physician, no matter how independent he may be by nature, is
necessarily more or less cramped by the prejudices of patients--prejudices
which often a little primary instruction would have done away with.

Of all the diseased processes fever is one of the most frequent and one
of the most serious in their results. A discussion, therefore, of its
nature, the method of its production and of its relief, will, it may be
hoped, engage the attention of the general reader.

If the hand be laid upon the skin of a person in a high fever the
attention is at once attracted by the great heat, and if the bulb of a
thermometer be placed under the tongue or in the armpit of the patient
the mercury may indicate a temperature of 107 deg., 108 deg., 109 deg.,
or even 110 deg. Fahrenheit, instead of 98 deg. to 99 deg. Fahrenheit,
the normal temperature of the human body. It is a common belief that the
skin in fever is always dry as well as hot, but this is a mistake, as
intense fever may coexist with a reeking perspiration. During the fever
the pulse is greatly increased in frequency, the head aches and throbs,
and if the attack be very severe restlessness, sudden startings,
irregular muscular twitchings, or even violent epileptiform convulsions
and stupor, delirium or coma, indicate the disturbance of the nervous
system.

These various symptoms are simply results of the excess of caloric,
which excites universal irritation, and, if prolonged, destroys the
tissues. This fact I have verified by three series of experiments, by
the first of which it was shown that the general application of external
heat so as to raise the bodily temperature produces all the phenomena of
fever; by the second, that the local application of heat to the brain
and to the heart causes the nervous and circulatory disturbances so
universally seen in fever; and by the third that the abstraction of heat
in fever is followed by immediate subsidence of the other symptoms.

If a small animal, such as a dog, cat or rabbit, be placed in a chamber
heated by means of the sun's rays falling upon a slanting glass roof or
by some artificial method to a temperature of considerably over one
hundred degrees, a very constant series of phenomena is developed. The
breathing becomes hurried and the pulse greatly quickened, whilst the
restless movements of the body indicate nervous distress. After a time,
if the exposure be continued, the symptoms are intensified, and
restlessness p