The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1904-03-15
BAD THERMOMETERS
Harm Done in Hands of Persons
Without Medical knowledge.
Common Instruments vnIueIess in
Determining the Temperature
of Pntfents-MRtter of Vi
tai Concern.


Probably no instrument claiming to
register with precision is so inaccurate
as the average thermometer. This be-
ing so, it is somewhat amusing to no
tice the blind faith with which the av-
/ erage citizen depends on these devices
for indicating temperature. AS sci
entifc instrument" each is apparently
entitled to a respect approaching rev.
erence, and its dicta are not to be
questioned, says the Medical News
The fact is that the variations among
a dozen ordinary thermometers will
often amount to five or six degrees
as any one can see who will glance at
druggists window. With thermome-
tiers used for scientific work there is,
of course, less variation, but their in
accuracy is often considerable, and in
clinical instruments it may easily be
so great as to affect physicians dag
nosis.
A prominent hospital In this city has
scarcely recovered from the shock of
a recent discovery made by the mem
bers of its house staff--namely, that
the thermometers in regular use in its
wards vary so much as to render
valueless the temperature charts
which well-trained nurses have been
taught to regard as one of their chief
responsibilities. 1t is a rude awaken
ing, indeed, for a physician suddenly
to be made to realize t.lat he has been
treating for fever patients who have
no fever and that patients have been
discharged as cured whose tempera-
lures were far from normal Think Of
the wasted energy Of sponge baths
and of tubbings, OF antipyretics used
without due warrant, of fluid diets
forced upon half-starved convalescents
who longed for solid food. and would
have been all the better for it; of pa
tients kept in bed. ard in the hospital
when they might have benefited by
freedom of out Of doors. These are no
Imaginary evils; they are errors actu-
ally committed, and errors which we
have no doubt are being repeated to-
day in many of our best hospitals
where every possible care is supposed
to be layished on patients. Is this the
hospital management Of which Ameri-
cans arc so proud?
In the hospital, whose experience has
been made known to us, actual tests of
groups Of Thermometers used in the same
wards and on the same patients revealed
differences too striking and too seri-
Gus TO be lightly passed over. In some
cases these differences were as great as
20 degrees Fahrenheit-var wide
enough to prove embarrassing in dag
nosis and misleading In treatment. This
intolerable state of affairs has existed
apparently for long time--the inevi-
table fruit of policy which seeks to di-
vorce economy aad efficiency. Good
thermometers are costly cheap ones
food the marFet, and the tide rises even
unto the sacred precincts of hospital
wards where il browns all decent regard
for the patients welfare.
II is not in hospitals alone that the
vice of cheap thermometers has taken
root. In the stock Of the average drug
store in this city will be found small
number OF clinical thermometers relia-
bly, certificated. and much larger num-
Der bearing certificates of doubtful au-
thenticity or having no certificates at
all The latter represent the practice of
private physicians and the public in TAX
ing of temperature at home. Most of
these thermometers are cheap; many of
them are old. and alt Of them are urre-
liable. because even when they happen
to be accurate we cannot feel sure of
them, and we are bound to question and
perhaps to discount the privilege of
testing selections from retail stocks, but
we havefound that variations of two de-
grees are not uncommon.
Here is a matter Of vital concern to the
profession and the public. The volun-
tary testing and certifcation of Their
mometers by recognized experts is a
safeguard within the reach of those who
are willing to pay for It. Inasmuch as
this protection Is so commonly neglected,
however, the question may well be raised
whether compulsory certihcation is not
desirable.