The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-06-04
Usual Functions Of Body Can be Per-
formed Within Narrow Range OF
Tempe rature-Heat In Body
Remains same Always.
IMAGINE THEY'RE COLD
Persons Think They are Very Warm
or Cool According to Weather,
But in Reality Temperature
of Blood Unchanged.

functions Of the body, These can be
performed efficiently only within a
narrow range of temperature. Hence
theadanger to life in many diseases,
If the temperature rises above 1O4
or los degrees. A fall of tempera-
ture ten or twelve degrees below
normal is not nearly so dangerous.
When we are in good health our
bodily heat remains at a level (9S.9)
despite the efforts of. griIIing sun
or a temperature below the freezing
point Thus it comes about that
man who lives in I.apland is no
colder inside than a man who lives
in Madrid.
|. How does this happen? On a
broiling hot day you feel unbearably
warm, and in an icy blizzard you
seem to SILVER in the very marrow
of your bones. But the application
of the impartial thermometer would
tell you that the temperature OF
your blood remained unchanged in
either case, and that your feelings
gave you a totally unreliable impress
sion of the true state of affairs, says
a London Tit-Bit writer.
To parody Hamlet, you're neither
hot nor cold, but thinking makes you
so.' You feel hopelessly hot or in
tolerably cold, as the case may be,
but the thermometer which, like
Salem Scudder'S camera, cannot
lie," speaks the scientific truth. The
mercury has not budged by a frac-
ton Of a degree, up or down, in
either case. 1t is something OF a
miracle that occurs.
One of the many wonders of our
bodies is the nervous mechanism that
regulates the bodily temperature as
surely as we regulate our own baths
by turning on and off the hot or cold
taps, or opening the waste pipe as
circumstances require. This ind1s-
pensable apparatus is situated in the
brain and operates largely without
our control Or knowledge. For short,
we can call it the heat center.
l., Our ordinary bodily heat is derived
from the action Of our muscles and
the working of our glands. The fric-
ton of the blood on the walls of our
arteries as it is pumped along by the
heart is turned into heat. In the
same way the movements of organs
causing friction produce heat. The
body also derives heat from hot food
or drink, and by its being conducted
or radiated from the surrounding
atmosphere. Hence the body derives
from one source or another very
large supply of heat, and if this were
not removed from the body in some
way the mean temperature of the
body would rise to such degree that
life could no longer be carried on.
1t is in these circumstances that
the heat regulating center gets to
work. 1t works off the excess heat
in various ways. Thus, when we are
too hot, perspiration is poured out to
such an extent that much Of the sur
plus heat is expanded In converting
the sweat into vapor Much Of it
also is thrown off into the surround
ing atmosphere if it's temperature is
below that of the body. Heat is lost
also, in some circumstances, by
taking cold food or drink. The evapo-
(actually visible in winter only also
heat center regulates and controls to
nicely all these operations.
On the other band, when in very
cold weather it is necessary to gener-
ate sufficient heat to replace what
Is lOSl, luS uSdt CculoT ddopIS SlliSi
ent tactics. The shivering we ex-
perience when too cold is an attempt
on the part Of the heat center to pro
duce involuntary muscular contrac-
tons in order to increase heat pro-
ductipn. But besides this visible me-
chanical effect the effect Of cold.
when not too extreme, is to cause an
increase in all the vital processes OF
tissue change, SO increasing the pro-
duction of heat, and to put keen
edge on the appetite, SO that the in
take of heat producing food and the
Capacity to digest and absorb it arc
greatly increased.
It is this that enables the Eskimo
to keep his blood and bones COM
fortably warm amid the rigors or his
polar fastness. In word, the hu-
man heat center is model combi-
nation Of the intelligence and execu-
tive departments Of the body always
! working tremendously together.
/ Rubonic Plague Epidemic.
! limited Press Leased Wire Service