194 CONNEXION BETWEEN RESPIRATION 



ture is rarely very low, scarcely a winter passes 

 without several instances of death occurring from 

 exposure in ill-fed and ill-clothed individuals, even 

 when the thermometer is above the freezing point. 

 This happens usually when a high wind aids the 

 rapid abstraction of heat. Well-fed and well-clothed 

 guards of coaches, on the other hand, are remark* 

 able examples of the power of withstanding low 

 temperatures in very exposed situations, where the 

 animal functions are in a state of vigour. The re- 

 cent Arctic expeditions under Parry and Franklin 

 afford similar instances. 



Having already, when treating of the skin, suffi- 

 ciently explained the principles on which clothing 

 ought to be adjusted, it is unnecessary to recur ta 

 its utility as a means of regulating the temperature 

 of the human body. If the use of suitable clothing 

 is found insufficient to keep the body warm, we may 

 infer with certainty,, although no other sign of bad 

 health has appeared, that some internal cause exists, 

 affecting and impairing one or other of the sources 

 of animal heat already mentioned, and that till the 

 special cause be discovered and removed, the evil 

 itself will continue undiminished. 



In winter, young people often suffer from being 

 daily confined for many hours in succession, with- 

 out exercise, in rooms insufficiently heated. This 

 is a constant subject of complaint in large acad- 

 emies and boarding-schools, where economy in fuel 

 is carried to its utmost limits. Nothing tends more 

 than this to lower the general standard of health, 

 and prepare the individual for the future inroads of 

 insidious diseases. In scrofulous children espe- 

 cially, in whom the evolution of heat is rarely ener- 

 getic, the evil is one of great magnitude, for the 

 chilblains, colds, and headaches more immediately 

 complained of are often its least important conse- 

 quences. It is far from my wish to recommend 

 that the young of either sex should be brought up in 



