VARIATIONS IN THE MEAN BODILY TEMPERATURE. 



39 1 



VARIATIONS IN THE MEAN BODILY TEMPERATURE. 



General Climatic and Somatic Influences. The bodily temperature 

 remains on the whole constant within different climates. This is note- 

 worthy if it be considered that a human being at the equator and in 

 the polar regions is exposed to surrounding temperatures that differ from 

 each other by more than 40 C. Further, it has been observed that when 

 a person passes from a warm to a cold climate his temperature declines 

 but little, but that when an individual passes from a cold to a hot 

 region his temperature rises relatively in more considerable degree. In 

 the temperate zone the bodily temperature in the cold winter-season is 

 usually from o.itoo.3C. lower than on hot summer days . The elevation 

 of a region above the level of the sea has no demonstrable influence 

 upon the temperature. Race and sex cause no difference. Persons of 

 vigorous constitution are believed to have a somewhat higher tempera- 

 ture in general than debilitated, flabby, anemic persons. 



Influence of the General Metabolism. As the production of heat 

 is related to the breaking up of chemical combinations, from which, in 

 addition to the formation of water, carbon dioxid and urea finally result 

 as the most important excrementitious products, the amount of heat 

 generated will keep pace with the total production of those bodies formed. 

 The increased metabolic activity that sets in after a heavy meal causes 

 an elevation of several degrees in temperature. As the general metabol- 

 ism is naturally much less on days of fasting than on days on which a 

 normal amount of food is taken, it is clear that in human beings the 

 temperature will be found to be on the average 36.6 on fasting days 

 and 37.17 C. on ordinary days. 



Also Jiirgensen found in human beings on the first day of inanition a reduction 

 in the temperature, although on the second day a transitory elevation occurred. 

 In experiments on fasting animals it was found that the temperature declined 

 much at first, then for a considerable time remained pretty constant, and finally 

 in the last days declined still further. Schmidt subjected a cat to starvation, 

 and found that up to the fifteenth day the temperature was 38.6 C.; on the six- 

 teenth day it was 38.3, on the seventeenth, 37.64, on the eighteenth, 35.8, on 

 the nineteenth, the day of death, 33 C. Chossat found the temperature of 

 mammals and birds 16 C. lower on the day of death from starvation than under 

 normal conditions. 



Influence of Age. The activity of the general metabolism must be 

 in part responsible for the temperature of the body at different ages, but 

 other influences of undetermined origin may also in part be contributory. 



According to Chelmonski the bodily temperature is somewhat lower in the 

 old, and the evening temperature lower than the morning temperature. 



