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In science, animal heat, a term conceived in 1779, is the heat produced in the body of a living animal by functional chemical and physical activities. [1] Animal heat can also be defined as the heat generated in the body of a warm-blooded vertebrate as the result of its physiological and metabolic processes. [2] An animal "in heat" refers to a state of sexual receptiveness in animals, especially in females. [8]
History
One of the earliest postulates of animal heat was made by Greek physician Hippocrates who in c.490 stated that: “heat, a quantity which functions to animate, derives from an internal fire located in the left ventricle”. [3]
Mechanical equivalent of heat
One of the early stimulators to the development of the science of thermodynamics was the synthesis of the mechanical equivalent of heat in relation to the need to understand animal heat. In particular, two German physicians and physicists, Robert Mayer and Hermann Helmholtz, in particular, wanted to understand the reason and operation behind the production of animal heat and how this related to other physical heats, such as solar heat, electrochemical heat, chemical heat, combustion heat, frictional heat, etc. [4]
In the late 1840s, debates on the sources and character of animal heat renewed impetus to use the metaphor of the animal machine. A key player in these debates was German chemist Justus von Liebig who used a language of vital forces and in his 1842 Animal Chemistry drew on the metaphor of the furnace to describe the “metamorphosis” of nutrition and oxygen. [6] His student German physician Robert Mayer, influenced by these views, used the metaphor of combustion in his early publications on the mechanical equivalent of heat. [7]
References
1. Animal heat (definition) – Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
2. Animal heat - The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. (2000). Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company.
3. Schneider, Eric D. and Sagan, Dorion. (2005). Into the Cool - Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life, (pg. 35). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
4. Schmitz, John E.J. (2007). The Second Law of Life: Energy, Technology, and the Future of Earth as We Know It. William Andrew Publishing.
5. Mendelsohn, Everett I. (1964). Heat and Life: the Development of the Theory of Animal Heat, (pg. 179). Harvard University Press.
6. Rabinbach, Anson. (1990). The Human Motor - Energy, Fatigue, and the Origins of Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
7. Caneva, Kenneth L. (1993). Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
8. Heat (definition) - Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
External links
● Animal heat – Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. (1911), LoveToKnow.
History
One of the earliest postulates of animal heat was made by Greek physician Hippocrates who in c.490 stated that: “heat, a quantity which functions to animate, derives from an internal fire located in the left ventricle”. [3]
Mechanical equivalent of heat
One of the early stimulators to the development of the science of thermodynamics was the synthesis of the mechanical equivalent of heat in relation to the need to understand animal heat. In particular, two German physicians and physicists, Robert Mayer and Hermann Helmholtz, in particular, wanted to understand the reason and operation behind the production of animal heat and how this related to other physical heats, such as solar heat, electrochemical heat, chemical heat, combustion heat, frictional heat, etc. [4]
In the late 1840s, debates on the sources and character of animal heat renewed impetus to use the metaphor of the animal machine. A key player in these debates was German chemist Justus von Liebig who used a language of vital forces and in his 1842 Animal Chemistry drew on the metaphor of the furnace to describe the “metamorphosis” of nutrition and oxygen. [6] His student German physician Robert Mayer, influenced by these views, used the metaphor of combustion in his early publications on the mechanical equivalent of heat. [7]
References
1. Animal heat (definition) – Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
2. Animal heat - The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. (2000). Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company.
3. Schneider, Eric D. and Sagan, Dorion. (2005). Into the Cool - Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life, (pg. 35). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
4. Schmitz, John E.J. (2007). The Second Law of Life: Energy, Technology, and the Future of Earth as We Know It. William Andrew Publishing.
5. Mendelsohn, Everett I. (1964). Heat and Life: the Development of the Theory of Animal Heat, (pg. 179). Harvard University Press.
6. Rabinbach, Anson. (1990). The Human Motor - Energy, Fatigue, and the Origins of Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
7. Caneva, Kenneth L. (1993). Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
8. Heat (definition) - Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
External links
● Animal heat – Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. (1911), LoveToKnow.
