On the importance of the functions of the skin, in the pathology and treatment of tubercular consumption / by Abraham Toulmin.

  • Toulmin, Abraham.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the importance of the functions of the skin, in the pathology and treatment of tubercular consumption / by Abraham Toulmin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    sailor, exposed as he is to the most sudden variations of tempera- ture, and without shelter from wind or rain, with clothes generally wet to the skin, has nevertheless an almost complete immunity to Phthisis. And in addition to this, what says the Eegistrar General on this subject ? ‘‘ Cold alone,” says he, “ appears to be less causative of pulmonary diseases than is commonly supposed.” And again, “ Glendale, in Northumberland, is the healthiest country district in England, and it is also the one in which there is the smallest number of deaths from pulmonary diseases.” Singular, to say the least of it, that in Northumberland is to be found the place blessed beyond all others with the smallest amount of Phthisis ! But this fully accords with my experience of the hygienic treatment that I have found most successful in arresting this disease, namely, permitting consumptive patients to breath the dry cold and pure air of the South downs, rather than the warm and moist air of the shore. And now, permit me to ask, what is the inference that should be drawn from such facts as these ? This most important oneviz., that if Tubercle be really a blood disease arising from a deficiency of vital air, and not a disease of the lungs or air tubes, arising from cold ;* that then, the sending consumptive patients abroad to a warm climate, (except in the latest stage, when it can only prolong life a few weeks), is a grave error; which must be mischievous, inasmuch as, the warmer the climate, the more relaxing does it become, and the less oxygen does the air contain. Another corroborative and important fact in connection with this subject is, that Nature has made man, by his peculiar physical organization, capable of breathing equally well the air of the Arctic, as the Torrid Zone; and that she has furnished him with no means of guarding the lungs against the effect of either cold or caloric; but, on the contrary, that the skin is endowed with the most elaborate apparatus for preserving a uniform temperature to the body, the nature of which it is not necessary here to discuss. It may however be permitted me to observe, how wonderful is it, that at St. Petersburgh for instance, with mercury at its freezing point (40° below zero), and in the Arctic Seas, with the thermo- meter still lower, viz., at 60°, our lungs inhale the air without any sensation of cold. It is to the skin only that all such sensations