Skin temperature changes caused by smoking and other sympathomimetic stimuli

Within relatively recent years there has accumulated an extensive literature concerning the effects of tobacco on the circulatory system. Generally, such phenomena as changes in blood pressure, pulse rate, and the behavior of peripheral blood vessels, as indicated by changes in the temperature of the skin of the extremities, have been taken as qualitative and quantitative criteria of the nature of these effects. Agreement among the various investigators is by no means perfect, particularly with respect to changes in skin temperature. Also, many investigators seem to have overlooked certain physical and physiologic factors in the production of skin temperature changes which may be of crucial importance in so far as they concern interpretation of these changes. The purpose of this investigation is threefold: first, to add further information, either in confirmation of, or in contradiction to, that already reported; second, to report observations not previously mentioned in the literature; and, third, to interpret these data as carefully as possible, with due consideration for the physical and physiologic environment in which the experiments were conducted. Most of the very extensive bibliography on the subject is omitted for the purpose of conserving space.