44 RECIPROCAL ACTION BETWEEN THE SKIN 



diseased action than with other organs. But it is a 

 general law, that wherever an organ is unusually 

 delicate, it will be more easily affected by any cause 

 of disease than those which are sound. So that, if 

 the nervous system, for example, be weaker than 

 other parts, a chill will be more likely to disturb its 

 health than that of the lungs, which are supposed in 

 this instance to be constitutionally stronger ; or, if 

 the muscular and fibrous organizations be unusually 

 susceptible of disturbance, either from previous ill- 

 ness or from natural predisposition, they will be the 

 first to suffer, and rheumatism will ejjsue ; and so 

 on. And hence the utility to the physician of an 

 intimate acquaintance with the previous habits and 

 constitutions $f his patients, and the advantage of 

 adapting the remedies to the nature of the cause, 

 when it can be discovered, as well as to the disease 

 itself. A bowel complaint, for instance, may arise 

 from over-eating as well as from a check to perspi- 

 ration ; but although the thing to be cured is the 

 same, the means of cure ought obviously to be dif- 

 ferent. In the one instance, an emetic or laxative 

 to carry off the offending cause, and in the other a 

 diaphoretic to open the skin, will be the most ra- 

 tional and efficacious remedies. Facts like this 

 well expose the glaring ignorance and effrontery of 

 the quack, who affirms that his one remedy will 

 cure every form of disease. Were the public not 

 equally ignorant with himself, their credulity would 

 cease to afford to his presumption the rich field in 

 which it now revels. 



In noticing this connexion between the suppres- 

 sion of perspiration and the appearance of internal 

 disease, I do not mean to affirm, that the effect is 

 produced by the physical transference of the sup- 

 pressed exhalation to the internal organ. In many 

 instances, the chief impression seems to be made 

 on the nervous system ; and the manner in which it 

 gives rise to the resulting disease is often extremely 



