04

PERSPIRATION.

THE PERSPIRATION.

Insensible perspiration is generally reckoned the greatest of allthe discharges from the human body.* It is of so great impor-tance to health, that few diseases attack us while it goes properlyon ; but when it is obstructed, the whole frame is soon disordered.This discharge, however, being less perceptible than any of therest, is, consequently, less attended to. Hence it is that acute fe-vers, rheumatisms, agues, &c. often proceed from obstructed per-spiration, before we are aware of its having taken place.

On examining patients, we find most of them impute their dis-eases either to violent colds which they had caught, or to slightones which had been neglected. For this reason, instead of a crit-ical inquiry into the nature of the perspiration, its difference in dif-ferent seasons, climates, constitutions, <fcc. we shall endeavour topoint out the causes which most commonly obstruct it, and to showhow far they may be either avoided, or have their influence coun-teracted by timely care. The want of a due attention to these,costs Britain annually some thousands of useful lives.

CAUSES OP OBSTRUCTED PERSPIRATION, &C.

*Onb of the most common causes of obstructed perspiration,! orcatching cold, in this country, is the changeableness of the weath-er, or state of the atmosphere. There is no place where suchchanges happen more frequently than in Great Britain. With usthe degrees of heat and cold are not only very different in the dif-ferent seasons of the year, but often change almost from one ex-treme to another in a iew days, and sometimes even in the courseof one day. That such changes must affect the state of the per-spiration is obvious to every one.

The best method of fortifying the body against the changes ofthe weather is, to he abroad every day. Those who keep mostwithin doors, are most liable to catch cold. Such persons gener-ally render themselves so delicate, as to feel even the slightest

* Sanctorius, an Italian physician, was the first that directed the attention of thefaculty to the cutaneous and pulmonary transpiration, which he proved to exceed theother secretions considerably in weight ; and he maintained that this function musthave a considerable influence on the system, and was deserving of great considera-tion in the treatment of diseases. There is, doubtless, much of truth in this generalobservation ; but in its application to practice,he appears to have gone to an extrava-gant length, and to have considerably contributed to prolong the humoral patholoirv.which referred all diseases to a vitiated state of the fluids, which is now well knownto be the effect instead of the cause. Ed.

t From the time of Sanctorius, colds, coughs, fevers, and other diseases, have beenattributed, by many, to the suppression of perspiration, although there was no directexperiment to prove it. That this may sometimes act as a cause there can be littledoubt, but not so frequently as has been imagined ; for we see people perspiring some-times a great deal, ai other times not at all, and without any bad effect. A man, infine, enjoys as good health ïn winter as in summer ; in cold as in hot countries ; andbesides that perspiration is carried on to a great extent by the lungs, nature has alsotaken care to guard against obstructed perspiration, by making it a vicarious secretionwith the urine ; for when the former is increased the latter is diminished, and viceversa. The matter of perspiration, nevertheless, appears to be useless to the humanframe, and perhaps contains materials that might prove hurtful if retained ; hence,when obstructed, it may produce some complaints and aggravate others ; although ma-ny of the diseases attributed to retained perspiration arise from mere torpor of the skin ;aad the effect is here taken for the cause. See Diavhcftict. Cold Bath. &c. Ed.