114 METABOLISM DURING WALKING. 



records state that the subject seemed to have a slight cold on this day, 

 as well as on the day before. The temperature on January 31 was also 

 high. The value for March 24 (37.33 C.) is the average for three 

 periods, with all of the records relatively high, especially that for 

 the first period. No comment appears on the experimental sheet for 

 the day other than the statement twice made of "leads balanced." 

 The general average rectal temperature with the subject standing 

 shown for these 40 days, i. e., January 5 to April 15, 1916, is 36.89 C. 



In subsequent sections, in comparing the changes in the body- 

 temperature during walking, the general average temperature obtained 

 with the subject standing has been used as a base-line for those days 

 when no standing experiments were carried out. Though this method 

 is not so exact as a comparison with a standing base-line obtained on 

 the individual days, it is probably within the limits of error of any 

 method employed for obtaining an accurate measure of the tempera- 

 ture of the body-mass. Benedict, Miles, and Johnson 1 have shown 

 that there is a wide variation in the surface-temperature of the body 

 and that proximity to large blood-vessels has a marked effect on body- 

 temperature measurements. Records of the temperature in the 

 rectum give the temperature of the body at that point only. It is 

 easy to believe that a thermometer inserted into a large mass of fecal 

 material on one day and into a practically empty rectum on another 

 day would show considerable differences in temperature, particularly 

 as the response to change in temperature would be slower when the 

 mass of fecal matter was large. There is therefore a daily variation 

 to be expected, no matter how carefully the thermometer is adjusted 

 and the readings made. 



In noting the temperature changes during this study, it appeared 

 that even when the subject was standing quietly, with a preliminary 

 interval long enough for the thermometer to become settled, there was a 

 tendency for the temperature to increase during the period. To 

 confirm this we have taken the first and last temperatures of all the 

 periods and find that of the approximately 100 periods in which readings 

 were obtained, 87 per cent show a higher temperature at the close of the 

 standing period by an average of 0.07 C., and 9 per cent were lower at 

 the close by an average of 0.04 C., while 4 per cent show no change. 

 To determine whether or not this increase tended to accumulate during 

 the interval between the periods, also whether the relaxation from 

 motionless standing with removal of the mouthpiece and nose-clip was 

 accompanied by a lowering of the temperature, a comparison was made 

 of the temperatures recorded at the end of the standing periods with 

 those noted during the intervals between the periods. In the majority 

 of these cases there was no marked change, and such changes as were 

 noted were almost wholly in the direction of a lowering of the tempera- 



1 Benedict, Miles, and Johnson, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 1919, 5, p. 218. 



