The book of climates : acclimatization, climatic diseases, health resorts and mineral springs, sea sickness, sea voyages, and sea bathing / by D.H. Cullimore.

  • Cullimore, D. H. (Daniel Henry)
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The book of climates : acclimatization, climatic diseases, health resorts and mineral springs, sea sickness, sea voyages, and sea bathing / by D.H. Cullimore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    climates, and the appetite requires to be tickled and pam- pered. There are, however, many exceptions. There is prostration of bodily and nervous energy, and a lack of mental activity. Blood Degeneration. The effect of great and continuous heat on the blood may be considered the fons et origo, not only of most of the special diseases of tropical countries, but of that anaemia which few Europeans after a certain period of residence escape. The effects are as follows :—The blood is lighter in colour owing to the deficiency of carbonic acid, and to the more rapid flow in the vessels. There is deficiency of the number of red cells, and a deficiency of the quantity of albumen and fibrine. In cold countries there are 5| millions of red cells in a cubic millimetre, and in hot countries but three. This deficiency is mainly due to anoxyhaemia, or want of oxygen, which the rarefied, more moisture-laden and diluted air of the tropics produce ; supplemented, however, by the losses due to perspiration and biliary discharges, and by the difficulty of taking exercise without fatigue, probably still more injurious. Owing to lessened sanguification, the result of the reduc- tion of blood in the chest, and the accumulation of blood in the abdominal region and portal veins, and its pollution by retained biliary and kidney excretions, and the impairment of digestion, anaemia is set up. Hence the necessity for regular exercise, temperate living, change to temperate latitudes, and the avoidance of scurvy, syphilis, chlorosis, malaria, and other conditions which develop anaemia. On the liver heat first produces hyperaemia, generally unattended with any derangement. This state is, however, materially increased by over eating and drinking, and the injection into the stomach of alcohol and other hot and irritating substances, as the blood then arrives in the liver with redoubled force, setting up temporary congestion, the
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