MEMOIES OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 273 



which is the one ordinarily followed, does not give results as accurate as are to be desired. In 

 some of the earlier experiments, especially with E. (>.. the observations are of doubtful value. 

 Steps have been taken in this laboratory to devise a thermometer and method of observation 

 which will -how more accurately the variations of internal temperature of the body. Meanw hile, 

 as may be seen from the detailed figures, ii is clear that the observations do not imply that the 

 bodily temperatures with and without alcohol were greatly different. This agrees with the 

 results of other observations. 11 



The alcohol used in these experiments was equivalent to about 72 grams of absolute alcohol 

 per day taken in 6 doses. This is about the amount contained in an ordinary bottle of wine with 

 10 per cent alcohol or 3 or 4 glasses (6 or 8 ounces) of whisky. 



If we use our own observations and the others just referred to as a basis, it would seem that 

 the fall of body temperature produced by such amounts of alcohol might ordinarily range from 

 nothing to one-half of a degree centigrade. The heat which the body of an average man would 

 have to lose in order to reduce the temperature one-half of a degree might be roughly calculated 

 as follows: 



We may take the weight of the body of the average man at 14s pounds, or <>7 kilos. The 

 specific heat of the body is not exactly known, but may be estimated at 0.83. On this base a fall 

 of temperature of one half of a degree centigrade would correspond to i (67 x 0.83), or about 

 28 calories. Of the 72 grams of alcohol. 98 or 99 per cent, or between 70 and 71 grams, would 

 lie burned in the body, and would yield at 7.1 calories per gram about 500 calories of heat. By 

 this estimate, if the 7l' grams of alcohol were taken in one close and caused a lowering of the 

 body temperature by one-half of a degree, the 28 calories of heat wasted in the extra radiation 

 due to the alcohol would be one-eighteenth the amount supplied by its combustion. 



This method of calculating the amount of heat which the body must lose in order to produce 

 a given fall of temperature is hardly correct. It would be so if we had to do only with a fixed 

 amount of heat at the outset and a fixed amount of loss. But. as a matter of fact, the body is 

 constantly gaining heat from the oxidation of material from within and constantly losing not 

 only by outward radiation, but in other ways, as in the exhalation of air and water, vapor in 

 respiration, in the excretions of the kidneys and intestine, and in the evaporation of water from 

 the skin. The actual temperature depends upon the income and outgo of heat. The income 

 depends upon the material oxidized in the body. The outgo is regulated to a greater or less 

 extent by processes which are not fully understood, but in which the nervous system is the 

 important agency. 



Experimental inquiries. — Meanwhile we may consider the experimental evidence bearing 

 directly upon the cmestiou of the radiation of heat with and without alcohol. 



In a series of experiments by Keichert with dogs the effect of alcohol on the radiation of heat 

 was tested. ° The experimental periods were, however, only 5 or 6 hours each, and there was no 

 complete comparison of the effects of different diets. The rate of heat radiation and the change 

 of body temperature were carefully observed. The results implied a probable but at most very 

 small increase of heat radiation as the result of administering alcohol. 



a F. G. Benedict and J. F. Sxell, Eine neuc Methode am Korpertemperaturen zu messen. Archiv. f. d. ges. 

 Physiologie SS, p. 492 I 1901). 



b The results of the most reliable observations are well summarized by Pembrey (Sehaefer's Physiology, I, 820) 

 in the following statements: 



" Various observers have found that alcohol taken in ordinary quantities as a beverage causes a slight depression, 

 generally less than half a degree, in the temperature <>l healthy men. On the other hand, poisonous doses may 

 cause a fall of 5° or 6° — in fact, many of the lowest temperatures recorded in man have been observed in drunken 

 persons exposed to cold. See Davy. Phil. Trans., London, 1850, p. 444; Lichtexfels and FrShlicii, Denkschriften 

 d. !:. Akad. d. Wissensch., Wien, 1852, Bd. iii, Abth. 2, S. 131; Lallemand, Perrix, and Duhqy, ' Du role de Paloool 

 et des anesthesicjues dans l'organisme,' Paris, 1860; Ogle, St. George's 1L>.<[>. Rep., London, 1866, vol. i, p. 233; 

 Rixger and Rickards, Lancet, London, 1866, vol. ii, p. 208; Cuny Bouvier, Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1869, 

 Bd. ii, S. 370; Godfrix, 'Del'alcool, son action physiologique, ses applications therapeutiques,' 1869; Weckeri.ixg, 

 Deutsches Arch. f. Uin. Med., Leipzig, 1877, Bd. xix, S. :!17; Zuntz, Fortschr. 'I. Med., Berlin, 1887; Geppert, Arch. 

 f. exper. Path. u. Pharmakol., Leipzig, Bd. xxii, 36; Parkes and Wollowicz, Proc. Roy. Soc. London, 1870, vol. xviii, 

 p. 362, found that alcohol in ordinary quantities had no effect on the temperature of a healthy man." 

 Therapeutic Gazette, February, 1890. 



