We describe a simple, highly reproducible kinetic technique for precisely measuring temperature in spectrophotometric systems having reaction cells that are inaccessible to conventional temperature probes. The method is based on the temperature dependence of pseudo-first-order rate constants for the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of N-o-tolyl-D-glucosylamine. Temperatures of reaction cuvette contents are measured with a precision of +/- 0.05 degrees C (1 SD).