Oral and Rectal Temperatures of Man

Abstract

The so-called normal body temperature of a healthy person has been stated categorically to be 98.6 F. (37.0 C.). Another clinically accepted truism is that the rectal temperature is 1 degree Fahrenheit higher than the oral, or approximately 99.6 F. (37.6 C.). These values are, of course, merely approximations and can, therefore, be highly misleading.The origin of these figures is somewhat obscure. The following review of the literature is an indication that even the value 98.6 F. for the oral temperature is undoubtedly incorrect. Schaefer1 summarized the oral temperatures obtained by a group of eight authors who published their material between 1848 and 1898 and found it to be 98.3 F. Davy2 in 1845 reported a mean value of 98.4 F. for the oral temperature obtained during the working day, while Pembrey and Nicol 3 found it to be 97.2 F. Allbutt,4 who introduced the present day clinical thermometer, presented his mean value as 98.14 F. The first statistical analysis of the oral temperature in man was performed by Whiting.5 The mean oral temperature of 500 criminals was 98.38 F., with a standard deviation of 0.486. Renbourn and Bonsall°studied 894 males living in the tropics and found a slightly higher mean oral temperature than was reported by Whiting,5 their mean value being 98.75 F. with a standard deviation of 0.50. A recent report by Carmichael and Linder ' on 24 normal subjects indicated that the oral temperature between the hours of 8 and 9 a. m. was 97.8 F., and between the hours of 4 and 5 p. m., 98.09 F. Ivy 8 obtained the oral temperatures of 276 medical students who were attending class between the hours of 8 and 9 a. m. His mean figure was 98.1 F. Reimann9 has also reported two different groups of data on the oral temperature of man. In his first study, the mean value was 98.2 F., and in the second the value was 99.0 F. Probably the basis for the present day standard of 98.6 F. originated from the work presented by two different groups of authors. Becquerel and Breschet10 in 1833 found the mean oral temperature to be 98.6 F. Wunderlichll undoubtedly compiled the most extensive data on this subject and reported a mean value of 98.6 F. It is interesting to note that the mean of all the means reported from 1845 to 1945 turns out to be 98.34 F. The range of the means reported is from 97.2 to 99.0 F. A similar discrepancy is observed in the differences between rectal and oral temperatures. It is clear that the difference of 1 degree Fahrenheit between these two temperatures, generally accepted by laymen and physicians, does not take into account the data available in the literature.Bardswell and Chapman12 reported a difference of 0.9 F. Wunderlich lx in his series reported a difference of 0.7 F. Renbourn and Bonsall 6 have reported a difference of 0.7 F. Carmichael and Linder ' found the difference to be 1.03 in the morning and 0.82 in the afternoon. The largest difference, 1.2 F., was reported by Pembrey and Nicol.3 Burton-Fanning and Champion 13 reported a difference of 0.4 F. The textbooks of Best and ...

The Physiological Basis for Various Constituents in Survival Rations. Part 3. The Efficiency of Young Men Under Conditions of Moist Heat, Volume 1

“…In order of magnitude, the resting rectal temperatures are comparable to values reported in the literature (Horvath, Menduke, and Piersol, 1950).…”

Considerations for the measurement of core, skin and mean body temperatures

“…The classical view was that the rectum is the hottest site (Bernard, 1876;Pembrey and Nicol, 1898;Haldane, 1905;Horvath et al, 1950a;Eichna et al, 1951), although most commentators only considered tissues positioned to the left of rectal temperature in Fig. 6.…”

“…Urine: Marion et al (1991). Rectum: Linder and Carmichel (1935), DuBois (1941), Bazett et al (1948), Pennes (1948), Eichna (1949), Horvath et al (1950a), Graf (1959), Consolazio et al (1963), Saltin and Hermansen (1966), , Edwards et al (1978), Kolanowski and Gunter (1981), Ilsley et al (1983), Mairiaux et al (1983), Terndrup et al (1989), Maw and Taylor (1992), Chamberlain et al (1995), Cotter et al (1995), Lee et al, (2000), McKenzie and Osgood (2004) numbers for some sites and with most studies contributing data for three or fewer sites, it is now recognised that the rectum is not the hottest site. Instead, brain tissues are the hottest (Hayward et al, 1966;Shiraki et al, 1988;Mellergård, 1994), with thermal gradients (Fusco, 1963;Mellergård, 1994) permitting conductive heat loss from the deeper to the cortical tissues.…”

Concepts of Fever: Recent Advances and Lingering Dogma

“…In the University of Maryland study population, 37.2ЊC (98.9ЊF) was the maximum oral temperature (i.e., the 99th mean temperatures of normal adult populations closer to 36.6ЊC (98.0ЊF) [7], Wunderlich's intimation that 37ЊC (98.6ЊF) is the percentile) recorded at 6:00 A.M., whereas at 4:00 P.M. the maximum oral temperature observed reached 37.8Њ (99.9ЊF) most normal of temperatures persists to this day, not only in lay thinking but in medical writing as well [8 -12].…”