ON ANIMAL HEAT. 
561 
the natural standard in the affection termed morbus cerulens, 
where the foramen ovale remains unclosed, and admits of a por- 
tion of the blood passing from the right side of the heart to the left 
without being transmitted through the lungs. In Asiatic cholera 
a thermometer placed in the mouth rises only to 77° or 79°. 
Coldness of the body is also symptomatic of hydrothorax, and of 
repletion of the air-cells with mucus, in chronic bronchitis. 
(Elliotson.) It is stated by Martine that long fasting diminishes 
the temperature. Dr. Currie, by placing a thermometer in the 
palm of the hand during syncope, ascertained that it stood as low 
as 63° Fahr. Mr. Earle asserted that the temperature of the 
hand of a paralyzed arm was as low as 70° Fahr., while that of 
the sound side raised the mercury to 92°. On electrifying the 
diseased limb its temperature increased 7°. MM. Becquerei &nd 
Breschet could not succeed in detecting any difference between 
the sound limb and the paralyzed one in a case of hemiplegia. 
20. Under the influence of various circumstances the tempera- 
ture of isolated parts of the body becomes temporarily exalted. 
The sudden local determination of blood, accompanied with in- 
crease of heat, produced by the operation of the mind, as seen 
in blushing, is carried often to such an extent as to produce 
a copious perspiration from the parts. '* When a function is 
going on vigorously, the temperature of the individual part rises.” 
(Elliotson, Phy., 231.) MM. Becquerei and Breschet found 
the temperature of a scrofulous tumour raised as much as 5J° 
Fahr. above the general heat of the body. This fact is worthy 
of attention, as it had been previously asserted that in inflamma- 
tion the part affected did not acquire a higher temperature than 
that of the internal parts of the frame. The same experimenters 
also observed that the heat of the body was exalted 5i° during a 
fever. The temperature of the body in a feverish state, according 
to Dr. Elliotson’s observations, was often raised from its natural 
standard to 107° Fahr., and in tetanus he remarked it as high as 
110° Fahr. 
21. MM, Becquerei and Breschet observed that muscular 
contraction was attended with an exaltation of the temperature 
of the part to the extent of from 1|° to 3f° Fahr. 
22. The animal frame maintains its caloric at very low atmo- 
spheric temperatures. During the northern expedition of Captain 
Parry the thermometer often stood so low as — 52° Fahr.; it was 
usually at 32° below zero, at which time he found the blood-heat 
of some foxes which were caught was from 98° to 106f°. 
23- Neither has external heat so great an effect in raising the 
animal temperature as might have been anticipated. We have 
already seen (7) that the land-tortoise of an equatorial island 
