CHAPTER LII 



THE MICROBE OF RHEUMATIC FEVER 



THIS is a comparatively rare disease. As a rule, 

 neither children nor old persons have it. Persons 

 between the ages of twenty and forty are chiefly 

 addicted to it. 



Whenever occurring, this fever is caused by a mi- 

 cro-organism. But this microbe seems to be, com- 

 paratively, little known probably for two rea- 

 sons. First, because the disease is so rare. Sec- 

 ond, because the disease is so uniformly mild. 

 The patient most always recovers. 



But the disease, while it lasts, is exceedingly 

 troublesome. The germ is a native of the soil. 

 Infection is made possible by some scratch or little 

 wound, usually on the hands. By certain means 

 the germ finds its way into this wound. Here it 

 finds food, grows, multiplies, and generates the 

 poison which causes the disease. Chills, fever, 

 sweating follow in rapid succession. The joints 

 become inflamed and painful. Perhaps the most 

 annoying thing is the exceeding sensitiveness of the 

 muscles; the patient cannot bear to be moved, or 

 even touched. Any disturbance is painful. 



All this is accompanied with a feeling of ex- 

 haustion and general prostration. 



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