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.

    449/489 (page 433)
    sipelas, and rheumatic fever, includes a number of cases of phthisis. The reporters state thatthe effect of the quinine in these was generally to lower the temperature^ pulse, and respiration, to mitigate the severity of the paroxysms, and often to postpone the attack of the following day, and lessen its severity. The effect of the quinine rarely lasted more than thirty-six hours ; it was sometimes apparent in half an hour after the dose, but in other instances was not observed for three or four hours, and was most marked when given at the end of the attack. Other notices of quinine will be found at pp. 139 and 325.—Trails.]. § 12. Chronic fever very often assumes a remittent type, in which the temperature during the remissions is usually only a little above the limits of slight febrile movement, whilst during the exacerba- tions it amounts to as much as 39'5° to 40° C. (103-1° to 104° F.), or even more. The remissions usually occur early in the morning, and the exacerbations in the afternoon and evening hours. Yet it is not uncommon to find the highest temperatures at noon, or for two exacerbations to occur, one at mid-day and the other usually less severe at midnight. This course of temperature, however, seldom lasts long, or persists with even tolerable steadiness. It soon slides into some other type, either more dangerous or less severe. Even in itself it appears to work very prejudicially and exhaustively. It is found in chronic suppurations, phthisical affections, and large fluid exudations, and is more particularly related to the rapid progress, relapses, and complications of the essential process. § 13. Chronic fever may sometimes very closely resemble the continuous type. The temperature in such a case is generally rather high, or, indeed, very high. Such a fever, particularly when there are very high temperatures, produces rapid consumption, and, there- fore, burns too fiercely to last long. It therefore either speedily moderates and merges into other types, or it quickly pulls the patient down. It is met with in intercurrent relapses and complications, and at the conclusion of fatally ending chronic diseases. § 14. Intercurrent relapse may occur in any form of chronic fever, and a repetition of such an evil is far from rare. It is most commonly seen when the state of the tem])erature has previously been very high. After the collapse the temperature sometimes quickly 28