502 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ferent physicians, it is not necessary here to inquire. What chiefly 

 concerns us now, having pointed out the principal causes of the dis- 

 ease, is to learn something of its symptoms, how in the absence of 

 the doctor it should be treated, and what to do to avoid it. 



The serious disturbance of all the functions occasioned by sun- 

 stroke results, as might be expected, in a great variety of symptoms. 

 In a small proportion of cases, however, the attack is so sudden and 

 so quickly fatal that little chance for the development or observance 

 of symptoms is afforded. The patient suddenly falls, gasps a few 

 times, and dies. But, in the majority of instances, premonitory symp- 

 toms are present. The more constant, as given by the best authori- 

 ties, are great heat and dryness of skin, a varying degree of pain in 

 the head, attended oftentimes with giddiness, congestion of the eyes, 

 full, rapid pulse, which grows feeble and irregular as the disease ad- 

 vances, obstinate constipation, irritability of bladder, and great op- 

 pression or sense of weight about the region of the heart, with not un- 

 frequently muscular weakness and a disinclination for exertion. If 

 these symptoms continue, the patient soon passes into a state of pro- 

 found insensibility. The pupils fail to respond to the action of light, 

 and may be somewhat contracted, the breathing becomes hurried and 

 difficult, and the action of the heart is irregular and tumultuous. Con- 

 vulsions may come on early, or be postponed until late in the disease, 

 or they may be absent altogether. Numerous minor and less constant 

 phenomena have been recorded by different observers ; but, when a 

 person is suddenly attacked during exposure to great heat, the symp- 

 toms already enumerated will enable any one of ordinary intelligence 

 to recognize the true character of the disease. 



Only such measures of treatment will be suggested as any one of 

 common-sense can apply ; and they may be the means, if promptly 

 resorted to, of ultimately restoring the patient, when, if nothing were 

 done until the physician arrived, he might then have passed beyond 

 the reach of help. 



When the signs of an attack appear, the sufferer should be imme- 

 diately taken to the nearest shade, preferably in the open air, but, at 

 all events, where the freest ventilation can be secured. His body 

 should at once be stripped, and the head, neck, and chest, continuously 

 drenched with cold water. Let this be followed up, not timidly, but 

 with boldness, until respiration is reestablished, after which it may be 

 applied at short intervals, until a perceptible diminution of the tem- 

 perature of the body has taken place, or until the doctor arrives. It 

 is the great heat of the body that menaces life, and, the sooner this 

 can be reduced into the neighborhood of the natural temperature, the 

 better for the patient. In rare instances this free use of cold water, 

 by the powerful impression it makes on the nervous system, excites 

 convulsions, in which case it may be discontinued, and rubbing the 

 surface with pounded ice resorted to. An injection of ice-cold water, 



