322 FEVERS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



mals are lying upon dry straw. The friction of the bed against 

 the pustules destroys their pellicles, and permits the purulent 

 matter to escape ; and the influence of this purulent mat- 

 ter is most pernicious. The fever is increased, as also the un- 

 pleasant smell from the mouth, and generally the faeces. In this 

 state there is a disposition which is rapidly developed in the lungs, 

 to assume the character of pneumonia. This last complication is 

 a most serious one, and always terminates fatally. 



SYMPATHETIC FEVER. 



This term is applied to the fever which comes on either before 

 or after some severe local affection, and is, as it were, eclipsed by 

 it. Thus in all severe inflammations there is an accompanying 

 fever, which generally shows itself before the exact nature of the 

 attack is made manifest, and though it runs high, yet it has no 

 tendency in itself to produce fatal results, subsiding, as a matter 

 of course, with the inflammation which attends it. The same oc- 

 curs in severe injuries ; but here also, if there is no inflammation, 

 there is no fever ; so that the same rule applies as where there is 

 an external cause. 



