Caloric

“ What are the effects of caloric?
Heat which, in proportion to its intensity, acts variously upon all bodies, causing expansion, fusion, evaporation, decomposition, &c.
75. Why is caloric called a repulsive agent?
Because its chief effects are to expand, fuse, evaporate, or decompose the substances upon which it acts.
76. What is an attractive agent, in contradistinction to a repulsive agent?
Chemical attraction, or affinity, is an attractive agent—as when bodies seek of their own natures to unite and form some new body.
77. When is a body said to be hot? ”

“ Each body requires a particular quantity of caloric to raise its temperature through a certain number of degrees; and such quantity is called its specific caloric. A pound of water, for instance, will take just twice as much caloric as a pound of [13] olive oil, to raise its temperature through the same number of degrees; the specific caloric of water is therefore double that of oil. Mix any quantity of oil at 60 deg. of temperature with an equal weight of water at 90 deg., and you will find the temperature of the mixture to be nearly 80 deg., instead of only 74 deg. ”

“ If a food contains much fat, you will know that it is high in food value, for fat has two and one-quarter times the caloric value that proteins and carbohydrates have. Dry foods are high in value, for they are concentrated and contain little water. Compare the quantity of two heaping teaspoonfuls of sugar, a concentrated food, and one and one-half pounds of lettuce, a watery vegetable, each having the same caloric value. A moderate sized chocolate cream is not only concentrated but has considerable fat in the chocolate. ”

“ Caloric.—Every one is acquainted with the different sensations of heat and cold. That matter which produces on our bodies the sensation of heat has the name of Caloric; heat being only an effect, of which caloric is the cause. This is extended in a greater or less degree through the whole extent of space, and penetrates into the interior of even the most solid bodies: in so doing it expands the particles of which they are composed, augments their bulk, and diminishes their solidity. The sun is the principal fountain from which the earth is supplied with this fluid ”

“ The defect of caloric in any substance occasions the sensation called cold.
Were the world deprived of caloric, every species of organized being would, from that moment, cease to 10exist. It is the cause of all fluidity: to it every production of the earth has been most essentially indebted, even for its form and structure; and in no respect do the power and goodness of the Almighty appear more conspicuous than in the creation, dispersion, and continuance, of this most subtile and astonishing fluid. ”

“ How can an animal, breathing a very cold air, eating aliments almost deprived of caloric, &c. in northern latitudes, have as much heat as in hot climates? It is not the free caloric contained in the parts, but the combined, which, being introduced into the blood with the foreign substances, furnishes the materials of that which is disengaged in the general capillary system. Now the combined caloric is absolutely independent of temperature. As much fire is elicited from the same stone by the steel, in the coldest as in the warmest countries. ”

“ Having referred to the erroneous practice of swathing consumptive patients in flannel, it may not be out of place here to make a few observations on the origin of caloric in the animal system, and the office of clothing in relation to it.
The only true source of caloric in animals, is that produced by the chemical combination of oxygen with the carbon and other oxidizable products of their system. Every cause which quickens and exalts this chemical action increases the animal heat, whilst every interfering cause produces cold and chilliness. ”

“ From these observations it will be clear that the substance which is a bad conductor of caloric will be the warmest, because it neither allows the escape of the caloric from the body nor permits any caloric to penetrate it, and consequently leaves the internal heat to concentrate on the surface of the skin; for the body is not warmed from without, but from within, and the feeling of warmth is pro­duced by preventing the heat from going off from the body. ”

“ If this extraction of caloric exceeds the quantity produced by the vital system, the temperature of the body decreases, until it sinks below the point at which the functions of life can be performed. This declination of the heat of the body is gradual ”

“ We deem an outline of the nature and effects of caloric as, in some respects, indispensably necessary; for caloric, it is to be observed, is an agent, whose effects are recognised in every species of fire-work. ”

“ The principal source of caloric is the sun, whose beams, diffused through all nature by the refractive property of the [16] atmosphere, are the source of vitality both to vegetables and animals, and when concentrated by a large convex lens, produce the most intense heat, sufficient to light a piece of diamond, and melt platinum. Caloric is also produced or evolved by combustion, by friction, percussion, chemical combination, electricity, and galvanism. ”

“ Diminish the capacity of a body, its excess will of course be given out, and distribute itself among the surrounding bodies, which become heated; but increase the capacity, and a different effect ensues. The body absorbs caloric, by which its capacity is increased, and cold is produced. Caloric, whether considered a substance, or an attribute, possesses, nevertheless, this property, that when it is given out, as in the mixture of sulphuric acid and water, which occupies a less space than both in a separate state, the sensation of heat follows ”

“ The calory is the unit of heat, and represents the heat required to raise the temperature of a kilogram of water 1° C., or four pounds of water 1° F. The caloric value of foods is determined by the calorimeter, an apparatus which measures heat with great accuracy. ”

“ You occasionally see and hear the words calorie and caloric used in connection with heat. They stand for an idea, abandoned for three generations, that heat is a substance called caloric, which saturates warm bodies and drains out of them when they cool off. ”

“ It has been shown that there is adaptation to repeated episodes of caloric restriction both in animals and man, so that subsequent periods of caloric restriction result in decreased rate of weight loss, nitrogen loss, and longer survival. ”

“ Basal metabolism is that caloric value which an individual produces while resting in bed and prior to taking breakfast—in other words when the effects of food and exercise on caloric output are least operative. Basal metabolism is expressed in terms of calories per hour per square meter of body surface. It varies with different ages. It is proportionate to body surface which is calculated from the height and weight of the individual. Normally this metabolism should not vary more than 15% above or below accepted normal figures. ”

“ The effect of caloric in causing fluids to expand is actually employed as a measure of quantity in the thermometer, the rise of the fluid in the tube when heated depending on the increased bulk of the fluid occasioned by the addition of caloric. The same fact is to be noticed every day when the cook fills the kettle, and places it on the fire. ”

“ It is impossible to determine the amount of caloric which any body contains. Our sensations would obviously be deceptive, since, if we dipped the right hand in snow, and held the left hand before the fire, and then immersed both hands in cold water, the water would feel warm to the right hand and cold to the left hand. ”

“ Caloric, when in a state of rest, exists in different proportions, and although the actual temperature may be the same, yet the quantity of caloric in a quiescent state may be variable. There are several experiments, which are adduced to illustrate this fact. It results from experiment, that bodies receive heat according to their several capacities for it; hence, when any number of bodies are differently heated, the caloric, which becomes latent, does not distribute itself in equal quantities, but in various proportions, according, as we remarked, to their several capacities. ”

“ It is probable, that the separation of the particles of bodies, occasioned by caloric, depends in a similar manner upon a certain combination of different attractive powers, which, in conformity with the imperfection of our knowledge, we endeavour to express by saying, that caloric communicates a power of repulsion to the particles of bodies. ”

“ The wide range of individual caloric requirements, depending upon age, sex, occupation, etc., is illustrated by the fact that a laboring man may need as high as 4000 calories a day to sustain him properly, a laundress 3000 calories a day, whereas a sedentary seamstress or teacher may need only 2000 to 2200 calories a day. ”

“ The carbohydrates are our chief source of heat and energy, and as previously stated, furnish sixty to sixty-five per cent of the total fuel value of our food. Each ounce of pure carbohydrate yields one hundred sixteenPg 30 calories of heat when burned. In caloric yield, they are equal to the proteins gram for gram, but yield less than one half that of the fats. If two thousand five hundred calories are again taken as our standard, then sixty per cent would make one thousand five hundred calories to be furnished by the carbohydrates. ”

“ I have not constructed any table of the combinations of light and caloric with the various simple and compound substances, because our conceptions of the nature of these combinations are not hitherto sufficiently accurate. We [Pg 183] know, in general, that all bodies in nature are imbued, surrounded, and penetrated in every way with caloric, which fills up every interval left between their particles ”

“ The caloric produces a second effect, by means of the repulsive force exerted between its particles; it causes the gasses, disengaged at the moment of deflagration, to expand with a degree of force proportioned to the temperature produced. ”

“ This idio-repulsive nature of caloric is the great, and constant antagonist power to the attraction of cohesion. Caloric has a tendency to drive the particles of matter further from each other, and these particles have a mutual tendency to approach. Hence these two principles are ever in conflict. As a general rule we may say, when the attraction of cohesion prevails greatly, the body becomes solid: when the two forces are pretty nearly balanced, the body becomes liquid: when the caloric prevails greatly, the body becomes gaseous. ”

“ As mechanical force produces calorific excitation, so we find that every movement of sap in vegetables, and of the blood and fluids in the animal economy, causes a sensible increase of heat. The chemical processes constantly going on in plants and animals are another source of heat, in addition to which nervous energy and muscular movement must be regarded as producing the caloric which is essential to the health and life of the latter. Digestion has been considered as a process of combustion ”

“ The combination of oxygen in combustion is always accompanied by a disengagement of light and heat; whilst this circumstance is not a necessary consequence of simple oxygenation.
CAROLINE.
But how can a body absorb oxygen without the combination of the two electricities which produce caloric?
197 MRS. B.
Oxygen does not always present itself in a gaseous state; it is a constituent part of a vast number of bodies, both solid and liquid, in which it exists in a much denser state than in the atmosphere; and from these bodies it may be obtained without much disengagement of caloric. ”

“ DIVISION FIVE ENERGY-GIVING OR FUEL FOODS,—RICH IN FATS AND OILS LESSON XXXIV FAT AS A FRYING MEDIUM COMPARISON OF FATS AND CARBOHYDRATES.—Fat is a foodstuff. Fat and oil [Footnote 38: Fat and oil are very similar, oil being fat that is liquid at ordinary temperature.] form another great class of energy-giving or fuel foods. In the body, these foods, like carbohydrates, give energy; in fact weight for weight they furnish more than twice as much energy as carbohydrates. There is, for example, about as much fat by weight in one pound of butter as there are carbohydrates in one pound of tapioca. ”

“ It will be seen, then, that the human body acts not as a steam engine, but rather as a transforming machine by means of which the dormant energy of the food is transformed into an active agent of which heat is a natural result.
In the calorimeter it was found that the carbohydrates and fats burned to the same end products, namely, carbon dioxide and water, while the proteins, upon oxidation, produced carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen gas. In the body it was found that the carbohydrates and the fats acted in exactly the same manner as in the calorimeter, producing the same end products. ”

“ Weight for weight, fat furnishes twice as much heat as the carbohydrates, and in bulk the difference is even more striking; for example (about) two tablespoonfuls of sugar are required to produce 100 calories, whereas one scant tablespoonful of olive oil will produce a like number of heat units. As a source of supply for reserve energy in the body, fat is most valuable. This reserve fuel is stored in the form of adipose tissues underlying the skin and surrounding the vital organs, lending contour to the form and protecting the organs from jars and shocks. ”

“ If one wishes to determine from the basal metabolism table the heat production of a person who is confined to his room, one should add to the metabolism of the twenty-four hours the increase above the basal for those hours of the day during which he is sitting in a chair or standing.
Passing to a consideration of the subject of mechanical work done by a man, one finds that it requires about 1.1 calories to transport a pound of body weight three miles during an hour, and that increasing power must be generated if the speed is increased above this rate of maximal economic velocity. ”