296 ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
between the daily oscillations. Never did one of these curves 
ascend or descend in a constant manner, but the other fol- 
lowed an opposite movement; the modification of one of the 
curves preceded that of the other, but the movement has 
always taken place in the same sense for both. 
When there existed considerable pleural effusion, the curve 
of pulsations frequently only attained its culminating point 
towards the ninth or tenth day of the disease, when the 
temperature had already become almost normal. 
According to the result of his researches, Peters was 
inclined to think that the relations between the curve of the 
number of respirations and that of the number of pulsations 
are not the same in pneumonia and pleurisy. In the first- 
named disease the number of respiratory movements observed 
during the time necessary for the production of a determi- 
nate number of pulsations is more considerable than that of 
the respiratory movements corresponding to the same number 
of arterial pulsations in pleurisy. Neither does the progress 
of the curve of temperature correspond as exactly to the 
different degrees of gravity of inflammations of the pleura as 
that of the curve of pulsations. The latter curve has, there- 
fore, in these cases, a greater prognostic value than the 
first. 
In the inflammations of the pulmonary parenchyma, the 
elevation of internal temperature more certainly revealed 
the seriousness of the affection than the inconsiderable 
number of pulsations. The curve of temperatures accords 
much better with a determinate type than that of the 
pulsations. 
The determinations of the internal temperature present 
a real value as a means of diagnosis in cases where the ther- 
mometer indicates, in the course of pneumonia, an augmenta- 
tion of combustion during or after the appearance of the critical 
phenomena. This increase of temperature demonstrates, in 
these circumstances, the development of pleurisy. In addi- 
tion, the thermometer testifies to the existence of serious 
disturbance when no other morbid symptom is present. 
It was impossible to determine a maximum of temperature 
which could not be exceeded without being followed by 
death. In febrile diseases, when the thermometer betrays 
the existence of an elevated temperature, the principal indi- 
cation to be followed is to induce a diminution of the internal 
combustion. Thermometry affords an indication as to the 
moment when recourse should be had to antiphlogistic treat- 
ment ; in proportion as the internal temperature exceeds 40°, 
