Observations on the temperature of the body in the insane / by T. S. Clouston, M.D.

  • Clouston, T. S. (Thomas Smith), 1840-1915.
Date:
[1868]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the temperature of the body in the insane / by T. S. Clouston, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    An examination of the temperatures of the individual cases of general paralysis shows a still more striking fact in refer- ence to the increase of the evening temperatui-e. (See table n.) TABLE II. D. M, J W. W. B F. L. M. B. H. r. T. T. J. W. R. T. W. L A. K. J. C. G. R. G. E. . (end of 1st stage- excited) (1st stage—slightly excited) (end of 1st stage) (1st stage—quiet, rational).. (end of 1st stage) (1st stage—a little excited) (2ud stage) (2nd stage) (2nd stage) . (2nd stage—depressed) . (2nd stage) (3rd stage) (3rd stage) (3rd stage-moribund) Mean temperature Average Temperature, evening Degrees. Degrees. 98.01 98.14 90.4 97.2 97.15 98.16 96.5 97.52 97.84 98. 97.5 98.42 97.18 97.5 96.44 97.05 96.4 96.56 95.14 96.38 97.2 98.2 98.5 100.7 99 6 99.9 102.5 103.5 97.6 98.37 98. Among those fourteen general paralytics there are patients in every stage of the disease, from the beginning of the first,- when there seems scarcely anything wrong at all with the patient, to the end of the last stage, when death is daily ex- pected. Some of them have passed from one stage of the disease into another while the observations were being made on them, and the average temperature of each was deter- mined by ten observations. In every case, without exception, the evening temperature is higher than the morning. This affords a most valualjle indica- tion in the diagnosis of doubtful cases of the disease. What would the physician not give sometimes to be able to pro- nomice certainly that a case is not one of hopeless brain disease ? And how much mischief might be prevented, and property saved, and danger and annoyance to relations avoided, if the disease could be more certainly diagnosed in its early stages ? It seems probable that this constant rise in the evening temperature will be found to exist in all pro- gressive brain diseases, and may be found as useful in the diagnosis of other obscure organic affections of the brain as