ii THE THEEMIC ECONOMY OF THE ORGANISM VI 



inverting the mode of life, obtained the maximum temperature in 

 the morning (37'8) and the minimum in the evening (35'3). 

 Carter (1890) mentions that in an engineer who was in the habit 

 of sleeping during the day and working at night, the temperature 

 was 37'25 in the morning and 36 '8 at night. Finally, Jager 

 (1881) records observations on four army bakers who worked at 

 night, and in whom he found at all events a partial inversion of 

 the normal curve of temperature, which disappeared when one of 

 the bakers remained a whole day in bed. 



Other observers, however, did not succeed in getting a real 

 inversion of the daily curve of temperature, but merely a 

 modification of it. Thus U. Mosso (1887), after a four days' 



P.M. A.M. P.M. 



8 9 10 11 12 12 34 567 8 10 11 12 1 23456 



FIG. 15. Daily variations in the temperature of the body (Benedict and Snell). 



The upper curve is the usual curve of rest, when nourishment is given at the ordinary hours; 

 the lower curve was obtained on the tenth day after inverting the hours of meals and sleep. 



inversion of the normal mode of life, found a partial displacement 

 of the hours of maximum and minimum temperature. He also 

 found that the average temperature increased from 36'7 to 37*0 ; 

 he could not, however, obtain a complete inversion of the curve. 

 During sleep, from 11 A.M. to 6 P.M., he observed on the fourth 

 day a relative lowering of the temperature, but not the maximum 

 fall ; during waking hours he obtained a double rise of tempera- 

 ture, one from 8 to 9 A.M., the other between 7 and 9 P.M. 



By means of the method already mentioned, Benedict and 

 Snell repeated the experiments of inversion of the mode of life 

 on a young man for a period of ten successive days and failed to 

 invert the daily curve of temperature, as will be seen clearly by 

 comparing the normal curve with that obtained on the tenth 

 day of inversion of the mode of life (Fig. 15). 



This resistance of the nervous system which controls the 



