Smyrna times., 1886-09-01


Hygiene.
HEALTH IN SUMMERTIME BODY.
The study of the science of hyQien,
| tells us that the heat of the body in
Winter and Summer is ninety-eight de.
grees of Fahrenheit. BY what process;
is this equilibrium maintained alike
when the temperature falls to zero, as
| it did hardly seven months ago, and
when it rises to a hundred and thirty
in the sun, as many of us have seen il
this Summer? The human body is a
vast machine, both refrigerator and
heat producer, in which, among other
things, food is made to produce heat
Every ObserVant reader must have
noticed how he felt, after a good din
ner, on a cold, Winter day. The rea-
son is that food in the process of diges-
ton, evolves heat, or, as chemists call
it, calOric so that to eat hearty meal
is to kindle the stove, as we may
phrase it inside of us. BY wise pro-
vision of nature different articles OF
food possess different capacities for the
evolution of heat, enabling men to reg
ulate their diet according to climate
and the season of the year People
shrink instinctively from eating buck
wheat cakes and sausage in Summer,
though they may prefer this dish before
all others, for a Winters breakfast ;
and the reason is that bucllwheat itself,
beyond most other species of food, ex-
GELS in calOrifient or heat producing
principles.
In a similar manner and from pre-
cisely the same causes, the food Of the
tropics differs from the Arctic circle.
The Esquemeaux eat blubber and rot
ten or soft wood. When asked:
Why do you eat rotten wood ?'
. !! the belly must be filled
Man cannot live on a fluid, OF sing
lie alimentary diet only, and the writer
knows this to be in accordance to other
physiological observers, and to expert
mental effects upon himself, changing
from solid to fluid, the period of tests
extending over the hist twenty-five
years, producing nausea, fever, diar-
rhpa, lastly, exhaustion. &c. The wri-
ter witnessed that on the return of
some of the Union prisoners from An
jacksonville, from an insufficiency or
improper food were starved out and
when returned to US some of them had
for days and week, and might we not
say in accordance of science, had lived
Ii. e. had breakfasted, dined and
supped), eaten their fat, then the red
meat, muscle, and lastly the brain sub
stance. 1t is a wonder after nearly
eating up their bodies they should re-
turn to us Skeletons, diseased, de-
mented idiots, physically and psychi-
cally to lead a dormant life the rest of
their time in this world. From the
United States whale oil is exported to
the north of Europe, to be used as food
II Greenlander has long journey to
make, he eats enormously Of seal or
walrus. The reason for this diet, in all
these cases, is that blubber, whale oil
and walrus are eminently heat produc-
ing. On the other hand, persons re-
siding at the Equator live almost en-
tirely on fruits, or, if they eat meat,
take only the lean. The orange, which
is such luxury to the Havanese that
they live on it almost entirely for
months, would freeze the Icelander to
death, if he ate nothing else while the
tallow, which makes the latter hale
and hearty, would bring on an attack
OF fever, if used as the diet of Cuban.
Every farmer knows how heating In-
dian corn is for horses and that.
though an excellent food for Winter. it
Is not near so good in Summer; the
reason IS that Indian corn possesses
four times the heat-producing proper
ties of beans. The watermelon, which
Is such favorite at this season of the
year, would be mockery to a trav-
eller coming in from the cold and wet
on stormy January night. These in
stlncts, as to food, nature has wisely
implanted in man, that he lmav regu-
late his diet according to the season,
and so preserve the heat of the BODY at
Its proper point. By experiment it has
been proved that a rise in the tempera-
ture of 8 to 13 degrees above the nor
NAL standard, is sufficient to DESTROY
life.
Still further to assist in maintaining
this equilibrium, the human body has
been furnished with an apparatus in
both lungs and skin for throwing off
excessive heat. The water which we
drink, is used as a medicine for this
purpose as occasion requires. The
lungs eXhale vapOr, Is to 20 ounces of
water, in "a hours, Winter and Sum-
mer from the skin the fluid varies
from twO-thirds to five pounds in q
hours; the sweat tubes measuring in n
man of ordinary stature, 1861 wards
or nearly % miles in length. On a
Wintry day, this exhalation is percep-
tlble to the eye, for the cold condenses
the vapor into a cloud as it issues from
the mouth and nostrils. Dogs, which
have no apparatus in the skin for
throwing off heat, pant the more the
higher the temperature. We have
seen Newfoundland dogs on sultrv
days, lying motionless for hours, pant
ing as if just come from a chase. In
the human body the perspiration dur
ing the Summer months flows freely.
at the least exertion, or at ANYTHING
else which raises the temperature of
the body. 1t is by this evaporation
from the skin, as well as of exhalation
from the lungs, that the temperature
OF the body is retained at ninetv-eight.
when the air in which the body is i'm
mersed, is at a higher point. Thick
clothing, which retains heat and fatty
substances which generate heat rap
idly, are the methods by which the
equilibrium is maintained in Winter.
Light clothing, a diet principally of
fresh, ripe fruits and the process of
evaporation and erhaIdtion, are the
means by which it is preserved in Sum-
mer. Pro Bono PUBLICO.
Kirk'cOod, august 1911.