BELOW ZERO

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 26, 9 March 1942, Page 2

BELOW ZERO

RESISTANCE OF THE BODY WARFARE IX THE WINTER Providing a man is in good health, amply clad in -warm clothing and cats foo<ls containing plenty of l'ats, there is no reason -why he should not he able to endure a temperature as low as 91) to 100 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit). This opinion was expressed recently by an eminent Australian doctor, commenting on the bitter winter warfare in Russia. lie was a member of an expedition to the Anlar-'lic, and has endured extremely low temperatures himself. Dr Wilson, a member of Scott's expedition to the South Pole, endured a lemporatnre of 7f> degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) —103 degrees of frost —for two months, while Amundsen on his Antarctic trip lived in a temperature ef "/I 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 7'.i degrees below zero. Food is Important In Inkutsk (Siberia) where the temperature drops to as low as 90 degrees below zero, the inhabitatns live their normal lives. The doctor said that food played nn 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 coM climates have a third layer of fat or blubber between their fur and flesh, and the inhabitants of these areas eat as much as fat as meat. People in northern Polar regions rely on furs to keep out the c.o!tl, said the doctor, but the experience of Antarctic explorers had been that the best way to keep warm was to wear plenty of warm underclothes, with windproof . clothing outside.