The relationship of skin temperatures of clothed adults to ambient temperature in a warm environment

Abstract

In forty-one apyrexial adult male patients, who were clothed in light-weight cotton pyjamas, mean skin temperature was determined and, simultaneously, ambient temperature and the temperature of air space under clothing were measured. Both mean skin temperature and the temperature of the air space under clothing showed a linear increase with ambient temperature. Heat loss by vapourization of water is known to have a curvilinear relationship to ambient temperature. Application of the temperature relationships obtained in this study to the vapourization curve indicates that clothing shifts the point of sharp upward inflection of the curve to the left; and, if ambient temperature is to be employed to predict the amount of cutaneous water loss in clothed individuals, the extent of this shift must be determined. The data obtained in the present study has been applied to studies of evaporative water loss in Lagos.