The prevailing theory is that the waste of tissue, even of bone, and the changes in the blood, including the diminution of the red cells, is due to the fever; that the fever burns up the tissues and the blood cells. On the basis of this absurdity, even those who accept the fact that fever is a curative process declare that fever must be controlled; that it must not be permitted to rise above the "danger point," usually set at 103 degrees.

The body is an automatic, compensating machine, all parts and functions of which bear symbiotic relationships to each other. If we keep this in mind we will have no difficulty in understanding that increased cellular activity calls for an increased quantity of blood and increased heat, demanding many alterations in functional activity. The increased need for oxygen can be supplied only by the blood bringing the oxygen to the cells. This is partly accomplished by dilation of the blood vessels, but this reduces blood pressure, as the constriction of the vessels of the skin afford insufficient compensation and this would cause the blood to flow more slowly unless the heart beats more rapidly, which it does. The blood flows through the lungs as rapidly as it does through the rest of the body, compelling a commensurate increase in the respiratory movements. The increased breathing supplies the needed extra oxygen. Respiration, circulation and temperature are all increased proportionately in acute disease.

Increased circulation, increased oxidation, increased cellular activity, all mean increased heat production. Heat production is necessarily excessive in acute disease in order to keep up the greater activity of the cells. Heat dissipation is also reduced to make possible the higher temperature; for, without fever there would be no acute "disease."

Fever we may define as a necessary rise of body temperature above the normal standard in response to the organism's own need for an increase of vital activity. Vital or physiological actions are never haphazard nor purposeless. The rise and fall of temperature is governed by physiological laws which nicely and minutely adjust the means to the end.

In order to have fever, which is necessary to the acute process, two things are essential--namely:

1. Increased production of heat in the body; and

2. Suspension of heat radiation through the skin. Of these two, the suspension of heat radiation is most essential to the rise in temperature. Fever often synchronizes with impaired respiratory functions, as in pneumonia, and the introduction into the blood of far less oxygen than when normal and the subsequent formation and removal of less than the normal proportion of carbonic acid. Inflammation and fever do not necessarily depend on increased oxidation. Fever is not a process of "burning". It neither burns up the body nor the causes of disease. Heat production is not as great during fever as while running or during other vigorous physical activities; but heat radiation is suspended so that the heat is retained in the body. Breathing and heart action are not as rapid during fever as when running. When engaged in vigorous effort sweating carries away heat from the body and thus prevents the temperature from running up. Suspension of skin radiation is, therefore, more essential to the production of fever than is increased heat production.

Fever results primarily from heat conservation and is controlled by the heat regulating mechanism of the body. The expression, "burning fever" can be used, hereafter, only as a mere figure of speech; it cannot accurately represent the vital phenomena of fever.

It is quite true that in fever there is usually an increased oxygen intake, but as pointed out above, this is never as great as during violent physical effort. In some conditions, such as pneumonia, there is fever concomitantly with decreased oxygenation.

Fever, being a result of vital activities, often existing concomitantly with diminished exhalation and secretion, must be regarded as a part of the reaction of the body against the causes of impairment. Hence the higher the temperature, other things being equal, the greater the reactive power possessed by the body. Whatever may be the occasioning factors in fever, it is an essential development in all acute "disease" and represents the power of the organism to increase cellular activity--the height of the temperature indicates the vital capacity of the body to throw off the causes of impaired health and restore its normal equilibrium.

Fever is produced as a response to organic toxins, never in response to metalic poisons. Metalic poisons are more likely to result in a lowering of body temperature. A certain amount of fever is essential to the completion of the chemical process by which oxidation of poisonous products is accomplished. In fever there is increased circulation, usually increased oxygenation, and a great increase of "anti-bodies" and other protective agencies within the body.

When there is infection in the intestine, for instance, as in "typhoid fever", requiring large quantities of blood to be sent to the intestine, the blood is drawn away from the surface of the body, resulting in a chill. The "onset" of "fevers" is preceded by a chill. The chill serves the definite end of suspending surface radiation. During the chill, although the surface temperature of the body may be normal, the temperature of the interior of the body is above normal.

The concentration of blood in the intestine is an automatic response to the irritation at that point. Its concentration there, with the consequent withdrawal of blood from the skin, unbalances the circulation and lowers blood pressure, calling as previously explained, for increased heart action and this in turn resulting in increased respiration.

The crisis or turn of "a fever" is characterized by a resumption of sweating, which had previously been suspended (in fever the skin is dry), and a consequent reduction of body temperature through the increased skin radiation.

We say fever is a remedy, not a "disease" ; its nature is restorative, not destructive. It is not merely a friend--it is always a friend and a unit. There are not many "fevers", as the text-books list, but one fever.

The development and persistence of fever do not offer conclusive evidence that the organism will be able to preserve its integrity, but they do reveal that strong efforts to this end are being made. Whether successful or not, the wholesome intention of the effort is the same. Fever and the increased circulatory activity associated therewith are vital phenomena, which develop, progress and terminate in strictest accord with the laws of life, wherever and whenever they may be needed and are health-preservative actions.

Fever, in the final analysis, is not a mere rise in temperature. It is the end-result of a complicated series of antecedent phenomena, all of which work automatically towards the end in view--increased temperature. The fever then results, automatically, in other actions equally as complicated.