In more formal times, men perspired and women glowed. Now we just sweat. This was unfashionable in the past, and even today some TV commercials imply that perspiration isn't quite civilized, and let's pretend it doesn't exist.
However, sweating keeps us alive in the Chihuahuan Desert—and that's one of the things we humans do better than anyone else. Like most warm-blooded animals, we live dangerously. Body temperatures too hot or too cold are fatal, and the limits are not far from our normal temperature. The maximum, beyond which we convulse and die, is only scant degrees above our normal operating body temperature.
To obtain energy, we literally burn food, albeit a slow, controlled
burning. The greater energy expenditures, the greater the increase in heat. During
exercise on a hot day, shedding excess heat is critical. There's only so much that
the circulatory system alone can do to cool the body—but luckily, sweating turns us
into our own, self-contained evaporative cooler, saving the day—and our lives.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Smit, V. 2001. What we do best. Natural History 110(2):96.