The study of the physiological influence of the wave of low
temperature, and of its relation to the wave of mortality, suggests a
few rules, simple, and easily remembered.
1. Clothing is the first thing to attend to. To have the body, during
variable weather, such as now obtains, well enveloped from head to
foot in non-conducting substance is essential. Who neglects this
precaution is guilty of a grievous error, and who helps the poor to
clothe effectively does more for them than can readily be conceived
without careful attention to the subject we have discussed.
2. In sitting-rooms and in bedrooms it is equally essential to
maintain an equable temperature; a fire in a bedroom is of first value
at this season. The fire sustains the external warmth, encourages
ventilation, and gives health not less than comfort.
3. In going from a warm into a cold atmosphere, in breasting the wave
of low temperature, no one can harm by starting forth thoroughly warm.
But in returning from the cold into the warm the act should always be
accomplished gradually. This important rule may readily be carried in
mind by connecting it with the fact that the only safe mode of curing
a frozen part is to rub it with ice, so as to restore the temperature
slowly.
4. The wave of low temperature requires to be met by good, nutritious,
warm food. Heat-forming foods, such as bread, sugar, butter, oatmeal
porridge, and potatoes, are of special use now. It would be against
science and instinct alike to omit such foods when the body requires
heat.
5. It is an entire mistake to suppose that the wave of cold is
neutralized in any sense by the use of alcoholics. When a glass of hot
brandy and water warms the cold man, the credit belongs to the hot
water, and any discredit that may follow to the brandy. So far from
alcohol checking the cold in action, it goes with it, and therewith
aids in arresting the motion of the heart in the living animal,
because it reduces oxidation.
6. Excessive exercise of the body, and overwork either of body or of
mind, should be avoided, especially during those seasons when a sudden
fall of temperature is of frequent occurrence. For exhaustion, whether
physical or mental, means loss of motion in the organism; and loss of
motion is the same as loss of heat.
One further consideration, suggested by the subject of this paper, has
reference to the bearing of the public toward the labors of the
medical man in meeting the effects of the low wave of heat. The
public, looking on the doctor as a sort of mystical high priest who
ought to save, may often be dissatisfied with his work. Let the
dissatisfied think of what is meant by saving when there is a sudden
fall in the thermometer. Let them recall that it is not bronchitis as
a cause of death, nor apoplexy, nor heart disease, as such, that the
doctor is called on to meet; but an all-pervading influence which
overwhelms like the sea, and against which, in the mass, individual
effort stands paralyzed and helpless. When the doctor is summoned the
mischief has at least commenced, and, it may be, is so far over that
treatment by mere medicines sinks into secondary significance. Then
he, true minister of health, candid enough to bow humbly before the
great and inevitable truth, and professing no specific cure by nostrum
or symbol, can only try to avert further danger by teaching elementary
principles, and by making the unlearned the participators in his own
learning.--_The Asclepiad._
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