408 THE INFLUENCE OF COLD UPON THE BODY. 



previously in human bodies immediately after death, particularly when this re- 

 sulted from violent muscular spasm. Thus, for instance, Wunderlich found a 

 temperature of 45.375 C. in a body fifty-seven minutes after death from tetanus. 

 The causes of post-mortem elevation of temperature reside : 



1. In a transitory increase in heat-production after death, and especially 

 through the conversion of the viscid contents of the muscles (myosin) into the 

 solid form of coagulation (muscular rigidity). The muscle in the process of be- 

 coming rigid produces heat. All causes that excite rapid and intense muscular 

 rigidity including transitory spasm therefore favor post-mortem elevation of 

 temperature. Rapid coagulation of the blood must also contribute to the produc- 

 tion of heat. 



2. Further, a series of chemical processes take place in the interior of the 

 body soon after death that produce heat. When Valentin placed dead rabbits 

 in a chamber at the temperature of the body, and in which loss of heat from 

 the body was impossible, the internal temperature of the body rose constantly. 

 The processes that thus give rise to the production of heat after death take place 

 more rapidly in the first hour than in the second. The higher, further, the bodily 

 temperature at the moment of death, the more considerable will be the post-mortem 

 generation of heat. 



3. Diminished heat-dissipation after death is a third cause. As the circulation 

 is abolished within a few minutes, but little heat is given off from the cutaneous 

 surface of the cadaver, because in order that rapid loss of heat should take place 

 constantly renewed filling of the cutaneous vessels with warm blood is necessary. 



THE INFLUENCE OF COLD UPON THE BODY. 



Transitory slight cooling of the external integument causes either no change 

 in the bodily temperature or a slight elevation. The latter is dependent upon the 

 fact that both through reflex influences a more rapid molecular transformation 

 for purposes of heat-production is stimulated, as well as through contraction 

 of the small cutaneous vessels and the skin itself heat-dissipation is diminished. 

 The long-continued action of more intense cold, however, causes reduction in 

 temperature, particularly through conduction, in spite of increased heat-production 

 at the same time. Thus, after cold baths the temperature may be 34 or 32 C., 

 and even as low as 30 C. Cold baths at a temperature below 25 cause the 

 cutaneous temperature to fall as low as 19. Within the interior of the body 

 the temperature, after remaining stationary for a moment, declines in proportion 

 to the intensity of the cooling. If the cooling be continued the body is placed 

 in the condition of that of a cold-blooded animal. 



As an after-effect of marked abstraction of heat, it is found that the bodily 

 temperature remains for some time lower than it had been before primary after- 

 effect. It was, for example, only 22 C. in the rectum at the end of an hour. 

 The designation secondary after-effect is applied to the elevation of temperature 

 that takes place after the primary after-effect has been neutralized. This begins 

 after cold baths at the end of from five to eight hours, and reaches in the rectum 

 about 0.2 C. In an analogous manner Hoppe-Seyler observed in the course of 

 a short time a decline in the bodily temperature after the action of heat upon 

 the body. 



Catching Cold. If the body of a rabbit is suddenly cooled after exposure to 

 a surrounding temperature of 35" C. transitory diarrhea occurs at times, in addition 

 to shivering. In the course of one or two days the temperature rises 1.5 C. and 

 albuminuria sets in. Kidneys, liver, lungs, heart, nerve-sheaths, exhibit micro- 

 scopic traces of interstitial inflammation; the dilated arteries, particularly in the 

 liver and the lungs, contain thrombi, and the adjacent veins migrated leukocytes. 

 In pregnant animals even the fetus exhibited the same conditions. In explanation 

 of the phenomenon the question may be discussed whether increased destruction 

 of the cellular elements does not take place in the greatly cooled blood. 



Freezing. As a result of the long-continued action of high degrees of cold 

 upon the skin , the musculature of the skin and its vessels contracts at first , in con- 

 sequence of the stimulating influence of the cold, and pallor of the integument 

 develops. If the action be maintained, paralysis of the walls of the vessels takes 

 place, and the skin becomes reddened, with dilatation of the vessels. As the pas- 

 sage of fluids through the capillaries is seriously embarrassed in consequence of 

 the action of the cold, stagnation of the blood results. This soon makes itself 

 manifest as livid discoloration, as the oxygen is almost consumed in the small 



