ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.
The Laws regulating the Bodily Temperature and the Frequency of
the Pulse. By R. Liciitenfels and R. Frohlich.—The authors have
made a most careful scries of experiments on themselves. Each expe-
rimenter is twenty-two years of age; the pulse of oue of them is nor-
mally 71 per minute, that of the other 88; the normal temperature of
each is 98-434. During the course of the experiments, they rose shortly
before 7 A. M., took coffee between 7 and 8, had dinner at 2, and even-
ing-coffee between 7 and 8.
1.	Daily rate of pulse and temperature.—The influence of the period
of the day, per se, was very trifling, but both pulse and temperature
were greatly affected by food. Before the morning-coffee, the pulse was
lowest; by the end of the first hour after coffee it rose, on an average of
many observations, nearly 8 beats per minute; it was slightly less rapid
at the end of the next hour ; at the end of the third hour it was only
3*3 beats; and at the end of the fourth, 2-77 beats over the original
number. The pulse did not sink to the number noted before coffee, till
six hours had elapsed. The mid-day meal raised the pulse again, and
this occurred apparently sooner after protein than after starchy food, but
to a less extent. After the evening coffee, the pulse, which had fallen,
again rose, but to a less extent, and its declension occurred more rapidly.
The temperature of the body was affected in a similar way by food,
but the augmentation occurred later than the rising of the pulse; so
that the temperature was often at its maximum when the pulse had
fallen considerably towards the point from which it had risen. The
average amount of increase is about } of Fah. The greatest average
range of the thermometer in the course of the day (between 7 A. M.
and 10 P. M.) was rather less than a degree of Fah.
2.	Influence of customary liquid.—The experiments were performed
in the afternoon; each lasted 100 minutes, and the greatest tranquillity
of body was preserved. After Leer, the pulse sank 6 or 7 beats in from
10 to 15 minutes; in 30 minutes it regained its former frequency;
much before this time, the subjective feelings of slight incipient intoxi-
cation were felt. In about two hours, the pulse was heightened nearly
double as much as it had been depressed. The temperature, after the
use of beer, fell about one-third of a degree of Fall. After wme, the
pulse at first fell in the same way, and then rose greatly; the tempera-
ture fell about half a degree of Fah. The same occurred with alcohol,
but afterwards the temperature rose about a quarter or half a degree of
Fah. Cold water lessened, at first, the number of the pulse, and lowered
the temperature. In 15 minutes both returned to their former amount.
Coffee, as already said, raised the pulse, but more in the morning than
in the evening.
3.	Influence, of fasting.—Fasting for from 20 to 21 hours lowered
both pulse and temperature. At the end, the pulse was from 12 to 16
per minute ; the temperature as much as 1*8° Fah., under the normal.
The curious observation (made also by Davy and Gierse) was noted,
that at the period of customary meal-times both pulse and temperature
slightly rose.
4.	Influence of muscular movements.—Various experiments were tried
with different kinds of movements. 1. A ten pound weight was al-
lowed to hang from the arm for five minutes, the body being tranquil;
the pulse first fell in frequency, then rose ; its greatest frequency was
after the termination of the experiment. When the weight was on the
left arm, the rise was nearly double that which occurred when it was on
the right arm. 2. A weight of one pound was held out horizontally;
the pulse rose and fell remarkably several times. 3. A weight of two
pounds was rapidly swung round and round with one arm, while the
other was placed on a table, that the pulse might be counted. This
exercise produced the greatest effect on the pulse, raising it sometimes
from 30 to 50 beats. 4. Long-continued moderate exercise, carried on
to fatigue, raise! the pulse greatly for some considerable time, but never
produced the enormous rise noted in the previous kind (3) of muscular
exertion.
5.	Influence of narcotic poisons.—Belladonna and atropine at first
diminished the frequency of the pulse (16 to 20 beats), but after a va-
riable time (50 to 117 minutes,) the pulse again rose (12 to 30 beats.)
The smaller doses produced greater primary sinking than the large, but
required much longer time to do so; on the contrary, the larger doses
pro luced much greater secondary rising; that is to say, the maximum
sinking-point is inversely, and the maximum rising-point is directly,
proportioned to the amount of the drug. It might be said that small
dose’ depress, larger excite, the pulse. The temperature was diminished
in all cases. Opium, especially in small doses, caused rising of the
pulse, but afterwards there was great sinking, and the temperature di-
minished. The Cannabis Indica produced many periods of rising and
falling; the temperature rose for about four hours, and to as great a
degree as *7° or 1° Fah. Chloroform and ether, if not pushed to too
deep narcotism, raised both temperature and pulse.—British and Fo-
reign Medico-Cliirurgical Review.