POIKILOTHERMIA WITH HYPOTHALAMIC LESIONS

Abstract
There are sufficient clinical and experimental observations to indicate that the hypothalamic nuclei play an important rôle in the regulation of body temperature. Although most of these investigations were concerned with the abnormal production of heat (hyperthermia), recently one of us (C. D.) and Selby1reported a case of severe hypothermia associated with lesions in the hypothalamus. At the time it was postulated that the extreme subnormal temperature in this case was due to implication of the nuclei tuberis proper and the nuclei of the mamillary bodies. As far as we know, inability to maintain the body temperature (poikilothermia) resulting from hypothalamic lesions in man has not been reported previously in the literature. REPORT OF A CASE History. —Baby R. was born on Oct. 21, 1932, by spontaneous delivery, after twenty-seven hours of dry labor. The weight at birth was 6 pounds and 9 ounces (2,977 Gm.). The temperature

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