The principles and practice of hydrotherapy : a guide to the application of water in disease for students and practitioners of medicine / by Simon Baruch ... ; with numerous illustrations.

  • Baruch, Simon, 1840-1921.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of hydrotherapy : a guide to the application of water in disease for students and practitioners of medicine / by Simon Baruch ... ; with numerous illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    91/456 (page 77)
    Influence of Hydriatic Procedures on Temperature. Physiologists are in accord in maintaining that the temperature of a living part or organ depends upon the amount of arterial blood cir- culating within its tissue. The fact that venous blood returning from an organ in a high state of functional activity is warmer than the arterial blood passing into it, is alone sufficient evidence of the propo- sition that the arterial circulation is an important element in the equalization of the body temperature. All tissue change, all organic action, is in direct ratio to the quantity of arterial blood circulating in an organ, and therefore depends upon vascular activity, by means of which excretory and secretory elements are carried to and from it. The accumulated heat in the organs is equalized by the streams of blood which constantly pass through them. Hence the flow of arterial blood controls temperature variations, to some extent. The effects of hydriatic procedures upon the circulation, respiration, and tissue change have been fully enlarged upon. It remains now to demonstrate how, by utilizing this powerful influence, we may reduce or elevate the tem- perature in the human economy. That the application of baths of /arious kinds is potent in this direction has been accepted since the primitive days of medical investigation. Indeed, the idea that reduc- tion of temperature is the chief if not the sole attribute of the bath has so strongly rooted itself in the professional mind that it is difficult to iislodge it to-day, when we have come to realize that this is only one of its valuable manifestations. It has been shown (The Skin as a Heat Regulator, page 24) that there is no evidence to prove that the influence exerted by exter- nal thermic agents is traceable to the heat-generating centres. There is abundant evidence, however, to prove that this influence is directly exerted upon that most important heat-regulating agency, the periph- eral cutaneous circulation. The mode of action in this direction is twofold. I have referred to the well-known fact in physical science that two bodies of different temperatures, by coming in contact, will at once make an effort to equalize their respective temperatures. This law applies to inanimate bodies, however, and is only applicable to the living body up to a certain point, because the latter is endowed with compensatory powers which enable it to resist dangerous encroach- ments from external temperature agencies, and which have been illus- trated fully in the chapter on temperature regulation. The utilization of these compensatory powers enables us, as will be shown, to influence the temperature of the body powerfully in diseased