The Weekly Kansas Chief

Useful and Curious.

Checking Perspiration.

Edward Everett, the finished scholar, the accomplished diplomatist, the orator, the statesman the patriot, became overheated in testifying in a court room, on Monday morning, went to Faneuil Hall, which was cold, sat in a draft of air until his turn came to speak; "but my hands and feet were ice, my lungs on fire. In this condition I had to go and spend three hours in the court room."

He died in less than a week from this checking of perspiration. It was enough to kill any man.

Professor Mitchell, the gallant soldier, and the most eloquent astronomical lecturer that ever lived, while in a state of perspiration in yellow fever, the certain signs of recovery, left his bed, went into another room, became chilled in a moment, and died the same night.

While perspiring, or while something warmer than usual, from exercise or a heated room, there is a sudden exposure in stillness, to a still, cold air, or a raw, damp atmosphere, or to a draft, whether at an open window or door, or street corner, an inevitable result is a violent and instantaneous closing the pores of the skin, by which waste and impure matters, which were making their way out of the system, are compelled to seek an exit through some other channel, and break through some weaker part, not the natural one, and harm to that part is the result. The idea is presented by saying that the cold is settled in that part. To illustrate:

A lady was getting into a small boat to cross the Delaware; but while wishing first to get an orange at a fruit stand, she ran up the bank of the river, and on her return to the boat found herself much heated, for it was in the summer; but there was a little wind on the water, and the clothing soon felt cold to her. The next morning she had a severe cold, which settled on her lungs. and within a year, she died of consumption.

A stout, strong man, was working in a garden in May. Feeling a little tired about noon, he sat down in the shade of the house and fell asleep. He waked up chilly. Inflammation on the lungs followed, ending after two years of great suffering, in consumption. On opening his chest, there was such an extensive decay that the yellow matter was scooped out by the cupful.

Multitudes of women lose health and life, every year, in one or two ways; by busying themselves in a warm kitchen until weary, and then throwing themselves on a bed or sofa without covering, and perhaps in a room without fire; or by removing the outer clothing, and perhaps changing the dress for a more common one, as soon as they enter the house after a walk or a shopping. The rule should be inevitable to go at once to a warm room and keep on all the clothing at least five or ten minutes, until the forehead is dry. In all weathers, if you have to walk or ride, on any occasion, do the riding first.

Hale Journal of Health.