Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1875-02-19
A Human Thermometers.

/ A Human THERMOMETERS.
WONDERFUL EFFEcrs OF MERCURY ON
AN OLD ALGERIAN SOLDIER
Paris letterin New York Graphic.
DR.. Paul Regnier, physician who
has become much noted for his treat
ment of the segulce of diseases which re.
suit from injudicious treatment Of dis
eases, has at present very peculiar pa.
tlent who may reasonably be called hu.
man thermometer. He is an old Alge-
rian soldier named Louis Lamarck, who
contracted liver disease in the service.
became addicted to the use of mercury,
and even afterhe was pronounced cured.
kept up the habit of taking that mineral
remedy for several years. At the Paris
medical colleges | have seen the shin
bone of man who died of similar over
treatment ratified on the table, when
globules of mercury would run from it
as if, while living, he had actually been
surcharged with the metal. A more sin.
gular result has occurred in the case of
Lamarck, which seems, in its way, like
ly to become as celebrated as that Of
Alexis st. Martin. 1t is a common cir
cumstance for people to betroubled with
meteorological corns, which warn them
of the approach of storms as certainly
as any signal service could do, and it is
a notorious fact that rheumatic patients
Especially those much doctored) have
their aches and pains clearly marked in
different seasons of the year. Poor La
marck is worse Off DIR. Regnier tells
me that there is no doubt that the mer-
curry he has taken exists in its 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 fe-
males it is about half degree lower,
but this steady heat, which is kept up in
healthy condition, is the result of
chemico- physiological action, which in
morbid conditions is variously affected.
In winter and summer thermometer
placed in the axilla will mark its 98 in
ordinary human beings unfortunately
for Lamarck he is extraordinary. Even
the warmth of bedclothes will put him
into such a condition that he cannot rise
till he has found his normal mark-his
" temperate" SO to say-which is trife
above SO. His sight is greatly affected,
and his eyes have singular metallic
CLEAN, somewhat like the hue of plum
bago newly cut. When the room in
which he sits is at 913 he sees distinctly
and can read the smallest type, but when
the temperature rises above or falls be-
low this point he loses all the distinct
ness of the type, and at 70o becomes to-
tally blind. In a similar manner his
taste and hearing areaffected. He loses
taste at 650, and touch at 20o. 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 fly were buzzing in them. Most
curious, in a physiological point of view,
is the effect of temperature on his sense
OF touch. A ball of iron, heated suffi-
GENTLY just not to disintegrate the flesh,
seems cold; if made cold it seems hot.
Exposed to the air on 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.