The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1914-05-15
TEMPERATURE AND THE BODY

Atmospheric Conditions, Moisture and
Wind, Exercise an influence Over the
Human Machine That Is Lost Upon
Mass of Mercury In a Glass Tube.
Do not let the thermometer fool you.
1t Is very deceptive instrument for
those who do not know how to use 1t
and sometimes for those who do, or
think they do.
eter, hanging just outside the door,
some winter morning and see the mer-
curry standing at zero. Phew You
feel shiver at the mere sight of that
needle of glacial metal, contracted
down almost to the bottom Of it's tube,
as If seeking refuge, and glfttering
there like a miniature icicle cut off
short.
You wrap yourself up as for an arc
tic journey before venturing out, thrust
your gloved hands into your big over.
coat pockets, put on your ear shields,
start on a run for your Office or the
railroad station in order to get your
blood into state of defensive circu
lation-and In two or three minutes
you are streaming with perspiration
You turn down your collar. open your
coat and find that the air is, though
not exactly balmy, decidedly bracing
and agreeable.
Yet there hangs that thermometer
steadily marking Zeroi
1t has deceived you, but still it has
told the truth-yet not the whole truth,
only the truth as it sees it. 1t is zero
weather for the thermometer, but it is
not zero weather for you Evidently
your body and the thermometer have
not the same standards of measure
ment
But few days later perhaps you
look again at your thermometer on the
porch as you are about to go about
your business, and you find that 1t
marks a very comfortable sum of de
grees above zero, what might truly be
called balmy weather for winter. You
have forgotten tie disagreement that
you had with the instrument of sci
ence the other morning, and you bow
again confidingly to its decree. 1t says
the air Is comfortably warm, and the
thermometer surely ought to know,
since 1t is its sole business to measure
temperatur
You leave off your heavy coat and
your wraps, bare your throat and
start bravely away for office or sta
ton, trying to feel as genial as the
thermometer has assured you that the
weather is. But you are not halfway
to your destination before shiver
runs down your back, your nose be
comes an icicle, your ears smart and
burn, and you begin to sneeze or
cough. You feel that you have laid
the foundation of serious "cold,"
which will probably put some money
In the pocket Of your neighbor, the
doctor.
But If, scared by the thought of
pneumonia, you will return home in
haste you will see as you glance at it
in passing that the thermometer on
the porch still stares you down with
its impudent assertions that the air
this morning Is only moderately cold,
just about right temperature to be en-
joyable and healthfuI
Now, where is the origin of the de-
ception and why are you warm when
the thermometer is cold and cold when
the thermometer Is warmi
The whole trouble arises frop the
essential difference between simple
machine consisting of glass tube and
a little mercury and a complicated llv
ing body with its multitude of interre-
lated parts and functions. The ther-
mometer has only one way of feeling
changes of temperature and only one
way of responding to them-viz, by
either expansion or contraction of the
liquid metal In its tube. The human
body is heat engine continually ra-
dating away the heat produced within
1T by It's vital processes, and its princi-
pal means of feeling changes of tenn
perature occurring outside itself Is
through the different rates at which it's
inborn heat is radiated away to sur
rounding objects or the surrounding
air.
When the air is dry on cold morn
ing there Is little or no evaporation.
and the sktn is not seriously affected
by the cold. But If the air is charged
with moisture the invisible water
drops eyaporate on touching the skin
and by their evaporation abstract heat
from the body. which feels the result
ing chill deep within. SO If the air is
still the cold does not penetrate, but If
1t is breezy new particles of cold air
are continually swept against the skin
and more aud more heat is abstracted
from the body.-Garrett p. Serviss in
Spokane Spokesman-R Review.