Dampness

“ Trade influence and occupation, in some cases, undoubtedly predispose the individual to tubercle. Cramped attitudes, exposure to dampness or cold, ill ventilation, and exposure to inhalation of dust of various kinds, all act in this way. ”

“ The material for clothing should not possess the property of absorbing and retaining moisture. Dampness, or moisture, renders apparel a good conductor of heat; beside, if the perspired fluid, and the saline material it holds in solution, are readily absorbed by the clothing, they become 302 sources of irritation to the skin with which the apparel comes in contact. ”

“ It is not desirable, however, to live over a wet cellar nor to maintain a house in a constant condition of dampness, partly on account of its bad effect on the house and partly because such dampness may, by reducing the vitality of the household, become a predisposing factor in disease. ”

“ Many imagine if their feet are not thoroughly wet, there will be no harm arising from mere dampness, not knowing that the least dampness is absorbed into the sole, and is attracted nearer the foot itself by its heat, and thus perspiration is dangerously checked. ”

“ Dampness is more or less directly the cause of all the malarious diseases—ague, neuralgia, and rheumatism—and here the speculative builder comes in, with venom certain and incurable, with soft, spongy bricks which absorb a large amount of water, with mortar composed of road drift or scrapings, foul and unhealthy ”

“ Unusual rains in any season produce so great a dampness in our residences that no one can fail to notice its effect, both on the health of the occupants, and upon the beauty and good condition of their household substance. ”

“ That it shall be absolutely free from damp; because a damp house is a most potent, and active, and ever-present cause of disease, especially of rheumatism, neuralgia, colds, coughs, consumption, and such like. ”

“ We should never sleep in a damp bed, or between damp sheets. The vital powers are enfeebled during sleep, and there is always risk of pneumonia or rheumatism. The practice of sitting with wet feet and damp clothing is highly injurious to health. The surface of the body thus chilled may be small, yet there is a grave risk of serious, if not of fatal, disease. No harm may be done, even with clothing wet with water or damp with perspiration, so long as exercise is maintained, but the failure or inability to change into dry garments as soon as the body is at rest is fraught with danger. ”

“ We hurried on—men and animals together rushing into the stream, the men lapping the water up like dogs, and dipping their whole bodies in without even stopping to pull off any of their clothes. It is a wonder the sudden change from heat to cold did not kill some of us; but the fact is, that our pores were so completely closed up with dust that the bath, by removing the dirt, allowed the perspiration to escape and saved us from fever. ”

“ As the weight of the body is increased from half-a-pound to a pound and a half, while immersed, there can be no doubt that a considerable absorption takes place. At above 98°, or blood heat, the bath excites the pulse and renders it both full and hard—embarrasses the breath—flushes the face—reddens the whole surface of the body—excites perspiration—powerfully draws the circulation to the skin—and not seldom causes [53] head-aches, vertigo—and even apoplexy. Douches and shower-baths are often ordered before the plunging or vapour-bath. ”

“ The damp, straight locks hanging in one's eyes, and the long, fluffy strands, that aren't fluffy at all but as unwavy as a shower bouquet of macaroni, and the tag ends and whisps sprouting out here and there like a box full of paint brushes six ways for Sundays—well, one is always mentally thankful at such times that one's "dearest and best" isn't anywhere around to behold the horrible sight. But after awhile the long, damp tresses are patted and fussed over until they are dry, and then they're combed out and curled up and kinked and twisted, and, oh, my countrymen, what a change is there! ”

“ And surely there was a great slowness and wetness of the air, and dismal drippings that made desolation in the silence; and the feel of strange growths upon the boulders, as you do know, and oft an horrid slime and dankness; and the stink to be everywhere, so that we knew a constant disgust and fear. And alway the fumings of sulphur, that did seem, in verity, to beat down upon us, utter heavy and sore upon our lungs. ”

“ Two or three causes concur to make us doubt the wisdom of going lower. There is a hot, moist, sickly vapour floating about us, which becomes more oppressive every moment; we are already perspiring at every pore, as we were told we should; and our hands, faces, jackets, and trousers are all more or less covered with a mixture of mud, tallow, and iron-drippings, which we can feel and smell much more acutely than is exactly desirable. ”

“ If dust has fallen into his eyes, she washes it out immediately by spontaneous lachrymation; or if the necessary amount of effete fluid is not conducted off by cutaneous perspiration, some of the mucous membranes, or the kidneys, or all of these, are exerted for its removal. Nor does she repudiate counter-irritation: an internal affection is often relieved or cured by eruptions upon the skin, by boils, carbuncles or other local inflammations. Even the sore legs of old people may often be regarded as Nature's method of prolonging life by counter-irritation. ”

“ I saw four manner of dryings: the first was bloodlessness; the second was pain following after; the third, hanging up in the air, as men hang a cloth to dry; the fourth, that the bodily Kind asked liquid and there was no manner of comfort ministered to Him in all His woe and distress. Ah! hard and grievous was his pain, but much more hard and grievous it was when the moisture failed and began to dry thus, shrivelling. ”

“ What we call a cold (refroidissement, Erkältung) is caused by the. influence of impure air, or dust, on the sensitive tissue of our respiratory organs; subsequent exposure to the open air merely initiates the crisis of the disorder, the discharge of the accumulated mucus through the nose or throat. Fresh air is here only the proximate cause, as in toothache, or in those paroxysms of retching following upon the first respiration of a half-drowned person. ”

“ As the hours go on, shudders run through the frame, with alternate fever heats and icy chills, hot sweats and cold clammy sweats, while a dull, incessant ache pervades the bones, especially at the joints, alternated by an occasional sharp, intolerable pang, like tic-douloureux. ”

“ Cold baths for the weakly, chills, damp beds, and such things, cause rheumatism and colds by stopping the proper discharge of waste by the skin. After such chill, or cold in damp bed, a hot wash and good hot oil rubbing will avert all evil. ”

“ Need of bathing.—When the perspiration dries from the skin, it leaves the waste and poisons behind. We cannot always see the dried matters, but they always have an unpleasant odor. We [Pg 79] should bathe often enough to keep our body from having an unpleasant smell. We should wash the whole body with soap and hot water at least once a week in winter and more often than that in summer. ”

“ A thin piece of damp sponge in the crown of your hat during exposure to the hot sun, the use of thick shoes and a water-proof coat in rainy weather, the practice of drinking cold water when you are very warm as slowly as you sip hot tea, the thorough mastication of your food, the avoiding of damp tents and damp grounds during sleep, and frequent ablutions of your person are all the hints I can give you on this point. ”

“ When, therefore, spasms come on at the commencement of the complaint, or nearly so, and are protracted, they have their origin in plethora; but when they supervene after copious sweatings, vomitings, discharges [402] from the bowels, hemorrhages, watchfulness, hunger, or much and violent exercise, they proceed from depletion. If they suddenly attack a person in health, they must necessarily proceed from plethora. But when from ardent fevers the nerves and whole body are dried, and then spasms come on owing to the dryness, this is one of the worst possible cases, and is almost incurable. ”

“ As, by the greater pressure and humidity of the atmosphere, the pores of the skin are so affected that they become unable to perform their office of exhalation, with the same facility as in winter and summer, it follows that perspirable matter, or at least, its grosser particles, will in autumn be liable to remain on the surface, in a state inclining to putrefaction, and to be re-absorbed, to the great detriment of the human or animal body. ”

“ On the other hand, we resort to places of assembly, and draw into our mouths air loaded with effluvia from the lungs, skin, and clothing of every individual in the promiscuous crowd—exhalations offensive, to a certain extent, from the most healthy individuals; but when arising from a living mass of skin and lungs in all stages of evaporation, disease, and putridity, they are in the highest degree deleterious and loathsome.—Birnan. ”

“ Every physician recognizes the dangers arising from damp and cold, not to specify from noxious exhalations, and unhealthy subterranean air-currents. Rheumatism, consumption, malaria, neuralgia, etc., are constantly produced by such conditions. ”

“ For you now thirst no longer only with parched mouth, swollen tongue, cracking lips and throat that is dry as a lime-kiln, for each individual pore is gaping and aching with drought which every passing minute renders more acute and unendurable. ”

“ The coldness and moisture of the atmosphere, or in other states of the air, not perceptible to the senses, but which impede and check the insensible perspiration of the skin, or cutaneous surface, are the chief and prevailing exciting causes. ”

“ The spring came early, and once out of doors the swiftly-flitting hours of sensory acuteness brought to me on every breeze nameless odors which have no being to the common sense,—a sweet, faint confusion of scents, some slight, some too intense,—a gamut of odors. Usually I have an imperfect capacity to apprehend smells, unless they are very positive, and it was a curious lesson to learn how intense for the time a not perfect function may become. ”

“ A damp stable produces more evil than a damp house; it is there we expect to find horses with bad eyes, coughs, greasy heels, swelled legs, mange, and a long, rough, dry, staring coat, which no grooming can cure. ”

“ You can readily see how necessary for us washing is, when you remember the quarts of watery perspiration, which are poured out upon our skins every day, and the oily and other waste matters, some of them poisons, which the perspiration leaves upon our skins. Especially is some means of washing necessary when the free evaporation of perspiration and the free breathing of the skin has been interfered with by clothing which is water-tight or too thick. ”

“ There is no doubt but every inch of air contains the germs of some of the Infusoria in a dry state or their ova, and make up a portion of that fine halo of dust which always appears in the air when a gleam of sunshine is let into a dark place. ”

“ The scents that reek around, from oil, tainted water, and human filth, with that last worst nausea arising from the hot refuse of atmospheric air, left by some hundred pairs of labouring lungs, render the act of breathing a process of difficulty, disgust, and pain. ”

“ The bath should be daily. Now do not say that you have not the time, for the sponge bath—which will make the blood tingle and the flesh glow—can be got through with in almost no time. It is most imperative that the secretions of the skin and the dust gathered during the day should be removed. When the body is not kept scrupulously clean the complexion is sure to suffer, for there the pores of the skin are most susceptible, and eruptions and blackheads come from very slight causes. When the hands become rough and tender, and will not stand soap, prepare a little almond meal. ”

“ It is obvious that it would have been exposed to injury from every floating particle of dust, and you would always have felt such a sensation as is caused by a burn or scald when the skin peels off, and leaves the ends of the nerves exposed to the air. ”

“ If, while the gallery is constantly damp, the air is vitiated by poisonous or irrespirable gases, and if the water contains sulphates or sulphuric acid in solution, the men, in addition to pains in their limbs and difficulties in breathing, experience lively itchings and painful smarts wherever the surface of the skin has been abraded. ”

“ Such air is very dry and takes moisture in an excessive degree from the moist linings of the human respiratory tracts and thus irritates and fatigues the people exposed to the dry air, becoming a serious menace to comfort and even to health. ”

“ Hence arise indigestion, constipation, headaches, weariness, depression of spirits, palpitation, and a feeling of oppression at the heart, pain in the side, eruptions on the skin, which either feels chilly all over its surface or sometimes burns, and, what will probably seem of much more importance to those whom vanity has induced to lace tightly, pallor and thickness of complexion, with a yellowish or greyish tinge to the cheeks, and owing to impaired circulation, swelling and redness of the hands and feet, and, worst of all to the would-be beauty, redness of the nose. ”

“ The dust accumulates on the surface of our bodies much more readily, and adheres much more firmly, and in much larger quantities, than is usually supposed, and than by many would be credited. Mr. Buckingham, the Oriental traveller, asserts that from two to three pounds of it are sometimes removed from the whole surface of a person who has for some time neglected bathing and washing, in a tropical climate ”