English
Exposure to the strong sun for a long time, principally the unprotected head, affects the PATHOLOGY 123 nervous mechanism directly, especially in one who has not been gradually accustomed to it, by the penetrating actinic I’ays, creating perhaps molecular changes in the nerve-cells. The pros¬ tration is extreme, rapid and sudden, but often the high temperature is missing, though in other Avays, the symptoms are those of heat-stroke. Though cold can be better borne than heat, yet after heavy consumption of alcohol, which causes vaso-dilatation and consequently loss of heat, one can be easily frozen to death. The action of cold is intensified by humidity which absorbs a good deal of heat and wind which drives away the warm layer of air sxirrounding the body. Even a healthy person with prolonged exposure to cold and sudden fall of temperature, might get a frost-bite. The frost-bite is manifest in the first stage by erythema and rubefaction, in the second stage by irlceration and finally by eschars, entailing the loss of the organ. Even when it does not directly cause any lesion, in¬ directly in a weak, debilitated or undernour¬ ished organism, it causes the development of various germs as pneumococci ; or there is an irresistible tendency to sleep from which one hardly wakes; or the physical and mental apathy may be interrupted by cerebral derange- ( 124 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE ment and delirium, and one dies of heart-failure. The influence of the variations of the atmos¬ pheric pressure is not very negligible. At the sea level, the air exerts a pressure of 1.03 kilogramme per square centimeter, that is, about 18,000 kilogrammes for the human body. When a man makes an abrupt ascent to a high altitude in an aeroplane or makes a descent as a sea- diver, the sudden pressure variation is apt to cause various disturbances. At the sea level, at zero altitude, there is a barometric pressure of 76 centimeter of mercury ; in Cashmere at the altitude of 7,000 feet, 56 ; at Mt. Everest at the altitude of 29,000 feet, 24.8. If a deep-sea fish is brought to the surface, it bursts from the expansion of the gas contained in the fish, so a man by a sudden high ascent not only finds it hard to breathe owing to the rarefaction of the air and consequent diminution of oxygen, but also the intestinal gases expand and cause tympanites and the blood rushing towards the periphery provoke diverse disorders from the results of anemia of the internal organs. At the altitude of 2000 meters, the oxygen diminishes 13 per cent; at 3000,21 per cent; at 6500,43 per cent and at 8500,50 per cent. To counteract this influence, the aeronauts are supplied with PATHOLOGZ 125 oxygen tanks, and the deep sea divers with compressed air to two or three atmospheres. The benefit of a mountain resort is in the purity of air and its higher ozone content. But above 11,000 feet, one who is not accustomed to high- mountain climbing, mountaineering may provoke '“mountain sickness’ with a symptom-complex of giddiness, nausea, dyspnea, headache, thirst,, malaise and a slight rise of temperature, almost like the sea-sickness, and with weakness of heart may prove fatal. But when a deep-sea diver comes to the surface, he feels a buzzing sensa¬ tion in the ears, due to the difference of pressure between the two surfaces on the tympanum, and this difference may be sufficiently great to^ cause rupture of the membrane, and there is a complaint of great fatigue and tendency to fainting. If the reduction of pressure is rapid, there is hemorrhage from the nose, ears and lungs and on the skin in puntiform shape, which the divers designate as ‘flea bites’ Light is visible between 497,000,000,000 and 728,000,000,000 vibi’ations per second. Below or above this figure, there is no sensory impres¬ sion. Yet within this narrow limit of our visibi¬ lity, we can see that light plays an important part in stimulating our nervous system and 126 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE general metabolism and killing many of tlie microbes exposed to it. It is well known how the sun light activates plant growth. Under its influence, carbonic acid—a waste product of the cellular metabolism, is made to unite with water—and thus reconstituting a hydrate of carbon—which is the principal mainstay of energizing food supply of human beings and herbivorous animals. And though light is used very effectively as a valuable therapeutic agent in dermatosis, a strong light might cause erythema and reflected light, either from sand as in the desert or snow, might provoke opthal- mia and blepharitis. The harmful effects of light can be avoided by using blue or black glasses over the eyes, and covering the body, especially the head with black or blue cloth through which the ultra-violet rays can not penetrate and to which the irritation is due. Sound is only audible within the close range of 30 and 30,000 vibrations per second. Pro¬ longed harsh sounds may cause mechanical lesion, even perforation of the timpanum and reflexibly ngrvous irritation. The soothing and restorative effect of the mountains and country places is often in the freedom from noise. And music which is nothing but the harmyon of PATHOLOGY 127 sound, is now well recognised as an important therapeutic agent for calming and soothing nervous irritation and in various other nervous derangements. The nature of electricity is not fully under¬ stood. Life itself possibly is an electro-chemical reaction, brought about and maintained by the interchange of the intercellular fermentative activities. A nd the human body is a compli¬ cated electrical apparatus : the lungs are the battery and the nerves are the wires insulated with sheaths of medulated and lipoid coatings. If the nerve current propagates at the rate of 120 meters per second only, while electricity at 3000 miles, it is because the nerve is not a homogenous wire, but interrupted by thousands of sympathetic junctions. It is now recognised that the insignificant quantity of minerals in the diet plays a vital role in the economy. It is very likely that they are intimately connect¬ ed with the generation of electric current. And like vibrations of light and sound waves, the human organism can only adjust within a limited range. Beyond that, it provokes death by molecular change in the nervous system as in electricution. The alternative current of 200 voltage kills a dog within 30 seconds, 700 / 128 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE a hoi’se and aliout 2000 a human being. This also proves that the human body is a better electrical machinery, withstanding the shocks of 2000 voltage, while the horse though superior to man in body weight and muscular strength, succumbs to shocks of 700 voltage. Infectious (daiva-vala) agents are of various . kinds as a sporozoid in malaria {plasmodiuni malaria), a high fungus akin to streptothrix actinomyces in tuberculosis (bacillus hiberculosis) or a bacterium like gonococcus in gonorrhea. 'It seems that the pathogenic microbic agents are almost uhiq^uitous. They are in the soil, water and the air. They find themselves upon our skin from all sources. But they usually live there a • harmless sapropliytic life, as the horny epidermis underlined by a layer of fat offers resistance to their penetration. With each inspiration count¬ less bactei’ia get admission in the respiratory passage, but tliey are retained by the hair in the nasal orifices and by the vibratile cilia of th& mucous membrane. Those who penetrate ferther, are either expelled with the mucous secretions, or by the germicidal mucus they are disinfected and pasted on the walls of the nasal orifices. The microorganism invade in large colonies the alimen tary canal with the ingestion of food and drink,. PATHOLOGY 129 but the hydrochloric acid content of the gastric juice possesses a considerable germicidal power. The intestine unquestionably is a fovorable place for their growth, as sufficient humidity, warmth and nutrition from the residue of the food are found ideally combined, tftid there is hardly any antiseptic secretion there to arrest their develop¬ ment. In the gastric cavity are found nearly 50,000 microbes, in the mouth of duodenum 30,000, in the cecum 25,000 and in the lower intestine about 100,000 per cubic millimeter. On the whole, on the same basis of computation there are about 412,000,000,000 microbes in tbe whole of the alimentary canal and every day with the feces from 12 to 15 billions are evacuat¬ ed. That they do not increase usually more than that, is due to the fact that the fermenta¬ tive bacterial colony counteracts the luxuriant growth of the putrefying germs which cannot flourish in the acid medium and thus they preserve a mutual balance against each other so that they can not easily become obnoxious to the economy. But in case the vegetative microbic floTa become active and virulent, they reach the lymphatic glands and the liver, where they are destroyed. Of course the toxins liberated by the pathogenic micro-organism 9 130 AKCIENT HINDU MEDICINE can be absorbed, but they are more or less attenuated, modified and made innocuous in the hepatic cells and other mechanisms of the body. Though the vulva and vagina swarm with pathogenic germs, infection through the genito¬ urinary passages is very rare except in venereal diseases as gonorrhea, soft chancre and syphilis, where even an abrasion, wound or cut is neces¬ sary which generally takes place through the sexual congress by the sharp edges of the hair, so that the venereal disease-producing germs can find a safe lodging place to develop in vita¬ lity and virulence, as they are partly disinfected by the germicidal mucous secretion and washed away by the force of urination.