If, on the other hand, the heat of the body should become unreasonably intense, a very cunning process of reduction is adopted. When a substance grows too hot, the simplest method of bringing it into a cooler frame is to sprinkle it with water. This is precisely what occurs in our human frames. For no sooner does our internal heat rise above its standard height than the perspiration tubes, with their six or seven millions of openings, indignant at the event, begin to pour out the fluid. so as to bathe the surface of the whole body. Whenever, therefore, a man becomes over-heated, by working, running, rowing, fighting, making furious speeches or other violent exertions, he invariably resorts to this method of quenching the heat, by "pouring on water."
另一方面,如果体内热量高的离谱,我们能采用一种巧妙的方式来减低热量。如果一件物品变得很热,要使其冷却下来的最简单办法就是往上面浇水。我们的体内也正进行着这样的过程。一旦我们体内的热量高出警戒线,数以六七百万计的毛细血管就会打开,将汗排出,这样,整个身体表面就会被弄湿。因此,每次工作,跑步,划船,搏斗,进行激情洋溢的演讲或是其他剧烈运动之后,人体内热量就会变得过高,身体就会用这种方法降低热量——即“往上倒水”。
What shall we say, then, good reader? Speaking seriously, and looking at the question from a mere human point of view, could any project appear more hopeless than one for burning fuel in a soft, delicate fabric, like the human body—a fabric composed for the most part of mere fluids—a fabric which might be easily scorched by excess of heat or damaged by excess of cold? Does it not seem strange that a stove should have flesh for its walls, veins for its flues, and skin for its covering? Yet here is an apparatus which, as if by magic, produces a steady stream of heat;—not trickling penuriously from its fountains, but flowing on day and night, winter and summer, without a moment's cessation, from January to December.
亲爱的读者,我们这时又该说什么呢?严肃的说,从一个纯粹的人的角度来看这个问题,有哪一个工程能比这更没有希望呢:一个在柔软精致的体内燃烧,如人体——一个大部分由液体组成的身体——随时会被过高的热量烧焦或者被过低的热量摧毁。一个火炉把人体当成炉壁,将血管当成冷媒管,用皮肤当做覆盖,这难道不奇怪吗?但是有这么一个神奇的装置能产生稳定的热量流;——它不会喷出,只是日日夜夜,不分季节,不分年月,时时刻刻都在不停地流动。
Carry this splendid machine to the coldest regions on the globe, set it up where the frosts are so crushing that nature seems to be trampled dead,—still it pours out its mysterious supplies with unabated profusion. It is an apparatus, too, which does its work unwatched, and in a great measure unaided. The very fuel, which is thrown into it in random heaps, is internally sifted and sorted, so that the true combustible elements are conveyed to their place and applied to their duty with unerring precision.
人即使到了地球上最冷的地方,那里全部覆盖着霜雪,大自然死气沉沉,——体内也还是能不断产出这种热量。人体这种提供热量的装置工作时不用监管,很大程度上也没有受到帮助。人摄入的能量随意堆积,在体内会经过筛选,这样,真正可燃的材料就会被精确地输送到该去的地方,产生热量。
No hand is needed to trim its fires, to temper its glow, to remove its ashes. Smoke there is none, spark there is none, flame there is none. All is so delicately managed that the fairest skin is neither shrivelled nor blackened by the burning within. Is this apparatus placed in circumstances which rob it too fast of its heat? Then the appetite becomes clamorous for food, and in satisfying its demands the fleshy stove is silently replenished. Or, are we placed in peril from superabundant warmth? Then the tiny flood-gates of perspiration are flung open, and the surface is laid under water until the fires within are reduced to their wonted level.
炉子里的火不需要人去烧,不需要人去控制热量,也不需要人去清灰。那里面无烟,无火星,也没有火焰。左右的事情就是这么奇妙,最美的皮肤没有被里面燃烧着的火烧皱或因此变黑。这个装置所在的地方难道能快速将火熄灭吗?然后人就会胃口大开,得到食物的满足后,能量又会重新填满。或者说,过多的热量会让我们置身险境吗?这时毛细血管就会张开,人体表面就会流汗,直到体内的热量恢复到正常水平。
Assailed on the one hand by heat, the body resists the attack, if resistance be possible, until the store of moisture is dissipated; assailed on the other by cold, it keeps the enemy at bay until the hoarded fuel is expended. Thus protected, thus provisioned, let us ask whether these human hearths are not entitled to rank among the standing marvels of creation; for is it not startling to find, that, let the climate be mild or rigorous, let the wind blow from the sultry desert or come loaded with polar sleet, let the fluctuations of temperature be as violent as they may without us, there shall still be a calm, unchanging, undying summer within us?
一只手的问题过高时,如果可能的话整个身体都会帮忙进行调节,直到热量散开;另一只手受冷时,体内贮存的热量会发出抵抗。因此,人体能得到保护,也能得到能量。看,人体内的火炉能不能算是现存的创造奇迹?我们可以不惊讶地发现,无论天气是温和还是极端,不管是从沙漠吹来的闷热的风,还是极地飘来的雨夹雪,不管天气如何剧烈变化,我们体内是否还是会有一个平静,稳定,永不消失的夏天?