PYREXIA. 
419 
This is now a new subject, though every day adds a stone to 
the rising edifice. But it is too soon to demand a view of a com¬ 
pleted structure. Progress in science may modify present views, 
as to details, but the foundation will remain, because truth is im¬ 
pregnable, and the theory contended for rests immovably upon 
the simple and rational interpretation of visible and tangible fact. 
PYREXIA. 
By H. F. James, Y.S. 
The natural heat of the body may be looked upon as the re¬ 
sult of oxidation of the tissues, the skin and other emunctories 
preserving the balance and maintaining, in the horse, a uniform 
temperature of from 90° to 101° Fahrenheit. But it is of abnor¬ 
mal heat that I wish to speak. Certain diseases are attended by 
an increase of pulse and temperature, which constitutes the febrile 
state. To what is the disturbance in calorification due ? Is it to 
the influence of microbes on the economy ? to some derangement 
of the functions of the emunctories ? to loss of the respiratory 
power of the blood ? to profound nutritive changes of the nervous 
system \ We know not. All that we do know is that it is the 
cause or effect of disease, more probably the latter. Some think 
that fever is an effort of nature to overcome the effects of disease, 
while others regard the increase of temperatuse as the chief 
source of danger. The maxim of the latter class is “ the heat 
kills.” I believe with Dr. Huchard that we should have no anti¬ 
thermic medicaments, that we should use antihyperthermics. 
What are we to regard as a dangerous temperature in the horse ? 
The ephemeral high fever which attends some cases of laryngeal 
trouble, and outbreaks of the so-called pink-eye scarcely require 
active measures, but in cases of influenza, pneumonia, etc., where 
the temperature ranges from 106° to 107° for two or three days, 
the chances of recovery arc very slight. The veterinary profes¬ 
sion do not look with favor upon the German theory, that all the 
symptoms of a disease are caused by the pyrexia, and that to re¬ 
duce this to a normal standard is virtually to effect a cure. I am 
