A STUDY OF FEVER, 23 



cutting it, and placed the animal in the warm chest for the 

 space of ten hours ; at the end of this time the bodily heat had 

 risen six-tenths of a degree only. The following day the cord 

 was divided and the animal replaced in the warm chest : in the 

 first twenty minutes the bodily temperature fell nearly one 

 degree, but in the next hour and twenty minutes, at end of 

 which time death occurred, rose three degrees. 



It seems to me indisputably established that the secondary 

 rise of temperature, after division of the cord, as well as the 

 primar}^ fall, are in some way produced by the operation. 



The question here logically presents itself, Is the first fall of 

 temperature due to a lessened production of animal heat or an 

 abnormal throwing off of the bodily heat? Tscheschichin (he. 

 cit., pp. 154, 177) found that the temperature in the interior of 

 the body sank more rapidly than that of the external parts after 

 section of the cord ; thus, in one experiment, the mercury in 

 two thermometers, which had their bulbs respectively in the 

 intestines and underneath the skin of the animal, differed before 

 the operation in height eight-tenths degree F., whilst some 

 time after the operation thc}^ only differed one-tenth degree F. 

 Dr. Tscheschichin seems to believe that this experiment proves 

 a markedl}^ increased throwing out of heat after the operation 

 — an induction which does not seem to me logically correct. 



Granting that after division of the cord the inner parts of 

 the body always lose their heat faster than do the outer parts, 

 I do not see that this proves anything more than that after the 

 operation the intercommunication between the interior and 

 exterior portions of the body is freer than normal. In fact, 

 however, the phenomenon is not constant, as is proved hy the 

 following experiment, in which the external thermometer fell 

 much faster than did the internal. 



