Part 28

MOTHER: If that was the only way to heat the body, it would not. Where it is very cold, some houses have a grate; there may also be a furnace, and perhaps a stove besides. So there are three ways of heating the house we live in. The first, as I have told you, is by the blood carrying oxygen to every part of the body. That is like the grate. We will call the liver the furnace. We have found that all the starch and sweet things we eat are changed into liver sugar, and it is supposed this is used in the lungs to keep the body warm.

HELEN: In what other way is the house heated?

ELMER: I think I know. It is by exercise. When I run or play ball I become very warm.

MOTHER: Yes, when we move quickly, we breathe faster, and the blood goes bounding through every part of the body, so the fire inside burns brightly. Sawing wood is a good way to warm a cold boy, and a broom is a fine helper to warm a cold girl.

AMY: When it is frosty, we can see our breath. Is that the smoke coming from the fire inside, mother?

MOTHER: You may call it that if you like. When a candle burns, it gives off what we call carbonic acid gas, and we breathe out some of the same kind of gas. Water also comes out in the breath like steam from an engine, half a pint or a pint each day.

ELMER: Do some kinds of food make more heat than others?

MOTHER: Yes; all kinds of fatty foods make heat. In very cold countries people can eat more fat and keep well than in warm climates. Esquimaux eat a great deal of fat. A little Esquimau child would eat a tallow candle and enjoy it as much as you would an orange. I once read of some sailors who made a Christmas tree for some of those children in the frozen north. The tree was made of walrus bones tied together, and, instead of popcorn, fruit, and sweetmeats, they hung balls of fat on the tree. The children thought it a great treat, and ate them as quickly as you would eat peaches.

AMY: How funny! But, mother, are not our bodies warmer in summer than in winter?

MOTHER: You feel warmer, it is true; but, no matter how hot or cold the weather may be, the body has always about the same warmth. I said always, but I mean when we are well. Sometimes we put the wrong kind of fuel into the furnace, and it makes a big fire, the house gets very hot, and we say we have a “fever.” If we get two or three degrees cooler than we should be, that shows that something is wrong, too.

HELEN: But what keeps us the same whether it is hot or cold?

MOTHER: You know some stoves have dampers to govern the heat. When the body is in danger of becoming too warm, that is, when the body is well, all the little waste-pipes in the covering of our house pour out water so the skin is damp or moist, and if very warm it is wet. We might say we have thousands of little “dampers” to keep the heat just right. As the sweat dries, the body becomes cool; so in summer and in hot climates the people sweat much. In winter and in cold countries they perspire but little, and the tiny waste-pipes close as tightly as they can to keep the cold out and the heat inside.

PERCY: But when I had a cold my skin was hot and dry. Why did not the little dampers make me cool, then?

MOTHER: Because they were clogged so they could not. After a warm foot-bath and a hot lemon drink, you began to sweat and soon became well. If nothing had been done to open the waste-pipes, you might have had a serious illness.

ELMER: Does alcohol make the body warm? I once heard a man say it was so cold that he must take something to keep him from freezing, as he had a long journey before him.

MOTHER: I am sure he did not know the effect of wine or alcohol or he would not have said that. When first taken, these stimulants drive the blood to the skin, and we feel warmer; but soon the blood goes back, after being chilled, and the whole body becomes colder. No, alcohol in any of its forms will not “keep out the cold,” as people sometimes think. Men in frozen countries endure the cold much better when they take no strong drink of any kind.

HELEN: I once read of a party of twenty-six men who lost their way as night came on. It was very, very cold, and they had no way of making a fire. Each man had two blankets and plenty of food and whisky. Their leader told them to let the whisky alone; to eat supper, and then wrap up in their blankets and lie closely together. But only two besides himself did as he said, and, though they were cold, they did not suffer or freeze. The others thought the whisky would keep them warm. Three drank a very little, and they did not freeze. Seven others, who drank more, had their toes and fingers frozen. Six, who drank still more, were so badly frozen that they never got over it. Four, who became drunk, were frozen so that they soon died; and three, who drank so much that they became “dead drunk,” were dead in the morning.

MOTHER: That was surely a good test, showing how much alcohol can do toward keeping the body warm.

PERCY: Why do we need clothes to keep us warm? The birds and animals don’t wear any?

MOTHER: I think they do. The birds have a cloak of feathers, which they puff out to keep them warm when it is cold. The horse and cow have coats of hair. The sheep has a thick woolen dress. Animals living where it is very cold have warm suits of fur. Our skin is not covered as theirs is, and our bodies would lose much heat if exposed to the air. Food makes heat, and our clothes keep us from losing it. We need clothing to keep us warm.

HELEN: But people do not need clothing in warm countries.

MOTHER: And they do not wear much; but we would need it if there, to keep the hot sun from scorching the skin. We should never wear heavy clothing, and it should be made so loose that it will not hinder the growth or movements of the body. The shoulders should carry its weight. When the warm days of spring come, it is not best to be in a hurry to leave off our warm under-clothing. Many persons have died because of doing so.

AMY: Should our clothes be changed often?

MOTHER: At least those worn next the skin should be, in order that we may keep neat and clean. Clothes worn in the daytime should not be worn at night, and nightclothes and bedclothes should be kept fresh and well aired. If the clothing we are wearing gets wet, it should be changed at once. Never wear wet shoes or stockings or wet clothing of any kind. Which part of the body do you think should have the warmest clothing?

AMY: The part farthest from the heart; for that would get colder than any other.

MOTHER: Yes, the limbs should be warmly clad; for the blood often gets chilled before it reaches the fingers and toes, and that is why they get cold sooner than do other parts of the body. Yet I have seen many little boys and girls with warm coats and furs around the chest, where there is the most heat, and a part of the tender limbs had no clothing. That is like trying to keep the furnace warm, and letting the rooms farther away have no heat at all.

PERCY: I should think children dressed in that way would be ill.

MOTHER: Many of them are. They often have bad colds, and sometimes the lungs get so much blood, because it is chilled away from the parts to which it should go, that they can not do their work properly; the throat becomes sore, and the poor child may lose its life because the mother did not know how to dress it. Your father, though he is a strong man, would suffer if clothed in that way. Let us see if we can not make some good rules for clothing the body.