Proceedings of the British Association. 561 



is always the same. The temperature of the human body is the same in 

 the torrid as in the frigid zone. But, as the body may be considered in 

 the light of a heated vessel, which cools with an accelerated rapidity the 

 colder the surrounding medium, it is obvious that the fuel necessary to 

 retain its heat must vary in different climates. Thus less heat is neces- 

 sary in Palermo, where the temperature of the air is that of the human 

 body, than in the Polar regions, where it is about 90° lower. In the 

 animal body, the food is the fuel ; and, by a proper supply of oxy- 

 gen, we obtain the food given out during its combustion in winter. 

 When we take exercise in a cold atmosphere, we respire a greater 

 amount of oxygen, which implies a more abundant supply of carbon in 

 the food ; and, by taking this food, we form the most efficient protection 

 against the cold. A starving man is soon frozen to death ; and every 

 one knows that the animals of prey of the Arctic regions, are far more 

 voracious than those of the torrid zone. Our clothing is merely an 

 equivalent for food ; and the more warmly we are clothed, the less food 

 we require. Were we to go destitute of clothes, like certain savage 

 tribes, — or if, in hunting or fishing, we were exposed to the same 

 degree of cold as the Samoyedes, — we could with ease consume 101b. of 

 flesh, and, perhaps a dozen tallow candles into the bargain, as warmly 

 clad travellers have related, with astonishment, of those people. Then 

 could we take the same quantity of brandy or blubber of fish, without bad 

 effects, and learn to appreciate the delicacy of train oil. We thus perceive 

 an explanation of the apparently anomalous habits of different nations. 

 The maccaroni of the Italian, and the train oil of the Greenlander 

 and the Russian, are not adventitious freaks of state, but necessary 

 articles fitted to administer to their comfort in the climates in which they 

 have been born. The colder the region, the more combustible must the 

 food be. The Englishman in Jamaica perceives with regret the disap- 

 pearance of his appetite, which, in England, had been a constant recur- 

 ring source of enjoyment. By the use of aromatics, he creates an 

 artificial appetite, and eats as much food as he did at home. But he 

 thus unfits himself for the climate in which he is placed ; for sufficient 

 oxygen does not enter his system to combine with the carbon consum- 

 ed ; and the heat of the climate prevents him taking exercise to increase 

 the number of his respirations. The carbon of the food is therefore 

 forced into other channels, and disease results. England, on the other 

 hand, sends her dyspeptic patients to southern climates. In our own 

 land their impaired digestive organs are unable to fit the food for that 

 state in which it best unites with the oxygen of the air, which therefore 

 acts on the organs of respiration themselves, thus producing pulmonary 



