I9I4.] CRILE— THE KINETIC SYSTEM. 273 



(b) The temperature of the anxious friends of patients will rise 

 while they await the outcome of an operation. 



(c) The temperature of patients will rise as a result of the mere 

 anticipation of a surgical operation. 



(d) There are innumerable clinical observations as to the effect 

 of emotional excitation on the temperature of patients. A rise of 

 a degree or more is a common result of a visit from a tactless friend. 

 There is a traditional Sunday increase of temperature in hospital 

 wards. Now the visitor does not bring and administer more infec- 

 tion to the patient to cause this rise, and the rise of temperature 

 occurs even if the patient does not make the least muscular exertion 

 as a result of the visit. I observed an average increase of one and 

 one eighth degrees of temperature in a ward of fifteen children as a 

 result of a Fourth of July celebration. 



Is the contribution of the brain to the production of heat due to 

 the conversion of latent energy directly into heat, or does the brain 

 produce heat principally by converting its latent energy into electri- 

 city or some similar form of transmissible energy which through 

 nerve connections stimulates other organs and tissues, which in turn 

 convert their stores of latent energy into heat? 



According to Starling, when the connection between the brain 

 and the muscles of an animal is severed by curare, by anesthetics, 

 by the division of the cord and nerves, then the heat-producing power 

 of the animal so modified is on a level with that of cold-blooded ani- 

 mals. With cold the temperature falls, with heat it rises. Such an 

 animal has no more control over the conversion of latent energy into 

 heat than it has over the conversion of latent energy into motion. 



Electric stimulation done over a period of time causes brain- 

 cell changes, and electric stimulation of muscles causes a rise in 

 temperature. 



Summary. 



In our crossed circulation experiments we found that the 

 brain-cell changes were not due to waste products or to meta- 

 bolic poisons. We found that in the production both of muscular 

 action and of fever there were brain-cell changes which showed a 

 quantitative relation to the temperature changes or to the muscular 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, LIII, 215, P, PRINTED DeC. II, I914. 



