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.

    397/489 (page 381)
    The diagnostic question, whether there is hronchitis or pneumo- nia during a remittent course, cannot be settled entirely by ther- mometry, but this must generally be done by taking into account the acoustic symptoms. But pneumonia is highly probable when the exacerbations exceed 40° Cent. (104° Tahr.) in height. The differential diagnosis from abdominal typhus may present no little difficulty, more particularly as infiltrations of the lung may occur in this disease, and, on the other hand, the cerebral and abdo- minal symptoms are very similar to those of typhoid, and even the ppleen may become enlarged. And it is not always possible to make a correct diagnosis when only a limited abstract of the course lies before] us. But in favorably progressing pneumonias the diagnosis is generally possible after observation for some four days or so. If they are the first four days of the disease, the rise of temj^erature in pneumonia will be found less regular than in abdominal typhus. (See page 300.) If the days are at later periods, one generally observes in favorable cases of pneumonia a constant diminution of the high evening temperatures, and if the disease has already shown a decided decrease it may be taken as true that this makes more rapid progress than in ileo-typhus. § 9. A course with recrudescing fastigium not infrequently occurs as a modification both of the continuous and remittent types, and is remarked in those cases where, after the hepatization of one part of the lung, either a second lobe or the other lung is attacked {saccade 'A. progressing pneumonia). After the previous temperature has been pretty moderate, or the course has already begun to moderate, there occurs all at once a rise of temperature, which is shortly succeeded by either a continuous or discontinuous course. Unless death occurs, the convalescence generally resembles that of the other cases, though it sometimes displays irregularities, and is at least more protracted than in the simple continuous course. § 10. Sometimes the fever in pneumonia displays a relapsing course. This may occur after a general or large local abstraction of blood, and sometimes also without any external interference at all. For the most part a rapid defervescence occurs unusually early, perhaps on the second or third day, although sometimes later, ju^t as in recovery from croupous pneumonia.