60 
DR. DAVY ON ANIMAL HEAT. 
4. 87 years of age, a native of Ambleside, where she has commonly resided ; 
feeble, but, excepting chronic cough, in tolerable health. On the 26th of October, 
at 3 p.m., the temperature under the tongue was found to be 98 0, 5 ; her pulse 84, and 
pretty strong ; the air of the room then was 57°> the open air about 42°. 
5. On the same day, and in the same village, tried the temperature of another old 
inhabitant, 92 years of age. The thermometer under her tongue stood about 98° ; it 
could not be determined with perfect exactness, on account of the tremulous motion 
of her head, which also affected the limbs, preventing the counting of her pulse ; her 
general health was pretty good. 
6. An inhabitant of Ambleside, by trade a hatter, 89 years of age, hale, able to walk 
to church. On the 27th of October, when the air of his room was 56°, the outer air 
42°, his pulse 64, strong and regular ; the thermometer under his tongue stood at 98°. 
Observed again on the 27th of February, at ] p.m., just after dinner, when the outer 
air was 32°, the air of his room 54°, the temperature under his tongue was found to 
be 99°5 ; his pulse 70. 
7. The temperature of his wife, two years younger, taken on the 27th of October, was 
98 0- 5 ; her pulse was 88, irregular ; she was very infirm and suffering from asthma. 
8. A native of Scotland, 95 years of age, now residing in Ambleside, where he has 
been many years, always in good health, still tolerably strong and active. On the 
28th of October found his temperature under the tongue 98 0- 5 ; his pulse 56, inter- 
mitting ; the air of his room 57°. The old people in all the preceding instances, at 
the time the observations were made, were sitting by their fireside, as is their usage 
in the cool climate of Westmoreland, the greater part of the year, and all of them, with 
one exception, seemed to be comfortably warm ; the poorest of them were not in want. 
Old age is commonly represented as cold, and the temperature of the body is com- 
monly supposed to diminish with advancing age. The results of the preceding obser- 
vations generally are not in accordance with this opinion ; they seem on the contrary 
to show, that the temperature of old people, at least as regards the deep-seated parts, 
of which the tongue at its base may be considered as some indication, is rather above 
than below the average temperature of middle age, taking that to be about 98° of 
Fahr. Nor, perhaps, is this surprising, when we reflect, that most of the food con- 
sumed by old persons — and their appetite generally is good — is probably chiefly em- 
ployed in administering to the function of respiration, being very partially expended 
in meeting the waste of the body. 
Probably in very advanced old age, as in very early infancy, the power of resist- 
ance to cold is feeble, and the temperature of the body is easily reduced on exposure. 
An observation which I made many years ago in Ceylon would seem to be confirma- 
tory of this. At 7 o’clock in the morning, when the air was 72°, I tried the tempe- 
rature of an old man, almost a century old, and of a boy about twelve years old, both 
cool, being thinly clad and out of doors ; the temperature of the old man under the 
tongue was 95°; in the axilla 93° ; that of the boy under the former 98°, and in the 
