Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1883 — The Thermometer as a Remedial Agent. [ARTICLE]

The Thermometer as a Remedial Agent.

Being called to prescribe for a patient living in the hills above Keyport, who had long been afflicted with epilepsy, and whose mind was now somewhat I noticed a remarkable pallor of countenance, and that the surface of the body was very cold to the touch, so produced a clinical thermometer to ascertain the temperature. The young man evidently looked upon it as a part of the treatment, and, further impressed by the admiring awe of his relatives, closed his lips upon it with as pious a care as though it had been Tyndall’s prayer-gauge, and speedily seemed oblivious of all earthly things. So wrapt was he that when I went to withdraw the thermometer, he gave a start like one rudely assailed. “How did it affect you?” queried I. “Very well indeed,” he replied; “I think it has made me feel much better.” And then, raising his hand with a air of benediction, he added: “It had such a quieting influence.” An hour afterward I visited a young domestic in another family, who was convalescing from a mild attack of typhoid fever, where the temperature had ranged from 100 to 102 degrees for several days. While here I related the above incident to her employer, who laughed heartily; but the girl, with a look of scornful superiority, cried out: “Pooh! he must’nt ever have seen one before! Why, I have had two at a time in my mouth, and I thought nothing of it.” “Why was that?” asked I. “When I was on Randall’s island.” “Yes, but why ? What were two used for ?” “Because—because,” blurted she, in confusion, “my fever was so high they couldn’t tell it with one!”— Medical Becord.