332 TREA TMENT OF FE VER 



tically employed in the treatment of fever by Currie 

 so long ago as .1 789. 



Effects of external Cold in Fever. Of late years 

 the more careful employment of the thermometer in 

 disease, has proved to be of great value, especially by 

 the observations of Traube, Wunderlich, Ringer, and 

 others, and now carried out by the great majority of 

 practitioners, both in public and private practice, has, 

 as might have been anticipated, led to a revival of the 

 treatment of fevers by cold. In order to form a cor- 

 rect judgment concerning the influence of cold upon 

 the phenomena of fever, I would refer to the results 

 which have been observed to succeed its application in 

 cases of extreme severity, and I doubt if any more to 

 the point could be selected than the cases which have 

 just been published by Dr. Wilson Fox.* I desire more 

 particularly to call attention to these cases, because 

 they also afford an illustration of the free use of 

 stimulants in the very last stage of desperate fever, 

 at a period of the disease when the temperature 

 was so high that a fatal termination was imminent ; 

 indeed, it is almost certain that death would have 

 occurred had not the most decisive measures been 

 promptly taken. 



Excessive and very rapid rise in temperature is 

 perhaps seen more frequently in acute rheumatism 

 than in any other febrile disease. In very severe 

 cases of this affection it is not uncommon to find a 



* "Treatment of Ilyperpyrexia." Macmillan & Co. 1871. 



