ON CHANGE OF CLIMATE. 123 



pose an invalid to arrive in the dry season at Groodaloor, or 

 Meetapollium, in the morning, he will find the thermometer 

 at all events 88**, probably 90°, and the same evening, on reach- 

 ing Ootacamund, it will descend to 45<*, perhaps to 42°, making 

 a vicissitude of from 43° to 46°. The immediate consequence 

 of such a decided change of temperature, aided by the supe- 

 rior dryness of the air in the higher situation, will be, to con- 

 strict the vessels of the skin, to check perspiration, and trans- 

 piration, and throw the blood on the internal organs ; and, 

 should any of these be weakened by previous disease, the con- 

 sequence will be, a greater or less degree of accumulation of 

 blood in the weak viscus, or congestion, as it is technically 

 called. From the close sympathy between the skin and liver, 

 the latter is the organ most frequently affected in this way ; 

 but the bowels, head, and lungs frequently partake of this 

 unequal distribution of the circulation, the effect being added 

 to in the lungs, by the difficulty of respiration produced by 

 the rarefaction of the air. 



When no actual organic disease exists, and when the con- 

 stitutional powers are not permanently debilitated, nature soon 

 restores the balance : a re-action takes place ; the liver se- 

 cretes more bile, the superfluous fluid is carried off from the 

 bowels by a mild diarrhoea, and from the lungs by copious 

 expectoration, more particularly if this salutary process is 

 assisted by care on the part of the invalid himself, warm 

 clothing, &c. and by the exhibition of mild aperient remedies, 

 such as the Plummer's pill,* which has the invaluable pro- 

 perty of exciting the action of the liver and bowels, and de- 

 termining to the skin at the same time. 



It is only in cases of actual organic disease, or, when the 

 debility of the constitution is so great as to prevent re-action, 



* Composed of calomel in small quantity, antimony, and guaiac. 

 E 2 



