TEMPERATURE OF HUMAN BODY. 243 



in the axilla was found by Dr. John Davy to stand at 

 98 F., at the loins it indicated a temperature of 96 J, on 

 the thigh 94, on the leg 93 or 91, on the sole of the foot 

 90. In disease, the temperature of the body may deviate, 

 by several degrees above and below, from the average of 

 health. In some diseases, as scarlatina and typhus, it 

 rises as high as 106 or 107 F. ; and in children, M. Roger 

 has observed the temperature of the skin to be raised to 

 1 08 '5 Fah. In the morlus cceruleus, in which there is 

 defective arterialization of the blood from malformation of 

 the heart, the temperature of the body is often as low as 

 79 or 7 7 J; in Asiatic cholera a thermometer placed in 

 the mouth sometimes rises only to 77 or 79. M. Roger 

 observed the temperature of the body in children to be 

 sometimes reduced in disease to 74*3. 



The temperature of the body in health is about i-J F. 

 lower during sleep than while awake. According to Dr. 

 Davy it is highest in the morning after rising from sleep, 

 continues high but fluctuating till evening, and is lowest 

 about midnight. Sustained mental exertion elevates it 

 slightly; continued bodily exercise does so to a certain 

 extent; after feeding, also, it is somewhat raised. All 

 these facts are important, both as showing variations in 

 the temperature of the body correspondent with those 

 in the production of carbonic acid in the same circum- 

 stances, and as proving that the influence which slight 

 changes in the organic economy of warm-blooded animals 

 have, is as great or greater than that exercised by 

 even extreme variation in the external temperature to 

 which they are exposed. For in warm climates, Dr. Davy 

 found the temperature of the interior of the body only 

 from 2*7 to 3-6 F. higher than in temperate climates; 

 and during the voyage of the "Bonite," the French 

 naturalists, who had an opportunity of observing the 

 influence of various climates on the same persons, found 

 that the temperature of the human body rises and falls in 



