Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-03-08
Carving OFF POiSOns.

i
/ Precipitation passes out through the
skin by means of the sudoriferOus, or
sweat-glands. That every everybody
has known for a long time, but only
recently has it been established that
water-vapor passes through the sub
stance of the skin itself, independently
of any secretions of these glands. en-
sensible" perspiratiOn was generally
though to be the vaporizing of liquid
secretion too slight to be noticed.
The elimination Of poisons from the
system by these processes is an i'm
portant contribution to the conditions
promoting strength and health.
| The long standing uncertainty res
pecting the origin of water impercep
tibly eliminated from the skin was
dispelled by series of observations
on human individuals in whom an un-
usual anomaly of this organ exists,
explains the Journal of the American
Medical Association. Loewy and
Wechselmann have had the exception
al opportunity of stduying subjects
in whom a defective development has
resulted in complete absence of skin
glands, so that both sweat and Sc
bacious secretion were lacking. Here
then, it became possible to investigate
the occurrence of loss of water from
the skin independently of sweat-form-
alton.
1t was found that such sweat-free
persons may experience considerable
output of water through the skin. The
variations of such process of elm
nation are considerable. The guam
tity may reach 600 grams of water
per day for the entire body. This
represents true insensible perspira-
tion-a diffusion of water-vapor-fol-
lowing definite physical laws.
The observations made in these un-
ique cases representing it may be
noted, persons having ties of blood
relationship and thus exhibiting a
hereditary factor in their common
skin defect, supplement the facts
learned from normal individuals.
AS a result of the different investi-
cations, it is concluded that the physi-
cal loss of water varies greatly in diff
ferent parts of the body-a fact only
recently verified by Galeotti and Maori
at the University of Naples
These two Italian investigators
found the insensible perspiration to
be greatest from the surfaces of the
hand, somewhat less from the neck
and cheeks, and still smaller in rela-
ton to the chest and back. According
to these investigators there is cor
respondence, in some parts of the
bodies of normal individuals, between
the number of sweat-glands and the
extent of evaporation from the skin.
The parallelism in this respect is,
however, by no means complete, so
that there is no justification for as
Stunning that the water evaporated is
derived solely from sweat-glands. Loss
of water evidently also takes place
through the epidermal layers of the
skin, precisely as in the case of the
sweat-free subjects of Loewy.
The temperature of the environment
often eXerts an influence on the evap-
Grafton from the cutaneous surfaces
in the sense that with increased ex-
ternal temperature the degree of in
sensible perspiration is augmented.
This is, however, no uniformly the
case, according to Loewy. He regards
the conditions of the skin as decisive /
for the extent of loss of water.
With the same external temperature |
the output will vary with the momen-
tary makeup of the skin, SO that it
it not regarded as extreme to at
tribute any influence of the external
temperature to its more immediate
effect on the cutaneous organ as a
whole. In febrile patients the output
of water is always greater than in
the case of healthy persons.
So far as the loss of water by pure
ly physical processes is concerned,
the temperature of the surface layers
of the body is the factor of chief i'm
Inn