ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 295 
increase a degree. The presence of faecal matter does not 
modify the temperature of the rectum. It would be im- 
portant to establish the influence exercised on the tempera- 
ture by sex, period of the day, food, &c. ; but this could only be 
arrived at by regular and frequent observations on a large 
number of horses. 
In observing the variations of temperature in simple 
pneumonia, it is found that, at the commencement of the 
malady, this often attains 41*5°, rarely less than 40’°, while the 
pulse at this period may already be considerably accelerated, 
or differ but little from its normal standard. The following 
days the temperature remains about the same height ; occa- 
sionally, however, it is remarked that it slightly diminishes 
towards the morning and evening. After four, five, six, or 
seven days, it evidently decreases, and in from twenty-four 
to thirty-six hours subsequently it becomes normal. If this 
decrease is interrupted by slight augmentations towards the 
evening, it does not return to its healthy standard until after 
forty-eight hours. This very evident and critical diminution 
of temperature most commonly occurs during the night; the 
decrease of the pulse accompanies, precedes, or follows it by 
twenty-four hours, and the patient becomes convalescent. 
The modifications of temperature are not so regular in 
simple pleurisy, for when, at the commencement of the dis- 
ease, the thermometer shows a high degree, there is frequently 
observed, after two or three days' illness, a more or less con- 
siderable decrease, without any of the other symptoms 
diminishing in intensity. The diminution of the internal 
temperature during the progress of pleurisy does not imply 
an amelioration in the condition of the sick animal, neither 
does it authorise a favorable prognosis. In several cases it 
has been observed that the elevated temperature due to 
pneumonia arrived at its intensity, is maintained at the same 
degree for five to seven days, then diminishes rapidly, but 
only to rise again in a notable manner from the following 
day. The pneumonia, having reached the critical period, 
w 7 as then complicated with pleurisy. 
In certain cases of simple pneumonia Peters has seen the 
augmentation of temperature increase with the acceleration 
of the pulse ; in other instances the former was maintained 
about the same height until the crisis was reached, w hile the 
number of pulsations diminished somewhat rapidly from the 
beginning of the observations, or w 7 as already very low, and 
remained so during the disease. Notwithstanding this differ- 
ence in the great outlines of the curves of internal tempera- 
ture and the pulsations, there was noted a constant harmony 
