HEAT AND CLOTHING 24$ 



person whose clothes are burning, at once throw the person to the floor. 

 Many have lost their lives by persisting in standing up while attempt- 

 ing to remove the burning clothes. 



If it is necessary to enter a burning building, or to carry a person, 

 whose clothes are burning, the best protection will be to wrap a thick 

 coat or blanket around the body. A thick coat wrapped around burning 

 clothes or thrown over the body after a person lies down will quickly 

 smother the flames. 



431. Alcohol and heat. The amount of heat in the 

 body depends upon the balance between its production 

 and its loss. The rapid destruction of alcohol, in all 

 probability, yields heat too rapidly to be utilized by the 

 body. The most constant effect of taking alcohol is to 

 dilate the arteries of the skin, so that an extra amount of 

 heat is lost. More heat is always lost than is produced. 

 Alcohol lessens the power of the body to endure cold. On 

 a cold day when the arteries of the skin are contracted so 

 that there is but little blood to warm its nerves, alcohol 

 may send the blood to these nerves and produce an agree- 

 able sense of warmth, but in reality this feeling of warmth 

 is due only to the heat which is passing off from the inte- 

 rior of the body. 



432. Regulation of temperature in the dog. The temper- 

 ature of many animals is slightly above man's temperature, 

 but is regulated in the same way. Some, like dogs, sweat but 

 little, but the animal takes short and rapid breaths through 

 his open mouth, thus creating a strong current of air over its 

 moist surface. The evaporation of the saliva cools the blood. 



433. Hibernation of animals. When winter comes on, 

 some animals, like the woodchuck, retire into their holes 

 and go to sleep. Their temperature falls to 50 degrees, 

 or even lower, while respiration occurs only three or four 

 times a minute. Only enough oxidation of their own 

 bodies occurs to keep life from completely dying out 



