On the temperature in diseases : a manual of medical thermometry.

  • Wunderlich, C. A. (Carl August), 1815-1877.
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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    p. 159), ice-bags applied to the belly caused a rapid fall of the mercury in a thermometer introduced bcneatli the abdominal wall, but no alteration of the temperature in the rectum. The effect of drinhing cold water on tlie temperature has been investigated by Lichtenfels and Frohlich, who observed a slight diminution of temperature, with a Seidcl ( = I2'4 oz. nearly) at 18° C. [=64-4° Fahr.] after six minutes, about -,\>' C. [=1° Fahr. nearly] ; with the same quantity at 16-3° C. [=61-3° Fahr.], about -V° C, [ = f o-° Fahr. nearly] in the same time. Some others also have made similar experiments, and particularly Winternitz ('Oesterr Zeitschrift fiir prakt. Heilkunde,' 1865, p. 130). In one experiment, after the enjoyment of 6 Seidel ( = 3t pts. nearly) of water at 40'48^ Fahr. (4'6° C.) at intervals of ten to fifteen minutes, in the course of seventy minutes the temperature was lowered about 2*5° Fahr. (1*4° C.) j but pathological symptoms followed (tendency to vomit, eructations, &c.). In another trial (p. 168) after four Seidel (=2^ pts. nearly) of 67° C. (44° Fahr.) had been drunk in divided portions, at intervals of fifteen and twenty minutes, within one and a quarter hours, the temperature sank about I44° Fahr. (8 C), eructations being again produced. In the summer the temperature of the human body is a trifle (about -jV to -fg.0 C.=:i to i° Fahr. nearly) higher than in winter. In very hot summers this elevation may be still more considerable. Johi Davy found in the transit from a hot climate to a temperate one, with a mean difference of ii'ii° C. (=20° Fahr.) a decrease of temperature of '88° C. (=i'58° Fahr.). Brotvn-Sequard ('Journal de Physiologic,' ii, 551) found, in a journey from France to the Isle of France, that eight healthy people, between seventeen and fifty-five years, whose temperature was taken under the tongue, whilst travell- ing in an atmospheric temperature of 8° C. (46*4° Fahr.), a mean body temperature of q,6'6%^° C. (97*9° Fahr.). Eight days later, with the temperature of the air at 25° C. (77° Fahr.), the body tem- perature was 37*428'^ (99'4° Fahr.), and still further nine days later, under the equator, with an atmospheric temperature of 29*5° C. (=85-1° Fahr.) a mean temperature of 37*9° C. (=ioo'22° Fahr.) was shown, and six weeks later, in 37*4° S. latitude, with the ex- ternal air at 16° C. (=6o-8° Fahr.), the mean temperature had sunk to 37*23° C. (=99-04° Fahr.). E//doiix and Souleyet observed rather smaller differences (' Comptcs rendus de FAcad. des Sciences,^ 1838, vi, 456).