In children the temperature rises very rapidly, sometimes reaching 106° F. within the first twelve hours. The highest recorded temperature in the pneumonia of children, with recovery, is 106°–107° F. The average temperature of pneumonia at this period of life is 104° F., the range being higher than in adult pneumonia.
In children the day of crisis is oftener the seventh than the fifth day. The fall of temperature during the crisis is somewhat remarkable; it often falls two and a half degrees below the normal, and this exceedingly low temperature may be maintained for two or three days, and yet the child recover.
The accompanying charts show ordinary temperature-curves from children with pneumonia (see Figs. 35, 36).
| FIG. 35. |
| A Typical Case of Lobar Pneumonia in a Child: Recovery. |
| FIG. 36. |
| A Case of Lobar Pneumonia in a Boy ten years old, in which thermometrical observations were made every four hours: Crisis on the sixth day. |
In old age it is often difficult to determine the exact day of the invasion of pneumonia except by the temperature. The rectal temperature rises to 103° or 104° F., or even higher, on the first days, and continues at about the initial point for three or four days, with daily morning and evening oscillations of a degree or a degree and a half. The temperature-rise does not begin for several hours after the initial chill, if a chill occur (see Fig. 37).
| FIG. 37. |
| A Typical Case of Senile Lobar Pneumonia: Recovery. |