Normal Body-Temperature. 125 



that there may be a very considerable range in the temperature for 24 hour? 

 which averages in experiments with food 0.96 C. (1.73 F.). It is of interest 

 to note, also, the minimum and maximum temperatures during the day, par- 

 ticularly the hours at which they occur. In general, the minimum temperature 

 is observed during the early morning hours, while usually the maximum tem- 

 perature is found in the late afternoon or early evening. There are some 

 few sharp exceptions to this, as, for example, with the subject B. F. D., January 

 28-29, 1904, the maximum temperature occurred at 7 a. m. Referring to the 

 previously published discussion of body-temperature, 1 it can be seen that these 

 experiments substantiate in a general way the deductions there made, that the 

 minimum temperature occurs some time in the early morning hours and the 

 maximum during the late afternoon hours. 



The experiments without food given in table 48 likewise show a considerable 

 change in temperature during the day and, indeed, on different days with the 

 same subject. The average range of temperature throughout the day is some- 

 what less, however, than it is in experiments with food, averaging 0.77 C. 

 (1.39 F.) as against 0.96 C. (1.73 F.) with food. One of the most marked 

 influences of the absence of food on body-temperature is noted in the time at 

 which the minimum and maximum temperatures occur. While the minimum 

 temperature still appears during the late night or early morning hours, the 

 maximum temperature, instead of appearing uniformly in the late afternoon, 

 is frequently found in the forenoon or early morning. These two series of 

 experiments (experiments with food, and without food) were not, however, 

 made with the primary object of studying body-temperature, and hence an 

 adequate study of the effects of the ingestion of food on body-temperature, 

 somewhat differently designed, should be made. Besearches that will supple- 

 ment and amplify the most interesting observations of Bancken 2 regarding the 

 influence of the ingestion of food upon body-temperature are greatly needed. 



Of perhaps more general interest, inasmuch as the conditions approximate 

 more closely those obtaining in the visit of a patient to a doctor's office, are 

 the results given in table 49. Here the range is found to be much less than 

 that in the experiments in tables 47 and 48, amounting on the average to 

 0.44 C. (0.79 F.). It is to be observed, however, that in the range as here 

 measured, the minimum, which naturally falls in the earlv morning hours, is 

 not included, although in many experiments the afternoon maximum may 

 appear. The range in temperature during the day, however, may vary con- 

 siderably with the same individual, as is shown in the case of A. H. M., with 

 whom the range varied from 0.21 C. (0.38 F.) to 0.61 C. (1.10 F.). On 

 the other hand, the variations shown by A. L. L. and H. B. D. are by no 

 means as great. It is evident, therefore, from the data in these tables that 

 with most individuals there is a wide range in body-temperature during the day. 



1 Benedict and Snell, loc. cit. : Benedict, loc. cit. 

 2 Rancken, Skand. Archiv f. Physiologie, 1908, 21, p. 161. 



