Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-01-08
A Human Thermometer.

DIR. Paul Regnier, physician who
has been much noted for his treat
ment of the seyuim of diseases which
result from the injudicious treatment
Of diseases, has at present very pc
culiar patient, who may reasonably
be called a human thermometer. He
is an old Algerian soldier, named
Louis Lamarck, who contracted liver
disease in the service, became addict
to the use of mercury, and, even af-
ter he was pronounced cured, kept up
the habit OF taking that mineral rem
edy for several years. At the Paris
medical colleges | have seen the shin
bone of a man who died of similar
over-treatment ratified on the table,
when globules of murcury would run
from it, as if, while living, he had
actually been surcharged with the
metal. A more singular result has
occurred in the case of Lamark,
which seems in its way likely to be-
come as celebrated as that of Alexis
st. Martin. 1t is a common circum-
stance for people to be troubled with
meteorological corns, which warn
them Of the approach of storms as
certainly as any signal service could
do, and it is notorious fact that
rheumatic patients Especially those
much doctored have their aches and
pains clearly marked in different sea-
sons of the year. Poor Lamarck is
worse off. DIR. Regnier tells me that
there is no doubt that the murcury
he has taken exists in natural form
in his body, and expands and con-
tracts with variation of temperature
in precisely the same way that the
metal does in a thermometer.
The average temperature Of the
human body for males is SO degrees
Fahrenheit; for females it is about
half degree lower; but this steady
heat which is kept up in healthy
condition is the result of chemlco-
physiological action, which in morbid
conditions is variously affected. In
winter and summer thermometer
placed in the axilla will mark its
ninety-eight in ordinary human be-
ings; unfortunately for Lamarck he
is extra ordinary. Even the warmth
of bed-clothes will put him into such
a condition that he cannot rise until
he has found his normal mark-his
"temperate," SO to say-which is
trifle above nincty-eight. His sight
is greatly affected, and his eyes have
a singular metallic CLEAN, something
like the hue Of plumbogo, newly cut.
When the room in which he sits is at
ninety-one and three-quarters he sees
distinctly and can read the smallest
type, but when the temperature rises
above or falls below this point he
loses all the distinctness of the type,
and at seventy degrees becomes to-
tally blind. In similar manner his
taste and hearing are affected. He
loses taste at sixty-tive degrees, and
touch at twenty. Hearing seems the
most difficult of his senses to affect,
though at any marked variance from
his ''temperate" he complains of
drumming in his ears, or sensation
as if a fly were buzzing in them.-
Most curious, in physiological
point of view, is the effect of temper
aturc on his sense of touch. \ ball
of iron, heated sufficiently just not to
disintcgrate the flesh seems cold; if
made cold it seems hot. Exposed to
the air on a winter morning, poor
Lamarck becomes utterly rigid and
unable to move his muscles at all.
There are small hopes Of his living
long, but while he does live he will
be the great physiological study of
the day.-Raris Cor. Ne'c York
Graphr.