The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1861-12-07
Gle llI)usirion.
easOnable Hints about Personal Com
upts

A thin shawl may be made warm by folding
newspaper inside of it, The paper is i'm
pcrriuus to the wind and cold air from out
side, and prevents the rapid escape of tho
warm air from beneath it. Every one knows
that the heat Of the body is carried off much
more rapidly in high wind than in CALM
Inc wind blows away the heat evolved from
the body; but in perfectly still air this heat
remains and constitutes an atmospheric
envelope so nearly Of the same temperature
with the body itself that the latter is not so
quickly robbed of its natural heat.
There are SOME very intere sting facts about
the body in its power to make aud contain the
heat which are familiar to all when told, but
which are seldom thought of in daily expert
ence. For example, the body will hold a
great deal more heat than it gets from its own
furnaces. The stomach is furnace, and our
food is the fuel. 1t keeps up uniform tenn
perature in the blood equal to about SO
degrees of Fahrenhot's thermometer. If tho
stomach could consume food fast enough to
MAINTAIN the heat, the body could not DO
frozen by any extreme cold. But in proper
ton to the severity of cold to which the body
is exposed, is the rapidty with which it losses
heat. Some substance taken into the stomach
make hot blaze much sooner than others as
Brandy, To put brandy into the stomach is
ike putting pitch under steam boiler. 1t
soon burns out, and the greater heat Injuries
| the furnace.
We say that the body will hold more heat
than it gets from its own furnaces. Heat is
measured by degrees. On going ont from
warm room the body will Immediately begin
| to lose It's heat, and it must part with a Ger
tain number ofdcgrccs before it can get TO
feel cool. The direction has sometimes been
giveIi-" Don't hug the stove. If YOU ar.
| going to Set out on cold jnurnev,'' Bat
experience says do hug it. Get in as MANY
degrees OF heat as you can carry, if it is 500.
Then wrap yourself mp well, and YOU can
economist these 500 degrees through |uny
ride. But if you had taken only 100 dcs,ers
at the start, they would have been exhausted
| midway OF the journey, and then you would
have begun to feel cold. Nevertheless, it is
an unhealthy habit to accustom ones self on
| ordinary occasions to more heat than is usual
~ needed. This is very common fault, and
! ears on the pocket as we'll as on the health.
One may easily get the habit of requiring two
or three blankets m,ra than are necessar' I.
Some families will burn twice the fuel thai
others do, and enjoy less comfort.
The eXtrcmities Of the body get cold first,
often to painful degree, while the trunk IS
warm. But so long as the trunk keeps warm, ,
in person of common vigorous health, there
is little fear of :" catching cold Z" by aching
toes or fingers. In rail car riding, it is much
safer for the health to let the toes ache than
| to a How the lungs to feed on the foul air
around the stove.
Wher you set out on a winter Journey. if
you are liable to suffer from cold toes which
many people do in spite of rubbers - fold
IL piece of newspaper over your stocking,
which you can readily do, if your boots or
shoes are not irrationally tight. This is bet
| ter than rubbcrs.n which are. in fact. very
cold comtorters in extreme. while they make
the feet sweat in moderate weather The
main use Of India-rubbcr over shoes is to
keep out water, and for that they are second
only to a stout, WATERPROOF, first-rate calfskin
boot. There is not more villainously
unwholesome article of wear made than the
high -toppcd rubber boot, 1t makes the foot
tender. especially TO children, gives an urly
gait, and when left oft in any weather. the
wcarcr is liable to " catch cold.:' Saint Girls
pin is the best friend of the human foot, when
his leather and stitches are honest.
Although the body can take in a greater
number OF degrees of heat than it gets from
its own furnace the stomach, yet its capacity
is limited in this respect. For example,
when the hand is warm, you cannot hold it in
the air of hot oven for second; but when
it is cold, and especially when damp also, you
may hold it there for some time without feel
ing the heat very sensbly, and for long time
without being obliged to withdraw it. And
the body may carry less, as well as more heat,
| than the quantity SUDplieQ by its own furnace.