September 9, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



343 



specimens illustrating the subject of evolution, 

 of adaptation to environment, protective col- 

 oration, natural variation and variation pro- 

 duced by man — as in domesticated animals — 

 as well as series showing the characters and 

 affinities of various groups of animals. In 

 short, these collections form a museum in 

 themselves, and it is along the educational 

 lines laid down by Plower that modern mu- 

 seums are bound to progress. The old type 

 of museum with its interminable and monot- 

 anous rows of scantily labeled specimens is, 

 if not a thing of the past, a thing that is 

 passing and the success or failure of the 

 ' museum man ' will be judged by the standard 

 set by Flower. 



Although devoting his energies mainly to 

 museum work, he yet found time for original 

 research and for a very considerable amount 

 of literary labor, how much may best be gath- 

 ered from the bibliography at the end of the 

 volume. The ' Osteology of the Mammalia,' 

 and ' Mammals, Living and Extinct,' the lat- 

 ter prepared with the collaboration of R. Ly- 

 dekker and the outgrowth of articles in the 

 ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' are his most com- 

 prehensive works and will always remain 

 standard books of reference. 



A man of high scientific attainments, the 

 friend of Huxley, Darwin and Hooker, his 

 greatest work was undoubtedly the impetus 

 he gave the progress of science by making it 

 not merely intelligible, but deeply interesting 

 to the average observer from whom must ulti- 

 mately come the support of scientific research. 



E. A. Lucas. 



Museum of the Brooklyn Institute 

 OF Arts and Sciences. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



ANIMAL HEAT AND FEVER. 



To THE Editor of Science: I have recently 

 been engaged in a clinical study of fever, and 

 as I am out of reach of any adequate reference 

 library, I thought you would kindly permit 

 me the use of your columns for a request for in- 

 formation as to the latest work which has been 

 done on the problems of animal heat and fever. 



The data which I have been able to collect 

 appear to have established fairly clearly that 



fever is accompanied, not merely by dimin- 

 ished loss of heat (thermolysis), but also by in- 

 creased production of heat (thermogenesis), 

 vjithout increase of oxidation. 



The points upon which I should like infor- 

 mation are : 



1. Is animal heat, or body-temperature, to 

 be regarded as a vital necessity, or merely an 

 accompaniment of the really vital, metabolic 

 changes? The perfection of constructive and 

 growth processes not merely in cold-blooded 

 animals, but particularly in plants, would ap- 

 pear to afford ground for this belief. 



2. Have we any grounds for regarding the 

 particular body-temperature of a given species 

 of animal as roughly an index of the friction 

 of the body-engine, and body heat as energy 

 wasted ? 



3. Are the processes which control the tem- 

 perature chiefly concerned with the dissipation 

 of heat before it can have accumulated suffi- 

 ciently to become injurious to the organism? 



4. Are we justified in believing that the 

 energy which enters into the normal activities 

 of the body, secretion, motion, growth, is more 

 nearly electrical than thermic in character? 



5. Has the work done three or four years 

 ago by Robin and Henrijean, showing that 

 oxidation is not increased in fever (as meas- 

 ured by the oxygen intake and the carbon 

 dioxid output), but on the contrary dimin- 

 ished, been supported by later research? 



6. If this be true, are we justified in regard- 

 ing fever as, to put it very crudely, an increase 

 of friction in the vital machine, with conse- 

 quent dissipation of heat, due to the disturb- 

 ing influence of toxins, whether introduced 

 from without or formed within the body? 



The recent researches of Roger, Sanarelli 

 and Metchnikoff show clearly that the natural 

 effect of the toxin is to depress the tempera- 

 ture, and if the dose be large enough, or the 

 resisting power of the animal sufficiently low- 

 ered, that depression will continue until death 

 results in chill (hypothermia), without the oc- 

 currence of any reaction, or rise of tempera- 

 ture at all. 



7. Would it not appear as if the increased 

 temperature of fever was due to the sudden 

 diversion by the toxin of all the energy which 



