DISCISSION OF UKSII.TS. 



41 



records taken. For approximately 10 minutes the readings of the two ther- 

 mometers disagreed; afterwards they were identical. This led to the belief 

 that unequal conditions of heat loss caused the discrepancies observed in the 

 earlier readings. To equalize this heat loss, warm water was held in the mout h 

 and simultaneous records taken with the thermal junction and the clinical 

 thermometer, the water acting in a way as a protection from outside tempera- 

 ture influences. The results showed the thermal junction in one instance to 

 have the same maximal temperature as the clinical thermometer, but usually 

 it was 0.2 to 0.3 F. lower. Then the thermal junction was embedded in 

 paraffin, and its records compared with those of the clinical thermometer. 

 The results showed that even under these conditions the thermal junction 

 readings ranged from 0.1 higher to 0.3 F. lower than those of the clinical 

 thermometer. 



98.6'F 



96.6 



6 7 8 



MINUTES 



13 



F. 14. Observations showing the rise of temperature in the mouth. 

 (I) clinical thermometer, (II) thermal-junction thermometer. 



Finally the design of the thermal junction was changed. In all of the 

 previous experimenting with the mouth temperature, a junction of either type 

 A or C (fig. 3) was used.' The new junction was built with a heavy, pear- 

 shaped, copper element, the bulb of which was about 1 centimeter in diameter. 

 The constantan element, a small wire, was soldered to the copper at about the 

 center of the bulb, by means of a small hole drilled through to this point. 

 This junction was then compared with the clinical thermometer, as in the 

 previous experiments. The results obtained from six comparisons show that 

 the thermal junction and clinical thermometer agreed in three cases, the 

 thermal junction was 0.1 F. higher than the clinical thermometer in two 

 cases, and 0.2 F. higher in the remaining case. 



l See p. 18. 



