Medical thermometry and human temperature / by E. Seguin.

Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical thermometry and human temperature / by E. Seguin. 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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    purposes, and especially as a means of controlling therapeutic experiments. Each case lias its temperature recorded; ther- mometry pervades the whole of Currie’s practice; nevertheless, it influenced very little the medical profession. So that for many years his Medical Reports stood alone, like the Giant’s Causeway, a melancholy monument of what a single man can conceive, and the many cannot comprehend. Bo less astonishing, but farther related to therapeutics, was the discovery of Ben. Thomson (Comte Bumford), of the iden- tity of movement and caloric—a principle which comprised within itself the later discoveries of Meyer and Joule, and fruit- ful in physiological and medical applications. Vacca Berlinghieri, Buntzen, Coleman (Dissertation on Sus- pended Respiration, 1701), and Saissy (Recherches sur la Phy- sique des Animaux Ilybernans, 1808), added some interesting facts. Sir B. Brodie published, in 1S11, Some Physiological Researches respecting the Influence of the Brain on the Action of the Heart, and on the Generation of Animal Heat, and Further Experiments on the same subject, in Philosophical Transactions, 1812, p. 378. Dalton and John Davy opposed his views on the source of animal heat; Basse and Earle sup- ported them. The labors of Ilale and Legallois also deserve mention here. Chossat (These, Paris, 1820), Sur VInfluence du Systeme Herveux sur la Chaleur Animate, supported by a great num- ber of experiments the opinion that “the source of animal heat was to be sought in the sympathetic nerve.” In the course of the discussion which followed this important paper, Dulong and Despretz (1822-23) decided in favor of Lavoisier’s theory. At the same time Gentil observed the variations of temperature according to age, sex, temperament, etc.; and Thomson the pro- duction of heat in an inflamed part (in Meckel’s Archives^ v. 405). I]] 1821 ITufeland offered a prize for the demonstration of Currie’s theory and method of treatment. The prize essays of Anton Frolich and Beuss (published in Ilufeland'1 s Journal, 1822) contain many valuable contributions to pathological ther- mometry. Bailly wrote a Memoire sur VAlteration de la Chaleur Animate dans les Fievres Algides {Revue Medicate, 1825, v. 384); and Edwards (1824), in De VInfluence des Agents Physiques sur la Vie, gave a resume of all that was then known about temperature.