A STUDY OF FEVER. 43 



Because fever in some cases is produced by a paralysis of 

 the inhibitory nerve-centre, it by no means follows that it is 

 alwaj's so ; indeed, it is most probable that there are other 

 methods of its causation. The inhibitory centre must have 

 an antagonistic force which tends towards the formation of 

 chemical changes. Whether this activity does or does not 

 reside solely in the tissues themselves, is not at present 

 positively ascertained. It may be that there is a nerve-centre 

 whose function it is to increase chemical movements. Be this 

 as it may, reasoning from what is known of inhibitory nervous 

 action, it would seem most probable that there is an accele- 

 rator as well as a depressor chemical nerve. If there be such, 

 it must also play a role in the production of fever. We must 

 be careful, however, not to theorize beyond our facts, and we 

 have no positive knowledge of the existence of any chemical 

 nerves except those which control the chemical movements. 



Again, it is certain that there are substances which affect these 

 chemical movements either by acting directly upon the tissues 

 or upon the blood. Thus I have ascertained by recent experi- 

 ments that the nitrite of amyl will lower the temperature, i. e., 

 lower the chemical activities of the body after the latter has 

 been separated from the upper nerve-centre by division of the 

 cord; and Binz and others have proven that alcohol and cer- 

 tain other drugs have the same power. 



It has not hitherto been proven that fever ever occurs as the 

 result of a direct action of any agency upon the tissues, but it 

 may be accepted as a necessity, that if some materials exist 

 which are capable of directly lessening the chemical move- 

 ments of the tissues, there must be other agencies which 

 directlj'' stimulate these same tissue actions. 



No disease is more directly traceable to entrance of a poison 

 into the blood than is pyaemia or septicaemia, and none is more 

 constantly attended with fever, or more easily produced in the 



lower animals. 

 40 



