The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-08-12
At JUST WHAT HOUR WILL YOU DIE?
SPECULATION and Fact Concerning the Temperature Of the
Body in Reference to the Vital Spark.

about the temperature of the human
body. We speak of this warmth as
animal heat, and recognize it as a
manifestation of vital activity. But
this does not suffice to explain if
AS a matter of fact, even the scient-
lists are not sure what it is exactly
Eour body is a stove. The food
you eat is it's fuel. This fuel is con-
sumed by process that is supposed
10 be some sort of chemical combus-
tlon, taking the place of fire. But
the real nature of the process in
question is still a puzzle. Does the
chemical burning produce heat? An
parently not at all events, not in
the ordinary sense of the term.
SO far as the investigators have
peen able to find out, the food we
eat, apart from it's employment in
the making of muscle, blood and
bone, is utilized in the production
OF what is called chemical energy.
| There are ever so many kinds of
energy, of course. Light is one of
them mechanical energy is another,
and heat is another. What we term
muscular exercise is a form of me-
chanical energy. The chemical en-
ergy produced in the body is utilized
i'll all Of our physical activities-not
only in walking or throwing a ball,
but also to drive the heart pump,
work the lungs, and operate the rest
of the vital machinery.
Now, after the chemical energy of
the body has been converted into
mechanical energy for such purposes
! as these, it is transformed into heat,
and serves to keep the body warm.
Such, at all events, is the latest
theory on the subject. If, as seems
likely, it is correct one may easily
understand why the human body is
so extraordinarily economical as an
engine, far surprising in this respect
any type of steam, oil or gas engine
yet invented.
1t so happens that you feel cold,
and there is no fire or other arti-
| fetal heat handy, what do you do?
! Why, you exercise your body as Wig
| OrOusly as your arms. Why? Sim
/ ply because the muscular movement
seems to produce heat-though the
fact is that the heat is merely the
energy employed to work the mus
cles, which, having thus been used,
manifests itself by raising the tenn
! perature.
The temperature of a frog, or of
a fish, is the same as that of the
water in which it swims. With such
animals, as well as with turtles and
snakes, neither cold nor heat seems
| to make any particular difference,
so long as it is not very extreme.
But one rather curious fact that has
! been ascertained is that the rate of
! beating of a frogs heart varies di-
rectly, with it's temperature. If the
! creature be put into warm water its
! heart will beat more rapidly, or vice
versa. In the winter time it buries
itself in mud, and under such cir
cumstances it's vitality is reduced to
| a very low ebb, the pulsations of its
heart being exceedingly slow But
unlike warm-blOOd animal, it does
not suffer any inconvenience.
How different it is with a human
! being. There is nothing the physi-
| clan breads so much as a lowering
of the temperature of a patient who
is seriously i'll. The fever which in
typhoid or other maladies pushes the
clinical thermometer up several de-
grees beyond the 100 mark, does not
necessarily excite alarm. But let it
fall only a degree or two below the
normal, and the presence of immi-
nent peril is recognized. 1t would
seem as if the preservation of the
life in us depended upon the main
tenance at all times of that amount
of warmth which represents the full
vital flame, even a slight flicker of
which, as marked by a drop of the
mercury, is dangerous.