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ON THE TREATMENT OF THE FEBRILE STATE. 



The feverish condition which is caused by the 

 entrance of disease germs into the organism, and their 

 transmission by the fluids of the body to all the tissues 

 and organs, is essentially similar to that feverish state 

 which not unfrequently originates in changes occurring 

 in the body itself, without being occasioned by the 

 ingress of anything from without. In considering, 

 therefore, the principles which should guide us in the 

 treatment, it will be necessary to discuss tire influence 

 of remedies upon the feverish condition generally, irre- 

 spective of the causes which may have given rise to it ; 

 and it will appear that there are certain general facts 

 of the highest importance, the proper estimate of 

 which will lead to the adoption of certain measures of 

 great practical value in all forms of fever, and which 

 have to be considered even in special cases which 

 demand peculiar and, it may be, exceptional 

 measures. 



In conducting the treatment of fever due to the 

 presence of disease germs, we have to determine by 

 what means the patient's life may be preserved while 

 he remains a sufferer from the conditions caused by 

 the growth and multiplication of the living poison 

 within his body, or from the lesions which follow in 

 consequence of this process, which may be brought 

 about during the elimination from the organism of the 



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