476 WOUNDS AND injuries/ 



In wounds of a severe character, from tbe second to the 

 fifth day after the infliction of the injury, the system begins to 

 manifest sympathy towards the part injured. This manifesta- 

 tion of sympathy, when presenting symptoms of a kind presently 

 to he described, is denominated Sympathetic Tever, Acute In- 

 flammatory Pever, Traumatic Pever, and other names which I 

 need not enumerate. It is a state which is generally spoken of 

 in terms of alarm, as though it was something greatly to be 

 dreaded, and requiring the practitioner to apply measures of 

 the most urgent nature for its dispersal, otherwise the results 

 are regarded as certain to be fatal. Now, we unhesitatingly 

 assert, that such alarm in the generality of cases is entirely 

 groundless. Traumatic Eever is easy to control, save in those 

 cases where vitally importf^nt viscera — such as the lungs, the 

 abdominal organs, or the brain, are extensively injured. The. 

 period when cicatrization occurs in wounds of the ischium, or 

 in broken knees, is far more to be dreaded than the inflamma- 

 tory fever which supervenes upon the occurrence of a wound 

 in the general run of cases. One important fact must be borne 

 in mind, viz. — that Traumatic Fever is to be regarded as an 

 inevitable consequence in wounds and injuries of a severe cha- 

 racter; and that, being inevitable, instead of attempting in 

 extreme cases to ward it ofi', or seeking to suddenly check it 

 when developed, we ought rather to carefully watch its progress, 

 and endeavour, if possible, to keep it within bounds, until its 

 cau.se becomes so far modified as to allow of the subsidence of 

 the fever. Indeed, this is all we can hope to accomplish ; for 

 as one of our eminent writers upon surgery observes, when 

 speaking of a similar state in the human being : " it cannot be 

 cut short, although its undue violence may be abated." 



Stmptoms. — The animal, from the occurrence of the acci- 

 dent to the commencement of .Acute Pever, may not have 



