Medical thermometry and human temperature / by E. Seguin.

Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical thermometry and human temperature / by E. Seguin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    53/484 (page 23)
    THERMAL INFLUENCES ON THE NORME. a.— Of Food.—Nutritious materials introduced into the body, though chief means of warmth-production, hardly affect the temperature, because the excess of heat produced is disposed of. The breakfast raises the temperature more than the lunch, and the evening dinner causes simply a delay in the fall, which otherwise takes place at this time of the day. Generally the effect of a meal on temperature is slight, unless the individual is unwell or the food unhealthy. (See Appendix YI.) Of Drinks.—The transient effect of a moderate and habitual use of ardent spirits and other drinks on the temperature of the healthy are thus resumed. Two pints or so (a mass) of beer lower the temperature of .5° C. = .9° F. in fifteen minutes. Wine and brandy lower the temperature too. In full doses brandy lowers the fever heat by fully two degrees, and gives the pulse fulness and frequency. Warm alcoholic drinks elevate the . temperature ; also coffee and tea ; carbonic acid drinks lower it for a short time. The effects of drinking cold water (Lichtenfels and Froh- lieli) was to lower the temperature ; and that of immersing one hand in very cold water was to lower its temperature 8°—1S° C. = 14° —31° F. in a few minutes; did not alter the general temperature, but lowered that of the other hand as soon as the immersed hand became painfully affected by the cold (Brown-Sequard and Tolozan, Journal de Physiologic, i. 497). But as the action of food, alcohol, wines, water, etc., extends farther than the mere preservation of the norrae—to its restor- ation, for instance—we will put off further remarks till we speak of them as therapeutic agents. Cold bathing, in good ordinary conditions, equalizes the temperature, and comes next to food—with food, must we say ? —as a factor of the norme with a weak circulation, fatigue or