DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. 35 



Part III. Discussion of Results. 



While this investigation was primarily undertaken to study simultaneously 

 the temperature in different parts of the body, many secondary points of 

 considerable importance were naturally encountered in the process of the 

 investigation. 



THERMAL GRADIENT OF THE BODY. 



The method of electrical measurement here outlined, owing to its extreme 

 sensitiveness and delicacy, is admirably adapted for a study of the thermal 

 gradient of the body. As has been previously shown, with an internal body- 

 temperature of not far from 37 C. and a surface temperature of about 32 C. 

 one would expect normally a thermal gradient. The exact significance of 

 this gradient may be better understood after a consideration of certain points 

 with regard to the physical structure of the body. If the highest heat pro- 

 duction were at the exact center of the body and there was a definite thermal 

 gradient from the center to the skin, it is obvious that the measurement of 

 body-temperature, particularly the average body-temperature, would present 

 almost insuperable difficulties. One could not select a point half-way between 

 the surface of the skin and the center of the body and assume that the tempera- 

 ture at this point would represent the average body-temperature, since there 

 would be no way of obtaining a record of this temperature. On the other 

 hand, if the thermal gradient rose sharply for the first few centimeters beneath 

 the surface of the skin and soon reached a point beyond which the body 

 temperature was not materially increased, the problem would be much less 

 complicated. If, as is frequently the case, we desire to note the total amount 

 of heat actually latent in the body at a given time, we must know the body- 

 temperature as nearly as possible. Consequently a study of the thermal 

 gradient was first made. 



METHOD OF STUDYING THE THERMAL GRADIENT. 



In studying the thermal gradient, the rectum was used with men, and the 

 rectum and the vagina with women, both being deep cavities into which the 

 thermal junctions could be inserted for a considerable distance. It is obvious 

 that at the entrance of either of these cavities the temperature will be low, i. e., 

 that of the environment, but as the thermal junction is inserted deeper into 

 the cavity, the temperature more nearly approximates that of the interior 

 portion of the body. The important point to note, then, is the depth of inser- 

 tion required to obtain the maximum temperature. For this purpose, two ther- 

 mal junctions were inclosed in a single tube, and bound together in such a way 

 that one was exactly 3.5 centimeters from the other. This tube was then 

 inserted in the cavity to be studied, so that the deeper junction was approxi- 

 mately 10 centimeters within the cavity and the other accordingly 6.5 centi- 

 meters. Readings were taken until constancy had been obtained; then both 

 thermometers were withdrawn to a new location in the cavity, and the meas- 

 urement repeated. By this means the whole region was studied, the two ther- 



