sician is thereby able to determine the nature of the disease.

While the degree of temperature is decisive in regard to the life of
micro-organisms, the height of the temperature does not, in itself,
constitute a criterion of the gravity of danger. It is the duty of the
physician to fight the fever, since the patient may succumb to a high
temperature, as to a low one.

In order to gauge the situation accurately it is necessary to regard
fever, not as a disease, but as what it really is in essence: a symptom
which accompanies the greatest variety of the processes of
disease,--symptom of the most variable significance in various cases. It
must be fought like other symptoms, such as vomiting, coughing, pains
and diarrhoea; namely, in a general way--provided only that it is not a
manifestation of the healing tendency of the organism.

In decreasing the fever, we moderate the excitement of the nerves,
remove the numbness, secure calmness, refreshment and sleep, and defend
the patient against threatening manifestations of disease.

Very often it is not a case of treating the fever, but of dealing with
the disease which causes the fever. We must consequently not be guided
by the thermometer but by the condition of the nervous system.

Two conditions must be observed in treating fever according to the rules
of biology.

In the first place, the treatment of febrile disease must not be carried
on in accordance with general principles, but individually, according to
the nature of the disease in each particular case.

In the second place, it is necessary that the antipyretic treatment, to
reduce the fever, should not be foreign to the organism and should not
be such as is not measurable in degrees as to its effects, or has any
unpleasant accompanying effects or after-effects.

Only the biological system of healing responds to these demands. Only
cognate physical forces, in affinity with the human organism according
to biological laws, can influence vital occurrences with the hope of
success and without the danger of unfavorable accompanying effects and
consequences.

Only physical remedies and treatments permit of adequate gradations such
as will appeal to the power of reaction of the organism.

In the appropriate application of certain, influences of nature,
especially in the diversified applications of water, we possess a mode
of procedure which, assisted by an appropriate dietetic regime adapted
to the principles of