THERMOMETRY OF THE DOMESTICATED, ANIMALS. 
283 
perature of the body, which is generally a sinking. Sometimes a 
rise is observed, which may exceed the maximum temperature the 
animal showed whilst living. This is ascribed to the fact, that the 
amount of heat lost by dead animals is smaller than that of the 
living, due to the inactivity of the lungs and skin, as well as the 
other secretions and excretions of the body; the only source for 
the generation of warmth after death being the processes of 
chemical decomposition. Bodies in which the rigor mortis takes 
place slowly, lose less warmth, and therefore generate more, 
than those in which it occurs quickly, (Huppert, Dojdre). The 
cadavers of animals, which were tired, or worn out, or had re¬ 
ceived bad treatment, or been exposed to excessive heat or cold 
before death, or those which endured a long death-struggle, and 
those in which rigor mortis takes place slowly, present an in¬ 
creased temperature in their interior, (Billroth, Fick, Huppert). 
Pflug observed in a case of tetanus a temperature of 36.5° imme¬ 
diately before death occurred; after death the temperature gradu¬ 
ally rose in half an hour to 38.5°, after which it again suddenly 
■decreased. It is also known that the meat of such animals 
quickly undergoes decomposition and fatness, and that it is im¬ 
possible to preserve it by smoking or salting. 
Edwards saw no difference between the summer and winter 
temperature of animals, but Davy that the temperature was from 
0.55° to 1° and 1.66° higher in summer than in winter, especially 
in ruminants. Richardson says that the temperature increases 
from May to August, and falls again from October to April, 
about 0.5°. 
Davy found, while on a voyage to Ceylon, that the tempera¬ 
ture of the sailors rose as soon as they arrived at the warm lati¬ 
tude, the difference being from 1.7° to 2.15° between England 
and Ceylon. In traveling from a warm climate to a moderate 
one, he found a decrease of about 0.88°. 
The surrounding temperature as a rule has little influence upon 
the animal warmth, since by importation the temperature of the ani¬ 
mals is observed to be tolerably constant and almost independent 
of the medium in which they are placed. But quick and continual 
changes of these media caw become harmful, as is shown by phys^ 
