What It Is
The thermometer that the patients of the Berghof put in their mouths four times a day, seven minutes at a time. Hans Castorp buys his on the advice of the head nurse, Miss von Mylendonk, and the first reading is 37.6 degrees.
Where It Appears
In Chapter III, Joachim explains that it is with the thermometer that one learns what a minute really is, and Hans Castorp's discussion of the measure of time is born right beside this ritual.
The argument arises beside the most repetitive ritual of the chapter, the taking of temperature: Joachim measures seven minutes with the thermometer (see the thermometer) in his mouth four times a day precisely because, as he himself says, that is how one perceives "what a minute actually represents." The abstract debate about time has its laboratory proof in the sanatorium's own routine: the discussion about the meaning of time continues in the following chapter, see Chapter IV: The Sense of Time, Hippe and the Thermometer.
In Chapter IV, the section that bears its name is the one that turns the visit into an admission.
Up here, the smallest unit of time was the month, The Thermometer
It is the same logic as the Excursus, now embodied in the body: the air that should shorten the illness is the one that reveals and prolongs it, just as the routine that should rest the organism is what makes time vanish without one noticing.
What It Means
The thermometer is the instrument in which time and illness become a single measure: the seven minutes during which fever is measured are the only time at the Berghof still counted in minutes, and the number it shows decides how many months the patient stays.
Relationships
- Core themes: Time and Illness.
- Related symbols: the clock, the measure of time down below, the number seven, which gives the seven minutes, and the Maria Mancini cigars.
- Characters: Hans Castorp, Joachim Ziemssen.
- Sources: De opificio mundi, where continuous fever is decided on the seventh day.