Health: How to get it and keep it.: The hygiene of dress, food, exercise, rest, bathing, breathing, and ventilation.Woods, Walter V.
Science
Health: How to get it and keep it.: The hygiene of dress, food, exercise, rest, bathing, breathing, and ventilation.
Woods, Walter V.
Health; Hygiene
=Warm-Blooded Animals.=--Those animals possessing well-developed
lungs and large breathing capacity are usually active in movement,
and are classed among the warm-blooded animals. They comprise birds,
quadrupeds, and man. The animals possessing small lung development are
for the most part inactive, and are cold to the touch, indicating a low
temperature. Such are the frog, toad, lizard, snake, and tortoise.
These facts show the connection between respiration and animal heat,
the temperature being in proportion to the amount of oxygen consumed.
Birds have the largest lung development in proportion to size, are most
active in movement, and indicate the largest amount of animal heat.
=Adaptation to Climatic Conditions.=--The Polar bear suffers from the
heat of the Temperate zone, and would not survive a week in the Torrid.
The African lion would fare no better were he suddenly transported
to the Frigid zone. Man alone, of all the animal creation, is able
to adapt himself to the extremes of heat and cold. By changing his
clothing, shelter, and food, he is able to create for himself an
artificial climate wherever he may choose to reside. No Arctic winter
has been found too cold for a Peary, Nansen, or Greely to withstand,
and no African plain or jungle too hot for a Livingstone or Stanley to
explore.
=Evaporation.=--The temperature of the body is regulated by means of
perspiration. Heat induces perspiration, and its evaporation lowers
the temperature of the body. Cold retards perspiration, and the heat
is retained within. The principle of evaporation is illustrated in
the manufacture of artificial ice. Men who labor in glass works, iron
and steel foundries, and in the engine rooms of large steam vessels
are exposed to great heat, yet enjoy as good health as those who are
engaged in other occupations. Persons have been known to remain several
minutes in an atmosphere heated above the boiling point, without
materially increasing the temperature of their own bodies.
Perspiration goes on continually, night and day. This fact emphasizes
the importance of a complete change of clothing upon retiring at night,
so that the clothing worn during the day may be thoroughly aired. In
like manner, the clothing worn at night, together with the sheets,
blankets, and pillows, should be aired, and, if possible, exposed to
the sun for a time, before the bed is made up.
=Color of Clothing.=--The color of our dress is not wholly a matter of
pleasure to the eye. In general, it is known that white is cool and
black is warm. Scientific experiment has shown that cloth of the same
material, when exposed to the rays of the sun, absorbs heat in the
following proportions: white, 100 heat units; light yellow, 102; dark
yellow, 140; light green, 155; Turkey red, 165; dark green, 168; light
blue, 198; dark blue, 206; black, 208. When not exposed to the sun, the
color has little or no influence upon the absorption of heat.
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