188 MAN --AN ADAPTIVE MECHANISM 



impulses to the muscles is further supported by the 

 fact that fever may be produced by brain activity 

 alone in the absence of infection and without any 

 visible activity of the skeletal muscles. In experiments 

 in which animals were subjected to fear without any 

 accompanying exertion of the skeletal muscles a rise 

 in temperature was invariably manifested. The tem- 

 perature of the anxious friends and relatives of a 

 patient will rise while they await the outcome of an 

 operation. In one instance at Lakeside Hospital when 

 a young woman with Graves' disease was undergoing 

 an operation under anoci association, the pulse of her 

 waiting mother mounted to 140 and her temperature 

 to 100 degrees, while the pulse and temperature of the 

 daughter showed no change. 



The temperature of a patient will frequently rise 

 a degree or more as the result of the visit of a tactless 

 friend who perhaps has exaggerated the danger of the 

 illness or has given vehement expression to her grief. 

 There is a traditional Sunday rise of temperature in 

 hospital wards, where additional visitors are allowed 

 on that day, in spite of the fact that the visitor has 

 brought no additional infection and that the patient 

 has made no muscular exertion. In a ward in Lake- 

 side Hospital containing fifteen children there was an 

 average increase in temperature of one and one eighth 

 degrees as a result of a Fourth-of-July celebration. 



In the presence of a fever-producing infection, mus- 

 cular exertion or other motor stimulation causes addi- 

 tional fever and brain-cell changes greater than would 

 be produced by the infection alone. Apparently, 

 therefore, heat and motion are interchangeable prod- 



