408 VITAL HEAT. 



axilla it is about 37.1 C., although some observers have placed it as 

 low as 36.25 C., and others as high as 37.5 C. ; under the tongue, 

 about 37.5 C. ; and in the rectum about 38 C. The temperature of 

 the liver, about 41.39 C. in the sheep, is regarded as the highest 

 in the body : and higher here during digestion than in the inter- 

 vals. The mean temperature of the blood may be stated as 39 

 C. The temperature of the muscles is increased in contraction 

 1 degree C. Mental exertion also increases the production of 

 heat. After such exertion the temperature of the body has been 

 found to be 0.3 degree C. higher than before. 



Temperature at Different Ages. The temperature of the 

 child just born is 37.86 C. (rectum) ; in twenty-four hours, 37.45 

 C. (rectum). From five to nine years of age it is 37.72 C. (rec- 

 tum); from twenty-five to thirty, 36.91 C. (axilla) : from fifty-one 

 to sixty, 36.83 C. (axilla); and at eighty, 37.46 C'. (mouth). The 

 amount of heat produced in old people is less than that in the mid- 

 dle-aged, and they therefore need greater protection from the cold. 



Daily Variations in Temperature. The temperature of an 

 individual is not the same at all times of the day. His lowest 

 temperature is between 2 and 6 o'clock A. M.; it rises during the 

 day, and at about 4 to 8 P. M. is at its height, falling again until 

 it reaches the minimum in the early morning. Thus, in one set of 

 observations, at 5 A. M. the thermometer registered 36.6 C.; at 

 8 P. M. 37.7 C.; and at 2 A. M. the following day, 36.7 C., and, 

 as shown by recent experiments of Benedict, a chart representing 

 these variations undergoes but slight changes under varying con- 

 ditions, the temperature reaching the minimum at 2 to 6 A. M., " in- 

 dependent of whether the subject is sleeping soundly and in the 

 recumbent position, or whether he is awake and sitting, or even 

 standing and walking." In these experiments no tendency to an in- 

 version of the temperature-curve by inverting the daily routine of 

 life was observed. If the temperature is taken every hour during 

 a day, the mean of the readings is called the " daily mean/ 7 and is 

 about 37.13 C. in the rectum. 



Remarkable Instances of High and I,ow Tempera- 

 ture. The lowest temperature which the writer has been able to 

 find was 24 C. This was in a drunken person who recovered 

 from his debauch. A case of myxedema is reported in the Lon- 

 don Lancet in which, on the day previous to death, the tempera- 

 ture varied from 19 C. to 25 C. In the same journal is recorded 

 a case of shock produced by a fall on the spine, in which the tem- 

 perature fluctuated between 47 C. and 50 C., and for seven 

 weeks did not fall below 42 C. 



The following case, recorded in the Brooklyn Medical Journal, 

 illustrates the remarkable variations of temperature which may 

 take place in a few hours. The patient was a man aged forty- 

 eight ; the diagnosis of the case was intermittent fever. He had 

 been treated two or three months before for delirium tremens. 



