Every Man His Own Doctor: The Cold Water, Tepid Water, and Friction-Cure, as Applicable to Every Disease to Which the Human Frame Is Subject, and Also to the Cure of Disease in Horses and CattleClaridge, R. T. (Richard Tappin)
Science
Every Man His Own Doctor: The Cold Water, Tepid Water, and Friction-Cure, as Applicable to Every Disease to Which the Human Frame Is Subject, and Also to the Cure of Disease in Horses and Cattle
Claridge, R. T. (Richard Tappin)
Hydrotherapy; Veterinary medicine
"The Englishman, in Jamaica, feels with regret the disappearance of his
appetite, previously a source of frequently recurring enjoyment. And he
succeeds by the use of cayenne pepper and the most powerful stimulants,
in enabling himself to take as much food as he was accustomed to eat at
home. But the whole of the carbon thus introduced into the system is not
consumed; the temperature of the air is too high, and the oppressive
heat does not allow him to increase the number of respirations by active
exercise, and thus to proportion the waste to the amount of food taken;
disease of some kind, therefore, ensues."
"The cooling of the body, by whatever cause it may be produced,
increases the amount of food necessary, the mere exposure to the open
air, in a carriage or on the deck of a ship, by increasing radiation and
evaporation, increases the loss of heat and compels us to eat more than
usual. The same is true of those who are accustomed to _drink large
quantities of water_, which is given off at a temperature of the body
98°. It increases the appetite; and persons of weak constitution find it
necessary, by continued exercise, to supply to the system the oxygen
required to restore the heat abstracted by the cold water. Loud and
long continued speaking, the crying of infants, and moist air, all exert
a decided and appreciable influence on the amount of food which is
taken."--LIEBIG.
"No isolated fact," says Dr. Johnson, "can contravene the law that the
quantity of food is regulated by the number of respirations, by the
temperature of the air, and by the amount of heat given off to the
surrounding medium, as for instance by frequent bathing. Of course it is
a matter of indifference whether that medium be cold air or cold water."
As a healthy naked body generates by heightened perspiration of the
skin, the same warmth as is produced by one which is covered, by means
of retaining the perspiration; so every one who is quite well, might by
use become so hardened, that during the coldest season he might feel,
when naked, as comfortable as any one covered with wool. The truth of
this was verified by two English gentlemen, the winter I spent at
Gräfenberg. One day in December, when the thermometer was at 6°, of
Reaumur, below zero, they proceeded to a mountain, took off all their
clothes, except their drawers, and proceeded to the top, where, though
the wind was blowing strong at the time, they remained two hours. They
stated that after they had walked briskly, or got up the steam for ten
minutes, a glow of heat came on, which counteracting the cold, produced
the most agreeable sensation. Neither of these gentlemen caught cold or
suffered in any way from this experiment.
The Scotch Highlander with his naked legs, does not feel colder,
surrounded by mountains of ice, than we do who are clothed. We prove
this by our bare faces in the coldest winter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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