BLAIR 



In general, we observe patients who are about to go in shock 

 to show a slight fall in temperature. The extreme hyperpyrexia 

 does change. He still has a high fever, but there is usually a 

 drop of 1° C on the average. Apparently the hyperpyrexia is 

 related to the problem of the protective coverings of the skin. 

 It's pretty important, apparently. Hypothermia in experimen- 

 tally burned animals is quite a difficult problem to cope with. 

 There have been several attempts to use hypothermia in burned 

 animals, and none of them have been successful. Now, whether 

 this burn septicemia itself is a separate entity or somewh9.t 

 different than those from germs that come out of the colon, 

 I don't know, but certainly there may well be some very sig- 

 nificant differences in the toxins of these two circumstances. 



Concerning cold therapy, there is no such thing as cold therapy 

 at all. Cold doesn't treat anything. Cold modifies metabolic en- 

 vironment. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is bad. The 

 point of the matter is that use of hypothermia does not dic- 

 tate the ultimate survival of the patient, or certainly of the 

 experimental animals. It is only adjunct, and it is a crutch. 

 Heaven knows we certainly need crutches in treating very sick 

 people, and hypothermia has been somewhat useful in that respect. 



446 



