32 



man as I have found it, and that of woman as Berger has found 

 it, we have a number very near 102 F. (38. 9 Cs.) 



From these facts we draw the conclusion that the temperature of 

 the thoracic and abdominal viscera, in the human species and in 

 both sexes, is between 102 and 103 F. (38^.89 and 39.44 Cs.), 

 i. e., some degrees higher than it is generally admitted. 



XI. ON THE INFLUENCE EXERTED UPON THE GENERAL TEMPERA- 

 TURE OF THE BODY BY A CHANGE IN THE TEMPERATURE OF ONE 

 OF THE EXTREMITIES. 



The following sentence is given, as an axiom, by Dr. W. F. 

 Edwards : We cannot either raise or lower the temperature of 

 any one part of the body, without all the other parts of the frame 

 being affected and suffering a corresponding rise or fall in tem- 

 perature, more or less, according to circumstances."* 



Expressed in such terms, we accept this law as perfectly true. 

 But the author elsewhere gives an extension to this law, which 

 we will prove to be incorrect. No doubt when the temperature 

 of the blood, coming to the heart from a remote part of the 

 body, has been modified in that part, the thoracic viscera ought 

 to have their temperature modified ; but to what extent ? It is 

 on this very important point that we do not agree with Dr. 

 Edwards. He was of opinion that the influence exerted by a 

 small part, on all the other parts of the body, was considerable. 

 He says that the chilling of a single part, such as the hand or 

 the foot, may cause a loss of temperature in all the other parts 

 of the frame, even far beyond what could have been presumed as 

 likely or possible, and that in a number of experiments where one 

 hand was plunged in water cooled down by ice, the other hand, 

 which was not subjected to the action of the cold bath, lost 

 nearly 5 H. (11.25 F., 6.25 Cs.) in temperature. 



It will be easily understood how important it would be that 

 practitioners should be able to act on the general temperature of 

 a patient, so as to increase or diminish it, by means of a hand or 

 a foot bath. I ,regret to say that if the facts observed by 

 Edwards are exact, his conclusion nevertheless is incorrect. 



* Article Ani?nal Heat, in Todd's Cyclop, of Anat. and Physiol., 1839, 

 t. ii., p. 660. 



