Medical and physical researches, or, Original memoirs in medicine, surgery, physiology, geology, zoology, and comparative anatomy / by R. Harlan.

  • Harlan, Richard, 1796-1843.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical and physical researches, or, Original memoirs in medicine, surgery, physiology, geology, zoology, and comparative anatomy / by R. Harlan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    body would in one instant become extremely cold in every part, continuing so for some time, and as suddenly become extremely hot; while this was going on, alter- nately, there was no sensible alteration in his pulse for several hours.* That the heat of the body does not depend upon respi- ration, or the state of the circulation, has, indeed, been noticed by many writers. It is remarked by Dr. Rush,f that during the fever of 1794, he found, that the burn- ing heat of the skin, called by the ancients, ' calor mor- dens,' and from which this disease, in some countries, had derived the name causus, was more common this year than the last; it was sometimes local, sometimes general; it had no connexion with the state of the pulse, or circu- lation, for it was most intense at a time when the patient had no pulse. We are told by Dr. Chisholm that he found the skin to be warm, whilst the pulse was at fifty-two degrees; and that it was sometimes disagreeably cold, when the pulse was as quick as in ordinary fever. Exactly the same was observed by Senac in intermit- tents, I have often seen, says he, the lower extre- mities extremely cold, and the upper ones parched with heat.J By some experiments of Mr. Hunter, it is proved, that the egg, during incubation, has the power of generating heat, in which case, pulmonary influence is out of the question. Having taken, he observes, some eggs from under a hen, when the chick was about three-fourths formed, I broke a hole in the shell, and introducing the ball of the thermometer, found that the quicksilver rose to ninety- nine and a half degrees. In some that were addled, I found the heat not so high by two degrees, so that the * Animal (Econ. p. 91. + Med. Inq. p. 212. X Senac, p. 25. 65