A Contribution to the Experimental Study of Fever

Abstract

The condition of Pyrexia, associated with the febrile state, is a phenomenon which has been noted from the very earliest times, but only since the latter half of the last century has the experimental method been brought in to determine the cause of a phenomenon which had previously been a field of speculation only. The very old ideas can be passed over, but in the last century Johannes Müller regarded fever as a reflex process while Virchow (1853) looked upon fever as a neurosis—the condition being considered analogous to a paralytic state, a failure of the control of the vital functions of the body—while it is interesting to note that Traube (1855, 1864) and Traube and Jochman (1855) at this time determined an increase in the elimination of nitrogen from the body in fever. Both Virchow and Traube assumed the existence of a fever-producing agent, but did not proceed to elucidate its nature or origin.