440 DR MACLAGAN ON THE TEMPERATURE OF NEW-BORN CHILDREN. 



these orifices cannot be accurately ascertained. Their obliteration is extremely 

 rare before the completion of the first week of separate existence ; but cases are 

 on record in which the foramen ovale, and others in which the ductus arteriosus 

 has been found obliterated before birth; whilst there are recorded several in 

 which the foramen ovale was patulous for many years. 



The natural vigour of the child seems to exercise some influence on the extent 

 and duration of the fall which takes place after birth. 



I made some calculations with the object of finding out whether the weight 

 of the child at birth or the weight of the placenta bore any fixed relationship to 

 the child's range of temperature, but failed to establish any necessary connection. 

 The only conclusion to which I came was, that those children which gave the 

 most decided indications of being in a vigorous healthy state were also those in 

 whom the temperature fell least, and in whom it soonest again rose to the 

 normal standard. In a feeble seven months' child the range fell to 90°*2, and 

 only once rose as high as 94°-6, during the thirteen days that it was under 

 observation. In another case, a vigorous healthy child, born at the full time, the 

 lowest point was 96°, and in two hours after birth the standard of health was 

 reached. 



It is very probable that the vigour of a healthy child, and the higher range 

 which it shows, are both merely evidences of a better developed state of the 

 organs generally, and especially of the nervous and circulatory systems, on the 

 integrity of which the production of a due amount of heat is dependent. 





