Influence of tropical climates on European constitutions ; being a treatise on the principal diseases incidental to Europeans in the East and West Indies, Mediterranean, and coast of Africa / by James Johnson.

  • Johnson, James, 1777-1845.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Influence of tropical climates on European constitutions ; being a treatise on the principal diseases incidental to Europeans in the East and West Indies, Mediterranean, and coast of Africa / by James Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    ft and if the necessary quantity of perspiration takes place, the system is enfeebled by the evacuation*. Mere then, we have Scylla on one side, and Charybdis on thfi otlier:—morbid accumulation of heat if we do not per- spire enough—debility if we do. How are we to direct our course through this intricate and dangerous navigation? Dr. Currie. Europeans who go to the West Indies are more healthy in proportion, as they perspire freely, especially if they support the discharge by a moderate use of gently stimula- ting liquids, stopping short of intoxication Dr. Moseley. I aver from my own knowledge and custom, as well as from the custom and observations of others, that those who drink nothing but water, are but little affected by the climate, and can undergo the greatest fatigue without inconve- mence. Without meaning to set up the judgment of a Moseley in competition with that of a Currie, on other subjects, candour obliges me to confirm, by personal observation and expe- rience, the truth of Dr. Moselev's remark. Dr. Currie never was in a tropical climate, therefore had the above piece of information from others; and it is one of the very few erro- neous positions in his invaluable work. Nevertheless, these apparently opposite directions, are not so contradictory in fact as in terms. The principle on which both act is the same, though the means are different. Dr. Currie's plan of supplying the stomach with gently stimulating liquids, will undoubtedly keep the morbid heat from accumulating, by driving out a copious perspiration ; but it will, at the same time, lead to debility, by carrying off much more of that fluid than is necessary ; by which means the thirst, instead of being allayed, will be increased ; and what is still worse, the bodv will be rendered more susceptible of the subsequent impres- sions of cold, the deleterious effects of which, at these times, are much more extensive than is generally believed, as will be shewn in another part of the work. Dr. MoseJey's plan, on the other hand, far from prevent- ing perspiration, will be found, in general, to promote it, but . at the same time restrain its excess.—A familiar example or two will elucidate this subject! * Medical Reports, vol. 1, p. 278.