THE NAVY'S HEALTH.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 108, 3 November 1909, Page 11

THE NAVY'S HEALTH.

NEGRO'S ADVANTAGE IN THE STOKEHOLD. (From Our Own Correspondent.) ! LONDON, 24th September. A report on the health of the Koyal Navy in 1908, has just been issued, and besides stating that there has been a general improvement as compared with the preceding five years, it contains an interesting contribution by Staff-Sur-geon Oswald A. Rees on the causation of "bodily heat and heat stroke. "The means of heat regulation in the human body, he says, are (1) production, which is a chemical agency, and (2) loss, which is a physical one, and include all that is expressed, by the word "rest." For, instance, a resting soldier weighing 70 kilos (say list) produces 1.2 to 1.3 calorics per minute, and whilst marching with a load of 31 kilos he produces 7.73. The heat thus produced is sufficient to raise the temperature of the body I.Bdeg in 8.7 minutes. On the other hand, the effect of rest is shown by the fact that the lowest bodily temperature in the twenty-four hours corresponds to the , time- of complete rest, about 4 a.m. "In the past one has looked .upon this as the tune when the vital functions were at their lowest" ebb, but" — and here is something for the night- workers — "it will be found that if the experiment happens to be doing any work at this hour the temperature will rise just as at ' any other hour of the day." THIN AND FAT MEN. The small animal loses heat much more rapidly than a large one, continues Staff-Surgeon Rees, and a small wiry stoker will lose heat more rapidly than a fat one, apart from the fact that fat has only half the conductivity of heat that muscle has. The metabolism of a man of 1801b and of one of 1201b

is as 3 to 2, but, on the other hand, the fat man will lose heat by water evaporation at a much greater rate than the thin one. The negro, it seems has not only the advantage in colour over tho white man in the sun, but also in tho stokehold, where a dark skin radiates heat better than a white one. Another curious fact is that th© workers in the bunkers of ships are not more liable to heatstroke than those employed in firing, although the bunkers aie often much hotter than the stokeholds, and moreover, the air in them i« almost motionless. The' explanation is that the bunker men are at once covered with a layer of coal dust, which will radiate" heat much faster than the naked Dody. "An animal covered with a coat of varnish will die from the rapid rate if cooling.'* Clothes lessen the heat loss, but this loss will depend upon .the relative power of the material to absorb the sweat, for water is a. better conductor of heat than air. Over feeding is J especially denounced as an .agent for heat-stroke, from the treatment of heatstroke itself, the iced bath, is described as the most satisfactory method. There was only one death from heat-stroke i throughout tho year. The total force of the navy is returned at 109,210 men, and death-rate is 3.37 per 1000.