SECTIONS" III. 



DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF GENERAL DISEASES. 



A. Idiopathic Fevers and other Diseases chiefly of an 

 Exogenous Origin. 



CHAPTER I. 



SIMPLE FEVER. — CONTINUED FEVER. — FEBRICULA. 



Definition. — A simple functional disturbance of compara- 

 tively short but variable duration, charactei'ized and accom- 

 panied by rigors, elevation of temperature, frequent pulse and, 

 respirations. 



What is intended to direct attention to now is not that com- 

 plex morbid state which more or less constantly accompanies 

 many diseases as part of their phenomena, and is modified and 

 shaped, so to speak, by the nature and character of the disease 

 of which it is a prominent s}Tiiptom. This fever, or pyrexial 

 condition, we speak of invariably with an accompanying or 

 qualifying word or term indicative of the organ or system of 

 organs invaded, from the lesions of which the disease, of which 

 the fever is merely a symptom, derives its name. Thus we 

 speak of the fever of pneumonia, or the fever of enteritis, etc. 

 Nor yet is it of that febrile state which, to the surgeon, is so 

 important in connection both with his operative interference 

 and mjuries accidentally received, and variously termed in- 

 flammatory, irritative, hectic, or typhoid. But it is to fever 

 per se as a distinct and independent diseased condition, uncon- 

 nected with any appreciable lesion or structural change, a 

 condition possessing all the essential characters of the true 

 febrile state, but arising independently of any antecedent dis- 

 ease, and terminating without the production of further morbid 

 complications. It is to that diseased condition in which the 



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