THE CLOTHING WE WEAR. 151 



genuity. The regulation of this internal combustion 

 is so beautiful and exact, that the heat of the body 

 in its normal condition never rises above or falls be- 

 low 98 F. Place a thermometer under the arm so 

 that it will be fully influenced by the animal heat, 

 and it will rise to 98 and remain thus, no matter 

 whether it be summer or winter. Upon our com- 

 mon thermometer this temperature is marked 

 " blood heat," and it remains a fixed point in the 

 scale. We may take up our residence within the 

 arctic circle, or directly under the equator, and there 

 irill be no change in the internal temperature of the 

 body. To keep up combustion, and maintain 

 warmth in our dwellings, we use coal or wood as 

 fuel; the body requires more refined combustible 

 materials, such as beef, mutton, poultry, bread, 

 butter, and vegetables, articles which we class as 

 foods, and which are daily placed under the influ- 

 ence of the digestive processes in the stomach. But 

 the stomach is not the furnace where these sub- 

 stances are burned to warm the body. The fireplace 

 or furnace of the body is in the capillary system, or 

 in the minute, invisible vessels which ramify through 

 every part of the organization. The food we con- 

 sume is not burned directly, but the tissues which 

 are formed from the food are undergoing the process 

 of oxidation or burning every moment of our lives, 

 and from this burning the body is warmed. Every 



