102 DR SUTHERLAND SIMPSON AND DR J. J. GALBRAITH ON 



temperature, and when these two conditions are reversed with regard to the incidence 

 of night and day, the diurnal variation curve is inverted. 



The effect of the ingestion of food. — This, Richet (43) thinks, is probably only feeble. 

 A heavy dinner at 7 p.m. does not appreciably prevent the temperature from falling, 

 and the want of a mid-day meal does not prevent it rising. There is always an increase 

 in heat production after food, but Carter (5) has proved that body temperature and 

 heat production do not run parallel. In the case of individuals who have abstained from 

 food for even a very long time, the mean temperature is little affected. Tanner (44) 

 showed no fall in temperature after a 30 days' fast. Luciani (45) found the same in 

 the fasting man Succi, and Meklatti (46) had a temperature only very slightly below 

 the normal — 36 '8 — after 43 days' abstinence. This is assuming that these fasts were 

 genuine. 



The lower animals seem to differ somewhat from man in this respect. In two geese 

 deprived of food, Bardier (47) found the rectal temperature to be 40° and 39 '5° 

 respectively on the twelfth day, and on the seventeenth day, when they had lost 37 per 

 cent, of their body weight, it was 39 '1° and 39*2°. He does not state the temperature 

 before the experiment was begun. In animals and birds the effect on the temperature 

 appears to be most evident on the first or second day of the fast. Martius (48) found 

 the average temperature of four well- nourished ducks to be 42*2° ; they were then 

 deprived of food, and after 24 hours' fasting it was 41 '84° ; after 48 hours, 41 '8° ; after 

 72 hours, 41*91° ; after 90 hours, 41*94° ; and at the end of 120 hours it was 41*62°. 

 The fall was thus greatest during the first day. Chossat (40) has shown that the same 

 obtains in pigeons. In a fasting cat, Bidder and Schmidt (50) found that in 355 hours 

 the rectal temperature had fallen from 39*08° to 38*4° ; in 369 hours, to 38*1° ; in 393 

 hours, to 35*5° ; and in 426 hours, to 32*4°, when the animal died. These experiments 

 on the lower animals and birds in the fasting state appear to point to the fact that the 

 temperature falls somewhat rapidly the first and second day, then very slowly, if at all, 

 till towards the end, when there is a sudden and rapid fall immediately preceding death. 



In our observations on monkeys which fasted 72 hours, we have found that the fall 

 of temperature was greatest during the second day, in three cases amounting to nearly 

 1° C. (For details see pp. 95-96.) In some cases the mean for the first day showed a 

 slight rise, in other cases a slight fall, and similarly for the third day, but in every case 

 the second day showed a fall. The average mean temperature of the five monkeys 

 showed a slight rise the first day — 0*02° ; a marked fall the second day — 0*56°, and a 

 slight fall the third day — 0*05°, when the experiment was stopped. Similarly, during 

 the after-period, when feeding was resumed, the change was most marked on the second 

 day. The average mean for this period showed a slight rise for the first day — 0*01°, a 

 distinct rise for the second — 0*32°, and a slight rise for the third day — 0*09°, but it was 

 still at the end of the third day 0*17° below the normal. The mean diurnal range* was 

 less in the starvation period than in either the fore- or after-periods, with one 

 * Tin- range for the Last day of the starvation period was not diminished. 





