I NFL UENL ■/: OF BA THS. 8 1 9 
temperature in man. He remained three hours in a bath at 15°, and yet 
his axillary temperature fell only one degree (•"> 7 "30 to 36 '30 in the 
first two hours and a half, and then remained stationary at 36°"30); the 
amount of heat lust was 800 kilo-calories. A bath in water at 25° for 
three hours caused a fall in temperature from 37°'20 to 36 o- 60, with a 
loss of .">12 kilo-calories ; while a bath of one hour's duration in water at 
7° caused a fall from 37°"70 to :!G°, the loss of heat being 530 kilo- 
calories. 
In comparing the effect of baths on different people, it is important 
to consider the size of the body and the amount of subcutaneous fat, 
for the greater the size and amount of fat the slower is the cooling of the 
body. Liebermeister found that the temperature of the axilla of a fat 
man only fell 0°-2 during a bath of 21° to 30°, lasting one hour and a 
half. 
The effect of a warm bath is to raise the temperature, but after the 
bath there is, as Currie and Liebermeister observed, a fall in temperature 
followed by a gradual rise to the normal. 
It is impossible here t<> consider all the numerous results, some 
contradictory, which have been obtained by different observers. 1 It is 
important, however, to note that the different results markedly show 
the power of compensation possessed by the higher animals. A cold 
bath abstracts a large quantity of heat, but within certain limits does 
not cause the temperature of the body to fall, for the cutaneous blood 
vessels contract and thus diminish the loss of heat, and the cold acting 
on the nervous system stimulates the tissues to increased production 
of heat ; on the other hand, a hot bath would cpaickly cause a rise in 
temperature, if the animal were not aide within certain limits to in- 
crease its loss of heat by an excessive vascularity of the skin and to 
diminish its production of heat. These compensating factors show T their 
influence by a rise in temperature after a cold bath and by a fall after 
a hot bath, as the case may be. For this reason a hot bath is most 
effective in producing a cooling effect upon the body in tropical climates. 
The after-effects, however, soon disappear, and the temperature becomes 
normal. 
The compensation is, in fact, so exact in a healthy man, that any fall 
or rise in temperature, caused by too long exposure to cold or heat, is 
followed respectively by a rise above or fall below the normal. Thus it 
is that the mean daily temperature and the daily variations are very 
slightly or not at all affected by baths (Jurgensen, 2 Liebermeister, 3 Einger 
and Stuart, 4 and others). Still it must be remembered that this com- 
pensation is only effective within certain narrow limits, 5 and does not in 
any way invalidate the use of cold baths in the treatment of high 
temperatures in cases of fever. 
Experiments upon the inliueuce of warm and cold baths have also 
been made upon animals, and the results agree with those obtained 
upon man. Crawford 6 in 1871 found that the temperature of a dog 
kept in a hot bath, 45' 6 to 44H rose in thirty minutes to 42°-8, and 
1 For further details and references see Liebermeister, "Handbuch d. Path. u. Therap. 
des Fiebers," Leipzig, 1875 ; Wunderlich, "Medical Thermometry," p. 109. 
2 Lor. cif. 3 Loc. <■;/. 
4 Proc. Roy. Soc. London,, 1877, vol. xxvi. p. 203. 
5 Lowy, Arch. f. d. ges.' Physiol., Bonn, 1889, Bd. xlr. S. 625 j 1890, Bd. xlvi. S. 
189; see also " Chemistry of Respiration," this Text-book, vol. i. p. 712. 
6 Phil. Trans., London, 1781, vol. lxxi. p. 486. 
