Iowa capitol reporter. [volume] (Iowa City, Iowa) 1841-1855, 1852-02-11
How Animals Cool OF,

The genus homo and the genus
horse have double privilege of re-
frigeration, while all other animated
beings have but one. You may be
surprised to learn that no other be-
ings swaet except man and horses,
and hence no other beings can cool
themselves, when hot, by respiration
through the skin. The conformation
Of this fact is found in the whole
range of comparative anatomy, where
nature has furnished examples on the
most extended scale of magnitude, in
the whole animal world, in the lar
gest as well as the smallest of be-
ings.
In all the pachydermata, or thick
skinned animals, except the horse,
are found no pores in the skin that
exhale heat by perspiration, the en-
velope on all these animals being
only secreting surface, like others
of the internal surface of the body
All the cleft-feet species, including
those presenting feet with toes roun-
ded and unprovided with claws, the
elephant, rhinoceros, bison, MAN.
moth, mastadon, buffalo, OK, swine,
deer, as well as the lion, tiger, bear,
wolf, birds, squirrels, dormouse op-
possum, raccoon, all alike offer the
same example as the dog, that they
have no means of cooling themselves
when hot except through the medium
of the lungs, by respiration.
The farmer drives his oxen, in the
summer heat, with great care, and
when they open their mouths and
thrust out their tongues, and pant to
eXhale the heat generated by exer-
else, If he does not stop their motion,
they die with the heat that accumula-
ties within them. His hogs, too. must
be driven with more care, and if they
are allowed to grow fat in hot wealth
er, they often die painting in a state
of repose, when in the shade.
All these animals, with the excep-
ton of the elephant and rhinoceros,
are covered with hair and fur. or
fe athers and down, which varies with
the climate.
The fur and down tribe throw off
their rich covering at the approach
and revel with their fellows
IN the summers sun, and as the Au-
tum returns, they are re-furnished
with theirturs and down, in anticipa-
ton of the winters frost.
In health, these animals have a
large deposte of fat beneath the skin,
fat is a mixture of two or more ingre-
dents, which differ from each other
in consistency-in most instances
they are stearine and margarine,
along with liquid obeine; as the
weather cools these oils and fats con-
dense; and as they solidify they be-
come conductors of heat, and as
the heat accumulates beneath the
skin, it generates the delicate fnrs
and down for winters use, and i'm the
spring, as the temperature rises, the
oleine becomes volatile and sheds
them again for the summers heat; so
that this SIMPLE law for the genera
ton OF heat, in animal as in vegeta-
BILE lite, is graduated by the huctua-
ton of the season and the revolutions
of time. The familiar example ofthe
dog, who generates his heat at the
expense of his substance as he in
creases his speed, and, having no
pores in his skin, he multiplies his
respiration in the ratio of motion, as
the only means of keeping himself
cool, and having no perspiration to
check, he plunges into water with
impunity, ana returns refreshed, when
men and horses submerged in a sim
liar condition would suddenly check
perspiration, and if they survive the
shock, it would be to die with acute
or chronic inAhnation.-Dr. F. Van
derburgh's Address before the New
York Academy Of Medicine.
SIBERIAN CRAZE APpLE.-This tree