A STUDY IN MORBID AND NORMAL P II Y S I O L (i V. 9 



experiments of Brunton arc of course completely parallel with those in which I 

 exposed cinimals in hot air ; in hoth instances there was a great rise in the rapidity 

 of the cardiac action. 



It is of course impossible to experiment directly upon man, but the brain and 

 the heart of man must be subject to the san)e laws, so far as regards such forces as 

 heat, as are the same organs of other animals. It is simply inconceivable tliat what 

 has been proven as true of the lower animals is not true of man. Moreover, we 

 have very direct evidence that heat does affect the organs of man as it does those 

 of animals. 



Thus we have an elaborate study on the action of fe\er heat upon the pulse of 

 man, by Dr. C. Liebermeister, who analyzed the records of 280 cases of acute dis- 

 order not directly affecting the brain or heart, accompanied by a rise of tempera- 

 ture, and mostly observed by himself. The following table represents the minimum, 

 maximum, and mean: — 



There are so many factors entering into the causation of increased action of the 

 circulation in febrile diseases, that it is to be expected tliat tlu' minimum and maxi- 

 mum will not obey any tixed law, but in a very large ninnber of observations tlie 

 action of the general cause of the increased pulse-rate becomes manifest, and the 

 table shows with what great regularity the pulse rises with the temperature. 



When these clinical studies are placed in conjunction with the experiments of 

 Lauder Brunton, they sliow that ele\ated temperature; acts directly in increasing 

 the pulse-rate, and that it is apparently cai)al)le of producing all the circulatory 

 phenomena of fever. Consequently, the following proposition may be considered 

 as demonstrated: Heat applied locally to (he brain or to tlie heart produces in the 

 functions of the organ those disturbances wliich are familiar phenomena of fever, 

 the intensity of the disturbances being directly proportionate to the excess of heat. 



And if heat be the cause of the symptoms of fever, and if the propositions just 

 stated be true, the withdrawal of the heat should be followed by a subsidence of 

 the symptoms. It is plain, however, that if the heat have persisted too long it 

 may have wrought permanent alteration in the nervous sy.stem. Hence the with- 

 drawal of the heat must be sufficiently early to be a fair test of the truth of the 

 conclusion reached by a priori reasoning. 



The following experiments were ixrformed to determine the results of an early 

 withdrawal of heat. 



Experiment 17. 



A 3-oung raliljit was put in a. glass box .set in tlie sun ; in tn^-nly niinntrs he was api^arontly totally 

 unconscious, having passed through all the oixlinary symptoms. He was imw taken out, and jiut in 

 a bucket of water. Tlie temperature of his body rapidly fell to the nornnd, that of tlu^ water rising 

 two degrees, and consciousness was restored at once. He was very weak, but in a few minutes was 

 able to walk some, and the next day wa.s as well as ever. 

 2 March, 1S80. 



