METABOLISM 



231 



during muscular or mental or glandular work, in very young persons, and 

 in small individuals, these conditions being examples of especially active 

 katabolism. The normal diurnal variation, say between 5 A.M. and 5 P.M., 

 is nearly 1, in young children and nervous women often more a fact 

 often forgotten by physicians. The extreme range compatible with life 

 is large. Reincke reported a rectal temperature of 24 in a drunkard 

 exposed to cold and water, and he survived. Most of the persons who 

 "freeze to death" are victims of alcohol rather than of cold. Teale 

 saw an hysterical woman with a temperature of 50, and Donkin recorded 

 44.2, 44.5, and 45, recovery taking place; Richet collected degrees of 

 heat, not fatal, even as high as 46. But a temperature of 41.5 (106.7 

 F.) or even 41 continued for several hours in an adult is very dangerous. 

 Halliburton has recently isolated from neural tissue a cell-globulin 

 which coagulates at from 45 to 50C. This is especially abundant in 

 the nervous gray-matter, but probably occurs in most, if not in all, cells. 



FIG. 125 



Diagram of the relative temperatures of the blood in various parts of the human body. The 

 liver's temperature is highest and that of the systemic veinlets the lowest. (Langlois.) 



A temperature of 47 leads to an instantaneous disappearance of the 

 chromatophile granules of the nerve-cells, but 44 also brings this about 

 after two hours. He supposes that the coagulation of this globulin, 

 therefore, is the cause of death when the body-temperature stays at this 

 point or passes much beyond it, that is, about 110 F. Insolation 

 (sun-stroke), scarlet fever, influenza, and meningitis are perhaps the 

 commonest causes of very high temperatures. 



Depression of the degree of heat below the mean is comparatively 

 infrequent. To the extent of 0.5 or so, however, it is not uncom- 

 mon, the most frequent causes being alcohol and exposure to cold 

 water. The temperature of animals other than man we need not 

 consider here. In general those of poikilo therms are 1 or 2 above 

 their environments, while those of homotherms range near that of 

 man, usually within 1 or 2, those of birds being especially high. The 

 phenomena of hibernation will be considered later. 



