A method of measuring sweat from the hands; some results in rheumatoid arthritis.

Sweat is well known to vary in composition and amount over different areas of the body. A wide range of values is found in sweat from corresponding areas in different individuals, and in our experience even from the same subject at different times under apparently the same conditions. The extent of this range is in itself a matter of considerable interest and invites fuller investigation of the sweat in conditions of disease, as, for instance, in rheuma-toid arthritis, since the impression exists among clinicians that clammy hands are more common in arthritic patients than in normal subjects. An additional incentive to further research arises from the work of Conn and Louis (1950), who claim that the concentration of sodium and chloride in thermal sweat is governed by the activity of the adrenal cortex, which may be implicated in diverse pathological conditions. A distinction is usually drawn between insensible sweat, which is largely due to evaporation of water through the skin, and sensible sweat, the visible secretion of the sweat glands under conditions of thermal stimulation. Sweating on the palms and soles is stated to be independent of thermal stimuli, unless these are very strong, but to be regulated by mental stimuli (Kuno, 1934). Much of the work of previous investigators has been done on the profuse sweat of the naturally or artificially overheated body. McSwiney (1934) enclosed his subject in a rubber suit provided with tubes to run off the sweat, and placed him in a heat cabinet for periods up to an hour. Dill and others (1938) experimented on members of the Harvard Desert Expedition. Moisture was estimated from the loss of body weight corrected for loss of moisture from the lungs. The solids secreted in the sweat were obtained by washing body and clothes. Conn and Louis provoked sweating by exposing the body to a hot (950 F.) humid atmosphere, samples being collected from the abdomen and hand plus forearm. Locke and others (1951) induced sweating by a high room temperature (320 C.), and by placing one arm in hot water. The sweat was obtained by enclosing the non-immersed arm in a waterproof envelope and weighing the moisture delivered, allowing for adherent moisture. Kuno describes very elaborate methods used in his " perspiration chamber" for obtaining the insensible perspiration from small areas of the body, by the use of collecting covers drawing the air through CaCl2 tubes; his …