EXTERNAL COLD IN FEVER. 335 



particularly by the administration of alcohol, it appears 

 to me to have been fully proved that cold (with or 

 without stimulants) is the only remedy yet tried- by 

 which the rise in temperature can be not only quickly 

 checked, but decidedly and rapidly reduced after the 

 high body-heat of 107 has been reached. In mode- 

 rately severe cases many will doubt if there is any 

 necessity for adopting the treatment by cold ; and it 

 is certain that many most serious cases have pro- 

 gressed favourably, and have recovered, under other 

 plans of treatment, and especially under the influence 

 of alcohol. But in such very serious instances of 

 disease as those reported by Dr. Wilson Fox, there 

 can be no doubt that the application of cold should 

 be resorted to. The objections that can be made to 

 the plan are, in my opinion, far outweighed by the 

 circumstance that, if not adopted, the patient will 

 almost surely die, and within an hour or two. 



By merely reducing the temperature of the body, 

 however, we do not remove the causes which have 

 given rise to the increased development of heat. The 

 rise in temperature is not the cause of the feverish 

 condition, but a concomitant effect, or a consequence 

 of a prior change the increase of bioplasm. At any 

 rate, in every one of the cases of fever that I have 

 examined, both in man and animals, I have invariably 

 found very considerable increase in the proportion of 

 the bioplasm of the blood and tissues. (See page 1 1 1). 

 If the bioplasm ^did not increase, there would have 



