ARE WOMEN COLDER BLOODED MORTALS THAN MEN?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 149, 1 May 1942, Page 18

ARE WOMEN COLDER BLOODED MORTALS THAN MEN?

(Written for "The Listener" by DR.

H. B.

TURBOTT

Director af the Division of School Hygiene, Health Department)

W/ tees is round the corner, There’s a coolness in the air. Some folk have started fires already. Those long nights are coming when windows are shut, curtains drawn, father drops off to sleep over his paper, and mother still feels cold, stops a draught under the door with a cushion and puts on more fire. Father goes to sleep not to be unsocial-"That’s all you do during the winter; you start reading the paper after dinner and then fall asleep in your chair." He goes to sleep, not because he’s had a hard day at the office, but because its warm in the room and too dry. Yet if he let the fresh air in, he’d keep awake, but mother would feel cold right away. When away from home, at the pictures, visiting friends, mother always comes home colder than

father, and thinks gratefully of the hot water bottle awaiting her in bed. Some think that this difference is accounted for by physical differences between men and women; that women are colder mortals and need more heat. Well, they are! But not because of bodily disparity! The Harvard School of Public Health recently conducted an experiment in which 22 men and 28 women spent several hours in the same air-conditioned room. For one part of the test they dressed and ate as usual; for the other part women dressed as men, and the men as women, Temperatures of skin and body were taken, and by using many readings of a special instrument, the mean skin and clothing (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) temperatures were calculated. Using their own clothes, the women were two degrees lower in skin temperature and hands and feet five degrees lower than men in male garments. The temperature required to make the women feel comfortable made the men too warm. When the women wore male clothing, they felt very comfortable at practically the same temperature as men; they required only half a degree higher temperature to be happy. Now the difference in weight between those two sets of clothes was 4.7 lbs. The clothes factor was tested out in many ways. For example, men wearing their own light summer suits felt happy at 76 degrees F, but it took 80 degrees F for comfort when covered in a woman’s summer. frock. When both sexes wore the minimum of clothes, men and women were warm and comfortable at the same level, between 82 and 83 degrees F. It was proven to the satisfaction of the investigators that the difference between men and ,women in feeling the cold was mainly due to the type of clothes worn by the two sexes. Women in winter time, it would seem, should dress in clothes that will keep them as warm as male attire does the men, Apparently, the present winter fashions for women are not heavy enough in wool, or don’t cover the extremities as warmly, and women feel the cold more simply because they are more lightly clothed. If women’s cloth-

ing ceased to be so light, mother and father would share the same fire and room, and allow fresh air to come in. Father would keep awake, and be bright and social, Watch the Temperature It is necessary that all of us keep fit in these troubled times. Watch your room temperature this coming winter. It needs to be just right, neither too hot nor too cold, and with the rignt amount of moisture in the air. If you get sleepy quickly in your warm room, there’s either insufficient fresh air coming in, or it is too dry. Air that is too warm and too dry will predispose to colds and influenza. So if you don’t keep part of the window space open all. the time, open up at- frequent intervals, and freshen the air. Windows needn’t be kept wide open, but in winter open enough to keep _the air gently moving and to keep the temperature about 68 degrees F, which seems to suit most people. A kettle steaming or a pan of water on a radiator will help to keep the humidity right. Father is never sleepy every night during summer. Stale warm air favours fatigue and makes you "dopy." The fatigue lowers your resistance, and leaves you open to colds. So if you want to feel wide-awake, and if you want to be healthy-Mother, clothe yourself right; Father, give your home proper ventilation!

(NEXT WEER:

"The Widow’s Bite"

by Dr.

Muriel

Bell)