8 2 o ANIMAL HEAT. 
the dog became very languid ; the venous blood of dogs kept in a warm 
bath had an arterial colour, whereas a cold bath, 7 0, 2, rendered the 
blood in the jugular vein very dark. More extended observations were 
made byHoppe 1 upon both the immediate and after effects of baths 
upon dogs. The rectal temperature of a dog placed in water at 48° 
for three minutes rose from 38° - 75 to 41°-45 ; a cold bath at 9 0, 12, 
lasting half a minute, caused a fall of 1° ; a bath of freezing water, 
lasting respectively two and four minutes, produced a fall of 1°'7 and 
4° - 88 below the normal. Hoppe found that the temperature fell during 
a cold bath but afterwards rose above the normal, that it rose during 
a hot bath but afterwards fell below the normal. The sensation of 
cold stimulated the organism to an increased production of heat, for 
if evaporation from the w T et skin was rapid the temperature rose, but 
if it was hindered by a covering of rubber the temperature fell. 
Bernard 2 found that very hot baths quickly caused death, the 
symptoms being similar to those observed from exposure to hot air. 
The influence of certain drugs upon the temperature of the 
body. — Alcohol, 2 ' — The effect .of alcohol is a fall in temperature, and 
not, as is popularly believed, an increased heat of the body. It is 
true that after the use of alcohol there is a feeling of increased warmth, 
but this is due only to the increased vascularity of the skin and the 
activity of the sweat glands. 
Alcohol seems to act in two ways : it has little or no effect upon 
the production of heat in the tissues, but greatly increases the loss of 
heat by causing the cutaneous vessels to dilate, stimulating the sweat 
glands and quickening the circulation. The normal reaction to cold, 
namely, increased production of heat and contraction of the cutaneous 
vessels, is partly paralysed by large doses of alcohol, with the result that 
drunkards exposed to cold quickly " freeze " to death. 
_ Various observers 4 have found that alcohol taken in ordinary quan- 
tities as a beverage causes a slight depression, generally less than half 
a degree, in the temperature of healthy men ; on the other hand, 
poisonous doses may cause a fall of five or six degrees— in fact, many 
of the lowest temperatures recorded in man have been observed in 
drunken persons exposed to cold. 
Experiments upon animals have given similar results. Walther 5 
exposed two rabbits to a temperature of 21°-2 below zero; in two and a 
quarter hours the temperature of the normal rabbit fell from 38°'8 to 
35°-6, while that of the rabbit which had received 35 c.c, of brandy fell 
from 38 0- 8 to 19 0- 8. A guinea-pig was given a dose of 6 or 7 grms. 
of brandy, and then exposed to moderate cold ; its temperature fell 10°, 
J Virchow's Archie, 1857, Bd. xi. S. 453. 
2 This article, p. 815. 
3 For further details, see works on therapeutics. 
4 Davy, Phil. Trans., London, 1850, p. 444 ; Lichtenfels and Frohttch, Denkschrift&n 
d. k. AkujJ. d. Wissensch., Wien, 1852, Bd. iii. Abth. 2, S. 131 ; Lallemand, Perrin, and 
Duroy, " Du role de l'alcool et des anestWsiques dans l'org'anisine," Paris,' 1860: Ogle, 
St. George's Hosp. Rep., London, 1866, vol. i. p. 233. Ringer and Rickards, Lancet, 
London, 1866, vol. ii. p. 208; Cuny Bouvier, Arch. f. d. ejes. Physiol., Bonn, 1869, 
Bd. ii. S. 370 ; Godtrin, " De l'alcool, son action physiologique. ses applications thcra- 
peutiques," 1869; Weckerling, Deutsches Arch. f. Bin. Med., Leipzig, 1877, Bd. xix. 
S. 317 ; Zuntz, Fortschr. d. Med., Berlin, 18S7 ; Geppert, Arch. f. c.ipcr. Path. u. Phar- 
makol., Leipzig, Bd. xxii. Parkes and Wollowicz, Proc. Roy. Soc. London, 1870, vol. xviii. 
p. 362, found that alcohol in ordinary quantities had no effect on the temperature of a 
healthy man. 
5 Arch. f. Anat., Physiol, u. uHssensch. Med., Leipzig, 1865, S. 45. 
