organs, gives rise to fever, bowel-complaints, inflammation, croup, or convul- sions, which sooner or later extinguish life. Hence warm and light clothing is indispensable in infancy, and eee Can GS —_—— ~ er Mv under the absurd expectation of hardening the constitu- tion, the infant be daily plunged into cold water at that tender age, or rashly exposed to the open air during dows, the consequences can scarcely be otherwise than injurious. In my recently published Treatise on the Physiologi- cal and Moral Management of Infancy, I have entered into some details in proof of the great influence of cold on infant mortality, and particularly of that arising from a law now or lately prevalent in France, which eg <a