Disease, Both General and Local.
—Some diseases lead to disturbance throughout the entire body. For instance, pus may accumulate at some point from which it finds its way into the blood, in the end reaching to other parts of the body that in time also become affected.
Those diseases, with which fever is associated, are general in nature. The nerve centers are influenced, the body heat is increased and a weakened condition prevails. Back of this are the disease poisons—chemical poisons or germ poisons.
When the temperature of the body, as a result of fever, rises too high certain life principles are changed and death immediately follows. A temperature of 106° or 107° is very high, and, therefore, very dangerous. In treating disease the temperature is watched, that the course of the fever may be followed. Treating a fever, then, is helpful and a natural part of the treatment of the disease itself. The basis of the curative process rests upon the principle of proper circulation and the excretion of the impure substances.