The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-07-15
SunStrOke.

Sunstroke is never the result Of few
hours of unexpected heat The name mis-
leads people. They fancy that the sun
light strikes men down just as does the
lightning, and that if they keep out of the
sunshine they are in no danger.
Now sunstroke is nothing more than an
exhaustion of the system by which the cir
culation is rendered abnormal. One day
of sudden heat rarely exhausts a man so
| that the disease appears.
A man who works hard in the shade on
! hot day and so overheats himself may be
smitten with sunstroke, while another
man who walks quietly in the sunshine
will experience no bad effects from it,
This ignorance of the nature of sun
stroke leads to the irrational conduct of
most people in their efforts to keep cool.
Their usual practice is to drink vast
quantities of ice-water or of soda-water
with sirup. They fancy that by these
means they counteract the heating tend
ency of the weather. On the contrary,
they take the surest means to induce sun
stroke.
In this disease there is always a rush of
blood to the head. Now when this occurs
there must be less blood in other parts of
the body Whatever drives the blood
away from any part OF the body below the
head increases the pressure of blood on
the brain.
1ce-water, of course, contracts the veins
of the stomach, and thus drives the blood
away from that organ. The man who
fears sunstroke, or In other words fears
that there will be too much blood in his
veins, and who, therefore, drinks ice
water, might just as we'll go and stand on
his head. The latter would probably be
the less dangerous course of the two.
Saltwater with strip is even worse
than plain ice-water. 1t has all the evil
effects which ice-water produces, and it
moreover heats the system by means of
the sugar which the strip contains.
To put sugar into the stomach IN hot
weather is like pouring petroleum on a
fire in order to put it out. The result is
never quite satisfactory.
| Still worse are all those so-called cool
ing drinks of which wine or spirits form
| a component part. They heat the blood
and increase the rapidity with which the
heart beats, thereby pumping more blood
into the brain.
Not content with trying to produce sun
stroke by these means men frequently
achieve it by persistent fretting..
The exhaustion of the nerves is one of
| f)IcCC1tcuG VI TIC NlSCilSC,
and there is nothing which exhausts the
nerves SO surely as fretting.
An exceptionally able physician has
said that mental labor never alone pro-
duces disease of the brain, but that
worry is the chief source of softening
of the brain, and that paralysis which is
distinct from apoplexy.
Now if you believe all of this exception
ably able paper on sunstroke, its origin
and nature, you will comprehend why we
have sometimes hundred cases in day
in this city, while in Italy, where the heat
lasts steadily for four months in the year,
the disease Is nearly unknown.
| The reason is that most Americans,
when the hot weather begins, go into
training for sunstroke, and ignorantly do
everything which can produce it.
What we ought to do in hot weather is
evident. First, we should keep our minds
easy and contented. Secondly, we should
drink nothing but moderately cool water,
and very little of that. Ice-water is the
bane of America, and probably kills near.
" as many people as alcohol.
Thirdly, we should avoid so. far as is
possible all work which overheats and ex-
hausts u.s." Medtcus,' in N. Y. Graphic.