EXCLUSIVELY ATTENDED TO. 87 



and because pure, fresh, bracing air is of infinite 

 importance in all, and especially in pulmonary af- 

 fections. Attention to the skin must, therefore, 

 never be considered for a moment as superseding 

 attention to the other functions. That were a per- 

 nicious mistake. It must be regarded as a part 

 only, though an important part, of a rational and 

 consistent treatment, and its efficacy will often de- 

 pend, in no small degree, on the care which is taken 

 to support its effects by a scrupulous attention to 

 the necessities of the rest of the system. 



When these pages were passing through the press 

 in the form in which their substance first appeared 

 in a periodical journal, I was surprised and gratified 

 on seeing a work advertised, on the same subject 

 and with almost the same title, by Dr. Wood of 

 Newry. On afterward procuring the book, I was 

 much pleased to perceive the extent to which our 

 views harmonized, and to find that Dr. Wood, as 

 well as myself, had felt the want of popular informa- 

 tion on the functions of the animal economy, and 

 come to the conclusion, that, even by medical men, 

 the influence of the skin on the general health and 

 in the treatment of disease is too much overlooked. 





