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Within recent years an increasing number of papers have appeared on neurogenic hyperthemia, a severe and occasionally fatal elevation of body temperature which sometimes results from acute injury to the brain, especially if the hypothalamic region has been involved (Cushing,1 Gagel,2 Alpers,3 Dott,4 Erickson,5 Davison6 and Zimmerman7). This acute hyperthermia, which Cushing1 characterized as a bête noire of the neurosurgeon, has been ascribed to a dysfunction of the hypothalamic temperature-regulating mechanism, and a variety of antipyretic agents have been utilized in attempts to control it, but without success. In 1938, Dott4 wrote:We know of no pharmacological substance which will effectively lower the raised temperature in cerebrogenic hyperthermia. Artificial cooling is our only effective treatment.It appeared that if acute hyperthermia could be produced with some regularity by hypothalamic injury in experimental animals, an opportunity would be afforded for a study