EVOLUTION OF HEAT. ,535 



120. 1 In tliis instance the patient recovered. 2 Jacobson, 3 from experiments 

 made with thermo-electric instruments, has satisfied himself that the temper- 

 ature of intensely inflamed skin and muscles never runs as high as the tem- 

 perature of the inner parts of the body, which is quite in accordance with 

 the dictum of John Hunter, that local inflammation cannot raise the tem- 

 perature higher than the degree of warmth found at the centre of the circu- 

 lation. It is still doubtful whether the augmented temperature observed in 

 febrile diseases is due to diminished elimination or to increased production 

 of heat, but considering the large excess of heat that is developed during 

 the.crisis of fevers there seems to be reason for believing that Leyden's view 

 in favor of excessive production of heat is correct. 1 It is not a little re- 

 markable that the temperature of the body should frequently ri.se considera- 

 bly nfti'i' <lc<tth ; and this not merely in such cases as Cholera, in which it has 

 undergone an extreme depression during the latter part of life; but even in 

 the case of febrile disorders, in which the temperature during life has been 

 above the usual standard. This has been ascertained by Dr. Bennet Dowler, 

 of New Orleans, on the bodies of those yellow fever subjects which have 

 already been referred to as exhibiting a remarkable degree of molecular life 

 after tomutic death ( 263). In one case, for example, the highest tempera- 

 ture during life was in the axilla, 104 ; ten minutes after death, it had risen 

 to 109 in the axilla; fifteen minutes afterwards, it was 113 in an incision 

 in the thigh ; in twenty minutes, the liver gave 112 ; in one hour and forty 

 minutes, the heart gave 109, and the thigh in the former incision 109 ; and 

 in three hours after the removal of all the viscera, a new incision in the 

 thigh gave 110. It is curious that the maximum heat observed after death 

 should have been in the thigh, and the minimum in the brain. The post- 

 mortem ri>e in temperature appears to be essentially due to the passage of 

 the muscles of the body into the state of rigor mortis, a change that is asso- 

 ciated with chemical action analogous to that occurring during contraction, 

 and accompanied by a corresponding elevation of temperature. 6 Ackermann 

 has pointed out that the post-mortem rise may in part be due to the persis- 

 tence of the heat-producing chemical changes in the deeper parts of the body, 

 whilst the radiation and loss of heat from the surface by evaporation is re- 

 duced by the contraction of the cutaneous vessels, and Wunderlich suggests 

 that it may be also in some measure owing to the paralysis of that part of 

 the nervous system which inhibits or regulates the generation of heat, sup- 

 posing such centre to exist. 



427. Although there appears to be, for all kinds of animals, a distinct 

 limit to the variations of bodily temperature, under which their vital opera- 

 tions can be carried on, this limitation does not prevent certain species from 

 existing in the midst of great diversities of external conditions ; since they 



1 Lancet, March 6th, 1875. 



2 According to Lewitzky the febrile condition that follows the injection of putrid 

 fluids into the blood is not due to the Bacteria that are present in such fluid Cen- 

 tralblatt, 18/3, p. 723; see also Naunyn, abstract in idem, p. 731. 



3 Yirchow's Archiv, Bd. li, Heft 2. 



4 See Milner Fothergill's paper read before the Medical Society of London, Pam- 

 phlet, 1873. 



5 Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery, June and Oct. 1844 ; cito,d in Phila- 

 delphia Medical Examiner, June, 1845, and in Prof. Du.nglison's Human Physiology, 

 7th edit., vol. ii, p. 718. 



6 See the papers of Walther, Centralblatt fur die Med. Wiss., 1807, p. 391 ; Wun- 

 derlich, Archiv d. Heillcunde, Bd. v, p 205; Huppert, idem, Bd. viii, p. 321 ; Fick 

 and Dybkowsky, Yierteljahrschrift d. Zurich Naturf. Gesellsch., 1867 ; Ackermann, 

 Deutsche Archiv f. Klin. Med., Bd. ii, p. 359; Valentin, d. Post-mort. temp.-stci- 

 gerung Dissert. Leipzig, 1869. 



