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.

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    seven, and found in eight observations of morning temperature an average of 9^-47° i\ (36-92° C.) in the vagina, and in seven observa- tions of evening temperature (also in vagina) an average of 98*51° 1\ (36-95° C), which is decidedly sub-normal. He also refers to observations by Da Costa on the same subject in the 'American Journal of Medical Sciences/ vol. liii, p. 156, Philadelphia, 1867. I am indebted to Dr. E. B. Baxter for notes of the temperature of a case of medullary cancer of the liver in a patient of Dr. Garrod's in King's College Hospital, in which the temperatures on the six last days of life ^ye^e as follows : ist day, M., 99-5° F.; £., loo-o' F. 2nd ,, M., 99-5° F.; E., 98-4° F. 3rd „ il/, 99-5^F.; Z, 99-5^ F. 4th „ M., 98-2^ F.; E., 99-0^ F. Sth „ M., 97-6^ F.; E., 99-4^ F. 6tli „ 21., 98-9° F.; E., Died. The few observations I have myself made of carcinoma of the hver, uterus, and breast, before marasmus had set in, only show very slight elevations of temperature, or none at all; never above 101° F. (38-4°), unless from some comphcation; whilst I have found sub-normal temperatures with rapid pulse in several cases of advanced cancer, with emaciation. See paragraph i of this section.— Trans.] § 5. Chronic cases of heart disease generally exhibit considerable elevations of temperature only when acute attacks supervene. In congenital malformations of the heart connected with cyanosis, such as stenosis of the pulmonary artery [which Dr. Peacock has shown to be the most commoii cause of cyanosis], sub-normal temperatures are by no means uncommon. § 6. In diabetes mellitus (glycosuria) it is quite exceptional to find an abnormally high temperature, whilst it is by no means rare to find it persistently sub-normal; and even the formation of abscesses, pneumonia or pulmonary consumption, very often fail to elevate the temperature of diabetics. [See Dr. B. W. Porster's Piemarks in the 'Journal of Anatomy and Physiology;' London, 1869, p. 377.]