138 
PATHOLOGY: BARBOUR AND HERRMANN 
Proc. N. a. S. 
The above described effects as exemplified in normal and fevered dogs 
are illustrated in figures I and II, respectively. The following conclu- 
sions have been drawn from this work : 
(1) A variety of antipyretic drugs increase the blood sugar in both 
normal and fevered dogs. 
(2) In the latter this effect is accompanied by a dilution of the blood 
(indicated by diminished hemoglobin percentage) and a fall in tempera- 
ture, neither of which occur in healthy animals. 
40 0,3 
39 0,Z 
36 0.1 
1 1 I I M 1 1 I MI 
Dog HIS (Coll) 
0.25 Gm. p.k. 
II 
/ 
Mb 
% 
200 
ISO 
100 
Fig. 2. Effects of acetyl -salicylic acid (0.25 gm. per kilo) on dog treated on preced- 
ing day with suspension of killed colon bacilli. (See Fig. I.) 
(3) Theory of the mechanism of fever reduction by drugs. — Antipyretic 
drugs increase the blood content of dextrose, a substance itself often ex- 
hibiting temperature-reducing properties when introduced from without. 
Moderate hyperglycaemia favors dilution of the blood. ^ In fevered animals 
antipyretics actually produce such a plethora, the hyperglycaemia prob- 
ably contributing largely to this effect. Plethora promotes dissipation of 
heat both by radiation (peripheral vaso-dilation) and water evaporation 
from the surface of the body. The occurrence of plethora with its result- 
ing anti-pyretic effect is apparently limited to fevered animals. This 
fact should probably be attributed not so much to a greater degree of 
hyperglycaemia as to the relative water retention by the tissues which is 
said to accompany febrile conditions.^ 
1 Barbour, H. G., "Antipyretics" (Papers I and III), Arch. Int. Med., Dec, 1919; 
and Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 16, 1919 (136). 
