On the temperature in diseases : a manual of medical thermometry.

  • Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the temperature in diseases : a manual of medical thermometry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto.

    17/489 (page 1)
    MEDICAL THERMOMETRY, > , , CHAPTEll I. It*-' FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. § I.—There are two well-ascertaiued facts, which not only justify us in endeavouring to determine the temperature of the body in diseases, and render the use of the thermometer both a duty and a valuable aid to diagnosis, but form the basis of all our investiga- tions. The first fact is the coustaticj/ of tem2)erature hi healtki/ jjersoits, or, in other words, that healthy human beings of every age and condition, in all places and in all circumstances, and exposed to all kinds of influences, provided these do not impair health, have an almost identical temperature. The second fact is the variation of temperature in disease, for in sick persons we are constantly meeting with deviations from the normal temperature of the healthy. § 2.—The average nonaat tt'iiiperaiare of the liealthy human body in its interior, or in carefully covered situations on its surface, varies, according to the plan of measurement, from 98-6° to 99*5^ Pahr. (37° to 37'5° C). It is about 98-6° in the well-closed axilla, and a few tenths of a degree higher ('5—i^ or 2° Fahr., 7° Eahr. average) in the rectum and vagina.^ § 3.—The temperature of healthy persons is almost constantly the same, although not absolutely so. Indeed, there are sponta- neous variations in the course of every twenty-four hours, but these seldom exceed half a degree of the Centigrade scale (= '9° Tahr.) ' Tlie arrow to iudicate the normal temperature is placed at 98. t^ Ealir, 011 most English thermometers; from numerous observations, and conipar'iAOu ol various statements, lam inclined to believe that the author is correct in placing it higher.—[Trans.]