Year: 1860

The Eclectic Revieao, treating of the caloric OF
heat in a human body, compares our body to O
Giving stove-walkng fireplaces- furnaces in
the flesh," if these terms can be applied to any
apparatus for the express production of human
caloric. After stating the fact Of the latent
heat ofthe human frame, the writer saws:


| Suppose it to be the month of January, when
winter is presumed to be reigning in full vIgor
and every inanimate object appears to have
been drained of its caloric; still the human
structure will exhibit surplus Of sixty six de
grees above the freezing point. Why is this?
How does it happen that, while bronze stat
ue fuctuates in its temperature with every pas
sing breeze, the living organism maintains its
standard heat unimpared, and preserves its
tropical climate within, though the air should
be full of frost and the ground enveloped in
snow? It is manifest that we must have some
power of brewing caloric for ourselves. AS
suming that our bodies are veritable stoves, the
reviewer proceeds to explain whence we pro
cure our fuel. Fortunately our coal and fire.
wood, he adds, are stored up in very interest
ing form. They are laid before us in the shape
OF bread and butter, puddings and pies; rashers
of bacon for the laborer and launches of ven-
son or turtle soup for the epicure. Instead OF
being brought up in scuttles they are present.
ed in tureens, dishes or tumblers, or all OF
them in pleasant succession. x


Speaking seriously. and looking at the ques-
ton from mere human point of view, could
any project appear more hopeless than one for
burning fuel in SOFT delicate fabric like the
human body-a fabric composed, for the most
part of mere fluids-a fabric which might be
easily scorched by excess of heat, or damaged
by excess OF cold? Does it not seem like a
touch of Quixotsm in Nature to design stove
with flesh for its walls, viens for its fues, skin
for its covering? Yet here, we have seen, is
an apparatus which, as if by magic, produces d
steady stream of heat--not trickling penurlous.
ly from its fountains, but flowing on day and
night, winter and summer, without moments
cessation from January to December Garry
this splendid machine to the coldest regions on
the globe--set it up in scene where the irosts
are SO crushing that nature seems to be tramp
led dead--stl it pours out its mysterious sup
plies with unabated profusion. 1t is an appa-
ratus, too, which does its work unmatched,
and, in great measure, unaded e.
The very fuel, which is thrown into it in ran
dom heaps, is internally siited and sorted. SO
that the true combustible elements are convey
ed to their place and applied to their duty with
unerring precision. No hand is needed to trim
its fires, TO temper its glow, to remove its ash
es Smoke there is none. The pulmonary
chimney is never clogged with human CRIME
And il so delicately managed that the fauest
skin is neither shIiveled or blackehed by the
burning within. Is this apparatus placed in cir
cumstances which roo it too fast of its caloric,
then the appetite becomes clamorous for food,
and in satisfying its demands the feshy stove
is silently replenished. Or arc we placed in
peril from superabundant warmth, then the
tiny foodgates Of perspiraton are flung open,
and the surface is laid under water until the
fires within are reduced to their wonted level.
Assailed on the one hand by heat, the body re-
sists the attack, ifresistance be possible, until
the store Of moistuee is dissipated; assailed on
the other by cold, IL keeps the enemy at bay
until the boarded stock Of fuel is expended -
Thus protected, thus provisioned, let us ask
whether these human hearths are not entitled
to rank among the standing marvels of crea-
ton; for is it not startling to find that--let the
climate be mild or rigorous; let the wind blow
from the sultry desert, or come loaded with DO
lar sleet; let the fluctuations OF temperature be
as violent as they may without us--there shall
be still calm, unchanging, undying summer
within us.