360 BACTERIAL POISONS. 



— as was also usual with him in the presence of the patient 

 — he gave the diagnosis in Latin, which was 'Aut febris 

 peyerica, aut variola inoipientis ' (either typhoid fever or 

 incipient smallpox). I felt rather dissatisfied at a diagnosis 

 so little precise by one so eminent in his art. The truth of 

 the matter was, though Chomel was not aware of it, this 

 young fellow in a state of destitution had walked from 

 Compi^gne to Paris, sleeping by the wayside at night and 

 nourishing himself with such refuse food as chance supplied. 

 It was under such circumstances the patient had developed 

 febrile symptoms. The day after his admission, and simply 

 from rest in bed, he felt better, and the day following he 

 was altogether well." 



That all cases of the fever of exhaustion do not terminate 

 so rapidly as that instanced above many physicians know. 

 We have seen at least one such case terminate fatally. 



Then, again, there is the fever of non-elimination, which 

 all physicians of experience have observed. There is a 

 feeling of languor, the head aches, the tongue is coated, the 

 breath offensive, and the bowels constipated. The physi- 

 cian fears typhoid fever, but finds that a good, brisk cathar- 

 tic dissipates all unpleasant symptoms, and the temperature 

 falls to the normal. This fever is also liable to appear 

 among those who are confined to bed from other causes. 

 Beunton says : " No one who has watched cases of acute 

 diseases, such as pneumonia, can have failed to see how a 

 rise of temperature sometimes coincides with the occurrence 

 of constipation, and is removed by opening the bowels." 

 The surgeon and obstetrician have often had cause to rejoice 

 when they have found a fever, which they feared indicated 

 septicaemia, disappearing after free purgation. 



Bouchard has shown that normal feces contain a highly 

 poisonous substance, which may be separated from them by 

 dialysis, and which, when administered to rabbits, produces 

 violent convulsions. He estimates that the amount of 

 poisonous alkaloids formed in the intestines of a healthy 

 man each twenty-four hours would be quite sufficient to 

 kill, if it was all absorbed. He proposes the term " ster- 



