an cannot take more carbon and hydrogen in
the shape of food than he expires as carbonic acid and water; and
the Esquimaux cannot expire more carbon and hydrogen than he takes
in the system as food, unless in a state of disease or of
starvation. Let us examine these states a little more closely.

The Englishman in Jamaica perceives with regret the disappearance of
his appetite, previously a source of frequently recurring enjoyment;
and he succeeds, by the use of cayenne pepper, and the most powerful
stimulants, in enabling himself to take as much food as he was
accustomed to eat at home. But the whole of the carbon thus
introduced into the system is not consumed; the temperature of the
air is too high, and the oppressive heat does not allow him to
increase the number of respirations by active exercise, and thus to
proportion the waste to the amount of food taken; disease of some
kind, therefore, ensues.

On the other hand, England sends her sick to southern regions, where
the amount of the oxygen inspired is diminished in a very large
proportion. Those whose diseased digestive organs have in a greater
or less degree lost the power of bringing the food into the state
best adapted for oxidation, and therefore are less able to resist
the oxidising influence of the atmosphere of their native climate,
obtain a great improvement in health. The diseased organs of
digestion have power to place the diminished amount of food in
equilibrium with the inspired oxygen, in the mild climate; whilst in
a colder region the organs of respiration themselves would have been
consumed in furnishing the necessary resistance to the action of the
atmospheric oxygen.

In our climate, hepatic diseases, or those arising from excess of
carbon, prevail in summer; in winter, pulmonary diseases, or those
arising from excess of oxygen, are more frequent.

The cooling of the body, by whatever cause it may be produced,
increases the amount of food necessary. The mere exposure to the
open air, in a carriage or on the deck of a ship, by increasing
radiation and vaporisation, increases the loss of heat, and compels
us to eat more than usual. The same is true of those who are
accustomed to drink large quantities of cold water, which is given
off at the temperature of the body, 98 1/2 deg. It increases the
appetite, and persons of weak constitution find it necessary, by
continued exercise, to supply to the system the oxygen required to
restore the heat a