36 IDIOPATHIC OR SIMPLE FEVER. 



febrile symptoms constitute the prominent or only features, 

 which runs a more or less definite course without the necessary 

 development of any distinct local lesion ; to fever as a primary 

 or idiopathic condition, and not to fever plus other local 

 changes, which is appropriately regarded as fever secondary, or 

 symptomatic. 



Etiology. — Although in the present state of our knowledge 

 it may be impossible to state, in such a manner as to be per- 

 fectly free from objection, the ultimate or true causes of fever, 

 and to give the rationale of the mode of their operation so as 

 to- construct a perfect theory of the pyrexial state ; although 

 we may not be able to tell what are the exact relations of 

 pyrexia and tissue-disintegration, whether they are cause and 

 effect or are both the result of a common cause, whether the 

 production or discharge of the animal heat be primarily or 

 chiefly affected, we are nevertheless in a position to observe 

 that many causes by which animals and ourselves are sur- 

 rounded and acted upon have a wondrous influence upon the 

 textures of the living body, and that apparently very trifling 

 influences are productive of very great and important changes 

 in these bodies. 



Judging from a rather extensive collection of facts, it seems 

 highly probable that many cases of febricula owe their origin 

 to the entrance of some of the contagia of the specific fevers ; 

 that this is only prevented from fully developing by certain 

 conditions operating intrinsically and extrinsically, and by the 

 amount of the poison received. It is also not uncommon to 

 find what seems simple fever developing into some more deter- 

 minate and distinct form. 



In the horse, simple continued fever is, however, encountered 

 most frequently in cases where animals, hitherto in a compara- 

 tively natural condition of life, have been suddenly subjected 

 to the influence of conditions which, compared with those 

 they have previously experienced, may not inaptly be desig- 

 nated artificial. These may be largely classed as sudden 

 variations in the temperature surrounding them, exhaustion, 

 and fatigue. 



It is particularly a disorder affecting the horses of dealers, or 

 those who regularly receive consignments of animals from dis- 

 tricts or individuals where previously they have enjoyed greater 



