I fj.Jv.^i ;>‘■J'J,
X
J '
THE CADUGEUS
IMMUNABILITY CAN EASILY BE
ESTABLISHED.
ably due in part to lack ot energy or
, to other unfavorable effects directly
produced upon the human system by
climate and weather.
Many men have been sent here and
there over the world during this war,
some from warm countries to colder
climates, and some from cold climates
to warmer. I have wondered as to
how those who left their native tem
perate climate of the United States
have met the adverse conditions of
other latitudes, such for example as
Siberia, England and Italy.
Ages ago, a band of naked, house
less, fireless savages started from
their warm home in the torrid zone,
and pushed steadily northward from
the beginning of spring to the end of
summer. They never guessed that
they had left the land of constant
warmth until in September they be
gan to feel an uncomfortable chill at
night. Day by day it grew worse.
Not knowing its cause they travelled
this way and that to escape. Some
went southward, but only a handful
finally returned to their former home.
There they resumed the old life, and
their descendants are untutored sav
ages to this day. Of those who won
dered in other directions all perish
ed except one small band. Finding
that they could not escape the nip
ping air, the members of this band
used the loftiest of human faculties,
the power of conscious invention.
Some tried to find shelter by digging
in the ground, some gathered branch
es and leaves to make huts and warm
beds, and some wrapped themselves
in the skins of beasts that they had
slain. Soon these savages had taken
some of the greatest steps toward
civilization. The naked were clothed;
the houseless sheltered; the improvi
dent learned to dry meat and store it
with nuts for the winter, and at last
the art of making fire was discovered
as a means of keeping warm.
With the approach of colder weath
er, I observe many of the men in the
camp are already wearing their heavy
winter clothes, and are 'hovering
around the stoves wherever they have
been installed. Of course it is good
to back up against a- big stove and
indulge with unrestrained delight the
warmth of its cozy penetrating heat,
but it causes one to droop with drunk
en, weak-kneed indolence into a state
of temperoray luxuriance that seri
ously affects our immunability to cold
weather. Somehow the dry heat and
aridity of the air of a heated room or
tent seems to dissipate and exhaust
one’s native supply of bodily "heat.
Animals are able to do without arti
ficial heat because they are accustom
ed to the cold 'weather. What cor
responds to the heavy clothes with
them is the heavier coat of hair or fur
which nature furnishes them. Much of
this loss of energy arises from the
fact that after the wonderfully stim
ulating fall weather, when we have
been living under almost ideal condi
tions of mean temperature, of hu
midity and variability from day to
day, we suddenly begin to heat our
tents. We create an indoor climate
of great uniformity, of unduly high
temperature and of the most extreme
aridity. All of these conditions seem
harmful when the effects are consid
ered. Moreover, the uniform dryness
within doors does almost untold harm
in parching the mucous membranes
and thus rendering us peculiarly lia
ble to colds, grippe and similar ail
ments which often lead to serious
diseases such as pneumonia and tuber
culosis.
swered, “you are the one that gives
me concern.’’ If I had your clothing
on I would be a sick soldier. I am not
healthy enough to wear all those
things.” Of course there are times
when artificial heat is certainly nec
essary. Possibly a slight fall in tem
perature causes people to shiver. This
is nature’s sign that the body needs
heat.
Humanity was not created in a
warm room, nor was the human race
nurtured in its infancy by a roaring
fire, steam radiator or gas stove.
Primitive man was hig own heater.
He had to discover fire and then ex
ploit its uses. He was originally sup
plied by nature with a warm body,
and he now finds artificial ways ot
making it warmer. Has not civiliza
tion pampered us to a point that has
impaired our original heat-giving re
sources and substituted a forced
warmth that has enervated us. The
doctors tell ug that many diseases
come out of artificial heat—indoor
diseases, they might be called—the
diseases that are treated, and some
times cured today by foregoing arti
ficial heat and going back to nature.
Does thls^ rnean that I suggest revert-
ing to primitive conditions and giving
up heat. No indeed. I suffered enough
last winter. I do not advocate giv
ing up heat—suddenly. But letting
up gradually on artificial heat, I do
advocate. Most of us live an over
heated existence, to the depletion of
bur health. The little conical tent
stove that we all hover around, like a
serpent, is closing its coils about us,
and greatly stifling our native vital
resources.
Today mankind resembles these sav
ages in certain respects. We know
that we are limited by climate. As
the savages faced the winter, so we
are face to face with the fact that the
human race has tried to conquer the
arctic zone, the deserts, and the tor
rid zone, and has met with only the
most limited success. Even in the
temperate zone he has made a partial
failure, for he is still hampered in
hundreds of ways. Hitherto we have
attributed our failure to economic
conditions, to isolation and remote
ness, to racial incapacity, or to specific
diseases. Now we see that it Is prob-
I remember in civil life a man who
on the coldest days of winter could be
seen walking the streets without a
hat, clad only in light “Palm Beach”
trousers, and a .silk negligee shirt,
open at the throat. “He is crazy,” you
say. “Perhaps, I answer, “but at any
rate he is healthy—and immune from
the cold.” Heatless days mean noth
ing to him. Last winter during the
spinal meningitis epidemic I very sel
dom wore my overcoat except only on
the most rare days. I remember on
one occasion in mess line, a big fel
low-soldier, weighing over 200 pounds,
full blooded and hearty, bundled up
in two Red Cross sweaters and an
overcoat, asked me if I wasn’t afraid
of catching a fatal cold. “No,” I an
It all means that we would be bet
ter off in health if we could accustom
ourselves to less heat; if we could live
as the people of some other nations
uo comfortable and content with
heat enough to take the chill off the
air and not demanding that we shall
be kept going” by means of artificial
heat outside our own natural heat-giv
ing apparatus. We make caloric
cripples of ourselves by giving crutch
es to nature in the form of roaring
fires and excessive clothing. Would
it not be better to change our meth
od, based on foregoing artificial heat
and developing the original body
caloric? We would then leave artifi
cial heat largely to infants, weaklings
and invalids; we would abolish sev
eral diseases altogether, improve the
mortality rate, and be healthy, happy
and vigorous.
—Sergt. Owen B. Fuqua.
The Flower Shop
Anything in cut Flowers, we have it
203 North Tryon Street.