On the temperature of the body as a means of diagnosis in phthisis and tuberculosis / by Sydney Ringer.

Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the temperature of the body as a means of diagnosis in phthisis and tuberculosis / by Sydney Ringer. 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.

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    AphthcR.—It will scarcely be maintained that these could produce so high a temperature as 103° Fah.; moreover, they did not make their appearance till a few days before the death of the patient, at which time indeed there was a slight decline of the tem- perature. Pleurisy.—The pleurisy indicated by the friction could not have elevated the temperature to 103° and 104° Fah. for five weeks without giving rise to effu- sion, yet there was no evidence at any time in this case of fluid in the pleural cavities. Thus the author thinks he is justified in assuming that in these cases, accompanied with secondary com- plication, the elevation of the temperature, if not entirely, was mainly due to the tuberculosis or tuber- culization. It thus appears that not only are the conditions existing during the deposition of tubercle in the body capable of causing a continued elevation of the tem- perature, but that it actually does so, if not in all at least in the very great majority of cases, there being no exception to this rule amongst the cases given in this pamphlet. That the elevation of the temperature in these cases was due to the phthisis, is shown by the correspondence which existed between the eleva- tion of the temperature and the activity of the deposit in the lungs judged by the physical signs ; %. for it can be seen by looking at any of these cases, that where the deposition was going on