50 



ON CUTANEOUS AERIFORM TRANSPIRATION. 



XI. 



Introdu&ory 

 observations. 



Memoir on the cutaneous aeriform Tranfpiration. Read at the 

 public Sitting of the Society of Health, at Grenoble, the Mh 

 Frimaire, in the year 11. By Cit. Trousset, M. D. etc.* 



JlHYSICIANS have in all ages endeavoured to afcertain 

 the influence of the air on the human body ; but how it is to 

 be conceived that the ancients, who were not even acquainted 

 with the gravity of that fluid, fhould be able to determine its 

 action ? For the fame reafon, if we except Hippocrates, who 

 in his work fays plainly that the air is digefted in the lungs 

 like the food in the ftomach, his cotemporaries and their fuc- 

 ceflbrs have only left behind them, on this fubject, incoherent 

 fancies, often ridiculous, and always wrong ; the offspring of 

 imaginations undirected by any certain experience. 



If it were my intention to confider the influence of the air, 

 in all its relations, I fhould firft attend to refpiration, a function 

 of fuch importance, that without it life could not be Curtained, 

 while alone it would require fome time for its difcullion. 



But modern chemifts, after having made an accurate analy- 

 fis of atmofpheric air, have formed a theory of refpiration, fo 

 ingenious, fo complete, and founded on fuch exact experiments, 

 that every effort which has hitherto been made to overturn it 

 has only ferved to render it more folid. 



I could, then, only repeat here what has been already faid 

 by Lavoifier, Seguin, Crawford, Fourcroy, Chaptal, &c. for 

 this fubject has been to well elucidated by the labours of thefe 

 celebrated chemifts, that it may be faid to be exhaufled ; and 

 their doctrine, on this topic, has been fo difTeminated, that, at 

 prefent, it is known and adopted by all who employ themfelves 

 in fcientific purfuits ; I fhall, therefore, difpenfe with a repe- 

 tition that would be faftidious and ufelefs. 

 Whether gas But though the operations of the lungs are very accurately 



th T-' tted fr ° m known, the functions of the fkin have not been fo diftinctly 

 elucidated. Independent of the cutaneous tranfpiration (o 

 carefully and diligently obferved by Sanctorius and many others, 

 we may enquire whether one or feveral aeriform fluids efcape 



* Annales de Chimie, XLV. 73. 



bv 



