Abstract
The rate of regional sweating from the human body has been measured by the ventilated capsule method as well as by the method which uses filter paper within a capsule. On the other hand, the evaporimeter was introduced as a method for measuring the rate of evaporation from the skin surface under natural conditions in the open air, the use of which, however, has been restricted only to the horizontal plane. The possibility of application of the evaporimeter to the vertical plane was examined in this study with a simple evaporation box. After confirming the validity of applying the evaporimeter to the vertical plane, the influence of posture change on the rate of regional evaporation from the human body was examined with it. Experimental conditions were air temperatures of 28, 34 and 37℃ and 50% relative humidity. The subjects were 10 female students. Postures of the subjects were sitting and supine. The results were summarized as follows: (1)The validity of the application of an evaporimeter to the vertical plane was confirmed by a significantly high coefficient of correlation (r = 0.98) between the weight ioss from an evaporation box and the rate of evaporation measured with the evaporimeter. (2)Rates of evaporation from the human body both in the sitting and supine postures were conspicuously increased with the temperature rise. (3)The distribution of the rate of evaporation was remarkably changed by the posture especially in the sweating zone. In the supine posture, evaporation from the upper parts of the body, forehead, back and loins was supressed and that from the lower extremities was significantly greater than in the sitting posture.
