580 AN AMERICAN TEXT- BO OK OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



the temperature of the hand 0.19 C., and that if the period was doubled the 

 fall amounted to 0.38 C. Compression of the veins of the arm may diminish 

 the temperature of the hand as much as 0.25 to 2.45 C., while compression 

 of the brachial artery may cause a fall of 2.4 within fifteen minutes. A larger 

 supply of blood to the cutaneous surface increases cutaneous temperature and 

 tends to decrease internal temperature, while a lessened supply causes the 

 opposite effects. 



In abnormal conditions the temperature may be increased or decreased : in 

 cholera, diabetes, and in the last stages of insanity, it may be lowered 6 or 

 8 C. or even more. In fever it is increased, usually ranging between 37.5 

 and 41.5 C. (99.4 and 106.7 F.), but in very rare cases it may reach 44 to 

 45 C. (111 to 113 F.) just before death. A temperature of 42.5 C. 

 (108.5 F.) maintained for several hours is almost inevitably fatal. In frogs, 

 the highest temperature consistent with life for any length of time is below 

 40 C. ; in birds, from 48 to 50 C., and in dogs, from 43 to 45 C. Ex- 

 ceptional cases are on record of people having survived extraordinarily high 

 or low bodily temperature, Richet having reported one in which the tempera- 

 ture several times was 46 C. (114.8 F.), while Teale records an axillary tem- 

 perature of 50 C. (122F.) in an hysterical (?) woman. Frantzel noted a 

 temperature of 24.6 C. (76.2 F.) in a drunken man, and Kosiirew a temper- 

 ture of 26.5 C. (79.7 F.) in a man having a fractured skull. 



Bodily temperature may be variously influenced by drugs and other sub- 

 stances, micro-organisms, etc. Some increase it, others decrease it, others are 

 without any marked influence, while others exert primary and secondary 

 actions. Among those which increase bodily temperature are cocain, atropin, 

 strychnin, brucin, caffein, veratrin, etc., and, as shown by Krehl l and others, a 

 large number of other organic substances and micro-organisms. Temperature 

 is decreased by anaesthetics, morphin and other hypnotics, quinin, various 

 antipyretics, large doses of alcohol, etc. 



Among the most important of the conditions which affect bodily tempera- 

 ture are disturbances of the nervous system. Injury or irritation of almost 

 any part of the nerve-centres and of certain nerves may give rise directly or 

 indirectly to alterations of temperature, and there are some parts which are 

 very sensitive in this respect, especially certain areas of the brain cortex, the 

 striated bodies, the pons Varolii, the spinal bulb, and the cutaneous nerves. 

 The results of injury or stimulation of these as well as of other parts will 

 be considered later on (p. 600). 



Temperature-regulation. The fact that during life the organism is con- 

 tinually producing and losing heat, and that the bodily temperature of homo- 

 thermous animal is maintained at an almost uniform standard, notwithstanding 

 considerable mutations of surrounding temperature, renders it evident that 

 there exists an important mechanism whereby the regulation of the relations 

 between heat-prod u'cti on and heat-dissipation is effected. It must be evident 

 that when the variations in heat-production and heat-dissipation balance, bodily 

 1 Archiv fur experimenielle Pathologie und Pharmakologie, 1895, vol. 35, pp. 222-268. 



