TOO MUCH EXERCISE. 885 



bath, which suddenly reduces the body below the 

 natural standard, paralyzes the lungs, diminishes 

 respiration, and thus lays the foundation of pneu- 

 monia, phthisis, or some other fatal malady, if 

 not prevented by immediate recourse to the warm 

 bath, or the application of dry heat, until the cir- 

 culation is perfectly restored.* Nor is there a 

 more frequent predisposing cause of fever, dy- 

 sentery, cholera, diarrhaea, and congestion of the 

 liver, than exposure to rain, fogs, damp night air, 

 or even a moderately cool draft of air, when 

 fatigued by over exertion, especially in hot cli- 

 mates, where the smaller amount of caloric ob- 

 tained by respiration is much sooner expended 

 by exercise than in the higher latitudes ; so that 

 a very slight exposure brings on a chill, and 

 torpor of the internal organs. 



The exhaustion of animal heat by violent exer- 



* I knew a case of incurable hemiplegia brought on a vigorous 

 man in the prime of life, by walking ninety miles, (from London 

 to Birmingham,) in three successive days. And it is well known 

 to medical men, that when the muscles have been weakened by 

 over exertion, they are more liable to rheumatic inflammation 

 than at other times, that when the loins have been overstrained, 

 exposure to a slight cold will bring on lumbago. Nor is it pos- 

 sible that rheumatism or any other inflammation can exist, so 

 long as there is a free circulation of good arterial blood through 

 the capillaries of the muscles and other tissues. But it is con- 

 soling to know by experience, that in recent cases of rheumatism, 

 the weakness of the capillaries may be very soon overcome by 

 the repeated employment of hot applications, aided by gentle 

 frictions. 



