Chemistry of Palmar Sweat: Preliminary Report: Apparatus and Technics1

This study was undertaken in an attempt to compare the secretory efficiency of the sweat gland and its tubule with the more anatomically complex renal glomerulus and tubules. The eccrine sweat glands may be divided into two groups as to function, location and, possibly, connections to the central nervous system. 1. The eccrine sweat glands of the general body surface respond to stimuli of heat and work. Their function is that of regulation of body temperature. 2. Sweat from the glands of the palms and soles (and some in the axillae) is referred to as palmar sweat, or psychic, or mental sweat. Darrow (1) pointed out that its teleolQgic function was originally to provide a pliable, adhesive surface facilitating tactile €ense and the grip on objects; it now manifests itself in preparedness for activity, alertness or vigilance, conation, shift of attention, mental work and emotion. In the absence of preparedness, as in sleep, the palms tend to be dry, even in hot weather when the general body surface is sweating. All this has been shown by Kuno (2) and Neumann, Cohn and Burch (3) by studying volume output of palmar sweat by various methods. The chemistry of general body or thermal sweat has been studied by many observers (4—18) under various conditions of increased temperature, humidity and work both in hot climates and in thermal chambers. Correlation studies on sweat, urine, blood and gastric juice have been made, as well as studies on sweat alone. The sweat collected for analysis by various investigators has been either pooled body sweat or sweat collected from specific areas of the general body surface. This sweat, for the most part, has been profuse, dilute, with low specific gravity and low concentration of dissolved substances. Sweat that has been scraped off, or allowed to run off the body surface, or absorbed into clothing, is contaminated by epithelial cells, fat and surface bacteria, even though the body surface was thoroughly washed before starting the collection. In the present study the efficiency of a sweat gland was to be compared with the efficiency of the renal excreting unit. Williams (19) listed similarities

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