54 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE ADRENALS. 



perature several degrees in healthy men and animals, this 

 hypothermia being preceded by a temporary rise. 



Ether was found by Angelesco 113 to lower the temperature 

 to a greater extent than chloroform. Ether-pneumonia would 

 thus appear to be but a manifestation of the suprarenal insuf- 

 ficiency started by the anaesthetic when the recuperative powers 

 of the organs are impaired. Hydrocyanic acid acts with such 

 promptness that the distinction between hypothermia and the 

 increasing coldness of the extremities preceding death cannot 

 be differentiated. Mercury was found by Kuperwasser 114 to 

 lower the temperature 2 C., in some instances, when admin- 

 istered in injudicious doses. Opium and its alkaloids are re- 

 ferred to as causing the skin to become cold and moist when 

 given in toxic doses. Oxalic acid in poisonous doses also gives 

 rise to livid surface and cold skin. Phosphorus is often at- 

 tended, when ingested in toxic doses, with what Wood terms 

 "a remarkable fall in the temperature/' the lowest point re- 

 corded some hours before death being 31.2 C. (88.2 F.). 

 Physostigma brought the temperature of a strong man down 

 to 96.6 F. Santonin poisoning is also attended with great 

 coldness of the surface. Silver salts have likewise been found 

 to lower the temperature of animals. 



Strychnine is another agent which enables us to verify the 

 correctness of the contention that a low peripheral temperature 

 means an increased central temperature. Wood refers to the 

 observations of Kionka, who showed that "the primary eleva- 

 tion of temperature which occurs in strychnine poisoning, both 

 in man and the lower animals, is in animals followed by a 

 pronounced fall, which takes place even if the convulsions per- 

 sist," and to the affirmations of Mosso, 115 that "even in cura- 

 rized dogs a very pronounced rise of rectal temperature may be 

 produced by strychnine." Very suggestive in this connection 

 is the denial credited to Delezenne, 116 "who states that in 

 curarized animals the exhibition of strychnine is always fol- 

 lowed by an abatement of the central temperature, which is 



118 Angelesco: La Semaine Medicale, Dec. 14, 1894. 



u * Kuperwasser: Archives des Sciences Biologiques de St. Petersburg, No. 6, 

 1898. 



115 Mosso: Archives italiennes de Biologic, 1886. 



118 Delezenne: Bulletin Medical du Nord, xxxiv, 1895. 



