The contributions of Lavoisier, Carnot, and Mayer to understanding heat illness.

Although heat illness has been described throughout recorded history, an understanding of its pathophysiology was only achieved in the 20th century. Lavoisier, Carnot, and Mayer described fundamental concepts about thermodynamics in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that were crucial to the eventual understanding of heat illness. Lavoisier recognized that the human body was a heat engine. Carnot recognized that useful heat engines must dissipate heat. Mayer recognized that humans possess the capacity to regulate body heat. The fundamental contributions of Lavoisier, Carnot, and Mayer to the understanding of heat illness have gone largely unacknowledged.