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.

    38/489 (page 22)
    liiin'=;rlf of tlie use of iho (lun'moiinitT in (ho observation of febrile (liscaso viTV extensively. His methotl of thcrniomclrv was very peculiar, because lie was accustomed to leave the iustrument seven and a half minutes inftHv, and then add i° or 2° F. to the tenpcrature registered, because he had found that the mercury would rise as much if left longer. In spite of this imperfect method of ])rocedure, the thermometer afforded him very valuable data, which for the most part have been confirmed or even re-discovered in modern times. His researches are dispersed through the fifteen volumes of his 'Ratio ]\fedcndi.^ Those chiefly deserving notice are: torn, ii, cap. 10, De supputando calore corporis huinani;'^ torn, iii, cap. 3, De sanguine humano, ejusdemque calore; torn, iv, cap. 6, De sanguine et calore humano; tom. vii, cap. 5, Varia, § 3; torn, x, cap. 1, De febribus inter- mittentibus; cap. 2, De morbis acutis; tom. xii, cap. 2, Historia pulsus, &:c. De Haen made a number of observations of temperature on healthy people of various ages, and very numerous investigations in sick people, so that he could fairly judge of its significance. Non antcm semel deciesve, sed pluries ipsissima experimenta iterata sunt et semper idem docuerunt.''^ ^ He remarked constantly the remarkable fact of the high temperature of the aged. In various parts of his work we discover how valuable an aid to prognosis and diagnosis de Haen found thermometry to be. He was aware of the morning remission and evening exacerbation of temperature in fevers; the rise of temperature during febrile rigors (ficber frost) (tempore frigoris homini intolerabilis cum pulsu contractiore minore, thermometum signat octo gradus ultra calorem uaturalera, tom. ii, p. 142.) He was familiar with the elevations of temperature, after inter- mittent fevers have been apparently cured, which are often unaccom- panied with any other noticeable symptoms (torn, iii, p. 326); he was aware of the discrepancies between pulse and temperature in many patients, the common contrast between subjective feelings of warmth (or the reverse), and objective elevations of temperature; he used the changes of temperature as a controller or director for his 1 Not once only, nor even ten times, but very many times were the experi- ments repeated, and always with the same result. - During the cold stage, so intolerable to the patient, along with a diminished force of the pulse, the thermometer registers eight degrees above the natural heat,