At a meeting of the Association of American Physicians in 1895, Jacobi of New York reported a case of hyperthermy reaching 148degrees F. This instance occurred in a profoundly hysteric fireman, who suffered a rather severe injury as the result of a fall between the revolving rods of some machinery, and was rendered unconscious for four days. Thereafter he complained of various pains, bloody expectoration, and had convulsions at varying intervals, with loss of consciousness, rapid respiration, unaccelerated pulse, and excessively high temperature, the last on one occasion reaching the height of 148 degrees F. The temperature was taken carefully in the presence of a number of persons, and all possible precautions were observed to prevent deception. The thermometer was variously placed in the mouth, anus, axilla, popliteal space, groin, urethra, and different instruments were from time to time employed. The behavior of the patient was much influenced by attention and by suggestion. For a period of five days the temperature averaged continuously between 120 degrees and 125 degrees F.
In the discussion of the foregoing case, Welch of Baltimore referred to a case that had been reported in which it was said that the temperature reached as high as 171 degrees F. These extraordinary elevations of temperature, he said, appear physically impossible when they are long continued, as they are fatal to the life of the animal cell.
In the same connection Shattuck of Boston added that he had observed a temperature of 117 degrees F.; every precaution had been taken to prevent fraud or deception. The patient was a hysteric young woman.
Jacobi closed the discussion by insisting that his observations had been made with the greatest care and precautions and under many different circumstances. He had at first viewed the case with skepticism, but he could not doubt the results of his observation. He added, that although we cannot explain anomalies of this kind, this constitutes no reason why we should deny their occurrence.
Duffy records one of the lowest temperatures on record in a negress of thirty-five who, after an abortion, showed only 84degrees F. in the mouth and axillae. She died the next day.
The amount of external heat that a human being can endure is sometimes remarkable, and the range of temperature compatible with life is none the less extraordinary. The Esquimaux and the inhabitants of the extreme north at times endure a temperature of--60 degrees F., while some of the people living in equatorial regions are apparently healthy at a temperature as high as 130degrees F., and work in the sun, where the temperature is far higher. In the engine-rooms of some steamers plying in tropical waters temperatures as high as 150 degrees F. have been registered, yet the engineers and the stokers become habituated to this heat and labor in it without apparent suffering. In Turkish baths, by progressively exposing themselves to graduated temperatures, persons have been able to endure a heat considerably above the boiling point, though having to protect their persons from the furniture and floors and walls of the rooms. The hot air in these rooms is intensely dry, provoking profuse perspiration. Sir Joseph Banks remained some time in a room the temperature of which was 211 degrees F., and his own temperature never mounted above normal.
There have been exhibitionists who claimed particular ability to endure intense heats without any visible disadvantage. These men are generally styled "human salamanders," and must not be confounded with the "fire-eaters," who, as a rule, are simply jugglers. Martinez, the so-called "French Salamander," was born in Havana. As a baker he had exposed himself from boyhood to very high temperatures, and he subsequently gave public exhibitions of his extraordinary ability to endure heat. He remained in an oven erected in the middle of the Gardens of Tivoli for fourteen minutes when the temperature in the oven was 338 degrees F. His pulse on entering was 76 and on coming out 130. He often duplicated this feat before vast assemblages, though hardly ever attaining the same degree of temperature, the thermometer generally varying from 250 degrees F. upward. Chamouni was the celebrated "Russian Salamander," assuming the title of "The Incombustible." His great feat was to enter an oven with a raw leg of mutton, not retiring until the meat was well baked. This person eventually lost his life in the performance of this feat;his ashes were conveyed to his native town, where a monument was erected over them. Since the time of these two contemporaneous salamanders there have been many others, but probably none have attained the same notoriety.
In this connection Tillet speaks of some servant girls to a baker who for fifteen minutes supported a temperature of 270 degrees F.; for ten minutes, 279 degrees F.; and for several minutes, 364degrees F., thus surpassing Martinez. In the Glasgow Medical Journal, 1859, there is an account of a baker's daughter who remained twelve minutes in an oven at 274 degrees F. Chantrey, the sculptor, and his workman are said to have entered with impunity a furnace of over 320 degrees F.
