Infantile temperatures in health and disease / by William Squire.

  • Squire, William, 1825-1899.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Infantile temperatures in health and disease / by William Squire. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the very height of the rash in scarlet fever has not only proved a comfortable but a perfectly safe proceeding; at this time its effect in raising the surface temperature and in moderating that of the interior, is at least as great as in health. In a boy of six (Case 23) who had been delicate, the axillary temperature on the second day of the rash of scarlet fever was only 99°-l—it had been 100° the evening before— the rectal temperature was 102°; the surface was sponged at eleven a.m., and before noon 101° was obtained in the axilla; the evening exacerbation was moderated by the same means. The rash continued to be quite as red, but gave less discomfort. Where the difference between the surface tem¬ perature and that of the anterior is great, this method might be more frequently adopted; where both are unduly elevated, and not controlled by full doses of quinine, resort might be had to the old remedy of cold affusion. Scarlet fever, if not always as severe in infancy, may be thoroughly characterised at an early age. A girl (Case 24), mt. 1^ years, had a full and vivid rash during the first week of illness, slight affection of the ear-passages in the second, and some desquamation of the renal epithelium, as well as of the skin, in the third.1 The disease, in a severe form, proved fatal to an infant whose sister, eet. 4 years, recovered with the loss of the cervical glands by sloughing; this acci¬ dent also eventually proved fatal to a delicate girl of five years, who suffered convulsions with the first appearance of the rash. The highest temperature noted during scarlet fever has been 104o,5, in a boy, set. 94 years, on the third and fourth days of the illness; this may have been exceeded during the intervening night, but the next night, when there was active delirium, 104° could not be obtained on the surface. The temperature was 103° in this case till the eighth day, 102° 1 During the passage of these sheets through the press scarlatina has been met with, preceded by thrush, in an infant (Case 31) not quite four weeks old ; the temperature at the height of the rash reached 102°; it was subsiding on the fourth day before the rash had quite disappeared ; a slight increase marked an affection of the ears; recovery perfect.