312 Influence or Inanition on Metabolism. 



With Breithaupt, the second subject of the Berlin experiments (7) the 

 temperature was taken, presumably in the axilla, morning and evening. Xo 

 records were shown for the day with food preceding the fast, but temperature 

 records were given for the first food day after the fast. The tendency for the 

 temperature to decrease slowly as the fast progresses is noted, but after the 

 resumption of the ingestion of food it was not overcome. 



The body temperature of the subject J. A. (9) was taken every 2 hours 

 during the waking period. This is true for both the fasting and the food 

 periods. The average temperature for the 3 days with food was 37.39, while 

 the average temperature of 5 days fasting was 37.23. The average daily 

 temperatures of the 5-day fast were 37.20, 37.27, 37.22, 37.13, and 

 37.23, respectively. 



Body temperature observations were made by Hoover and Sollman (8) on 

 their hypnotic subject during the 8 days of the experiment. It was not stated 

 how the observations were made. A slight tendency for the average temper- 

 atures to fall as the fast progressed is noticeable and in general the evening 

 fall and morning rise are readily recognized on the temperature curve. The 

 average temperatures for the succeeding days of the fast were: 36.6, 36.8, 

 36.7, 36.6, 36.3, 36.4, 36.3, 36.2. 



In only one of the longer fasts made by Succi were the temperature fluctua- 

 tions accurately observed and recorded. Luciani (4), in the Florence fast, 

 made temperature observations in the left axilla throughout the fast. The 

 highest temperature recorded was on the 23d day, 37.25. The lowest temper- 

 ature was on the seventh day, 36.2. No tendency for the temperature to fall 

 as the fast progressed was observed. 



The newspaper report of the medical bulletin issued by the attending 

 physicians on the 45th clay of the uncertain New York fast states that the 

 temperature was normal. No temperature records of this fast have been 

 published. 



In considering many of the earlier temperature observations on fasting 

 subjects it is extremely difficult to give suitable value to the different obser- 

 vations owing to the fact that little regularity is exhibited by different 

 observers as regards the method of taking body temperatures. It is of very 

 great importance to know whether the temperature was taken in the mouth, 

 axilla, or rectum. Unfortunately, in many of the cases recorded, the normal 

 body temperatures of the subjects, i. e., when subsisting on an ordinary diet, 

 were not recorded and hence the data are missing for an accurate study of 

 the question as to whether fasting actually lowers the average body temperature. 



The body temperatures recorded in the Middletowh experiments were ordi- 

 narily taken in the rectum by means of an electrical resistance thermometer." 



16 Archiv f. d. ges. Physiologie (1901), 88, p. 492. 



