120 Metabolism of Healthy Max. 



Value of Body-Temperature Measurements in Metabolism Experiments and 



Data Collected. 



Body-temperature measurements have in this laboratory a great value, en- 

 tirely aside from their ordinary significance as physiological data, for in deter- 

 mining the total energy transformations in the body in metabolism experiments 

 it is necessary to consider the changes in temperature of the human body as 

 a whole. This has made necessary a rather elaborate study of the body-tempera- 

 ture. In many of the experiments reported herewith, and in others made 

 previously in the laboratory of Wesleyan University, more exact body-tempera- 

 ture measurements were obtained than are common in the ordinary metabolism 

 experiment. As a result of these investigations, therefore, we have accumulated 

 certain fundamental data regarding the normal body-temperature. Previous 

 publications, discussing the researches on metabolism at Wesleyan University, 

 have dealt more or less with this subject and reference must be made to them 

 for details. In this discussion some of this published material will be utilized 

 in drawing deductions, but it is unnecessary and impossible to repeat the 

 presentation of the data in this place. 



BODY-TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS WITH CLINICAL THERMOMETER. 



In much of the earlier work published from the laboratory at Wesleyan 

 University, the temperature observations were all sublingual and made with 

 an ordinary clinical thermometer, carefully calibrated. With 4 subjects, all 

 young men on a maintenance diet, 528 observations were made in different 

 experiments with a total of 72 days. The subjects were confined in the respira- 

 tion calorimeter and performed no muscular work. The average temperature 

 from 7 a. m. to 11 p. m. was 98 F. (36.67 C), and the average range during 

 that time was 1.47 F. (0.82 C). These records were all made by trained 

 subjects who had had much experience in taking temperature observations, 

 and they were practically all taken sublingually. A few were axillary, but 

 these were taken only after long closure of the axilla and therefore can reason- 

 ably be compared with the buccal temperatures. 



In a longer series of 84 experiments with 46 different subjects, the sub- 

 lingual temperature observations were taken between 7 a. m. and 6 p. m. 

 Usually the experiments did not last more than 5 or 6 hours, generally begin- 

 ning in the morning at 8 o'clock and ending shortly after noon; occasionally 

 an experiment began at noon and ended about 6 o'clock at night. As a result 

 of 252 observations, it was found that the average temperature of these subjects 

 during the day period was 98.3 F. (36.83 C), and that the average range 

 was 0.49 F. (0.27 C). 



With regard to these two series of observations it can be stated that the 

 first series covered a longer period of the day and was by far the more accurate, 

 though made with fewer subjects. The second series was made with a larger 



