634 FEVER 



this view, and have proved that these pathological features 

 are not to be ascribed primarily to the influence of the fever 

 heat but rather to intoxication by products of pathogenic 

 microorganisms. Although even at present it is impossible 

 to give any clear and precise answer to the question whether 

 fever in itself is useful or harmful, the belief is making more 

 and more headway that fundamentally we may regard the fe- 

 brile temperature accession as a curative effort on the part 

 of nature. We have access to a series of observations which 

 indicate a favorable influence of hyperthermia upon infec- 

 tious processes. Here may be mentioned the observations 

 of Lowy and Richter upon pneumonia, diphtheria, chicken 

 cholera and swine erysipelas, those of Rovighi upon sep- 

 ticaemia, of Filehne upon erysipelas, of Holly and Meltzer 

 upon infections with anthrax, streptococci, pneumococci and 

 bacterium coli. From this standpoint the elevated temper- 

 ature can either act directly to harmfully influence the bac- 

 teria, or it may, on the other hand, increase the bactericidal 

 power of the blood, or the production of antibodies. Ob- 

 servations like those of Eolly and Meltzer, Liidke, Fuku- 

 hara, Lissauer and others upon the formation of agglutin- 

 ines and hsemolysines in fever, make it clearly probable 

 that we owe to the elevated temperature an important part 

 in the production of antibodies. 69 Modern pharmacologists 

 also are taking the position, as H. H. Meyer and Gottlieb, 70 

 that in application antipyretics serve far better if em- 

 ployed as fever narcotics, and that it is better to counteract 

 certain associated features of the fever (as rapid cardiac 

 action and respiration, restlessness, headaches, loss of 

 appetite, etc.) than to depress the high temperature. 



Here, too, then experimental investigation is relentlessly 

 clearing away errors venerable from their age in order to 

 make new paths for new endeavors. 



69 Literature upon the Significance of Fever for the Economy: P. F. Richter, 

 1. c., pp. 140-146. 



79 H. H. Meyer and R. Gottlieb, Experimented Pharmakologie, p. 398, 1910. 



