CONTROL OF BODY TEMPERATURE AND FEVER 717 



magnitude of the change in cutaneous circulation is nevertheless depend- 

 ent upon the extent of the area of the body that is opposed to the change 

 in temperature, as seen in the dilatation of the skin vessels prior to a 

 rise in body temperature when a person is immersed in a warm bath. 



Although afferent impulses from the skin are therefore of great im- 

 portance in adjusting the cutaneous blood supply according to the 

 amount of surface cooling that has to occur, a further effect is also pro- 

 duced on them by the action on the nerve centers of temperature dif- 

 ferences in the blood itself. Thus, when the temperature of blood going 

 to the brain is raised by placing the carotid arteries on some heating de- 

 vice or when the region of the corpora striata is directly warmed, the 

 skin vessels become dilated as if the animal had been exposed to general 

 warmth. 



When the loss of heat by radiation and conduction is no longer ade- 

 quate to prevent a rise in body temperature, or when the processes can 

 not operate on account of a high temperature in the environment, the 

 loss of heat from the skin is mainly dependent upon the evaporation of 

 sweat. Under ordinary conditions this evaporation takes place at such 

 a rate that there is no visible perspiration on the surface of the body 

 the so-called insensible perspiration. "When the heat loss by this channel 

 must become greater, the perspiration is produced in larger amount, so 

 that it collects on the surface of the body ; and, provided the conditions of 

 the environment are such that evaporation can readily take place (low 

 relative humidity), the amount of cooling of the body that can be effected 

 becomes very great. A man may exist without any marked rise in body 

 temperature in a very hot environment even when he is exposed to an out- 

 side temperature that is the same as that of his body, or even greater. To 

 encourage evaporation, however, he should be naked or very lightly clad, 

 and the air should be kept in constant motion so that the layers of air 

 next to the skin, which ordinarily very quickly become saturated with 

 vapor, are transferred and replaced by dryer air. Movement of the air 

 also increases the heat loss by conduction, provided the temperature of 

 the air is not too near that of the body. 



The importance of the movement of air in the regulation of heat loss 

 has been clearly demonstrated by Leonard Hill, 54 F. S. Lee, and others, who 

 have found that a great part of the discomfort experienced by living in 

 stagnant air can be obviated by putting the air in motion by electric fans 

 without doing anything to improve its chemical purity. In one famous 

 experiment a number of young men were placed in an air-tight cabinet 

 at the ordinary temperature of the room. After a time they began to 

 exhibit the symptoms usually attributed to polluted air; they became 

 drowsy and some of them developed headaches, etc. A small electric 



