relation to the living body; and conclude this part of our subject by attempting a practical application of such laws, to the subject which is more immediately under discussion.

'The Russian boor (says Dr. Guthrie) lives in a wooden house, made with his own hatchet, his only instrument, in the 6 use of which he is most dexterous : it is caulked with moss so

as to be very snug and close. It is furnished with an oven, which answers the triple purpose of heating the house, dressing “the victuals, and supporting on its flat top the greasy matress

on which he and his wife lie. From over the oven, which is on one side of the room, are laid some boards reaching to, and

supported by, the opposite wall, raised a little above the stove * so as to receive its heated air. On these sleep the children

and secondary personages of the hut, for the oven itself is a = luxury reserved for the first. Round the room runs a bench,

with a table in the middle, and in the corner a sort of cupboard - for the reception of saints, before whom small tapers frequently

burn, or a lamp with hemp oil. During the long severe winter season, the cold prevents them from airing this habitation,

so that you may easily conceive that the air cannot be very =

pure, considering that four, five, or six people, eat and sleep in one room, and undergo during the night, a most stewing process from the heat and closeness of their situation ; insomuch that they have the appearance of being dipped in water, and raise a steam and smell in the room not offensive to theinselves, but scarcely supportable by those whom curiosity may lead thither.' And again, speaking of their clothing, &c. he says ; . In the first place, they go very warmly clothed when out of doors, although they wear nothing but a shirt and a pair of - linen drawers when within : the legs and feet in particular F are remarkably guarded against the cold by many piles of

coarse flannel, with a puir of boots orer all; at the same time that their bodies feel all the warmth of sheep-skin, and, nothing is left open to the action of the air but the face and neck, which last though never covered, yet coughs and sore throats are seldom heard of; nay, they are disorders which we should almost forget to treat, did not foreigners keep us in use. Their religion happily conspires with the unavoidable bodily dirtiness attached to their situation, to send them to their vapour baths once or twice a week : here they wash away with vapour, and afterwards with water in a condensed state, the dirt, that, by obstructing the pores, is so well known to promote putrid diseases ; at the same time that they most effectually open the cuticular emunctories, and throw off any obstructed perspiration that might have otherwise acted as a fomes to begin the septic process of the body; and lastly they undergo

'nightly, as I mentioned, a degree of perspiration, which enables 'the coachmen, for example, to sit the whole day and severe 'winter evening on the box, or at least, out of doors, without ever dreaming of what we call catching cold, as they throw off every night what may have been retained in the day, and, to use a vulgar phrase, may be said to clear out as they go; but 'keep them from the nocturnal luxury of their oven, and you 'kill them in a week.' So far Dr. Guthrie.

Our Author goes on to say,

Here, then, we find, that warm clothing, warm habitations, and warm bathing, enable men who are exposed, during a number of hours every day, to an intensely cold atmosphere, to bear that exposure with impunity,'

an effect, we may add, exactly contrary to what our English prejudices would anticipate from such habits.

The vulgar notion in this country on the subject of heat and cold, is, that much exposure to the former, or indulgence in it, renders the body more liable to be injuriously affected by the latter; an opinion which the above relation proves to have an unstable foundation; nay, it is a demonstrable fact, that in the very degree of previous subjection to heat, is the capability of enduring, or being exposed with impunity to, subsequent cold. We may indeed state it as an axiom, that an individual is never more, nor indeed, so much, injured by cold after the body has been heated, as he would have been by the same degree of cold, had there been no previous augmentation of temperature; and that our common apprehensions of going out in the cold air, when the body is hot, are altogether false and unfounded.

The experiments of Dr. George Fordyce and Sir Charles Blagden have been so often quoted in relation to this subject, that we should feel reluctant to bring them again forward, were it not, that in connexion with the account we have given from Dr. Southey, of the habits of the Russian, they are so well calculated to illustrate the fact we are now anxious to establish and impress.

These gentlemen (Dr. Fordyce and Sir Charles Blagden) exposed themselves to a heat almost beyond endurance, and immediately after, without any precaution, went into a cold room, and continued there some minutes before they began to dress. In like manner, the Russian goes reeking from his vapour baths, and immediately rolls his naked body in snow; and at other times, comes out from baths of water that are heated beyond almost what he is able to bear, and instantaneously plunges into contiguous cold ones.

But let us appeal, as Dr. Southey has done, to individual feeling; and ask whether, of two persons, setting out in a mail

coach, on a cold night, the one well warmed when he takes his seat, the other shivering from cold,' the individual who started warm, will not bear the cold better, and be less liable to injury from it than the other. There are no travellers who have tried the experiment, that will be at a loss to answer this question. And we may further add, that a person who had enjoyed the advantages of warm habitations, and comfortable clothing, for a month previous to the journey, would be less liable to be injured by it, than another of the same constitution, and at the same standard of health, who had been housed and habited during the same period, in a way that by many would be thought to insure hardi

ness.

Uneasy sensation (Dr Southey well observes) is always the result of a deviation from the healthy state in some part or parts of the body, and is in all cases to be obviated if possible Nothing, therefore, can be more absurd, than to suppose that the endurance of a painful degree of cold for any considerable time, can contribute to strengthen the constitution.'

We must anticipate and endeavour to reply to one or two obvious objections, which might, if unanswered, seem to invalidate the doctrine we are endeavouring to prove.

How is it, it will be urged, upon the principles now argued for, that colds are evidently contracted by passing from heated assemblies, into cold carriages, and damp streets? In teply to this, it may be said, that the individual who may have suffered from such exposure, had not been in a state of heat, so much as of fatigue and exhaustion; and that the mischief in question would be obviated or very materially lessened, by a previous retirement to a well warmed room, so as to step into the carriage with a surcharge, rather than a diminished quantity of heat. Individuals too, under the circumstances suppose, are, it is well known, disproportionately ill-covered about the feet and legs; and this partial exposure, we wish it never to be forgotten, is more likely to be attended with hurtful consequences than complete nakedness.

Indeed, the fact of partial exposure, if properly regarded, would be sufficient to explain the whole difficulty. Thus, a person in a highly heated state, shall imprudently take a large draught of cold water, and the consequence sil be a violent spasm or perhaps inflammation of the stomach In this case the injury is unquestionably from the cold a plication to a heated part; but, had the same degree of cold been applied to the whole body, the reduction of temperature would then have been equable and general, and no irregular or diseased action occasioned.

VOL. III. N. S.

0

We have studied a plainness of diction, and familiarity of illustration on this part of our investigation, on account of the extreme importance of acquiring accurate notions on the subject of 'temperature, in reference especially to pulmonary disorders; and we beg particularly to urge attention to the mischief of partial exposure, because we think that on this circumstance hinges a very great portion of the evil we wish to point out and to caution against.

Why,' says Dr. Cogan, who resided a considerable time in Holland, and was consequently well qualified to judge accurately, why is it that in Britain, devotional congregations,

<

and assemblies of pleasure are always and greatly interrupted 5 by incessant coughing and expectoration, while in the largest assemblies in Holland, instances of a similar kind are hardly 'known. This very striking difference I have been induced to ascribe to the contrast observable between the two countries in the construction of their habitations, and in the peculiarities of dress'

This last peculiarity consists principally in the very sedulous attention given by all ranks to a preservation of warmth in the feet, and it has been seen above, that the hardy Russian, on his midnight coach-box, is particularly guarded against cold in the feet and legs. As to habitations, let it once be established as fact, that regularity of temperature is of essential moment in preventing attacks of pulmonary disease, and we admit a fortiori, that nothing is more calculated to produce and foster them, than the English method of warming their apartments. Who is there that has not witnessed the production of fits of coughing, by the simple circumstance of removing, in a large room, to a distance from the fire-place? and what wonder that it is so, when it is recollected, that such removal will oftentimes be the exposure to an air of twenty or more degrees colder, than that which the individual had been the moment before inhaling when sitting by the fire side! Nay, even while so sitting, one part of the body will be heated to pain, while another is suffering from cold, than which nothing can be more calculated to occasion what is called cold, and all its consequences, according to the peculiar susceptibilities of the person thus situated.

Now we have above hinted that we do not think the subject of British tendency to consumptive affections, has been so satisfactorily discussed, as fully to prove that Russian and Dutch habits in relation to heat and cold, could they obtain in this country, would insure an equal immunity from their attacks. But still there is, at the very lowest calculation, sufficient evidence furnished, to prove that a great deal of the exemption

stated, is palpably referable to the different management of temperature; and, under this impression, we look, with a great deal of pleasure, upon those attempts which are now making, to bring the public mind to a feeling of the great importance of a regulated temperature in the management, both preventive and curative, of pulmonary disorders. It is proposed that the subject of such disorders shall constantly be exposed to an atmosphere of an unvaried temperature; and as this uniformity of heat cannot be ensured by our common open fire-places, stoves are proposed to be used in the sick apartment, which shall effect the desired purpose. The common shop or ironing stove, is found best to accomplish this object. It resembles the English stove, says Dr. Buxton, the principal proposer of the plan in question,)

because it opens into the apartments it warms, thus causing a <constant ventilation. It resembles the German stove, gecause it exposes a large heated surface, continually warming the 'particles of air which come into contact with its sides;' and thus C answers the double purpose of warmth and ventilation.' The scheme in question, is, of course, intended principally to apply to an actually disordered state of the lungs, and as such, is to be viewed in the light of a remedial process.

We trust that enough has now been advanced, to prove the importance of a due attention to temperature in the way of prevention We shail for the present dismiss this part of the subject, and proceed to offer a few remarks on the general plan of treatment which our Author recommends, merely stating that we think he has not done justice to his contemporary, Dr. Buxton, in not having mentioned his name. The merits of those plans which promise much public utility, and which are put forward, and persevered in, against opposition, ought to be distinctly noticed, and duly appreciated; and we think, in this point of view, Dr. B. deseryes much praise. But on this head we must not enlarge

In commencing his remarks on the subject of particular remedies, Dr. Southey very properly, at least in our opinion, expresses his unbelief in the anti-phthisical powers of emetics, in the way in which they have been extolled by some practitioners.

When the expectoration, however, (he adds) is scanty and dif ficult, with a sense of oppression in the chest, and irregular fibrile paroxysms, a dose of ipecacuanha sufficient to excite slight vomiting, may be given with advantage.'

On the subject of the different preparations of iron,' our Author's sentiments require, we think, some qualification to make them correct.

In chlorotic females (he justly remarks) of a consumptive fa