246 n;VKii. 



tilt' nerves jjoiiifj to the part injured liad liitn pri'viously separated, as it was in tlie 

 normal uninial. A viry interesting result, apparently unexpected, was that the 

 primary fall of temperature (the shoek) did nut occur where nerve section had 

 been practised. The experiments were ei-^lit in number, and their record seems 

 to sliow that they were accurately and skiltully perlonned and reported. 1 have 

 repeated these experiments of Hremer and Chrobak and obtained results similar to 

 theirs. Two dogs were used; all the nerves of the leg were divided and the wound 

 ullowed to heal before operating on the joint. In one instance, to do away with 

 anv possible vaso-niotor nerve connection, the femoral sheath was destroyed and 

 the artery tied in two places. On opening the joint, some weeks after the opera- 

 tion, and pouring strong water of ammonia over the wound, no evidences of sensa- 

 tion were elicited. Nevertheless, distinct fever was manifested in the dog with an 

 uninjured artery in 'i4 hours, and in the dog with the artery tied after the lapse 

 of 4M hours; the slow development of the last case probably being due to a slower 

 circulation and absorption owing to the local impairment of the bloodvessels. It is 

 scarcely necessary to point out the very great weight of such evidence as this, in show- 

 ing that traumatic fever is due to absorption and not to peripheral irritation. A very 

 strong indication of the truth of the views of IJillroth is also to be found in the history 

 of antisepticism; 1 believe it is now generally admitted that, as the antiseptic treat- 

 ment of wounds is more and more perfectly carried out, traumatic fever becomes 

 less and less frefpu'Ut. Again, cases of fever, which were formerly thought to be 

 irritative beyond a doubt, arc being shown to be probably due to absorption. Thus, 

 although many years since Sedillot affirmed urethral fever to be septic, the general 

 dritt of professional opinion, until very recently, was to believe that it is reflex. 

 There are at present three views of its nature prominent: one that it is due to the 

 absorption of a poison; one that it is a reflex irritative fever; one that it is an 

 acute irritation of kidneys usually already diseased. Abundant proof has been 

 furnished by the finding of ptirident deposit that in some instances septic;rmia is 

 present; in other cases post-mortem examination has revealed acute nephritis. The 

 certain existence of these two classes of cases tends to throw doubt on the existence 

 of a reflex urethral fever, and to indicate that even the mildest cases depend tipon 

 a slight septicaemia. 



From these facts it wouhl appear that, not only is the so-called sympathetic fever 

 of inflammation really due to a blood-poisoning, but that as our knowledge grows, 

 fevers supposed to be due to peripheral irritations are shown, one by one, to have 

 their origin in toxa;mia. 



The history of cases of febrile rractinns during teeth-cutting, and the n lief 

 afforded by relieving the tension of the gums, the fugitive fevers seeJi in childhooil 

 as the product of gastro-intestinal irritation, the various trifling febrile reactions of 

 ordinary life, all seem, however, to indicate a cause more trifling than Idood-poison- 

 ing, and to point to direct peripheral nerve irritations as provocative of febrile 

 reactions. 



When we come to study in the physiological laboratory, the relations between the 

 skin and the interior temperature, we find that they are ver)' intimate; experiments 

 detailed in an earlier portion of this memoir show that irritations of nerve trunks arc 



