One thousand medical maxims and surgical hints / by Nathaniel Edward Yorke-Davies.

  • Yorke-Davies, Nathaniel Edward, 1844-
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: One thousand medical maxims and surgical hints / by Nathaniel Edward Yorke-Davies. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/168 (page 18)
    [7i- the fifth to the tenth day. The scabs fall off about twenty-one days after the operation. 71. Every mother should learn to use the thermo- meter : it predicts fever and dangerous illnesses as a barometer does a storm. They are sold by chemists at 7s. 6d. each, and are known by the name of * clinical thermometers.’ 72. The temperature of the body in health is a little under 98J°, marked on the thermometer with an arrow; when the heat of the body at rest ex- ceeds 100°, or falls below 97°, excepting under very rare conditions, danger may be looked for, and medical advice should be sought without delay. 73. In using the thermometer, the bulb should be placed in the armpit next to the skin, and not touching any article of clothing, for five minutes, and the arm drawn over the chest; then the tem- perature of the body may be read off, and the mer- cury brought down again to the arrow by gently tapping the thermometer against the palm of the hand. 74. If the temperature of the body reaches 103°, fever, inflammatory action, or constitutional dis- turbance is severe; 104° or 105°, very severe; 106°, very dangerous ; and 107°, usually fatal; and when it reaches 108°, death may be expected within twenty-four hours. These figures refer to males and females alike. 75. In the great majority of cases of fever or in- flammation, the temperature does not ever ex- ceed 106°. 76. In fever, when the temperature returns to its normal 98J°, the ‘crisis’ is past, and conva- lescence commences.