The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    579/684 (page 531)
    Apoplexy Flushing of face. Pupils often uneven. Pulse slow and full. Skin cool and moist. Sunstroke Face often deeply flushed; or, together with the whole surface,it may be of a dusky hue. Pupils alike ; immovable ; they may be contracted, dilated, or about normal. Pulse very rapid and sharp ; often wanting in volume. Skin intensely hot. Usually burning and pungent to the touch and exceedingly dry. More rarely it is bathed in a profuse per- spiration. Alcoholic Intoxication Face dusky and bloated. Pupils alike. Pulse slow. Skin cool and leaky. SUNSTROKE, CAUSES OF Intemperance is universally ac- knowledged to be a predisposing cause of sunstroke ; so, also, are debilitating influences of every kind, particularly those [of such a character as lower the tone of the nervous system and increase its irritability. Among the latter group of influences may be men- tioned previous prolonged exposure to a high temperature, not in itself sufficiently intense to cause the disease, but having an unfavourable influence on the nervous system and in this way impairing its powers of resistance ; excessive fatigue, bad ventilation, at night especially ; the febrile state and the debility I following other diseases. Owing to i the different nature of the avoca- < tion of the sexes, the affection is ; very much more common among | men than among women and, partly owing to their more delicate organ- ization and partly to their ignorance of danger, numerous cases occur among children. There is a pre- ponderance of opinion that the plethoric, or full-blooded, are more liable to sunstroke than others. 1 Whilst the foregoing conditions are predisposing causes—that is to say, whilst they increase the liability to the disease—the sole exciting cause, that is, the cause which actually produces it, is heat, intense and prolonged. No class of per- sons exposed to its influence are exempt from danger. The direct rays of the sun, however, are not necessary to the causation of sun- stroke. The attack may not only occur at night, but the affection is also encountered on shipboard. To those exposed by their avo- cations to the action of high heat, a few words of advice as to the pre- cautions by which the dangers of sunstroke may be lessened will not come amiss. Temperance in living’; the greatest moderation in the use of alcoholic beverages, or, better still, total abstinence ; cleanliness ; fre- quent bathing and friction of the skin. Puddlers, furnace-men, per- sons who fire china-ware, expose themselves with impunity to a temperature far above that of the body in sunstroke for the reason that the skin acts freely. It is bathed in a proper perspiration, which evaporates with a rapidity proportionate to the surrounding heat and in this way keeps the body at its normal temperature. With a dry, non-acting skin, these men would scorch. The clothing should be light and loose ; thin flannel is the best underwear for the body. The head-covering must be light and wide, so as to protect the head