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.

    110/489 (page 94)
    It is sujiposcd, widi some reason, that Ihey have about the same Icmperature as accessible, but well sheltered spots. Jacobson and Bernhardt ('Centralblatt/ 1868, p. 643), found the left heart in llfteeucases about '12° to '42° Centigrade (= ^° to -5-° Fahr. nearly) M'armer than the right., and the same temperature only in two cases. They found normal pleural cavities about •1'' to '2^ Centigrade (= -^° to -]° Fahr.), cooler than the abdominal cavity, and about -2° to -5° Cent. ( = -\° to -,''.,° Fahr. nearly), cooler than the left heart. The (inferences of tenqierature in those jiarts wh\ch are most capahJe of serving ns in practical investigations are apparently very slight when carefully measured. Amongst these, the temperatures of the vagina and the unloaded rectum are the highest, being from one to four tenths of a degree Centigrade (= -ith to -r^ths of a degree Fahr. nearly), higher than that of the axilla. The temperature of the interior or cavity of the mouth, if there is no disturbing element, occupies an intermediate position (between the axillary and vaginal or rectal). We may safely allow that when the mean temperature of the axilla in a healthy person is 37° (98-6° Fahr.), that of the month will be 37-1° to 37-2° (9878° to 98'96° Fahr.), and that of the vagina, or imloaded rectum 37\3° to 375° (99'i4°to 99*5° Fahr.). Yet the results of various observers are somewhat contradictory. Compare on these points L. Fick ( Temperaturtopographie des Organismus'^ in Miiller's ' Archiv,' 1853, P- 408). Winckel (in the ' Monatsschrift fllr Geburtskunde und Frauenkrankheiten,^ 1862, xx, 473). Zlemssen ('Pleuritis und Pneumonie im Kimdesalter,^ 1862, p. 10). Schroder (Vir- chow^s 'Archiv,' xxxv, 253.)^ The differences between the temperatures of imperfectly protected situations on the surface of the body are far more considerable. As cooling takes place to a greater and more fluctuating extent, the differences observed in customary measurements are almost value- less for practical purposes. We learn, however, from thermo-electric determinations of temperature of various parts of the skin, that ' In some diseases (notably in cholera, pneumonia, pelvic and abdominal dis- eases, &c.) much greater differences will sometimes, as might be expected, be found. This is also the case occasionally in parturition. From 2' to 3 Fahr. (= 36° to 5'4° C.) difference between the axillary and vaginal or rectal tem- peratures occurs in some of these cases. Some of the discrepancies which have been recorded are, however, doubtless due to the methods of observation being imperfect.—[Tra:^s.]