"The primary cause of the fever phenomena is still a mooted (discussed and debated) question, and is either a disorder of the sympathetic nervous system giving rise to disturbances of the vaso-motor filaments, or a derangement of the nerve centers located adjacent to the corpus striatum, which have been found, by experiment, to govern the processes of heat production, distribution, and dissipation.
"Rise of temperature is the pre-eminent feature of all fevers, and can only be positively determined by the use of the clinical thermometer. The term feverishness is used when the temperature ranges from 99° to 100° fahr.; slight fever if 100° or 101°; moderate, 102° or 103°; high if 104° or 105° and intense if it exceed the latter. The term hyperpyrexia is used when the temperature shows a tendency to remain at 106° fahr. and above.
"Quickened circulation is the rule in fevers, the frequency usually maintaining a fair ratio with the increase of the temperature. A rise of one degree fahr. is usually attended with an increase of eight to ten beats of the pulse per minute.
"The following table gives a fair comparison between temperature and pulse:—
| TABLE OF DEGREES. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A temperature of | 98° | corresponds | to a | pulse of | 60° | |
| " | 99° | " | " | " | 70° | |
| " | 100°F | " | " | " | 80° | |
| " | 101°F | " | " | " | 90° | |
| " | 102°F | " | " | " | 100° | |
| " | 103°F | " | " | " | 110° | |
| " | 104°F | " | " | " | 120° | |
| " | 105°F | " | " | " | 130° | |
| " | 106°F | " | " | " | 140° | |
"The tissue waste is marked in proportion to the severity and duration of the febrile phenomena, being slight or (nil) in febricula, and excessive in typhoid fever.
"The disordered secretions are manifested by the deficiency in the salivary, gastric, intestinal, and nephritic secretions, the tongue being furred, the mouth clammy, and there occurring anorexia, thirst, constipation, and scanty, high-colored acid urine."[6]
FEVERS ONLY EFFECTS.
Fevers are effects only. The cause may be far from mental conclusions. If we have a house with one bell, and ten wires each fastened to a door running to the center, all having wire connection and so arranged that to pull any one wire will set the bell in motion, and without an indicator you cannot tell which wire is disturbed, producing the effect or ringing of the bell at the center. An electrician would know at once the cause, but to discriminate and locate the wire disturbed is the study.
Before a bell can be heard from any door, the general battery must be charged. Thus you see but one source of supply. To better illustrate—we will take a house with eight rooms, and all supplied by one battery—one is a reception room, one a parlor, one a sitting room, one bed room, one cloak room, one dining room, one a kitchen, and one a basement room, all having wires and bells running to one bell in the clerk's office, which has an indicator for each room by numbers on its face. If the machinery is in good order he can call and answer correctly all the time and never make a mistake. But should he ring to call the cook and her bell keep on ringing and she and clerk could not stop it, and they summon an electrician, what would you think if he began at the parlor bell to adjust a trouble of the kitchen bell? Surely you would not have him treat the parlor bell first, because you know the cook could only answer by the effect, or rattling of the office bell. Hers is cause, sound at office, effect. Now to apply this illustration, we will say a system of bells and connecting wires run to all parts or rooms of the body, from the battery of power or the brain, conveyed by the strings of wires or nerves, that are put up and run to all active or vital parts of the body. Thus arranged we see how blood is driven to any part of the system, by the power that is sent over the nerves from the brain to the spinal cord, and from there to all nerves of each and all divisions of the body. Then your blood that has done its work in constructing parts or all of the system, entering veins to be returned to the heart for renewal. Each vein, great and small, has nerves with them as servants of power, to force blood back to heart through the different sets of tubes known as veins, and made to suit the duties they have to perform in the process of life. As it travels to the heart with blood too thick to suit the lungs, the great system of lymphatics pour in water to suit demands, preparatory to entering the lungs to be purified and renewed. Thus you see nature has amply prepared all the machinery and power to prepare material and construct all parts, and when in normal condition the mind and wisdom of God is satisfied that the machine will go on and build and run according to the plan and specification. If this be true as nature proves at every point and principle, what can man do farther than plumb, line up, and trust to nature to get results desired, "life and health?" Can we add or suggest any improvement? If not, what is left for us to do is to keep bells, batteries and wires in normal place and trust to normal law as given by nature.