Bathing considered as a means of promoting health : a lecture delivered in the Bath Saloon, Victoria Street, Glossop-Road, Sheffield, on Monday evening, May 8, 1837 / by Charles F. Favell.

  • Favell, Charles F.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bathing considered as a means of promoting health : a lecture delivered in the Bath Saloon, Victoria Street, Glossop-Road, Sheffield, on Monday evening, May 8, 1837 / by Charles F. Favell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    dnring twenty-four hours, because, as I have before hinted, this must be influenced by a variety of circum- stances, to two of which I have already alluded. But I may briefly state, that the quantity of insensible perspira- tion is considerably greater than most persons would ima- gine. There have been many experiments on this subject, the details of which I need not enter upon, but I will briefly mention the results. The learned and indefatigable Sanctorius experimented on himself for a period of thirty years, and he ultimately came to the conclusion that, out of every eight pounds of substance taken into the body, five pounds passed out again by the skin, in the form of insensible perspiration. This estimate, however, is not correct. The subject has subsequently been investigated by several eminent physiologists, to only two of whom, however, I shall at present allude, viz., Seguin and La- voisier. The former arrived at the following conclusions : “ That the largest quantity of insensible perspiration from the lungs and skin together, amounted to 32 grains per minute, 3| ounces per hour, or 5 lbs. per day. Of this, the cutaneous perspiration constituted three-fourths, or 60 ounces in twenty-four hours. The smallest quantity ob- served amounted to 11 grains per minute, or one pound eleven ounces and a half during the twenty-four hours, of which the skin furnished 20 ounces. The medium or average amount was 18 grains per minute, of which 11 were from the skin, which would make about 33 ounces in twenty-four hours.” Lavoisier’s estimate is scarcely so high as this. He gives 20 ounces as the average quantity of insensible perspiration which passes from the skin in the course of twenty-four hours. But even let us take the lowest estimate, and let it be borne in mind that every twenty-four hours, twenty ounces of waste matter are removed from the system by the cutaneous vessels, and removed in such a way that we are not cognizant of the fact. The quantity exhaled in- creases after meals, during sleep, in dry warm weather, by friction, or by whatever stimulates the skin. In che- mical constitution, it differs from the blood. According to Thenard, it consists of water, acetic acid3 chlorides of