AND ANIMAL LIFE. 123 



been removed from the contact of the body it 

 will be cooler than usual, or if it has been long 

 applied to this it will be warmer at one time than 

 another. These circumstances are of sufficient 

 importance to occasion great variations in the in- 

 dications of the thermometer, and consequent 

 fallacies in the reasoning. The plan which I fol- 

 lowed appears to me more correct, but it is cer- 

 tainly very tedious. Mr MOIR, surgeon-accou- 

 cheur to the Lying-in-hospital, Edinburgh, had 

 the kindness to allow me the opportunity of tak- 

 ing the temperature of infants. The temperature 

 of the body was at all times estimated by the in- 

 dications which the thermometer gave in the 

 mouth when the infant was asleep. To make 

 the instrument as delicate as possible, it was dip- 

 ped for a moment before it was employed into a 

 cup of warm water, from 5 to 10 degrees above 

 the animal heat. The bulb being thus slightly 

 warmed, did not awake the infant by its applica- 

 tion, and was made much more sensible than the 

 most delicate thermometer could otherwise have 

 been. The same method was, in the greater 

 number of instances, attended to in taking the 

 temperature of adults. The child would some- 

 times be disturbed, but very rarely, by the intro- 

 duction of the thermometer. Whenever this was 

 the case, the attempt was postponed till the next 

 visit. I have also noted the age of the infant, the 

 number of its respirations, and the state of the 

 constitution. 



