THE ESQUIMAUX AND HINDOO. 345 



intensity of external cold must be the amount 

 and heat-giving quality of the food he requires. 

 Food differs largely in the amount of heat 

 equal quantities will give out. Bodies into 

 whose composition carbon and hydrogen enter 

 largely, are those whose combustion will afford 

 the most heat. He who basks in the heated 

 air of the Tropics, requires but little combus- 

 tible food compared with him who is con- 

 demned to the rigours of a Polar atmosphere. 

 Hence the easily-satisfied Hindoo might con- 

 ceive it utterly impossible for an Esquimaux 

 or a Russian to devour his seven or eight 

 pounds of flesh per diem, with the addition of 

 train oil and tallow candles ! Yet, if he were 

 placed in similar external circumstances, he 

 would probably find his appetite so sharpened 

 as to compel him to adopt a somewhat similar 

 habit of life. The great amount of heat lost 

 by radiation from the body of the Esquimaux 

 must be made up, or life will be forfeited. 

 Respiration can make up a great part of it, 

 but it requires a proportionate supply of heat- 

 giving fuel,* and it is a familiar fact, that oils 

 and fatty matters are substances which in their 

 combustion eliminate a very large amount of 



* We must however guard the reader against the error of 

 supposing that all the enormous quantity of extra food con- 

 sumed by an inhabitant of the Polar regions is burnt in the 

 lungs in order to supply heat to the body. Far from it : cal- 

 culations have been made, which show that if such were the 



