486 



secretion of the necessary fluids of tlie body, and hasten the excretion 

 of the waste material produced bj^the inflammatory process; they reg- 

 ulate the action of a weakened heart; they promote healthy vitality of 

 diseased parts, arid aid the chemical changes needed for returning the 

 altered tissues to their normal condition. 



FEVER. 



Synonyms: Fehris, -Latin; Fyrexia, Greek; Flevre,¥veneh; Fieher, 

 German; Fehbre, Italian; Calentura, Spanish. 



The etymology of the word fever from the Latin /ere re, to boil or to 

 burn, and otpyre-xia, from the Greek word -S«, fire, defines in a gen- 

 eral way the meaning of the term. 



Fever is a general condition of the animal body in which there is 

 an elevation of the animal body temperature, which may be only a 

 degree or two or may be 10° Fahrenheit. The elevation of the body 

 temperature, which represents tissue change or combustion, is accom- 

 panied bv an acceleration of the heart's action, a quickening of the 

 respiration, and an aberration in the functional activity of the various 

 organs of the body. These organs may be stimulated to the perform- 

 ance of excessive work, or they may be incapacitated from carrying 

 out their allotted tasks, or in the course of a fever the two conditions 

 may both exist, the one succeeding the other. To fever as a disease 

 is usually added chills as an essential symptom. 



Fevers are divided into essential fevers and symptomatic fevers. 

 In symptomatic fever some local disease, usually of an inflammatory 

 character, develops first, and the constitutional febrile phenomena are 

 the result of the primary point of combustion, irritating the whole body, 

 either through the nervous system or directly by means of the waste 

 material which is carried into the circulation and through the blood- 

 vessels, and is distributed to distal parts. Essential fevers are those 

 in which there is from the outset a general disturbance of the whole 

 economy. This may consist of an elementary alteration in the blood, 

 or a general change in the constitution of the tissues. 



Essential fevers are subdivided into ephemeral fevers, which last 

 but a short time and terminate by critical phenomena; intermittent 

 fevers, in which there are alternations of exacerbations of the febrile 

 symptoms and remissions, in which the body returns to its normal 

 condition or sometimes to a depressed condition, in which the func- 

 tions of life are but badly performed; and continued fevers, which 

 include the contagious diseases, as glanders, influenza, etc., the sep- 

 tic diseases, as pyaemia, sopticsemia, etc., and the eruptive fevers, as 



variola, etc. 



Whether the cause of the fever has been an injury to the tissues, 

 as a severe bruise, a broken bone, an inflamed lung, or excessive work 

 Avhich has surcharged the blood with the waste products of the com- 

 bustion of the tissues, which were destroyed to produce force; or the 



