CHECKED PERSPIRATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 25 August 1891, Page 4

CHECKED PE RSPIRATION.

Tins is the fruitful cause of sickness; . disease, and death to multitudes every year. If a tea-kettle of water is boiling on the fire steam is seen issuing from the spout, Carrying the extra heat with it,. but if the lid be fastened down and the spout be plugged, a destructive explosion follows in a very short time. V Heat is constantly generated within the human body by the chemical disorganisa- ' 'tion, the combustion of the food we eat. There are seven millions of tubes or pores : en. the surface of the body, which in health 'ajre constantly open, conveying'from the ' aystem by what is called insensible perspira- . tton this internal heat, which/'hatrihg-' ,■ answered its purpose, is passed off like the jets of steam 'which are thrown frSm the* escape-pipe, in puffs, of any ordinary steam;.",'! engine;: but this insensible perspuratiqn carries .with it, in a.dissolved form, very ''•'" much of the waste matter of the system, to the extent of a pound or two or more, every • • •: ' twenty-four hours. It must.be apparent* then, that if the pores of the skin are closed, if the multitude of valves which are placed over the whole surface of the human body : are shut down, two things take place. First, >: the internal heat is prevented from passing ■ off, it accumulates every moment, the person / expresses himself as burning vpl, and.large ' draughts of water are swallowed to quench J ' - the internal fire--this we call. "Fever." '•■■ When the* warm steam is constantly escaping from the body in health it keeps.the skic moist, and there is a soft pleasant feel and warmth about it. But when the pores are closed the skin feels harsh and hot and dry. '■ But another result follows the closing, of, ■ the pores of the skin, and more immediately dangerous': a main outlet for the waste of the body is closed, it remingles with the blood, which, in a few hours, becomes impure, and begins to generate disease in every fibre of the system—the whole machinery of the man becomes at once disordered, and he expresses himself as "feeling miserable." The terrible effects of checked perspiration of a dog, who sweats only by his tongue, is evinced by his becoming " mad." The. water, runs in streams from a dog's mouth in summer, if exercising freely. "If it ceases to run ;: that is hydrophobia. If has been' asserted by a French physician that if a person suffering under hydrophobia can be only made to perspire freely he is cured at once. * It is familiar to the commonest observer that in all ordinary forms of disease the patient ,• begins to get better the moment he begins ' to perspire, simply because the internal heat is passing off,; ahd there is an outlet for thd waste'of the .system. .._,_., ■_...,; ';;. ■..:, ...