The young woman's guide to excellence / by William A. Alcott.

  • William Alcott
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The young woman's guide to excellence / by William A. Alcott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    But this is not alL They have not only the power of generating heat in proportion to their healthiness, but also of resisting cold. Who does not know that the living system, at ninety- eight degrees of Fahrenheit, will resist a tem- perature nearly one hundred and fifty degrees lower than this,* and yet for some time not freeze? Perhaps this is done, however, in the same way in which a more moderate amount of heat is generated. Perhaps the increased mus- cular and nervous energy, and the increased activity of the other organs, enable them to gen- erate heat as fast as the increased cold around carries it off. But the conclusion I would at present enforce from these physiological premises, is the follow- ing :—That whenever our dress, by means of its material, form or quantity, has a tendency to weaken our internal organs, or any one of them, and thus to prevent the free and ener- getic performance of their several functions, it is injurious, and its use is wrong, not to say sinful. * During the present winter, the mercury in this rxinity has ranged, in one or two instances, as low as 14 or 16 degrees below zero 5 which is 112 or 114 degrees below the heat of the blood. In some parts of New England it has been 20 or 30 degrees below.
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