Old movies and thermometers

Caught a 1937 movie w/ Carol Lombard “ “Nothing Sacred” and there’s a scene where her male companion asks her about thermometers and she replies she has three!

I found that interesting. Three.

I wonder how many other older movies touched on the use of or referencing to temperature taking and/ or thermometers.

I wonder if one of them was a rectal thermometer

Just enough thrown out to rouse your curiosity or whet your appetite. 3? Oral, rectal, vaginal.

I've never seen it but there was supposedly a 1930s short comedy film titled “Mr. Smith gets the flu” or something similar. It starred the lady who played the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz as a nurse. She examines the man and then pulls out a thermometer. The narrator says, “Uh oh, it looks like Mr. Smith is going to have his temperature taken. Let's give him some privacy.” Then the camera fades out.

I’m aware of some popular films from the last several years, that had at least a few references to rectal temps, but none of them come close to the Playdoc and similar videos, some of which was previewed on the internet.

I caught the comedy spoof, “Frankenhooker” where the line” Wanna take my temperature? Bet you got a big thermometer!“ was used twice.

I think it was from the same people who put out “Toxic Avenger”.

Always hunting for RT-scenes I saw a wild website called eporner.com, where the subject is mommy/daughter punishments in case of

disobedience, and one scene shows a cute daughter having her temp taken against her will, purely for punishment and discipline!

Unfortunately, this scene was deleted because of copyrights. But does anybody of you know where this film of 44m (!) might come from?

Would like to see!

Captain 372, Amsterdam

My recollections of watching movies when I was a kid was that they showed oral temperatures, which was at odds with what happened at home and at the hospital.

@Quirkerz Unfortunately, Youtube says the movie is no longer available (perhaps in my country). I was however able to watch it on another site, but unfortunately overdubbed in a language I don't speak. It shows a nurse holding a thermometer with two kids, and she expels one of the kids out of the room, but I don't understand what happens…

@Jacana

Which movie are you referring to?

Well, there is the older film the courtship of Eddie’s father where Eddie gets sick and the girlfriend takes Eddie’s temperature rectally, but it’s done under the covers so you never really see anything.

Oh, I just thought of another one. There was a movie I believe it was from the 40s or the 50s called black narcissus which featured nuns in the Himalayas and there’s a scene where there’s a sick baby and one of the nuns takes the baby temperature although you don’t see anything, I think the comment was made what the temperature was and then something to do with. Do you think that’s too high for a baby.

OK, OK I posted too much about this today. I think but there is one more movie that comes to mind. It’s called Dr. Zhivago, anyway it’s got a rectal temperature in it. You don’t see a real lot but it’s definitely there.

There is a Carry On film, I think its Carry On Nurse, in which a patient is given a rectal temperature using a daffodil instead of a thermometer. Well, that's British humour for you.

The temperature taking in Dr. Zhivago is ambiguous. It could have been under the arm or possibly rectal.

Check grannies gyno exam , the doctor uses a foot long , lab thermometer in the ladies butts . Great videos .

@captain_372 I think you are referring at "Sarah Stern" videos. From what I know, they are mostly spanking videos but there is often some rectal temperature taken and some times suppositories given.

UK comedy One Foot in the Grave, Victor asks his wife "how far up does a rectal thermometer go?" as he has found a medical kit from somewhere. You see nothing though.

@OverRainbow

The three thermometers likely were (i) Oral, (ii) Rectal & (iiii) Basal. (iii) was used by women to track ovulation. There is a noted temperature spike when ovulation occurs. Women attempting to conceive or identify when coitus should be avoided to avoid conception, tracked their temperature closely. Generally there is a slight drop in temperature just prior to ovulation and then a sharp spike that lasts for two to four days. It was a poor method of avoiding conception due to the intense tracking of the temperature that was necessary and irregularity in ovulation was a big pain. A temperature record or log was maintained and often spanned months. Women still track basal temperature with modern digital thermometers and other methods such as ovulation prediction kits and/or monitoring cervical mucus.

While the technique typically calls for measuring the temperature when first awakening in the morning, there are multiple Hollywood examples indicating that women desperately attempting to conceive tracked their temperature during the day also. Supposedly, when the sudden decrease occurred, women could monitor temps even more closely and soon as the spike indicating ovulation occurred, the phone calls to the husband at work demanding he report home asap started. I think there was a scene like this in the movie, "Never Too Late" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Too_Late_(1965_film)) .

Basal mercury thermometers of the era used an expanded and limited temperature range to allow capturing the slight change in temperature. If memory serves me correct, the scale ran from 98.5° to 100.5° degrees with 0.1° increments. The thermometer was usually kept on the bedside stand by the woman, so that just as soon as she awoke, the temperature could be checked. Since the time of ovulation was somewhat predictable, it was not unusual for a woman to retire to bed for two days prior to the anticipated time of ovulation allowing frequent temperature measurement.

@Victoria 1951,

Thank you for your detailed response.

Re: the movie; when the scene played out I didn’t think about the BBT aspect.

Again, thanks.

Does anyone know a late 1960s movie about a couple who were trying to conceive? They were lying in bed and the woman said she needed to take her temperature so she reached back and inserted the thermometer. Of course it wasn’t shown on camera. I read a description of this movie long ago but have never found it.

There was a late 1940s or possibly 1930s film that had a doctor in hospital scenes and a little boy. They never showed the actual temperature taking but they showed a kind of a stylized looking thermometer with the mercury column going up and up. I wish I remembered the name of it, but I don’t.

In the movie "Fanny" (1961) Maurice Chevalier is married to Leslie Caron and they have a baby. There is a comment in the movie where they mention that they take the child's temperature every day. I remember hearing that comment when I saw that movie ( I was 9) and thinking that they were definitely using a rectal thermometer given the age of the child, and that it seemed unusual to be taking a RT every day when the kid was not even ill. It did peak my interest though.

@IamArrow My curiosity was piqued. I went to this site

https://www.scripts.com/script/fanny_7993/6

and the dialogue seems to talk about a doctor and an epidemic of whooping cough.

@OverRainbow

I never used BBT so did not really get into the details, but was advised by my cousin's daughter that she is using basal temp measurement. She also said that rectal or vaginal measurement is the preferred method and that vaginal measurement is considered the most accurate.

@Victoria1951 I've read somewhere that rectal temperature is more precise than vaginal because the rectum wall has more blood circulating, thus is closer to the "central" temperature.

But yes that's an interesting question - if an adult woman wants to take a "core" temperature, she could use vaginal instead of rectal, no need for lubricant, no mess. I wonder why this was not more widespread.

@Victoria1951 ,

Hi again. The 3 thermometer issue as I said hadn’t crossed my mind re: the: BBT. Heard of it and saw the glass mercury thermometers sold for that purpose noting their degree increment gradiations were different than fever thermometers.

What I was not aware of regarding BBTs was the vaginal route being used. I never looked into that; but once on a post somewhere a writer ( alleging her age 14…true or not I’ve no idea) stated that during a medical examination her male physician took her temperature vaginally. My immediate thought was why not rectally? ( not uncommon for a teen to get a RT if she/ or he ”was” 14) Supposedly the most accurate body temperature measurement.

Current wisdom at NIH seems to be that any difference is insignificant. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7202755/

Consistency in technique seemed to be the main factor in obtaining accurate measurements. Since there is some variance in measured temperature with depth of insertion, it may be that observing depth of vaginal insertion results in more repeatable measurement. Given the aggravation of yeast infections and necessity of rigorous sterilization when measured rectally, oral measurement I suspect was more popular.

@Victoria1951 Regarding sterilization, my mother would clean the thermometer with alcohol after every use. I think that in hospital the thermometers were stored in jars containing camphor alcohol.