820 ANIMAL HEAT, 



the dog became very languid ; the venous blood of dogs kept in a warm 

 bath had an arterial colour, whereas a cold bath, 7 '2, rendered the 

 blood in the jugular vein very dark. More extended observations were 

 made by Hoppe l upon both the immediate and after effects of baths 

 upon dogs. The rectal temperature of a dog placed in water at 48 

 for three minutes rose from 3 8 7 5 to 41 -45 ; a cold bath at 9'12, 

 lasting half a minute, caused a fall of 1 ; a bath of freezing water, 

 lasting respectively two and four minutes, produced a fall of 17 and 

 4 - 88 Tjelow the normal. Hoppe found that the temperature fell during 

 a cold bath but afterwards rose above the normal, that it rose during 

 a hot bath but afterwards fell below the normal. The sensation of 

 cold stimulated the organism to an increased production of heat, for 

 if evaporation from the wet skin wfs rapid the temperature rose, but 

 if it was hindered by a covering of rubber the temperature fell. 



Bernard 2 found that very hot baths quickly caused death, the 

 symptoms being similar to those observed from exposure to hot air. 



The influence of certain drugs upon the temperature of the 

 body. Alcohol? The effect of alcohol is a fall in temperature, and 

 not, as is popularly believed, an increased heat of the body. It is 

 true that after the use of alcohol there is a feeling of increased warmth, 

 but this is due only to the increased vascularity of the skin and the 

 activity of the sweat glands. 



Alcohol seems to act in two ways : it has little or no effect upon 

 the production of heat in the tissues, but greatly increases the loss of 

 heat by causing the cutaneous vessels to dilate, stimulating the sweat 

 glands and quickening the circulation. The normal reaction to cold, 

 namely, increased production of heat and contraction of the cutaneous 

 vessels, is partly paralysed by large doses of alcohol, with the result that 

 drunkards exposed to cold quickly " freeze " to death. 



Various observers 4 have found that alcohol taken in ordinary quan- 

 tities as a beverage causes a slight depression, generally less than half 

 a degree, in the temperature of healthy men ; on the other hand, 

 poisonous doses may cause a fall of five or six degrees in fact, many 

 of the lowest temperatures recorded in man have been observed in 

 drunken persons exposed to cold. 



Experiments upon animals have given similar results. Walther 5 

 exposed two rabbits to a temperature of 21 0- 2 below zero ; in two and a 

 quarter hours the temperature of the normal rabbit fell from 3 8 '8 to 

 35'6, while that of the rabbit which had received 35 c.c. of brandy fell 

 from 38'8 to 19'8. A guinea-pig was given a dose of 6 or 7 grms. 

 of brandy, and then exposed to moderate cold; its temperature fell 10, 



1 Virchoitfs Archiv, 1857, Bd. xi. S. 453. 



2 This article, p. 815. 



3 For further details, see works on therapeutics. 



4 Davy, Phil. Trans., London, 1850, p. 444 ; Lichtenfels and Frohlich, DenJcschriften 

 d. k. Akad. d. Wissensch., Wien, 1852, Bd. iii. Abth. 2, S. 131 ; Lallemand, Perrin, and 

 Duroy, " Du role de 1'alcool et des anesthe'siques dans 1'organisine," Paris, 1860; Ogle, 

 St. George's Hosp. Rep,, London, 1866, vol. i. p. 233. Ringer and Bickards, Lancet, 

 London, 1866, vol. ii. p. 208; Cuny Bouvier, Arch, f. d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1869, 

 Bd. ii. S. 370 ; Godfrin, " De 1'alcool, son action physiologique, ses applications the"ra- 

 peutiques," 1869 ; Weckerling, Deutsches Arch. f. Tdin. Med., Leipzig, 1877, Bd. xix. 

 S. 317 ; Zuntz, Fortschr. d. Med., Berlin, 1887 ; Geppert, Arch. /. exper. Path. u. Phar- 

 maJcol., Leipzig, Bd. xxii. Parkes and Wollowicz, Proc. Roy. Soc. London, 1870, vol. xviii. 

 p. 362, found that alcohol in ordinary quantities had no effect on the temperature of a 

 healthy man. 



5 Arch. f. Anat., Pkysiol. u. wiswnxch. Med., Leipzig, 1865, S. 45. 



