Manual of hygiene for students / [John Glaister].

  • Glaister, John, 1856-1932
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Manual of hygiene for students / [John Glaister]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    81/460 (page 65)
    CHAPTER X. HEAT IN RELATION TO HEALTH—MODES OF HEAT PROPAGATION. Humboldt, the famous naturalist, in summing up the characteristics which differentiate man from the lower animals, declared that man was the only animal that cooked his food. If he had broadened the statement by saying also that man was the only animal that generated artificial heat for the purpose of warming his body, he would have made it even more forcible. On our planet the distribution of heat and cold is very unequal. The warmth of the Equator meets the converse of frigidity at the Poles. Obviously, therefore, the incidence of man’s position on the globe will affect the necessity which arises for the generation of artificial heat for the purpose of maintaining the body warmth. The conservation of the heat of the body by artificial means at the Equator is less urgent than it is at the Poles; and between these two points—the extremes—the necessity of artificial heat becomes the more acute as is the distance from the warmer point, and as is the season of the year. Apart from his food, man conserves the heat of his body in three ways, viz. (1) by the erection of a shelter wherein to protect himself from the rudeness of the elements; (2) by some form of bodily covering; and (3) by the artificial generation of fire. These apply to man