no Membhs of Erasinus Darwin, M. D, 



put up the nostrils ; or a solution of steel iu brandy ap* 

 plied to the vessel by means of lint. 



Arriving at Gen. ^', mentioning sudor calidus, warni 

 sweat, he has the following curious observations on the 

 use of calico and flannel : 



*' If an excess of perspiration is induced by warm or stimu- 

 lant clothing, as by wearing flannel in contact with the skin 

 in the summer months, a perpetual febricula is excited, 

 both by the preventing the access of cool air to the skin, 

 and by perpetually goading it by the numerous and hard 

 points of the ends of the wool ; which, when applied to the 

 tender skins of vounp:; children, frequently produce the red 

 gum, as ii is called ; and in grown people, either an erysipelas, 

 or a miliary eruption, attended with fever. 



^' Shirts made of cotton or calico stimulate the skin too 

 much by the points of the fibres, though less than flannel ; 

 whence cotton handkerchiefs make the noV-e sore by fre-^ 

 quent use. The fibres of cotton are, I suppose, ten times 

 shorter than those of flax, and the number of points in con- 

 sequence twenty times the number; and though the manu- 

 facturers singe tlicir calicoes on a red-hot iron cylinder, yet 

 I have more than onec seen an erysipelas induced or increas- 

 ed by the stimulus of calico, as well as of flannel. 

 ■ " The increase of perspiration by heat, either of clothes of 

 of fire, contributes much to emaciate the body; as is welf 

 known to jockeys, who, when they are a stone or two too 

 heavy for riding, find the quickest way to lessen their weight 

 is by sweating themselves between blankets in a warm room ; 

 but this likewise is a practice by no means to be recom- 

 mended, as it weakens the system by the excess of so gene- 

 ral a stim.ulus, brings on a premature old age, and shortens 

 the span of life ; as may be further deduced from the 

 quick maturity and shortness of the lives of the inhabi- 

 tants of Hindostan and other tropical climates. 



" M. Buff on made a curious experiment to show this cir- 

 cumstance. He took a numerous brood of the butterflies oi 

 silkworms, some hundreds of which left their eggs on the 

 same day and hour ; these he divided itito two pareels ; and 

 placing one pared in the soutfi window, and the other in 

 - the 



