Abstract
The temperature of the human body has been widely used as an index of illness since antiquity. The hand of an experienced physician laid upon the skin could provide much useful information about the temperature of a patient and the course of an illness. Eventually, more objective assessment was possible and the clinical thermometer (much as we know it today) was developed during the last century. This instrument rapidly became firmly established as this extract from a work of 1882 shows — “It (the thermometer) is now in daily, nay hourly, use in every hospital in London, and ranks in importance with the stethoscope. A doctor without his thermometer is like a sailor without his compass”.1
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References
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© 1984 Plenum Press, New York
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Clark, R.P. (1984). Human Skin Temperature and Its Relevance in Physiology and Clinical Assessment. In: Ring, E.F.J., Phillips, B. (eds) Recent Advances in Medical Thermology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-7697-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-7697-2_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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