Surrounding temperature makes no difference in the temperature of the body. The body does not depend upon external heat for its temperature, but, upon nerve tension. Esquimaux often experience 60 to 80 degrees below zero. Equatorial countries endure 130 degrees above, making a variation of 210 degrees. The heat in oceanic steamers often 150 degrees.
Some persons take Turkish baths which by frequent exposures are brought to the boiling point.
Persons have lived for a few minutes in rooms wherein the temperature was 211. The Salamander withstood for 14 minutes a temperature of 338 degrees. His pulse on entering was 76, on coming out 130, yet there was no variation of bodily temperature. While the pulse varies, more or less, with the change of bodily temperature, exercise and mental agitation, but it does not accord with animal heat. A rise of 2 or 3 degrees in the aged is more alarming than in the youth.