TEMPERATURE OF INTERNAL PARTS IN MAN 825 
if the thermometer be warmed by the hand and then kept under the 
tongue in the closed mouth for eight minutes, the reading is the same 
as that obtained by inserting the thermometer in the urine as it leaves 
the body. On the other hand, Crombie 1 found, as the result of com- 
parative experiments in which care was taken to obtain accurate 
results, that in fifteen simultaneous observations the mean difference of 
temperature in the mouth was 0*13 above the reading in the axilla, and 
in thirty-five determinations the mean difference in the rectum was 
0*22 above the temperature in the mouth. A number of simultaneous 
observations made by Parkes and Wollowicz 2 show that the rectal 
temperature of a healthy man may be 03 to - 6 higher than the 
temperature in the axilla. Gassot 3 macle comparative observations at 
different times of the day, with the following results : — 
Max. 
Woman". 
Time. 
Mouth. 
Axilla. 
Mouth. 
Axilla. 
Rectum. 
7 a.m. 
37°-06 
37 : -78 
37-0 
36°-8 
37°-7 
2 p.m. 
37°-6 
37°'3 
37°'6 
37°-3 
38°-0 
9 p.m. 
37-4 
37 3 -12 
37 •;. 
37°-3 
37'-8 
Oertmann 4 observed, when the thermometer was kept in the axilla 
for fifteen minutes, in the rectum at a depth of 7 cm. for five minutes, 
and in the stream of urine for five seconds, that the temperature of the 
urine was generally equal to that of the rectum, but four-tenths of a 
degree higher than that of the axilla. Ten simultaneous observations 
of the temperature in the mouth and rectum gave an average difference 
of 0*32 in favour of the latter (Cuny Bouvier). 5 According to Lieber- 
rneister, 6 the rectal temperature is 0°"1 to o- 4 above that of the axilla. 
Lorain 7 maintained that the temperature in the rectum or vagina 
alone represented the internal temperature of the body, and that the 
rectal temperature was '6° to '8° higher than that in the axilla. The 
figures given by \Yunderlieh 8 for the mean temperature of the rectum, 
mouth, ami axilla are 37°'3, 37°'lo, and 37' respectively. Uedard, 9 on 
the other hand, states that the temperature of the mouth is - 2° higher 
than that in the axilla, and '3° to "6° lower than that of the rectum. 
Xeuhauss 10 found, as the result of forty comparative experiments, in 
which the temperature was observed simultaneously in the rectum 
and in the axilla, that the rectal was 0°'6 higher than the axillary 
temperature. 
We may take as our guide the averages obtained from the results 
of different observers, and conclude that the rectum has a temperature 
1 Indian Ann. Med. Sc, Calcutta, 1873, vol. xvi. p. 558. 
2 Proc. Roy. Soc. London, 1869-70, vol. xviii. p. 368. 
3 These de Paris, 1873, quoted from Richet, Rev. scient., Paris, 1885, tome ix. p. 433. 
i Arch./, d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1878, Bd. xvi. S. 101. 
5 Ibid., 1869, Bd. ii. S. 387. 
6 " Handbuch d. Path. u. Therap. des Fiebers," S. 44. 
7 " De la temperature du corps humain," Paris, 1877, tome i. p. 434. 
s "Medical Thermometry." 
tf :< Etudes de thermometrie clinique," 1874. p. 20. 
10 Virchoics Archir, 1893, lid. cxxxiv. S. 365. 
