PERSONAL APPEARANCES IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. 87 



CHAPTER VIII. 



CHANGES IN COLOUR IN DISEASE. 



PASSING from conditions giving rise to pallor, which are 

 physiological, and therefore not departures from healthy 

 action at all, we are confronted with a set of causes of 

 undue paleness of the surface which depend on more or 

 less grave alterations in the constitution of the blood. 

 The pallor in such cases is general and more or less 

 lasting. It may be due to a general diminution in the 

 quantity of the blood, with or without any alteration in 

 its quality. Great losses of blood are obvious causes of 

 this anaemia, and in such cases it comes on rapidly. 

 Or a long and tedious illness gradually interfering with 

 the nutrition of the body, and therefore with the for- 

 mation of the blood, will be denoted on the surface by 

 the paleness of the skin dependent on the diminished 

 and altered condition of the fluid in the blood-vessels. 



More common than all, and striking enough in its 

 effects, is the pallor produced by unhealthy trades and oc- 

 cupations ; by life in badly-ventilated, ill-lighted, and over- 

 heated rooms. Then just as the plant grows pale when 

 kept from the light, so the man or woman loses the tint 

 of health and presents a blanched appearance. This is 

 the state of general bloodlessness or anaemia which is so 

 prevalent in so many of our townsfolk and factory hands. 

 The lips lose their natural redness and become pale, 



