A Lecture on the Preservation of Health by Thomas Garnett
page 10 of 42 (23%)
page 10 of 42 (23%)
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the hand which has been in cold water, will feel much warmer than
the other. If you handle some snow with one hand, while you keep the other in your bosom, that it may be of the same heat as the body, and then bring both within the same distance of the fire, the heat will affect the cold hand infinitely more than the warm one. This is a circumstance of the utmost importance, and ought always to be carefully attended to. When a person has been exposed to a severe degree of cold for some time, he ought to be cautious how he comes near a fire, for his excitability will be so much accumulated, that the heat will act violently; often producing a great degree of inflammation, and even sometimes mortification. We may by the way observe, that this is a very common cause of chilblains, and other inflammations. When the hands, or any other parts of the body have been exposed to violent cold, they ought first to be put into cold water, or even rubbed with the snow, and exposed to warmth in the gentlest manner possible. Exactly the same takes place with respect to food, if a person have for some time been deprived of food, or have taken it in small quantity, whether it be meat or drink; or if he have taken it of a less stimulating quality, he will find, that when he returns to his ordinary mode of living, it will have more effect upon him than before he lived abstemiously. Persons who have been shut up in a coal-work from the falling in of the pit, and have had nothing to eat for two or three days, have been as much intoxicated by a bason of broth, as a person in common circumstances with two or three bottles of wine; and we all know that spirituous, or vinous liquors affect the head more in the morning, than after dinner. |
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