Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-05-16
The Thermometer as a Health
MeaSurer.

In last years number of popular
health journal may be found an article
on Mining in Hot Places" the Com
stock mine in Nevada being meant. Ii
this article, which was quoted from {
Western journal, l came across the fol
lowing statement "The temperature
of the blood is about go F.; therefore
when a man remains in hot place fol
an hour, or even half an hour, his blood
and his whole body become heated to 6
temperature of ll50, 1902, or whatever
may be the temperature of the place IL
which he is at work"
This statement is given without 6
| word of comment by the editor of the
popular journal in question, who writes
A M. and MD. after his name. Let US
hope that his readers, and also my
own, are acquainted with fact in
physiology of which the learned health
journal editor has perhaps never heard
the fact, namely, that the healthy
human body preserves nearly the same
temperature everywhere and under all
circumstances, whether in the hottest
mine or upon the coolest arctic iceberg,
and that slight departure from that
standard heat, whether produced by
exposure or by disease, means the
speedy death of the sufferer.
WHAT'S this standard heat of the
human body? what is the source and
degree of this natural animal heat
Its source is the oxidation or burning
OF the food taken into the system. The
food is consumed as in fire, only far
more slowly, but with about an equal
disengagement of heat as the result.
Throw sugared almond into the fire ::
it will burn longer probably than you
would think, some two or three minutes,
throwing out a considerable volume of
flame. In the human body the sugar,
starch, and oil of the almond will give
out about the same amount of heat
during the process of assimilation,
which may last many hours. Part of
this heat is converted into force, part
is radiated. The total amount of heat
radiated by healthy human body is
estimated as equal, on the average, to
that of two burning candles. Ten per-
sons sitting in room, that is to say,
would warm it as much as twenty
candles IN the same time.
The degree of this heat, as indicated
by the temperature of the blood, varies
with different animals and classes of
animals, but for each kind and indi-
vidual it remains very nearly the same.
Birds are the warmest-blooded their
animal heat ranges from 1862 to lllo
F. The temperature of mammals lies
between equally narrow limits; that
of the porpoise is go, of the horse go
and of the ass and the hare 1909. On
this point the cat and the rat are in
complete accord, having each a vital
temperature of 1929. The sheep, the
goat, and the sea-cow have the warmest
blood of all the mammals, its heat
being lO4o. But how small is this
range, especially in view of the inn
mense difference in the natures, habits,
and surroundings of the different ami
mails | have named
The temperature of the human body
has been studied with great care. Its
average height was first determined by
the researches of DR.. Brechet. In
health, as measured by an accurate
thermometer placed in the armpit, it is
9S.6oF., or 37o G. The actual heat
of the blood is about 10 F. higher than
this. The differences between the
temperatures of different individuals
are extremely small, 10 or % F. The
spontaneous variations in the tempera-
ture of the same individual during
health are also slight, seldom as much
as one degree in the course of day.
Two or three degrees is the utmost
range for health. Any range lower
than 1920 or higher than 99.5o Gin the
axilla) is very suspicious; more than
this means disease; little more means
danger; still little more arrangement
of the natural heat means death. In
the large hospital practice of DR.. Wun-
derlich the lowest temperature among
severe cases which yet recovered was
92.3o. At the other extreme, there is
no record of life which has survived
a blood temperature of ll30. So deli
cate is the adjustment of the flame that
we we call life
1t is by the clinical thermometer that
we study the movement of these tenn
peratures from the normal standard of
health upward or downward to disease.
The instrument forewarns US Of the
danger and describes it; barometer
of health, it is one that is so easily
used, and in it's simpler indications so
easily understood, that it should be
familiar in every family. Far more
clearly than the barometer foretells the
weather does the clinical thermometer
warn us of the approach or foretell the
close of the storm of disease in the mi
crocosm of the human system.
The instrument as made by the best
makers, as by John Tagliabue, of New
York, is graduated by tenths OF de-
gree from $50 to 100 Fan extremer
range of figures, l hope, than any of
nv readers will ever be called on to
note at the bedside of loved one.
And what are the indications, for bet
ter or for worse, of the hygeimeter, or
health-indicator, as the clinical ther-
mometer might properly be called?
/. The standard OF health being a
temperature of 9860 F., a constant
temperature, or one that varies in
health not more than one-quarter of a
degree either way from this norm in
the same individual, is proof of q
sound constitution.
2. And conversely, mobility Of
temperature under the action of ex-
ternal influences is a sign of some
diseased condition" (Wunderlich).
3. A natural temperature does not
prove health, though it is presump-
ton of health. But as | have said, any
variation from the normal temperature
that exceeds two degrees, either up
u,ar6 or downward ia IN ha fnkan ao