174 



A Critical Study of Experimental Fever. 

 By Edward C. Hort, F.K.C.P. Edin., and W. J. Penfold, M.B., CM. 



(Communicated by Dr. C. J. Martin, F.R.S. Eeceived February 17, — Read 

 March 14, 1912.) 



(From the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine.) 



The injection of solutions of salt into man and animals by the sub- 

 cutaneous or intravenous route has in recent years become a common 

 practice. In many cases the procedure is followed by fever, as was shown 

 in man by Kottmann(l)* and by Schaps (2). If distilled water alone be 

 injected in large quantities the same accident may happen, as shown (3) by 

 E. Bergmann in 1868. In 1910 the injection of small quantities of water 

 into animals was found (4) to have the same effect. 



The cause, however, of what are known as " water fever " and " salt 

 fever" has till recently (5) not been satisfactorily explained, though many 

 theories have been advanced. 



In 1911 it was suggested by Wechselmann (6) that the fever so often met 

 with in man after injection of sterilised saline containing salvarsan is due to 

 gross bacterial infection of the saline, demonstrable just before sterilisation. 

 This view was based on the discovery of numerous organisms in liis unheated 

 solutions, and on the fact that fever no longer followed injection if he 

 dissolved his salt in freshly-distilled water. This suggestion as to the cause 

 of salvarsan fever was also adopted by Mcintosh, Fildes, and Dearmont after 

 independent confirmation in Dr. Bulloch's laboratory of Wechselmann's 

 observations. The theory appeared to us to have an important bearing on 

 the wider question of water fever, and of salt fever in general, and we there- 

 fore conducted several experiments on animals, publishing (5) our results in 

 December, 1911. 



We were able then to confirm the statement that solutions of salt are apt 

 to exhibit pyrogenetic properties that do not belong to solutions made with 

 freshly-distilled water. We found, however, that in the case of water these 

 properties bore an inverse relation to the number of organisms present in the 

 specimens we examined, and by control experiments in animals we showed 

 that to a great extent they were primarily due to the presence in the water 

 of a substance indestructible by prolonged heating at 120° C. We could not 

 remove this fever-producing substance either by filtration through white 



* Numerals in brackets refer to List of Eeferences at end of paper. 



