Temperature in cholera / by Dr. L. Guterbock, Superintending Physician of Cholera Hospital, No. 2, Berlin ; translated and abridged for the 'Glasgow Medical Journal' by J.B. Russell.

  • Güterbock, Ludwig, 1814-1895.
Date:
[1866?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Temperature in cholera / by Dr. L. Guterbock, Superintending Physician of Cholera Hospital, No. 2, Berlin ; translated and abridged for the 'Glasgow Medical Journal' by J.B. Russell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    2/8 (page 2)
    worthy as in other diseases. Observations in the vagina were abandoned when it became the seat of diphtheritic exudation. Finally, all the thermometers used must be compared with a standard, and agree to a tenth at least. Our thermometers were divided according to the centigrade scale. Though observations were made in 1831, the first which merit a reference were taken in the epidemic of 1848-50. The state- ments of different authors differ widely. Whilst some, and es- pecially Y on Barensprung, * * * § record a general fall in the tempera- ture of the body in the algide stage, others, as Zimmermann,*}* note a rise in the internal parts. The former says the loss of heat is not only external, but general; that in the internal parts it may be inconsiderable; but, at all events, the temperature does not rise. Zimmerman, from only two observations, drew opposite conclusions. Briquet and Mignot} concluded that the greatest fall in the temperature of the entire body takes place in the algide stage. However, they also frequently found a rise. A fall in that stage they considered an unfavourable, a slight rise a favourable, symptom, though they found many exceptions to both rules. Their measurements were entirely axillary, and therefore of little value, and the conclusions from them fallacious. In the algide stage the temperature of the axilla is considerably lower than that of the internal apertures of the body. Similarly opposed statements were made by other authors. Griesinger§ regarded the elevated temperature observed in some cases as the forerunner of death, as in other diseases, especially typhus. In the stage of reaction, according to Von Barensprung, the temperature rises from the associated fever. Zimmermann advances similar opinions. Briquet and Mignot usually found a rise of one degree centigrade (T8° F.), but in some fatal or complicated cases the temperature fell. The following observations show that, in general, these con- tradictions do not depend on mistaken, but on incomplete data. We have adopted the classification of the cases employed in the Hospital records. Table I.—Asphyxiated cases, terminating in death during asphyxia. This table comprises 45 cases. The sex, age, day of the disease when the temperature was taken, and the number of hours before death, are all given in separate columns, with short remarks as to peculiar symptoms, rapidity of course, &c. * Muller’s Archiv, 1852. t Deutsche Klinik, 1856. X Traite pratique et analytique du Choi era-Morbus. Paris, 1850. § Virchow’s Handb. der spec. Pathol, und Therap., 2d. Edition, p. 418,