Page:The Harveian oration, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, Wednesday, June 27th, 1877 (IA b22314623).pdf/34

 spirit which I venture to claim as a characteristic and prevailing feature in the medical profession of the present day. Remembering the early days of the stethoscope, and the comparative slowness with which it forced itself into universal recognition, the manner in which the thermometric test of morbid processes has been received in all ranks of the profession, from the time its valuc was first shown by Wunderlich and Traube, seems to justify a high estimate of the advance made by the students of medicine during the present generation. The thermometer does not give us the reason of the change of temperature in the individual case; but it enables us to form a correct estimate of many processes, the nature of which previously could only be determined in the post-mortem room; and increased diligence in its employment is likely to render more clear the diagnosis of various obscure changes, as, for instance, Bastian* and others have already indicated in the depart- ment of cerebral pathology. The thermometer tells us a fact, which the most educated tactile sensibility is inadequate to determine with pre- cision; and both in the outset, course, and con- valescence of acute discase, it is an invaluable help to judge of the requirements of our patients. Whether more care in observation, or more refined

Charlton Bastian, M.D., F.R.S. 1875.
 * Paralysis from Brain-Discase in its Common Forms, by H.