Temperature of the Human Body in Health. 



205 



the reduction is considerably less than that of the surface. Thus we 

 lowered the temperature under the tongue or in the rectum from 0°*6 

 to 2°*8 Eahr., the amount of depression being, of course, proportional to 

 the duration of the bath. 



The duration of the depression varied greatly in different persons. 

 Thus on some occasions the lost heat was restored in an hour ; in others 

 not for several hours, three, four, or more ; but very soon after leaving 

 the bath the greater part of the lost heat was restored, the remaining 

 slight depression passing off much more slowly. Our observations 

 elicited the rather curious fact that the time the body takes to recover 

 its temperature holds no relation to the amount of depression ; thus in 

 some instances, when with great depression, the recovery was speedy, 

 while on other occasions, with but slightly depressed temperature, the 

 recovery was slowly effected. 



We noticed, too, that many, times the internal parts did not be- 

 come cooled under the actual operation of the bath, but the tempera- 

 ture of the internal parts fell gradually for some time after the bath. 

 The explanation we would offer of this curious fact is, that during the 

 bath much heat is withdrawn from the surface, and the cold contracting 

 the blood-vessels lessens greatly the quantity of blood passing through 

 the skin. Heat is thus not abstracted from deep parts by cooling of the 

 blood, but simply by conduction. On quitting the bath, the blood-vessels 

 of the skin become widely dilated, and the blood then passing quickly 

 through the cold skin becomes cooled, and reduces the temperature of 

 deep parts. 



Influence of the Cold Bath on the Temperature of the Body after the 



discontinuance of the Bath. 

 "We first give the hour when the evening fall begun on the bath days : — 



Eedfern 12 to 4 p.m. 



Gibbs 3 p.m. 



Thompson 4 to 6 t.m. 



Mountain 6 p.m. 



On comparing this Table with the one given in the section treating of 

 the temperature in health, it will be found that the time when the tem- 

 perature begun to fall is much the same whether a bath be given or not. 



For the sake of comparison we put side by side the hour the evening 

 fall begun on bath and non-bath days. 



Name. No bath. Bath. 



Eedfern 2 to 3 2 to 4 



Thompson and Mountain 4 to 7 4 to 6*. 



* It hitherto escaped our notice that the younger the person the sooner in the day 

 does the evening fall begin. Thus in Eedfern it began between 2 and 3, in Thompson 

 and Mountain between 4 and 7, and in Purse and Hilton between 9 and 11. 



