12 CKIMSK OF STEAMER COItWIN IN THK AHCTIi.; OCEAN. 



oiir wiiiU'i clotliiiis. In stiikiii};- oi)i>ositiou to this \v;is the iiiicoiiifoitably iiuiiky ti'mi>t'iat»iie of 

 July 21, when the theriiioineter registered 45°. While the above is true of the weather in the more 

 northern part of the Arctic, we found it in Kotzebue Sound, later in the season, ninch milder than 

 it was at a correspond inf; date of the jirevious year. In the latter i)art of -lune at Saint Micliael's 

 we found the sun almost overpowering;, although the thermometer registered but G()o. Why this 

 incongruity should exist between the sensation of heat as experienced by the human body and the 

 actual temperature as revealed by the thermometer, we are not prepared to say. All that we know 

 from writers on the subject is that the sensations of heat and cold are relative and not absolute. 

 In dilferent latitudes, among the Andes in Peru, for instance, the opposite condition is often 

 noticed, a disagreeable sensation of cold not indicated by the thermometer being one of the 

 experiences of travelers in that part of the world: the cold is keen and penetrating with the 

 thermometer standing at but (iO°. An excellent distinction is that which mentions these 

 jthenomena as i)hysical cold and physiological cold; the former indicating that revealed by the 

 thermometer, the latter that not indicated by instruments. 



Many Arctic travellers have noticed this relative sensation of cold as well as the impunity, and 

 even a certain degree of comfort, with which they can exjtose themselves to a low temperature, 

 which would be attended by serious results in a more southern dinu'. Dr. Ilayes relates that in 

 Greenland he went swimming in a i)Ool of water on the top of an iceberg, and the captain of a New 

 Bedford whaler has fre<iuently gone swimming off the coast of Siberia. Taking advantage of 

 one of these physiologically warm days, I took a plunge into the icy Arctic water, with no such 

 motive, however, as that of Leander, nor did I, like Byron, have the ague after it ; on the contrary, 

 a swim of no great discomfort was followed by a pleasnral)le reaction. 



The actual rise of temperature that follows upon stripping in a cold atmosphere or ui)on first 

 entering into a cold bath, is not one of the least curious phenomena of the regulative function of the 

 pyrogenetic mechanism. Nor is the busy activity of the metabolic tissues and the metabolism of 

 the food within the alimentary canal, which accounts for the source of the heat of such honiother- 

 mous animals as whales, seals, walrus, and the pygopodous birds, a subject to be passed by 

 unmentioned. By what physical and chemical laws can we explain this mori>liological process— 

 this physiological action of the protoplasm resulting in the evolution of kinetic energy sutticient to 

 supply bodily heat to such animals as the seal and the whale, an^ enable them by remarkable 

 adaptability to withstand the extreme cold of the Arctic? Does the retc mirihilia of the whale and 

 of the duck enable them to combine a greater quantity of oxygen with ha'moglobin and thereby 

 act as a source of heat, or is the function of the liver the chief thermogenic source? By what 

 means does the energy-yielding material become changed into actual energy ? Dot^s the nervous 

 system, acting as a liberating force like the throttle-valve in a steam-engine, remove hinderauces 

 or im|>ediments to the conversion of potential into kinetic energy, or do all the internal M(«-k of 

 the animal organism, all the mechanical labor of the internal muscular mechanism, with their 

 accompanying frictions, and the molecular labor of the nervous and other tissues produce a 

 certain amount of heat, and thus account for the s)>ecial function of calorificatiou ? 



The foregoing physiological cpieries, with many others, suggested themselves on hearing the 

 statements of whalemen and walrus hunters with reference to the scalding, sensation produced 

 by the spurting blood while handling the bodies of recently kijled animals, and it occurred to 

 me that a series of thernu)metric observations, something after the manner of the experiments 

 of Dr. Kidder in connection with the Fish ('ommission, but having for their object the investigation 

 of the manifestation of animal heat by the marine mammalia, would prove interesting a lul sn|)ply a 

 scientitic desideiatuni in addition to their novelty. 



While ample (ipi>i)rtunities occurred to make these exiieriments, yet it is to be legretted that the 

 only available instrument, a clinical thermometer, was unfortunately broken early in the season. 

 The ex])eriinents were, to say the least, so rough and inconclusive that any I'ecord of them would 

 be of questionable value. 



Another (piestion in connection with the Arctic cold is, whether a sojourn in this region does not 

 render one more susceptible to colds and disorders of the resi»irati)ry organs on returning to more 

 temperate latitudes. The history of Eskimo who have spent any time in our comitaratively moder- 

 ate climate shows how lliey lia\e sulVercd in this respect, and colds have been know n to prevail 



