IN THE FE VERISH STATE. 3 4 1 



accumulate in the blood, the excreting organs cannot 

 eliminate them or alter them fast enough. In many 

 instances the excreting glands may be excited arti- 

 ficially to increased action ; and it is in this way that 

 many diuretics, sudorifics, and purgatives often afford 

 great relief, and restore the patient to .health. But in 

 serious cases, in which the strength is already much 

 exhausted, more especially if the fever has yet a long 

 course to run, there would be danger in pushing too 

 far the use of such remedies. Moreover, the excreting 

 organs cannot excrete all these unoxidised animal 

 substances in the state in which they exist in the 

 blood. In not a few instances in which the noxious 

 materials have unduly accumulated, it will be found 

 that the secreting organs cannot be made to act ; as the 

 afferent nerves (see page 330) are in part paralysed, 

 our remedies are powerless. To give excessive doses 

 in such cases would be very unwise, and by so doing 

 we should render the condition worse. 



Under the circumstances indicated, however, there 

 is danger of the imperfectly oxidised substances accu- 

 mulating in the blood and in the tissues to such an 

 extent as to place the patient's life in great jeopardy 

 And the danger is twofold. In the first place, many 

 of the bodies in question are unstable compounds, and 

 liable to decompose at the temperature of the living 

 body. The products of decomposition set free in the 

 blood would very soon destroy the living matter of the 

 blood and tissues, and paralyse and destroy the nerve- 



2 A 



