82 GENERAL THERAPEUTICS FOR VETERINARIANS 



tern (vasoconstrictors, vasodilators) and the sweat glands. The 

 heat centre, situated in the region of the corpus striatum, regu- 

 lates heat production and heat dissipation. Increased dissipation 

 of body heat is brought about by dilation of the cutaneous blood 

 vessels and increased secretion of sweat, while contraction of the 

 cutaneous vessels decreases heat dissipation. The regulation of 

 heat dissipation through the skin is of great importance to the 

 body in health as well as in fever because by far the greatest 

 amount (84 per cent.) of heat produced in the body is given off 

 through the skin. 



Therapeutic Methods. — ^The very complicated disease process 

 known as fever can be treated in various ways. 



1. The antiseptic, or the causal method, is to be preferred to all 

 others when the microorganisms causing the fever are accessible 

 to the direct action of antiseptics. This is the case in wound 

 fever. The most important points in connection with the treat- 

 ment of surgical fever are thorough disinfection of wounds, in- 

 cision of abscesses and phlegmona, amputation of necrotic masses, 

 drainage, change of dressings and irrigation. On the other hand, 

 the antiseptic method cannot be used in the treatment of the 

 acute, febrile, infectious diseases (influenza, strangles, canine 

 distemper, aphthous fever, etc.) because the microorganisms which 

 have invaded the blood usually cannot be destroyed by an anti- 

 septic without danger to the animal body. The action of salvarsan 

 in contagious pneumonia of horses, of quinine in malarial fever and 

 of salicylic acid in articular rheumatism are exceptions. Immu- 

 nity against some infectious diseases can be obtained by pro- 

 tective vaccination (prophylactic method); this is especially true 

 of swine erysipelas, anthrax, black leg [and hog cholera]. Fur- 

 thermore, cutaneous irritation, by increasing the physiological 

 production of antitoxins in the body, operates in a certain sense 

 antiseptically. 



2. The expective or dietetic method omits the use of anti- 

 pyretics entirely. The fever of the acute infectious diseases, 

 when running a typical course, is usually not to be combated, but 

 is rather to be regarded as a natural healing process or a protective 



