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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    The first description of temperature is accompanied with very severe general symptoms and an active deposition of tubercle; the second description with less severe symptoms, and with a less active depo- sition ; and the third description is accompanied with but few symptoms, and with a very slow deposition of tubercle in the body ; and lastly, in those cases in which the temperature becomes and remains normal, all the symptoms disappear, and the deposition of tubercle ceases, as is seen in the case of Cove and Frampton. 5. The temperature is a more accurate indication of the amount of tuberculosis and tuberculization than either the physical signs or the symptoms. Thus it is only a considerable increase in the depo- sition of the tubercle in the body that can be de- tected by physical signs; nay, more, if the tubercle be scattered, even though it be abundant, it may give no evidence of its presence by physical examina- tion ; this was well seen in the case of Kaden, in whom, after the most careful and repeated examina- tions, we could only get evidence of slight consolida- tion at one apex. However, at the post-mortem examination, the lungs were found to be abundantly studded with grey granulations. Further, in those cases of general deposition of tubercle, where death results from tubercular meningites, we constantly at the post mortem examination find tubercle abund- antly scattered through the lungs, liver, peritoneum, &c, which tubercle gave no evidence of its presence