Selections from My Portfolio Comprising Lectures and Essays on Popular and Scientific Subjects (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1858 Excerpt: ...for any long period. The workmen of the late Sir F. Chantrey have been accustomed to enter a furnace in which his moulds were dried, whilst the floor was red-hot, and a thermometer in the air stood at 350; and Ohabert, the 'fire-king, ' was in the habit of entering an oven whose temperature was from 450 to 600. It is possible that these feats may be easily matched by workmen who are habitually exposed to high temperatures. In all these instances, the dryness of the air facilitates the rapidity of the vaporization of the fluid, of which the heat occasions the secretion by the cutaneous glands; and the large amount of heat which becomes latent in the process, is for the most part withdrawn from the body, the temperature of which is thus kept down." The quantity of perspiration secreted by the skin is sometimes very great, amounting to several pounds in the course of twenty-four hours. In the summer season, when heat is high, the sensible perspiration goes on very rapidly. In winter, particularly in the North, the secretion is checked in a measure, and although it always exists in some Human Physiology, page 671. quantity under the form of insensible perspiration, it is only just sufficient to keep the skin moist, pliable and elastic. There is also a great deal of morbid matter carried off by the skin, hence we see fever, rheumatism, pleurisy, and a great many other diseases, produced by a sudden suppression of this secretion. And in treating fevers, how speedily is the patient relieved, when the physician can produce a good action of the cutaneous surface How important then that we attend to this function, by keeping the surface of the body free from all impurities, that the pores of the skin may be kept constantly open, and the perspiration be allowed a...