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About
the Book
Table of Contents
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
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Part V: The Meaning of Sweat
as Part of the Curse
Chapter 2
The Sweating of Fallen Man
IT IS CUSTOMARY to associate the sweating of man with
the Fall. Yet it must be apparent from the very brief survey
already made that it seems to be performing a vital, albeit natural,
function for him. The question is, To what extent can we say
that man sweats only because he is a fallen creature? Can we
say this at all, in fact? The answer, I think, is undoubtedly
Yes. Moreover, the affirmative applies especially to that type
of sweating which is most copious, namely, thermal sweating.
But it also applies to emotional and mental sweating and, as
we shall see, in one particular area of the body uniquely so.
This one area we consider in the final chapter. Let us here examine
the situation in its other aspects.
First of all,
it should be said that, while we are indeed fearfully and wonderfully
made with a fantastic number of self-regulating physiological
feedback mechanisms to ensure the maintenance of health, our
bodies are not particularly efficient. Nor, for that matter,
are engines of human design. A steam engine has an efficiency
of about 9 percent, the rest of the available power in the fuel
that is consumed being "wasted". A highly refined aircraft
engine may go up to 40 percent or a little better, which still
leaves much to be desired. The human body has an efficiency of
about 20 percent; the other 80 percent of the energy available
in the "fuel" we consume is lost from the body in the
form of heat. To be more exact, it is not all lost, for a certain
percentage is used to accelerate chemical reactions and thus
render the body slightly more efficient in times of stress. However,
it remains that something like 75 percent of the energy which
would presumably be available to a body that was perfect is not
available to us. The efficiency of animals, on the other hand,
is remarkable.
 pg
1 of 8 
On a few seeds and some
stored resources a bird may make an unbroken flight of several
thousand miles. A fish weighing several hundred pounds may swim
the ocean on about ten pounds of food. Domesticated animals suffer
in the process of domestication because of the artificial foods
and an artificial environment.
One might ask whether, if man uses
only one-fifth of the energy in the food he eats, could he not
perhaps eat only one fifth of the normal intake and be just as
well off? There are two problems with this. The first is that
the body can extract only this small percentage of available
energy whether he eats much or little. This is not strictly true,
but it is nearly so and suffices for the present discussion.
Some people's bodies are more efficient than others and they
seem to have enormous energy reserves accompanied by a small
appetite. Others stuff themselves endlessly yet continue without
energy. All of which means only that the figure of 20 percent
applies to that non-existent individual, the "average man".
The second point is that if we
only ate one-fifth of what is normal for us, we should be everlastingly
hungry. Only man has a hunger which regularly exceeds the absolute
requirement of his body. Animals seem to know not merely when
they have had enough but exactly how much and of what foods to
eat. This has been remarkably demonstrated in certain studies,
referred to in another Doorway Paper (1) which the reader may wish to pursue for himself.
What has been said of hunger applies equally to thirst. Man is
the only creature that drinks when it is not thirsty. Conversely,
when he becomes dehydrated for any reason, he will not drink
more than about one-third of what he needs. The sense of thirst
is then satisfied, and the impulse to drink more is lost. On
the other hand, animals such as the dog or burro will drink until
they have all the water they require, thirst being regulated
by water lost. It is evident that man's thirst and appetite have
somehow gotten badly out of kilter with his physiological needs.
But not so the animals.
This line of reasoning seems to
me to imply that a perfect man would either need less to eat
or would have the same appetite but an enormously increased vitality.
Is it possible that the patriarchs who lived to such great ages
not merely had more energy in the sense that this is reflected
in longevity, but also had more energy in the simple sense that
they were stronger? Were their bodies more efficient, it is also
possible that they had a lower
1. "Nature as Part of the Kingdom of God",
Part II in Man
in Adam and in Christ, vol.3 of The Doorway Papers Series, Zondervan
Publishing Company.
pg.2
of 8
metabolic rate, for experiments
with animals show that a reduced metabolic rate results in longer
life. Although the life span declined after the Flood, nevertheless
those people may have retained a physical vigour far in excess
of our own, and the vast monuments of antiquity with enormous
stones cast about as though by veritable giants may just possibly
be accounted for in some such way. It was not that these men
were necessarily taller, but rather that the same muscle fibers
had greatly increased contractile strength. While it is perfectly
true that this strength seems now to be dependent upon the level
of blood supply rather than the actual volume of muscle, this
may not be the whole story; for them, nearer to Adam, the muscle
fibers themselves may have had greater strength.
Following along this line of thought,
there is evidence -- quite apart from Scripture -- that man may
have changed his diet at one time, having originally been herbivorous
rather than omnivorous as he now is. His now-troublesome appendix,
according to George A. Dorsey, may have at one time aided him
in the management of a more fibrous diet. The eating of meat
does not seem to have been a part of the habit of antediluvian
man. If man was able to do in those days what he is now able
to do in the way of sustained activity with his mixed diet, then
he must have had a more efficient body. It is well known to those
acquainted with the ways of such animals as horses and deer,
whose diet is entirely herbivorous, that they must be eating
a large part of the time since such "fuels" are low
in energy value relative to meats. It is because of this that
Indians were able to run down horses, merely by keeping the horse
moving so that he could not stop to eat but ultimately tired
out and surrendered. Perhaps it is because man's life span dropped
so seriously and his possibilities of achievement were thereby
so drastically reduced that God, in His wisdom, saw fit to appoint
him flesh for meat with its more highly concentrated energy sources.
But this was to accommodate a fallen creature. Quite apart from
the fact that his appendix troubles him because of the change,
he pays another penalty as a direct result, which is nearer to
our present subject. A vegetable diet normally provided less
concentrated energy and fewer calories than a diet containing
meat, so that the tempo of his life was slower; but the higher
metabolic rate resulting from his now-mixed diet, while it allowed
a higher sustained tempo of activity, also necessitated the elimination
of more heat and consequently a higher sweating rate. The original
diet may have elicited very little sweating indeed.
pg.3
of 8
Bearing
in mind that, for every 100 calories of potential energy ingested,
man must somehow rid himself of about 75 in the form of heat,
as long as the environmental conditions permit him to rid himself
of this heat load he maintains the proper deep body temperature
and gets along fairly well. He may possibly make some adjustments
to a perpetually higher or lower temperature by a slight reduction
or increase in his metabolic rate. But the rest of this excess
heat must be removed by one of four avenues: convection, conduction,
radiation, and evaporative cooling. He gets convective cooling
in a cool breeze or where the heat from his body is allowed to
rise and there is no heat gain from the surrounding air. Conductive
cooling results more directly through such agencies as cold water
or standing on a cold floor or getting wet in the cold so that
the clothing becomes waterlogged. Heat loss by radiation occurs
whenever the objects in the environment directly in line with
the body are at a lower temperature than the skin surface. An
example of this might be an underground tunnel, even though the
air in the tunnel is artificially heated above skin temperature.
These are merely examples to show the kind of avenues that may
present themselves. But for most of the time for probably most
people in the world, it is the evaporation of sweat that provides
men with the best protection against a temperature rise in the
body. Sweating, therefore, is a critical requirement for man
as he now is, and especially if he is to be active. This is an
important qualifying factor, for in very hot weather most animals
in nature keep cool by reducing their activities. Of course,
they have other means as we have seen, but these other means
are contributory rather than dominant. Man is such a restless
creature, so filled with ambitions and aspirations when he is
in normal health, that being human and having the capacity for
a high level of sweating are almost synonymous terms.
In summary, then, the tempo of
life of unfallen man would probably have been much slower, metabolism
greatly reduced, and the need for thermal sweating very much
less than it now is.
So much for
thermal sweating. What about emotional sweating? Well, here we
are on less secure ground. We do not know exactly what is the
function of emotional sweating, but we do know that as a rule
it is the only kind of sweating associated with that rather unpleasant
accompaniment which the deodorant manufacturers find most profitable
to exploit -- body odour. Emotional sweating occurs chiefly under
the arms, as we have seen, and the turbid fluid secreted is very
different from the pure fluid of thermal sweat. These
pg.4
of 8
glands are referred to
as osmidrotic, which means simply that the secretion has an odour.
The substances in this fluid become the food of bacteria, and
in time the odour becomes strong, acrid, and unpleasant. The
interesting thing is that before the age of puberty -- one might
almost say before the age of accountability -- children either
do not produce this sweat at all or only in greatly reduced quantities.
Now, almost everyone is aware of
the acute sensitivity of animals to odours. Everyone knows how
sensitive dogs are to the scent of things associated with humans,
for example. Years ago in England I used to indulge in the ancient
sport of fox hunting with my parents. We were always warned as
children that if we had observed a fox passing along a certain
route nearby we should never under any circumstances cross its
trail. It is a simple matter of fact that the leading dogs of
a full pack of as many as sixty or one hundred animals hot on
the scent of the fox may lose the trail at that point where a
human has stepped across it, especially when there is dew on
the ground. Such is the animal organ of smell. It has further
been observed that animals are able to detect when a human is
afraid of them. Animal lovers often remark upon this, and those
who have had the doubtful privilege of associating with bulls
in a barnyard will know that somehow this doughty warrior responds
in a rather characteristic way to the attitude of any human in
its immediate presence. It may be quite docile and friendly in
the presence of fearlessness, or perhaps better, in the absence
of fear -- which is not quite the same thing. But in the presence
of fear it appears to be disturbed or downright aggressive!
It is equally a matter of common
experience for adults to find that the hostility which they often
meet with in a strange dog of mean disposition may be totally
absent in the presence of young children. In fact, the indignities
which some animals will endure with apparent indifference at
the hands of children is often a matter of surprise.
I have a theory about this. My
theory is that the emotional response of fear in humans elicits
an axillary sweating with its characteristic odour. Most of the
time we are unaware of this odour. I say "most of the time"
because it is not always so. A friend of mine who is a major
in a paratroop company has told me that before a drop, the cabin
of the aircraft develops an almost overpowering odour which is
most unpleasant and which seems to result from the tension and
anxiety of the men who are about to make the jump. In this case,
the level of anxiety is great (even though concealed if possible)
and the odour correspondingly readily detected by other humans.
In the case of fear which is mild or perhaps even almost unconscious,
psychic sweating may be very low indeed -- but it is readily
detected by animals.
pg.5
of 8
When
I suggest that animals react to this odour, I mean, of course,
at an entirely unconscious level. They are not aware of the cause
of their reaction. But their response is one of hostility or
uneasiness, causing them to be aggressive and to attack, or to
flee.
But not so with very young children,
partly because children do not "know enough" to have
any fear. Consequently, a little child may walk up to a thoroughly
bad-tempered dog and slap its face or pull its tail and the dog
will walk away almost as though ashamed of itself. The absence
of fear is accompanied by an absence of emotional sweating, and
the absence of this stimulus to the animal permits a far more
harmonious relationship between them. Subsequently, when the
sweat glands have developed fully, this natural harmony may be
disrupted. This suggests to me, since fear is cast out by perfect
love, that were we able to love perfectly, our relationship to
the animals might very well be just that which Isaiah pictures
for us during the Millennium. And as their moral governor, this
"declaration of peace" might extend itself within
the animal kingdom so that even the wolf and the lamb, the
lion and the ox would dwell together in peace and a little child
lead them.
Nor can we leave this thought altogether
without remarking upon one further fact regarding sweating. Older
people tend to have this emotional sweating reaction depressed
with age, a phenomenon which may not be altogether unrelated
to their gradual recovery in many cases of certain childlike
qualities. Ambition is largely past in such people, and a certain
unsophisticated trustfulness and simplicity may replace the hostilities
of former years. The tensions of middle age are relaxed, so with
this relaxation, emotional sweating is reduced -- one more justification
for referring to this period of life as a second childhood.
There is another
interesting discovery in connection with fear and sweating rates
and pain. It is found that a clear distinction can be made between
the stimulus of an experience which is both fearful and painful,
and the stimulus of an experience which is merely painful. For
example, although the sweating reaction in response to pain is
very rapid, occurring within one second, so that there is no
question as to the specificity of the reaction, quite painful
stimuli will often elicit no psychic sweating whatever. In the
absence of fear, women in labor have shown little psychic sweating
until the contractions are severe and pain has become
pg.6
of 8
intense. On the other
hand, patients waiting in a dentist's office sweat profusely
if they are apprehensive, and this sweating is found to increase
markedly as soon as work on the teeth begins even though only
slight sensations of pain are experienced. Here is an anomaly:
in one case painful contractions which are unaccompanied by fear
elicit no sweating response, but a mild dental operation when
accompanied by fear elicits profuse sweating. This suggests that
an organism as a whole becomes much more highly sensitized to
the feeling of hurt when fear is also present. A common illustration
of this, of course, is to be seen in the case of sudden and unexpected
injury. Such injuries can be exceedingly severe, but in the absence
of fear, the sense of pain at the time can be enormously reduced
or even absent altogether. A man may lose a whole limb and not
even be aware of it at the time, no pain whatever being experienced.
When such injuries are both sudden and unexpected, fear is entirely
absent. Probably this phenomenon of depressed pain sense is the
basis of Dr. Grantly Dick Read's claim that normal childbirth
could be much less painful if the mother were so completely prepared
for it that the element of fear is reduced to a minimum level.
His objective was to have childbirth without fear, rather than
childbirth without pain. Indeed, there are not a few experiences
in daily life which, though painful in themselves, are accepted
without serious discomfort or even with pleasure when unaccompanied
by fear. There are other examples. For instance, in rough and
tumble sports (boxing, wrestling, and bronco-busting) one accepts
hurt with a kind of fierce exultation if it contributes to victory.
A painless triumph brings little satisfaction.
There is also evidence from measurements
taken on the footpads of animals that severe pain is required
to elicit sweating, a fact which seems to demonstrate clearly
that in nature an organism accepts pain without anxiety to a
remarkable extent. The outward evidences of suffering which many
animals display when injured are really very difficult to interpret
because even decerebrate animals, i.e., animals with all the
brain entirely removed above the level of the pons -- which therefore
have no consciousness whatever, still show signs of suffering
when painful stimuli are applied, yet there cannot possibly be
any actual experience of pain. So we may surmise that the cruelty
of nature is rather more apparent than real.
My conclusion from evidence of
this kind is that an enormous amount of suffering among humans
results from fear rather than from the painful stimulus itself.
One might perhaps see in this some grounds for believing that
while perfect love casts out fear, it may also markedly
pg.7
of 8
reduce the experience
of pain -- a fact which, if it is true, may throw some light
on what appears to the onlooker as an extraordinary fortitude
on the part of those who are enduring torture or martyrdom on
account of their love for the Lord. We feel in anticipation that
such agonies would be beyond our powers of endurance, but we
may be overlooking the fact that such experiences are perhaps
the last step in the perfection of those who are called upon
to endure them. Being made so nearly perfect, fear is virtually
cast out by love and with it a large proportion -- perhaps all
-- of the pain.
Would Adam have
sweated in such ways, if he had not fallen?
The answer to this, I think, is
Yes and No. He would have sweated naturally, though in great
moderation, to maintain thermal equilibrium. This kind of sweating
is possible for man in a unique way, and body temperatures are
maintained in a changing environment without the slightest discomfort
and without our awareness. As we have seen, the fluid secretion
of thermal sweat is probably the most dilute fluid the body is
capable of producing, so that it may appear on the skin in small
quantities as virtually pure water and with no greater discomfort
than would be experienced by washing one's hands and face. The
refreshing experience of a cool breeze stems very largely from
the fact that accelerated evaporation is taking place from the
skin. The efficiency of this system of thermal regulation is
truly remarkable. Thus thermal sweating in moderation for the
maintenance of normal body temperature is a perfectly healthy
and harmless physiological experience, as normal as reasonable
hunger. There is no odour and no residue. However, when metabolic
rates are greatly accelerated due to sustained or violent exercise,
or to the specific dynamic action of food taken in excess, then
profuse sweating with its much less pleasant accompaniments must
take place to remove from the body in the form of heat the wasted
energy which our fallen bodies can no longer make use of. Such
stresses would presumably never have been the lot of unfallen
man, or at least would not have been a necessary element in his
eating of his daily bread.
As for psychic sweating, it is
probable that in his pristine glory Adam had no fear to provoke
it and therefore maintained perfect harmony with the animals;
the mental energies required to cope with the events of each
day were handled so easily with his giant mind that mental sweating
was equally foreign to his experience. As our bodies have been
reduced to an efficiency of about 20 percent, so it seems we
now use at the most only an estimated 2 percent or so of the
available resources in our minds.
What if our bodies and our minds
were 100 percent efficient. . . ?
pg.8
of 8
Copyright © 1988 Evelyn White. All rights
reserved
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