We discuss different aspects which could influence temperatures deduced from
experimental isotopic yields in the multifragmentation process. It is shown
that fluctuations due to the finite size of the system and distortions due to
the decay of hot primary fragments conspire to blur the temperature
determination in multifragmentation reactions. These facts suggest that caloric
curves obtained through isotope thermometers, which were taken as evidence for
a first-order phase transition in nuclear matter, should be investigated very
carefully.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
