The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-28
HEAT AND
SUNSTROKE
Just What Causes the
Attack.
FRENCH SCIENTISTS IDEA
Stock Remedies Usually Recon-
mended and How the Trouble
May be Avoided.

In an article that occupies consid-
erably more than half the Archives de
Medicine Navale for January, DIR.
Moussoir, a French naval surgeon OF
the first class claims to be the first OBJ
server to have established a funda-
mental distinction between heat-stroke
and Sun-Stroke, and contends further
that correct appreciation of his dis
covery would result in a large saving of
human life. Heat-stroke, according to
DR.. Moussoir, says the London Lancet,
is pathological condition produced by
the action on the whole surface of the
body during sufficiently prolonged pc
ROD of temperature exceeding 104 de-
Srees Fahrenheit, whereas sun-stroke
Is d paJroioStca. conoIIion produced Dy
the acLion Oh the Uranium curing d
peT1od WnIcn need not necessarily be
iong, OF Sulilclently lnLenSe sonar raul
atioh. Inc I'm temperature wnicn
gives rise 10 the hedL-SIroKe may Dc
from any source. Most heat as La a
STOKE hOie on Uoard snip, brings on
hedt-Stroke by preventing the evapora-
Ilon OF perSp.rdIIon While a dry neat
py ShrlNehhS op the SKIN into "a parcn-
Lleht-ilke substance, prevents the ex-
uoallon OF perspIraJIon and most proo-
Amy also pfouuces an analogous con-
ultlon III the pulmonary alveoIar tissue
Eeat-Stroke causes Its i'll effect,
through the Super-heated blood, wnlen
reacts on the nerve cenlers. II comes
on SraGuany, but may simulate Suuden-
ness Wnen the viii power by wnIcn the
SUBJECT was sustained is abruptly with
81
camp, not atmosphere in narrow I'LL
! ventilated spaces because tney work
naked or nearly so, whereas soldiers on
duty IN the open air Succumb to heat
stroke because the caloric increases be-
neath their thick clothing, which also
! hlnderS the evaporation ct sweat
10 prove this three thermome tiers
should be piaceu-the first in the SHADE,
| the second in the sun, and the thi, d
likewise in the sun, but wrapped in a
piece OF cloth. An experiment frequent
! ly repeated by DR.. MouSsoir gave re-
! suits as follows: First thermometer,
! ga degrees; second. 1l0.3 degrees, and
! third, 127.4 degrees. Sun-stroke or in
ISOLATION, is not induced by high temper
allure, puL ny the intense radia ton
\ which the sun alone owing to it's enor-
NOUS volume Il, 200, 600 times that of the
eaNh), can supply, the chemical rays
the Vibrations of which are more rapid,
! and Therefore more penetrating than
those ofeir caloritic and luminous
! conSenerS, Ning the exciting cause
t'onssagrives Core imagined that
/ the un-stroke oSass6Ss temperature dur
ing clear weather WaYdue to the action
! of light on the retina, but this must be
/ an error. because owing to the incau-
uouS exposure which is then likely to
take place, the affection is very fire.
quentiy met with while the sky is over
cast. The chemical rays emitted by the
J yYti cln
freely, but are almost entirely arrested
by black substances, and partially so
by red. These facts explain the i'm
munity from Sun-Stroke of negroes and
people with swarthy compleXIons, and
the diminished liability to it of the rud-
dy. To produce sun-stroke the rays
must impinge upon some part of the
brain case, the effect being transmitted
| thence to the as yet INDICATED heat CEN
ter by reflex action.
The process precisely resembles what
goes on when perspiring scalp is ex-
posed to a draught, and sneezing, cory
"a and other reflex phenomena quickly
ensue. Covering the head preserves
from sun-stroke. but just as is the case
with thick clothing, a helmet can only
assist IN the development of heat
stroke. The mean of a series of obSer-
vations with suspended thermometers
showed that the temperature inside a
regulation helmet was 10 degrees c.
higher than in the shade of a veranda
In heat-stroke the disease begins by
heating the blood but in Sun-stroke this
condition of the circulating fluid is sec
ondary; the fact, however, that in both
affections the bloou becomes super
| heated serves to explain the resem-
bIance OF the symptoms Sun-Stroke or
insulation can only occur within the
tropics, because in that region alone the
suns chemical rays are sufficiently in
tense to produce he necessary reaction.
So far DIR. MousSoir may perhaps be
held to have supplied a prima facie case
in support of his somewhat ambitious
exordium, but with regard to treatment
his promises can scarcely be looked
upon as fulfilled. Excitation and anti
pyrin are insisted upon, together with
ice, cold effusion, and the rest of the
stock remedies usually recommended
Quinine, however, is discarded utterly,
the writer having no belief in its anti
thermic properties, seeing that in small
pox, scarlet fever etc. its exhibition
fails to reduce the temperature. In
paludal fevers the alkaloid acts as a
parasiticde and in sun-stroke there are
happily no microbes. Incidentally paint
ing with gualacol is mentioned, but the
effects are said to be prohibitively I'M
certain. Under its influence hyperther-
mia is apt to degenerate into hypother-
mia with cardiac collapse. Among the
predispoSing causes of heat apoplexy, !
DR. Moussoir mentions the horizontal
position, contendl..g that the heat rays
both direct and refracted from the
ground, have thus a much larger sur
face to act on. This would seem to sup
ply an argument against the Indian
practice of taking a siesta during the
heat of the Gay.