CHAP. III.] THE BLOOD IN DISEASE. 159 



B. THE BLOOD IN FEVERS. 



Febricula or Ephemeral Fever. 



Becquerel and Rodier * have made many analyses of the blood in 

 fehricula, which led them to the conclusion that none of the con- 

 stituents of the blood undergo any constant or perceptible change 

 in amount. 



Typhus Fever. 



So far as we are aware the only analyses of the blood of typhus 

 fever are those made by Dr Guennau de Mussy and M. Rodier when sent 

 in 1847 by the French government to report upon an outbreak 

 of typhus fever in Ireland. The observations published by other 

 continental writers, and which have been supposed to refer to 

 typhus, have, for the most part at least, referred to typhoid 2 . The 

 observations of Guennau de Mussy and Rodier shewed that in typhus 

 there is, in general, a diminution in the density of the blood, no 

 augmentation in the amount of fibrin, and a lowering of the specific 

 gravity of the serum. 



Typhoid Fever. 



Very thorough analyses of the blood in typhoid were performed by 

 both Andral and Gavarret, and Becquerel and Rodier. From their 

 researches the latter observers arrived at the following conclusions. 

 (1) That in typhoid fever, in its early stages, there is usually no 

 change in the composition of the blood. Occasionally, however, 

 in very acute cases accompanied by great prostration and by hemor- 

 rhages, there occurs a diminution of the chief elements of the blood, 

 and particularly of fibrin. (2) That in the later stages of the disease, 

 the corpuscles and serum-albumin diminish, under the influence of 

 the deficient nourishment and of the losses of liquid which the patient 

 is subject to. The amount of fibrin remains normal, or is diminished as 

 the disease advances or becomes more grave. 



Relapsing Fever. 



Though there can hardly be any doubt that all zymotic diseases 

 are produced by certain germs or elementary organisms, yet there 

 are only two diseases in which the presence of such germs in the blood 

 has been clearly demonstrated. These, two diseases are : Relapsing 

 fever, and Splenic fever. 



Obermeier 3 was the first to demonstrate in the blood taken from 



1 Becquerel et Rodier, Traite de Chimie pathologique, p. 133. 



2 This remark applies to the observations of Lehmann (Fhys. Chem., Vol. n. 

 pp. 265 and 266), which are referred to hy Dr Buchanan in his Article on ' Typhus 

 Fever" in Reynolds's System of Med., Vol. i. p. 549. 



3 Centralbl. /. d. med. Wissensch., 1873, p. 145. 



