HEAT AS A REMEDIAL AGENT IN DISEASE. 293 



cal process, I think we have a complete explanation of the way in which 

 heat acts in correcting morbid processes or "curing disease. " 



The high heat to the surface of the body — external and internal — accom- 

 plishes artificially what nature was trying to do from within alone, and that, 

 too, vvithout either the exorbitant waste of sound tissues of the body or in- 

 creasing the quantity of imperfectly formed material in the blood, or in 

 plain terms, a bushel of coal has done for the organism what the organism 

 would have done by using up a large quantity of nitrogen of the body. 



It may be replied to this that heat from without will produce the same 

 amount of disassimilation as would have been caused by the fever process 

 of nature. But experience shows this is not true. Tissues in a state of 

 transformation in the blood are more powerfully acted on by heat than are 

 the healthy tissues. For were this not so, the fever process would never be 

 a curative, but always a poisoning and more rapidly destructive process 

 than the one that set it up, a state of things every physician knows is not 

 true. But heat ajjplied to the surface promotes elimination by the relaxing 

 effect it has on the skin and the sweating that is incident to the hot air baths. 

 Friction, -which should always accompany the bath, is another valuable aid 

 in promoting circulation in the skin, and so exposing as much of the blood 

 current as is jDOSsible to the action of the heat. 



Having thus gone over in detail some of the reasons for using hot air 

 as a remedial agent, we may conclude by summing up the whole matter. 



Dry heat applied to the surface cures disease by hastening the necessary 

 retrograde changes in the tissues that are already in a state of transforma- 

 tion, and fits them for elimination from the body, either through their own 

 proper channels or by the sweating process carrying them out by the skin. 

 It also hastens vital change in the healthy tissues, stimulates the gland 

 structures and so aids in clearing the whole blood current. But it is not a 

 cure-all, even though it does all this. To point out and enumerate all the 

 diseases and diseased conditions in which it may be used with benefit would, 

 in the present paper, be out of place. But in general terins I may indicate 

 its range of usefulness as well as warn against its harmfulness, for, like 

 all good and powerful agents, it is powerful for harm as well. The secret 

 of obtaining good from its use lies in knowing when and hoio to use it. 



All diseased conditions that owe their existence to imperfect assimila 

 tive or disassimilative processes, without organic structural change, will be 

 benefited by a judicious and intelligent application of the hot air bath. 

 But, on the other hand, there is a large class of diseases that are caused by 

 structural alteration of glands, either accidental or otherwise ; or there is 

 another class that depend upon some form of ferment, poison, or living organ- 

 isms, introduced from without, and when once within the blood current pro- 

 duce the most baleful effects. These the hot air will but slightly benefit, do 

 no good to, or will act as a direct injury, appearing to hasten the process of 

 disintegration that already is going on much too rapidly. 



I have thus trespassed on your time from knowing the ignorance that 



