The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1917-01-26
POPULAR MEDICINE
BY DR.. HIRSHBERG
Intelligent Observation OF Rules
of Hygiene Will De-
crease Illness.
BY DIR. LEONARD X. HIRsHBERG.

BY DIR. LEONARD X. HIRSHBERG.
Human beings, like other living
things, are capable of adapting them
selves to extreme cold within the linn
its of race, color, habit, custom anu
previous condition of servitude" as
to temperature in or out OF doors.
There is evidence that man lived
on earth when II was entirely cover
ed with ice-much as Eskimos do
today. His companions then were the
woolly rhinoceros, mammoth and
hairy elephants. Later, according to
the Marquis de Nadaillac, the Aryan
race worked it's way southwark until
his species extended from both sides
Of the equator to the poles.
In his eventful journey across the
mountains of Central Asia, Prince
Henri of Orleans encountered cold of
minus 40 degrees centigrade. The
mercury thermometers froze at minus
20 degrees. Since mercury freezes at
that point, alcohol Thermometers
alone registered Camels and horses
froze to death, but the men survived
where Extreme Cold Reigns.
In the northern part OF America
horses and other animals, like hu-
mans, easily support. temperatures OF
nearly go degrees below the freezing
point. Captain Dawson at Fort Ray
reported a long, cold spell, during
which the ecntigrade thermometer
registered 81 degrees below zero This
was only O2 degrees north latitude. AT
Yukon, Alaska, A degrees below zero
centiErade is easily borne by Amer
leans and others used to such ex-
IRENE cold. in Siberia such low tenn
peratures are not unusual, and men
build cities and live there in com
fort. NJ. Martin, a French savant, who
ptraveIed in Siberia, said he frequent
" encountered temperatures of 63
degrees below freezing and suffered
no injury.
Perhaps the most intense cold ever
suffered by white men was reported in
one OF Admiral Peary's early visits
hey ond Cookers land, where, during
the winter of 1879 and 1880, severe
everywhere, the thermometer reached
minus IL degrees centigrade. Raw
hMh of seals, waIrus> and other oily.
fatty animals Of the Polar seas, as well
as clothing made OF reindeer skin.
helped Admiral Peary and his men to
survive this terrible cold.
"Harden- Your Body slowly. =
II the skin of man is slowly hard
ened to very low temperatures with
out the covering OF wool or heavy I'M
derwear, which either prevents per-
spiration or causes so much of IT that
the cold atmospheres will not eyapo-
rate 1t, IL is possible to endure great
degrees of cold without danger Of q
chill or excessive refrigeration of the
blood.
The reason many people seemingly in
fine health cannot endure cold weather
Is due to several conditions. Heavy
underclothing, for example, induces too
much warmth in the skin. This in turn
keeps an unnecessarily large arount Of
blood on the surface exposed to the
ever-varying temperatures of the world
outside the marrow bones. and also
keeps the sweat glands in the habit Of
manufacturing an excess Of perspiration.
II the subject. as Is usual. seldom spends
more than an hour d two In the cold
and bitter winds Of winter" the evil Of
a two full-blooded skin Is still further
exaggerated
The upshot Of such q spoiled, petted
and coddled anatomy is to make the
owner feel even a mild zephyr as q
"draught," because he is like a hot
house plant which has lost its ability
to make quick changes and to adapt
itself to the relatively colder atmos-
phere round about. This explains why
a ragged, barefooted street urchin, I'M
able to keep warm in a cold, cheer
less tenement home, is, IL fairly well
fed, less apt to fall an easy victim
Of "coIds' and similar distempers
than IL q person who coddles his skin
by wearing too much clothing.
(Copyst 1917, by Newspaper Feature Service. }