PROTEIN FEVER 79 



giving rise to the characteristic symptoms and 

 lesions of the different diseases. (18) The sub- 

 normal temperature which may occur in the 

 course of a fever or at its termination is due to 

 the rapid liberation of the protein poison which 

 in small doses causes an elevation, and in 

 larger doses a depression of temperature. (19) 

 Fever per se must be regarded as a beneficent 

 phenomenon inasmuch as it results from a 

 process inaugurated by the body cells for the 

 purpose of ridding the body of foreign sub- 

 stances. (20) The evident sources of excessive 

 heat production in fever are the following: (a) 

 that arising from the unusual activity of the 

 cells supplying the enzyme; (b) that arising 

 from the cleavage of the foreign protein; (c) 

 that arising from the destructive reaction be- 

 tween the split products from the foreign pro- 

 tein and the proteins of the body. 



The above are the conclusions which I drew 

 three years ago from experiments which my 

 students and I had carried out and from a 

 study of the literature of the subject. I did not 

 suppose at the time, nor do I hold now, that all 

 these conclusions are exactly right. 



The fundamental fact that the parenteral in- 

 troduction of proteins may induce fever is 

 founded upon so many independent observa- 



