DISORDERS OF NUTRITION AND METABOLISM 133 



It is probable that fever is a conservative process, and 

 that in some way it has to do with the destruction and 

 elimination from the body of the toxic material causing 

 it. That most pathogenic bacteria are unfavorably 

 influenced by high temperature is well known, but 

 whether the temperature of the body in fever is suf- 

 ficiently high to have any marked influence upon the 

 bacteria themselves is not as yet proved. There is 

 little doubt, however, that such increased temperature 

 has to do with the destruction of the toxic products 

 of bacteria. 



