Fig. 146.—General type of termination of the febrile course in the various tropical diseases.
In infections with Shiga’s bacillus of bacillary dysentery we may have cases showing extreme toxaemia with algid manifestations and a subnormal temperature.
During the last stages of sleeping sickness a lowering of the temperature is fairly constant.
In heat prostration the temperature tends to be subnormal. Clinically this condition with its pale clammy skin is just the opposite of heat stroke with its turgid countenance and hyperpyrexia.
In the Indian type of relapsing fever we may have a fall to subnormal temperatures at the time of the crisis of the first paroxysm, often attended with manifestations of collapse.
Sprue cases tend to run a subnormal temperature during the terminal period.
Febrile Diseases.—The diseases in which the presence of fever, in the general course of the illness, is the rule, may be considered in two groups:
1. Those in which the temperature chart is of prime importance in diagnosis.
2. Those in which the character of the fever gives but little assistance in diagnosis.