Alcohol thermometer to give a background for reading the scale. The range of usefulness of the thermometer is set by the boiling point of the liquid used. In the case of the ethanol-filled thermometer, the upper limit for measurement is 78 °C (172.4 °F), which makes it useful for measuring daytime, nighttime and body temperatures, although not for anything much hotter than these. Ethanol-filled thermometers are used in preference to mercury for meteorological measurements of minimum temperatures and can be used down to −70 °C (-94 °F). The physical limitation of the ability of a thermometer to measure low temperature is the
Medical thermometer the "Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Lyon", developed a similar scale in which "0" represented the freezing point of water and "100" represented boiling. On 19 May 1743 he published the design of a mercury thermometer, the "Thermometer of Lyon" built by the craftsman Pierre Casati that used this scale. The medical thermometer was used by Dutch chemist and physician Hermann Boerhaave (1668–1738), as well as his notable students Gerard van Swieten (1700–72) and Anton de Haen (1704–76). It was also utilized around the same time by Scottish physician George Martine (1700–1741). De Haen made particular strides in