A treatise on the asthma : to which are added cases and observations, in which the asthma is complicated with the following diseases : catarrhs., humoral asthmas, ... general convulsions / by Thomas Withers.

  • Withers, Thomas, 1750-1809.
Date:
1786
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the asthma : to which are added cases and observations, in which the asthma is complicated with the following diseases : catarrhs., humoral asthmas, ... general convulsions / by Thomas Withers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

    58/474 (page 34)
    But the chief caufe of this acquired irrita- bility is artificial external heat, accumulated about the body by means of fires, cloatbing, and boufes and as it is fo powerful and fo fre- quent a caufe, it is requifite that the reader's mind mould be impreffed with a juft notion of its importance. The power of heat in- exciting irritability, is a fad well eftabliihed in the fchools of phyfic. Cold diminishes the fennbiiity of the nervous fyftem, and heat encreafes it*. The heat of beds f, fires, ftoves, hot rooms, too many cloaths, &c. is more pernicious in its effects, than the natural heat of the climate. The nerves, blood-veffels, and mufcu- lar fibres of the lungs, are very much relax- ed by breathing a warm air, and this relaxa- tion is neceffarily productive of irritability. A warm artificial atmofphere caufes a copious perfpiration, from the exhalant arteries of the lungs. If in this condition of the body cold be * Vid. Gaub. Inftitut. Pathol. Med. de nocivis atmofphcsrx* poteiiatibus. § 414. 5. \ Hippocrates fays, Longiores vero fomni calefacierites col- liquant carnem, & corpus diffundendo refolvent et imbccillum reddunt. Dc vitfus ratione fanorum Lib ii. cap. 10, torn. vi. page 474..