Minute pattern of human perspiration observed by a continuously recording method.

Attempts were made by Yen, and more successfully by Takahara (see 5, 6) to observe continuously the discharge of sweat from a single human sweat gland. A capillary glass tube was inserted into a sweat pore and the movement of the sweat column therein accumulated was recorded. This method is very difficult because the sweat duct runs through the epidermis in cork-screw fashion. Furthermore, the application of this method is limited to the palm. Starch paper method introduced by Randall (7) demonstrated a periodic output of sweat. Starch paper, however, must have been attached to the skin for more than 15sec., which unabled to observe the variation of sweating that might occur during the time. The procedure adopted by Kuno (5) for the estimation of the amount of sweat was as follows:dry air was allowed to pass through the celluloid dish (20cm.2) adhered to the skin tightly with collodion, was charged thereby with moisture given off from the skin and was led into small U-tubes containing calcium chloride. This method can only observe changes in sweat secretion per unit of 5min. In the present study, instead of the absorption of water vapor, a sensitive resistance hygrometer was employed enabling a continuous recording of sweating. The hemihidrotic reflex due to postural changes, first described by Kuno (5) was clearly explained by one of the authors to be a consequence of pressure applied on the skin (8). Recently, Watkins (9) tested the effect of pressure on sweating and obtained completely different results denying the presence of the pressure-sweating reflex. More recently, however, the hemihidrotic reflex has been reconfirmed by Ferres (3). With this state of affairs, the effect of pressure on sweating was again investigated using the new method described in this paper.