The influence of climate upon health and disease / by Sir Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
[1905]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The influence of climate upon health and disease / by Sir Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    are composed are kept at a fairly even temperature. Tn cold climates the body heat is retained by warm clothing and by small and nearly air-tight houses where fuel is scarce and it is added to by the artificial heat of lamps, fires or stoves as far as possible. As Rosenthal has shown, the intestines act to some extent as a regulator of the body temperature. They contain a large quantity of blood which is only separated from the external air by the thin abdominal walls and by the clothes. When the air is cold both animals and man tend to draw their legs up so as to cover the abdomen with the thick muscles of the thighs and thus retain the heat which would otherwise be lost. At the same time that heat is retained more heat is generated, for it has been shown experimentally that external cold increases tissue change, so that the animal gives off more carbonic acid and excretes more urea so long at least as it is able to maintain its ordinary temperature, for should this fall tissue change is diminished and the temperature falls still lower, as I have already mentioned when speaking of the effect of cold generally. Food.—To maintain this increased combustion more food is required and increased appetite not only ensures the con- sumption of a larger quantity of food, but a desire is felt for fatty foods which, weight for weight, yield more calories than either proteids or carbohydrates. Eoxrcise.—When the food is abundant the body generates a considerable amount of heat even when at rest, but exercise greatly increases tissue change and the production of heat. Haldane and Pembery have found that after a brisk walk the temperature of the body may rise as high as 102° F. and when walking is impossible, involuntary muscular action may take its place and, as a friend of mine told me he had done in Canada with a temperature 40° F. below zero, they may “ shiver them- selves warm.” Effects of Heat.—External heat tends to raise the tempera- ture of the body in spite of all the means of keeping it down to normal, and Crombie has shown that the average tempera- ture of Europeans in India is nearly half a degree Fahrenheit