A biennial retrospect of medicine, surgery, and their allied sciences, for 1869-70 / edited by H. Power [and others] for the New Sydenham Society.

Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A biennial retrospect of medicine, surgery, and their allied sciences, for 1869-70 / edited by H. Power [and others] for the New Sydenham Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    ratory function is not fully developed, and partly, and lie thinks chiefly owing to the cold produced by the evaporation of the amniotic fluid! After the second hour it reacquires the ordinary temperature of the adult, and presents the same physiological variations as in the adult pe- riod of life. These statements agree with those of Dr. John Davy, but are opposed to those of W. Edwards and Dupuytren. Dr. Finlayson* * * § finds the daily range of temperature greater in healthy children than that recorded of healthy adults. Mr. Blakef obtained the following results from a series of experi- ments, undertaken with a view to determine the relative temperature of the two sides of the body:—(i) The temperature of the two sides of the trunk under usual circumstances, i. e. in health and at rest in a temperate climate, is equal. (2) Bnder certain conditions the tempe- rature of the left side of the trunk may exceed that of the right. (3) The excess during exertion in a cool atmosphere averages half a degree Eahr. (4) The excess reaches its maximum, about one degree Eahr., during exertion in a powerful sun. Dr. H. Fischer,J from experiments on animals and observations on man, considers it to] be probable that a centre exists in the anterior portion of the cervical segment of the spinal cord, possessing a control- ling or regulating power over the temperature, so that, when excited, the temperature of the body falls, whilst when irritated it rises. S. Ringer§ gives the average maximum temperature of the day in persons under twenty-five years of age at 99'i° Fahr., of those over forty 98-8°. There is a diurnal variation, the highest temperature ex- tending from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the lowest from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. The diurnal variation does not exceed from 1—20 according to age. The more important physiological changes induced in the human economy by change of climate have been interestingly discussed by Dr. A. Rattray. || He shows that the capacity of the chest increases in a warm climate; the respirations are less frequent. The pulse is about 2—3 beats lower in the tropical zone than in the temperate. The tempera- ture of the body is exalted. H. Jacobson andM. Bernhardt^f and Greorg Laudien** all agree that the inflamed part is always lower than that of the centre of the circula- tion, though it is higher than that of the corresponding sound parts of the opposite side. Laudien states that the blood going to an inflamed spot is warmer than the seat of inflammation itself Lewitzkyft shows that quinine injected into the jugular vein of a rabbit causes a retardation of the beats of the heart, renders the respira- tion more shallow, and lowers the animal temperature. The amount of carbonic acid and of watery vapour eliminated by the * ‘Glasgow Med. Journ.,’ Feb., 1869. f ‘ Med. Times and Gazette/ Oct. 8, 1870. X ‘ Centralblatt/ 1869, p. 259. § ‘Proceed. Roy. Soc./ xvii, 1869, p. 287. II ‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ xviii, p. 513. IT ‘ Centralblatt/ 1868, p. 289. ** Idem, p. 291. ft Idem, Nos. 13 and 14, 1869.