On a new and successful treatment for febrile and other diseases, through the medium of the cutaneous surface : illustrated with cases / by William Taylor.

  • Taylor, William, active 1850.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a new and successful treatment for febrile and other diseases, through the medium of the cutaneous surface : illustrated with cases / by William Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    35/192 (page 19)
    Sensibility of the Skin.—Dr. Armstrong, in his book on Typhus, says—It is especially during convalescence, from diseases which leave great weakness, that colds are apt to be caught, on account of the irregular temperature by which we are surrounded; because the skin is then far more susceptible than in a state of strength, and because the internal organs are then far less able to resist external impressions by reason of the general debility. From the little regard which many medical writers seem to pay to the skin, one would almost suppose that they considered it a sort of insen- sible envelope, somewhat like the outer bark of a tree; but I must again repeat, that it is an organ of vast importance in the animal economy, and that hardly any morbid phenomena occur in which its functions do not more or less participate; and it is truly surprising, too, how little some people attend to the proper protection of the skin, though their feelings daily remind them of the neglect. To defend the surface of the body as much as pos- sible from the shocks of atmospheric variation is one of the best means of preserving the centre sound, where life may be said more immediately to reside.