PAET III. 



PROTEIN FEVER. 



It has been known for a long time that the 

 parenteral introduction of proteins in the ani- 

 mal body may be followed by fever. As early 

 as 1883 Roques collected the literature of this 

 subject and reported his own experimental 

 studies. A few years later Gamaleia made a 

 most important contribution to this subject. 

 The title of this paper is significant and reads 

 as follows: "The Destruction of Bacteria in 

 the Febrile Organism." Gamaleia found that 

 fever follows the parenteral introduction of bac- 

 terial protein, both pathogenic and nonpatho- 

 genic, both living and dead, consequently he 

 concluded that fever is a result not directly of 

 bacterial growth, but of bacterial destruction in 

 the body. Indeed, he observed that attenuated 

 bacteria often induce a higher and more per- 

 sistent fever than the virulent forms. When a 

 rabbit is inoculated with a virulent anthrax ba- 

 cillus, fever develops but persists only a few 

 hours, and then the temperature falls below the 

 normal and death occurs. On the other hand, 



