370 
THE THERMOMETER AS A COMPANION IN DAILY 
LIFE. 
By A. H. GARROD, B.A., 
PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IN KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON. 
mHE value of the thermometer as an aid to diagnosis in 
X disease has been so considerable that its importance in a 
physiological, in contradistinction to a pathological point of 
view, has been somewhat overlooked. What we do know with 
regard to its teaching in health is mainly due to the researches 
of Dr. John Davy, who has been followed by Senator, Jiirgensen, 
and a few others. 
At first sight the subject may seem unattractive. A single 
observation affords but little information, and a great many have 
to be completed and recorded before any points of interest can 
be extracted from fluctuations which are almost exclusively 
limited to two degrees of the Fahrenheit scale.* The same argu- 
ment would, however, apply to the barometer — an instrument 
which has nevertheless attracted the attention of a large num- 
ber of amateurs, whose voluntary assistance has greatly conduced 
to the establishment of those laws affecting the winds which 
have justified the foundation of a predicting meteorological 
committee of scientific men. It is to be hoped that by the time the 
reader has arrived at the last page of the present article he will 
be persuaded that there is more to be learnt, and profitably 
learnt, by the employment of the thermometer in its physiolo- 
gical aspect, than he previously anticipated. 
The body, examined some time after death, exhibits no 
peculiarities which distinguish it from inorganic matter as far 
as the development of heat is concerned ; its temperature is that 
of the external air, and varies with it. The case is different wit 1 
the living body, as we all know. It cannot be correctly said 
that during life the temperature is above that of the atmos- 
phere, because in tropical climates, and under certain artificial 
conditions, such is not always the case ; but what we can say is, 
that the temperature of the deep parts is always greater than 
* In this article all temperatures are referred to the Fahrenheit scale only. 
