i8 INFECTIOUS AND PARASITIC DISEASES. 



typical; in the typical case, unless the battle is decided 

 in favor of the microbes, the stationary period passes 

 into the period oj decline. Where the stationary period 

 of any disease is abbreviated by recovery, we speak of 

 the disease as having been aborted ; where abbreviation 

 or prolongation of any disease occurs, or where marked 

 variations from the type take place, the disease is 

 spoken of as having pursued an aberrant form. 



The period of decline is expressive of the 



Period of victory that the body has won over the 



Decline. infecting agents. This period is taken up 



with the physiological re-adjustments and 



anatomical repairs necessary to bring the body back 



to health. 



Precisely as the onset of a disease may be 



Crisis and either sudden or gradual, so may the 



Lysis. decline be characterized either by a most 



astonishingly rapid amelioration of the 



symptoms, or by slow, progressive improvement. In 



the former case we speak of termination of the disease 



by crisis, in the latter, by lysis. 



Termination by crisis is well illustrated by pneumonia, 

 termination by lysis, by typhoid fever. Crisis is 

 perhaps the most peculiar and mystifying phenomenon 

 that ever occurs in disease. Always awaited with so 

 much anxiety, when it has happened it may well be 

 joyously received, since it conveys to the physician the 

 knowledge that recovery, "oj which it is the result,^ 



