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XI.—An Investigation into the Effects of Seasonal Changes on Body Temperature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

Sutherland Simpson
Sutherland Simpson
Affiliation:
Physiological Laboratory of the Medical College, and the Department of Poultry Husbandry, New York State College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., U.S.A.
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Summary

Monthly observations, extending over one year, were made on the rectal temperature of 114 domestic fowls (Gallus gallus, ♀) and records from forty-one of these were obtained for two years. Six different breeds were used, each located in a separate pen, all under similar conditions, and the mean temperatures for each group were plotted out to form an annual temperature curve. It was found that—

1. The lowest temperatures occur in December, January, and February, and the highest in June, July, and August, corresponding in a general way with the temperature of the external air.

2. Barometric pressure does not appear to have any influence on the body temperature of the hen.

3. The curve of egg-production does not coincide with the annual temperature curve, the former reaching its highest level in April and May, the latter in June, July, and August.

If we compare the mean rectal temperature at two periods of the year when the external or weather conditions are approximately the same (April-May and September-October), but when the vitality of the birds, as indicated by the curve of egg-production, moulting, etc., is at a maximum and minimum respectively, we find that the figures are practically identical. This would seem to show that cyclical bodily changes have little effect on body temperature as compared with outside influences.

Type
Proceedings
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 32 , 1913 , pp. 110 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1913

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References

page no 110 note * Davy, John, Phil. Trans., London, 1845, part ii., p. 319, and 1850, p. 437.Google Scholar

page no 110 note † Lindhard, , “Investigations into the Conditions Governing the Temperature of the Body,” Danmark-Ekspeditionen til Grönlands Nordöstkyst, 1906–1908, Copenhagen, 1910.Google Scholar

page no 111 note * Jousset, , Arch. de méd. nav., Paris, 1883, t. 40, p. 124.Google Scholar

page no 111 note † Bosanquet, , Lancet, London, 1895, vol. i. p. 672.Google Scholar

page no 111 note ‡ Edwards, art. “Animal Heat,” in Todd's, Gyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. ii. p. 659.Google Scholar

page no 111 note § Simpson, and Galbraith, , Journ. Physiol., xxxiii., 1905, p. 225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page no 111 note ‖ Davy, , Researches, London, 1839, vol. i. p. 208.Google Scholar

page no 112 note * Lindhard, loc. cit.

page no 112 note † For information regarding the application of this doctrine to physiology, consult a paper by Zwaardemaker and Dakhuysen, read before the International Medical Congress at Budapest, August-September 1909, and an article in the British Medical Journal, February 19, 1910, p. 461.

page no 113 note * Simpson, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., 1911–1912.

page no 115 note * This curve of egg-production is taken from a paper by Rice, Nixon, and Rogers (Bulletin 258, College of Agriculture Publications, Cornell University, September 1908). It was obtained from trap-nested hens living at the same station and under the same conditions as those on which the present temperature observations were made, and indeed Professor Rice informs me that this curve of egg-production is practically correct for hens anywhere in New York State.