Diagnostic instrument · reviewed

Clinical thermoscope

Circa 1612

A graduated thermoscope made changes in body temperature more consistently comparable.

Around 1612, Santorio described applying a graduated thermoscope to patients. It lacked the fixed reference points of a modern clinical thermometer, so its readings were relative rather than standardized. Early thermoscopes indicated relative changes rather than modern standardized temperatures. Santorio's use of a graduated scale and timed procedure made repeated comparison more practical, beginning a long transition from subjective assessment of fever toward instrument-based clinical measurement.

Sources

The forgotten history of thermometer, part I: Santorio Santorio's contribution to the science of thermometry — Fabrizio Bigotti, 2019
A brief history of the clinical thermometer — R. P. M. G. van der Sijs, 2020

Concept map · prerequisites lead toward this node; descendants continue outward.

Seventeenth-century engraving of early thermometers and a hygrometer — Examples of seventeenth-century Florentine thermometers, published in 1667. Library of Congress, no known restrictions; Public Domain Mark via Wikimedia Commons.

Direct relationships

Santorio Santorio→Clinical thermoscopeApplied a graduated thermoscope to clinical measurement · high confidence
Clinical thermoscope→BioelectricityEstablished a lineage of instrumented physiological measurement · low confidence