BELOW ZERO

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4560, 15 April 1942, Page 3

BELOW ZERO

RESISTANCE OF THE BODY WARFARE IN THE WINTER Providing a man is in good health, amply clad in warm clothing, and eats foods containing plenty of fats, there is no reason why he should not be able to endure, a temperature as low as 90 to 100 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit). This opinion was expressed recently by an eminent Australian doctor, commenting on the bitter winter warfare in Russia. He was a member of an expedition to the Antarctic, and has endured extremely low temperatures himself. Dr Wilson, a member of Scott’s expedition to the South Pole, endured a temperature of 75 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) 103 degrees of frost—for two months, and Amundsen on his Antarctic trip lived in a temperature of 7 degrees below zero on the Ross Barrier. Admiral Evans (“ Evans of the Broke ”) lived for several weeks in a temperature of 62 degrees below zero near the South Pole, and for two days experienced a temperature of 73 degrees below zero. FOOD IS IMPORTANT In Irkutsk (Siberia), where the temperature drops to as low as 90 degrees below zero, the inhabitants live their normal lives. The doctor said that food played an important part in human ability to withstand intense cold. In really cold climates the inhabitants chewed butter and fat with as much relish as we chew toffee, because fats were essential in building bodily resistance. All animals in extremely cold climates have a third layer of fat or blubber between their fur and flesh, and the inhabitants of these areas eat as much fat as meat. People in northern Polar regions rely on furs to keep out the cold, said the doctor, but the experience of Antarctic explorers had been that the best way to keep warm was to wear plenty of warm under-clothes, with windproof clothing outside.