Family thermometry : a manual of thermometry, for mothers, nurses, hospitalers, etc., and all who have charge of the sick and of the young / by Edward Seguin.

  • Seguin, Edward, 1812-1880.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Family thermometry : a manual of thermometry, for mothers, nurses, hospitalers, etc., and all who have charge of the sick and of the young / by Edward Seguin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    72/84 (page 66)
    THERMOMETRY GENERALIZED. apparatuses recently suggested for the application of heat or cold to the sick body were out of question, as was the possibility for mothers to be skilled in the use of the thermometer, and to become the most trusty and intelli- gent of the medical assistants. Besides rendering the management of the sick mathe- matical, and giving to the mother a superiority and a dig- nity in home affairs, to which she wo uld never pretend as long as she reared her family by the dark light of instinct alone—besides this, thermometry will detect, in children, soldiers, seamen, and artisans, the commencement of dis- eases which they do not suspect in themselves, and the simulation of others (malingering) to shirk their duties. It will enlighten every one upon his actual fitness to un- dertake travels or extra work, as well as upon his consti- tutional inability to supply the continuous expenditure of vitality demanded by certain professions. It will, more- over, warn the unwary of the necessity of having recourse to a physician, or of the propriety of managing their own slight deviations from the standard of health according to the indications of their thermometer ; except in ex- treme sickness, and in infancy, every one may be his own thermometrician. I began by exhorting every jfiiysician to teach ther- mometry to every mother; and I conclude by exhorting every mother to teach it to all her children, as the A, B, C, of the reading and future understanding of their own health. To you. Madam, and to the other women tvho have fol- lowed me through this new field of thought, for the love they bear to their children, and in the hope that this method of nursing will enable them to bring up their