An essay on the remote and proximate causes of phthisis pulmonalis / by Andrew Hamersley.

  • Hamersley, Andrew.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the remote and proximate causes of phthisis pulmonalis / by Andrew Hamersley. 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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    plunge into contiguous cold baths, or run into the open an, and, without the smallest covering to their bodies, roll them- selves in snow.''* In considering a fact of this kind, there are two particular circumstances to be noticed, to wit, the ac- quired vigour of the subjects to whom the practice apper- tains, and the inherent powers of reaction possessed by the animal economy. The hardy Russian, whose every fibre is made tense by the severity of his climate, suffers no harm from such practices, as the principle possessed by the system just adverted to, is put in action in a frame capable of endur- ing the influence of the opposite media to which it is ex- posed. But this would afford no ground for believing, that the more tender frame of an inhabitant of the tropics, to whom of course, belongs the same general law of nature, could bear so severe a change with equal impunity. A due regard to these contrary circumstances is required, when commenting on facts, from which such important con- clusions may be drawn. Whenever rapid transitions are un- dergone, which are followed by powerful reaction, a propor- tionately firm character of fibre is requisite, that the shock may be sustained without great injury to the bodily func- tions, or, perhaps, a total suspension of vital action. The state of the body in relation to its susceptibility of being affected by cold media, has more reference to the kind than degree of previously existing heat, or, more correctly speaking, although an equal quantity of actual heat may be present in the sys- tem, such heat may be abstracted with greater or less faci- lity and safety, according to the mode in which it has been generated. The increase of temperature occasioned by what is termed an inflammatory action pervading the whole system, such as is sometimes observed in inflammation of the lungs; that at- tended with an extremely debilitated state of the vital pow- er, as in instances of what has been improperly termed pu- trid fever; the heat consequent upon violent exercise ; and that produced by communication from without, as in the ex- ample of hot baths, or exposures to other sources of great heat, while the body continues inactive, are all essentially different in their nature, and although in each case the quan- tity may be equal, and a thermometer applied to any part of the body's surface shall indicate the same temperature • yet from such temperature alone, it would be improper to form a * Essay on Phthisis Pulmonalis, by John Reid, M. D.