Dryness

“ For so often as heat and cold, dryness and moisture, of which I spoke before, are influenced by the more benignant love, and are harmoniously and temperately intermingled with the seasons, they bring maturity and health to men, and to all the other animals and plants. ”

“ Venery hurts all those who are affected with dryness, and more especially if joined to coldness, and is innocuous to the hot and humid alone. The cold and humid temperaments are bad, and are very subject to rheumatic affections. They are relieved by abstinence from the bath, by frequent and light exercises, and the use of moderately heating unguents. Those that are naturally colder, but are well regulated as to dryness and humidity of temperament, ought to stimulate and increase their heat, but to choose the medium between a humid and dry diet. ”

“ The causes affecting dryness, i. e., temperature, altitude, the seasons, etc., are considered; tables of Signal-Service stations in the United States, rated in order of dryness, are given; and, finally, the physical effects of dryness are discussed. ”

“ The qualities hitherto sought in a hygrometer, or instrument to discover the degrees of moisture and dryness [136] in the air, seem to have been, an aptitude to receive humidity readily from a moist air, and to part with it is as readily to a dry air. ”

“ But dryness of the throat is only a sign by which the body makes known its need. Thirst is the cry of the fluids and tissues for water. It means that some part of the body is suffering for the precious fluid. ”

“ Your hair is fluffier than after the most vigorous shampoo. Your skin smarts with dryness. Your eyes are almost blinded by their lack of tears. Even when [pg 42] you cry, the tears roll from your eyeballs and eyelids like water from a duck's back. Your mouth is too dry to talk; all the saliva rolls down your throat, leaving your tongue and cheeks as dry as cornstarch. ”

“ Thirst is the feeling of too powerful a digestion, or of too rapid fermentation, whereby the product or leaven of the latter becomes, as it were, bankrupt; upon this the blood flows in greater quantity, in order to secrete the gastric juice; the arterial nature becomes elevated, and finally, an inflammatory condition, associated with a sense of dryness, originates, and is propagated as far as the mouth.
2625. Thirst and heat rank, like hunger and cold, parallel to each other. The feeling of dryness appears as heat, that of moisture, as cold. ”

“ The extreme dryness which attends this wind or fog, without dews, withers and quite dries the leaves of vegetables; and is said of Dr. Lind at some seasons to be fatal and malignant to mankind; probably after much preceding wet, when it may become loaded with the exhalations from putrid marshes; at other seasons it is said to check epidemic diseases, to cure fluxes, and to heal ulcers and cutaneous eruptions ”

“ The cure. If the intemperament be cold, we must warm, but if accompanied with humidity, we must also dry; but if with dryness, we must, at the same time, moisten and warm. In like manner, when the intemperament is warm, we must cool; but if dryness also prevail, we must likewise moisten; or if humidity, we must both cool and dry. Where we find a sanguineous humour prevailing, we must bleed or use acrid clysters, then give hiera, and use masticatories; anoint the head, by mixing with oil things of a cooling and desiccative nature, we mean roses, myrtles, lentisk, and the like ”

“ According to Aristotle, heat and cold are active, while dryness and moisture are passive in their nature. By the “temperament” of a man is understood the balance or proportion maintained between these conflicting tendencies. ”

“ Wetness, which is the Interior or Innate Property, or Nature of Water, is, in my opinion, caused by some sort of Dilatations or Extenuations. As, all Droughts, or Dryness, are caused by some sorts of Contractions; so, all Moistures, Liquors, and Wets, by Dilatations: yet, those Extenuations, or Dilatations, that cause Wet, must be of such a sort of Dilatations, as are proper to Wet; viz. Such a sort of Extenuations, as are Circular Extenuations; which do dilate, or extenuate, in a smooth, equal dilatation, from the Center, to the Circumference ”

“ Sometimes they alter their condition when absorbed by an animal or a plant, or enter a combination with earthly particles, move from alteration to alteration, but only in rare cases are they reduced to the pure element. Science, it is true, forces us to accept the theory that heat, cold, moisture, and dryness are primary qualities, the influences of which nobody can escape ”

“ Dry tongue occurs in those fevers, where the expired air is warmer than natural; and happens to all those, who sleep with their mouths open; the currents of air in respiration increasing the evaporation. There is also a dryness in the mouth from the increased action of the absorbent vessels, when a sloe or a crab-apple are masticated ”

“ The mouth grows dry, the tongue sticky, and a bitter taste ensues which, it would appear, is only a consequence of the tongue's dryness. [The expression 'bitter sorrow' may possibly arise from this.] In nursing women the milk diminishes or altogether dries up. ”

“ Heat and cold, moisture and dryness, sound, light, and all the imponderable fluids produce their effects upon this region, and the more it is developed, the more powerfully are we affected by such agencies. ”

“ Such is the intense dryness of the atmosphere that fogs are ulmost unknown, although a slight dew gathers occasionally on the plants about sunrise, either after rainy days or during any abrupt lowering of the temperature. ”

“ The sun's rays dry up the natural moisture of the human system, and accordingly water and vegetables largely partaken of in summer, give rise to an accumulation of wind in the system owing to their lightness, dryness, or expansive and drought-making properties. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Every housewife that but once in her life hung up clothes to dry, knows full well that air absorbs moisture when passing over, or through, wet objects. If she wishes to dry her clothes very quickly, she will hang them up where there is much wind. And she is perfectly right in maintaining that the wind dries clothes better than the quiet sunshine. ”

“ In the bath we perspire; in a warm and genial temperature we abstract from the system all the watery fluid that Nature has, at the time, to spare; we rinse off the perspiration with warm water; we shut up the pores by means of cold water; we warm the body anew; we then [136] rest tranquilly until every particle of moisture is removed from the skin; and when we are thoroughly dry, we put on dry and warm clothes. In this process it is clear that there is not even a chink by which a cold can approach us. ”

“ Thus also have I seen persons put into a great heat by excessive action, and in the midst of that heat, strip off their clothes, and expose their open pores to the air. Nay, I have known some mad enough in this hot condition, to take huge draughts of cold water, or perhaps of milk and water, which they esteem much more cold in operation than water alone. ”

“ From this: dry air, when coming in contact with wet objects, absorbs the moisture, and by this dries the object somewhat. If there be no wind, the moistened air will remain around the wet object, and the drying goes on very slowly. But so soon as a little wind arises, the moist air is moved away, new dry air constantly takes its place, and coming into contact with the wet article, effects in a very short time the desired result. ”

“ Desiccan′tia, L. In pharmacology, substances that check secretion and dry sores of abraded surfaces, without acting as styptics, or constringing the fibres of the parts to which they are applied. See Astringents.
DESICCA′TION. Syn. Exsicca′tion. The evaporation or drying off of the aqueous portion of solid bodies. Plants and chemical preparations are deprived of their humidity by exposure to the sun, a current of dry air, an atmosphere rendered artificially dry by sulphuric acid, or by the direct application of heat by means of a water bath, a sand bath, or a common fire. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We now see that, as a living organism, it tends, on the one hand, to diminish the humidity of the air by sometimes absorbing moisture from it, and, on the other, to increase that humidity by pouring out into the atmosphere, in a vaporous form, the water it draws up through its roots. ”

“ The drier the air, the more rapidly are the liquids of the body evaporated, and digestion and assimilation carried on, the more nervous is the temperament, and the more rapid the development. Generally speaking, the air is much drier in the United States than in Europe. ”

“ The air in the succession of the seasons, caloric in the numerous varieties of the atmosphere, in the sudden change from one temperature to another, water in a bath, in the moist vapours with which the medium is loaded in which we live, our garments of which some, as those of wool, are at first very painful, every thing which acts upon the skin by mere contact, produces sensations in it which habit continually modifies. ”

“ During that space I could not perceive my self or others more dry, more costive, or to make less urine, than in England. Neither does all that sweat make us faintish. If one be dry, it is a thirst generally arising from the heat of the Lungs, and affecting the Mouth, which is best cooled by a little Brandy. ”

“ And our body has its blood, has its own moisture. This is the life-juice of our body. So that I think that the objection is exploded which some allege that a dry twig does not revive, and then endeavour to argue from this to the prejudice of the flesh. For the flesh is not dry, since all flesh is of clay, clay comes from moisture—moisture from the earth. Then, again, many growing plants, though always fresh, spring from dry and sandy soil, since the earth itself supplies sufficient moisture for itself. Does the earth then, which continually restores all things, fail with regard to man? ”

“ Such bodies appear cold to the touch, are without hair, and are fat; their complexion, like their hair, being tawny. But when the coldness is great, they are pale, leaden-coloured, and have small veins; and if lean, this does not proceed from nature, but habit. The dry is harder and more slender than the temperate—the hardness, indeed, being inseparable from the dry temperament; but leanness not only follows the congenital temperaments, but also those which are acquired by long habit. It is a mark of hardness when the body is rendered unapt for motion, dry and parched, by drying applications. ”

“ One of the great secrets in all drying operations is to have a constant current of fresh hot air playing on the goods to be dried, this absorbs the moisture they contain, and the water-charged air thus produced must be taken away as quickly as possible. ”

“ During the drying process, if the temperature or the amount of moisture or the access of air is not kept in a proper condition, various troubles arise and various diseases make their appearance, which either injure or ruin the value of the product. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When the drying is done in a dry atmosphere the surface quickly dries and hardens, and the moisture from the interior passes to the surface as vapour, the soluble salts being left distributed through the whole mass, and consequently no “scum” is produced. ”

“ Thus the natural character of the material of objects is of the same nature as the region in which they exist; the liquid is found in liquid, the dry on land, the warm in air. With regard, however, to states of body, a cold situation has, on the other hand, a beneficial effect on excess of heat, and a warm environment on excess of cold, for the region reduces to a mean the excess in the bodily condition. ”

“ Those who have access to a cold shower may stand for a moment, and for a moment only, under the cold shower, then step at once upon a warm rug and rub the whole surface of the body vigorously with a dry crash towel until the whole surface of the body glows with the warmth of the reaction. ”

“ If you remain until you feel you have had enough, it generally means that you have had too much. Then dry yourself rapidly, using two towels, the first to take off the greater part of the moisture, reserving the second to dry yourself with thoroughly. ”

“ For if the air be in a humid state, or you are exposed to exercise, the treacherous salt, which, when crystallised, has hidden itself in the fibres of the cloth, speedily melts, and you have all the tortures of being once more wrapped in moist drapery. ”

“ As our dry air is surrounded on both sides by moist air, it is evident that we must more or less partake of both heat and cold; but it moreover accounts for the happy circumstance that we have much rain ”

“ Also the air, being highly charged with moisture, is unable to take up so rapidly the water vapour which is always evaporating from the surface of our skin, and in this way the functions of the body receive a slight check, resulting in a feeling of depression. ”

“ It comes from the breath of persons, and from the steam of the tea-kettle.
When the breath is blown on a cold object, like a piece of glass or metal, what is the result?
The moisture in the breath is condensed by the cold object, and is collected in small drops of water on its surface.
Frost. When the temperature of the air is reduced below thirty-two degrees, what becomes of the moisture collected on plants and other things? ”