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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    yet the pulse was, on an average, 114. In a case of pleurisy, after the temperature fell, the pulse re- mained at 108. In those cases of tuberculosis in which the temperature ultimately became normal, the pulse still continued high, in one case as high as 120. Moreover, the pulse may be very frequent in cases of simple hysteria; thus the author has met with a patient suffering from the disease un- complicated with any other morbid condition, in which the pulse rose even to 160. Hence we may frequently have an increased fre- quency of the pulse without any elevation of-the temperature ; but we have seen that it is probable that in all cases of tuberculization there is an eleva- tion of the temperature ; thus a continued increase in the pulse frequently cannot be taken to be signifi- cant of phthisis. Is there any method of deciding between the in- creased frequency of the pulse due to fever and that due to weakness ? The author knows of none but the use of the thermometer. It may be said (with truth) that the cases in which we generally get increased frequency of the pulse from exhaustion, are those convalescent from some acute disease; but it is after such acute diseases that tuberculosis often sets in, and when, consequently, it is of great importance to decide between the causes. And it certainly is true that in those cases in which the weakness is slowly brought about, the