Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 86, February, 1875Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 86, February, 1875
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
"That's true enough, Jue," the young man said penitently. "I believe I'm
a bad lot, but then look at the brilliant contrast which the future will
present. You know that my old grandmother is always saying to me,
'Harry, you were born with as many manners as most folks, and you've
used none; so you'll have a rare stock to come and go on when you
begin.'"
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
FEVER.
At present all branches of Science possess an intrinsic interest for
every intelligent man, but such elementary knowledge as enables its
possessor to understand the explanations of the medical attendant has a
double value. Over and over again I have heard the remark when some bold
successful treatment was being discussed, "But you would not have dared
to do that in private practice." The days of medical mystification are
not yet entirely passed, but year by year the profession is assuredly
losing that peculiar virtue of office which it formerly possessed in so
eminent a degree. The doctor is no longer a dignified personage with
gold-headed cane and powdered wig, mounting the mansion steps with
stately tread, but a busy man in various garb, hurrying from house to
house, studying the multitudinous problems of disease, and applying the
fruits of such study to the relief of individual cases. No longer able
to awe his patients into obedience, he must rely upon his moral and
intellectual powers in controlling them. To enable any one to understand
the explanations of physicians, and to protect himself, by discovery,
against the impudent assumptions of quacks, some knowledge of medical
truths and of the drift of modern medical thought is necessary. Every
successful physician, no matter how independent he may be by nature, is
necessarily more or less cramped by the prejudices of patients--prejudices
which often a little primary instruction would have done away with.
Of all the diseased processes fever is one of the most frequent and one
of the most serious in their results. A discussion, therefore, of its
nature, the method of its production and of its relief, will, it may be
hoped, engage the attention of the general reader.
If the hand be laid upon the skin of a person in a high fever the
attention is at once attracted by the great heat, and if the bulb of a
thermometer be placed under the tongue or in the armpit of the patient
the mercury may indicate a temperature of 107°, 108°, 109°, or even 110°
Fahrenheit, instead of 98° to 99° Fahrenheit, the normal temperature of
the human body. It is a common belief that the skin in fever is always
dry as well as hot, but this is a mistake, as intense fever may coexist
with a reeking perspiration. During the fever the pulse is greatly
increased in frequency, the head aches and throbs, and if the attack be
very severe restlessness, sudden startings, irregular muscular
twitchings, or even violent epileptiform convulsions and stupor,
delirium or coma, indicate the disturbance of the nervous system.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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