FALL IN TEMPERATURE NOT ALWAYS GOOD SIGN

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18629, 5 December 1928, Page 10

FALL IN TEMPERATURE NOT ALWAYS GOOD SIGN

LONDON, December 4. The night passed without news. All was quiet at the Palace. Several times to-day between five and six thousand people were at the Palace gates. Fashionably dressed women stepped from cars and mingled with poorer persons, all equally eager to read the bulletin. A woman fainted in a sudden crush, and a policeman carried her to an ambulance. • Two women arrived in a saloon car and knelt in- prayer after their chauffeur had brought the news. The scenes after the theatres were similar to the previous night’s. Every motor-car seemed to go homeward via the Palace. The daily spectacle seems to have impressed all the foreign correspondents. The Paris “ Gaulois ” describes it as “ a characteristic phenomenon and a great lesson. The King is not so much in the eyes of the people as the Sovereign. He is rather the head of the British family.” The “ Petit Journal” similarly adds: “The person of the King is the kernel not only of England but of the British Empire, and represents something unchangeable, round which the vast British system revolves.”

A medical correspondent to the Daily Chronicle” states:—

“ In a measure anxiety has diminished in the last twenty-four hours. The slight fall in temperature may be offset against the gravity of the condition of the heart, which shows fatigue, and the lung, which demands the stimulus of oxygen. In such conditions a fall in temperature is not necessarily a good sign. A high temperature is a defensive measure, and a vigorous febrile response to infection is a good sign. It shows fight. When the response tires the temperature falls, which means that the defences are fatigued and the progress towards recovery is stationary.

“ Everyone now realises that the King is struggling for life, but patients have rallied and recovered from conditions infinitely more critical than those displayed by his Majesty.” The King, despite his illness, caused a letter of thanks to be sent to the Birkenhead Sea Wolves for their gift of flowers, and one to the London flower-girls for a similar gift. A service of humble intercession is to be held in St Giles’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, to-morrow, which the Lord Provost, magistrates and other public men will attend. The Paris newspapers continue to give prominence to every detail of the King’s illness. Bulletins are printed in heavy leaded type.—Australian Press Association.

“ REMEMBER HIM AS DUKE OF YORK.” HARBOUR BOARD SENDS MESSAGE TO KING. A motion of sympathy with the King in his illness and a hope for his better health, was passed by the Lyttelton Harbour Board at its meeting to-day. The motion will be forwarded to the Govern or-General. The chairman (Mr R. Galbraith) said that the King’s illness was very serious. All members of the board remembered the King when he-passed through New Zealand as the Duke of York. The speaker asked the board to pass a motion of loyal support and sympathy with the King in his serious illness. The message could go through the hands of the Governor-General. The motion was carried unanimously.