The entire series of phenomena represent an "organic" unit. Fever per se is a necessary increase in body temperature designed to enable the body or some part or parts of it to effectively destroy some foe of life that is threatening vital integrity, and to repair damages. It is but a part of the general process of purification and reconstruction that is "disease". It is salubrious and beneficial, as Hygienists, Hydropaths, Naturopaths and Physio-medicalists have declared for more than a hundred years. Hippocrates is reported to have said: "give me fever and I can cure any disease."

According to their severity, temperatures (in fever) are classed as:

Subfebriles--99.5° to 100.5° F.

Slight Fever--100.5° to 101.5° F.

Moderate Fever--Morning 101.5° ; evening 103.5° F.

High Fever--Morning 103.5° ; evening 105° F.

Hyperpyrexia, above 106° F.

The height of fever is determined by:

1. The reactive power of the sick person; and

2. The amount and virulence of the toxin against which the forces of life are pitted.

Of these two factors, the reactive power of the sick person is the really essential factor in raising the temperature, for the rise in temperature is a vital reaction. Young and vigorous individuals easily develop high fever in response to minor causes; whereas, the old or feeble are often unable to develop fever in defense against the most virulent toxins. Wm. F. Harvard, N. D., says: "The greater the reactive power of the body, the higher the temperature of the body is likely to rise during a crisis of this nature. Children, in whom the natural vitality has not been worn down by abuse, are prone to manifest a higher temperature in reactions than adults. This would tend to prove that the fever is an index to the reactive power of the body. It is almost impossible for a, person of very low vitality to have an acute disease."

Dr. Felix Oswald says in Physical Education, "A man may be too tired to sleep and too weak to be sick. Bleeding, for the time being, may 'break up' an inflammatory disease, the system must regain some little strength before it can resume the work of reconstruction."

So-called medical science has named for us many different kinds of fevers such as, lung fever (pneumonia), brain fever, typhus fever, spotted fever, yellow fever, bilious fever, eruptive fever, septic fever, jail fever, ship fever, malta. fever, ardent fever (heat stroke), autumnal fever (typhoid), spring fever, etc. They tell us: "The name of some fevers is derived from some real or supposed cause or predominating symptom."

The time of year, the patient's environment (jail or ship), the organ chiefly involved in the affection, some prominent symptom present, the color of the patient's body--these help to determine the kinds of fever. When viewed in its right light, this childish effort to have many kinds of fever is amusing; when viewed from the standpoint of its results, it is tragic.

There is but one fever. The temperature may be high, it may be but slightly above normal, it may be continuous, intermittent, remittent, slow, or what not; it is all the same temperature. The practice of naming various groups of symptoms as a "a fever", though still indulged, was born out of the ignorance of the past. The term fever should not apply to the whole symptom-complex (the so-called "entity") present, but to the increased temperature only.

Medical definitions of fever show the confusion that exists in their minds concerning its true nature, cause and purpose. It is defined as "a disease characterized by marked increase of heat of the skin;" as "a disorder marked by high temperature, quickened pulse, thirst, loss of appetite,etc." Another definition of fever is "a systemic disease whose distinctive characteristic is elevation of temperature, accompanied also by quickened circulation, increased katabolism or tissue-waste and disordered secretions."

From these definitions it readily will be seen that the term fever may mean to the medical man the whole symptom-complex, the so-called disease, present in the sick person (it is a definite entity to these men) ; at other times it may mean simply a rise in temperature. Two standard medical authors say in discussing fever: "The different fevers will be discussed under their separate headings--scarlet fever, typhoid fever, yellow fever, etc."

Medical authorities also tell us that the term fever is limited to measurable and continuous elevation of temperature accompanying and dependent upon a disorder of some part of the body, it is a concomitant of disease--Short accessions of heat, due to "accidental" and ephemeral" causes are not included under the term fever. Febricula and Ephemeral Fever are the terms applied to "short feverish attacks" lasting from one day to a week. Furred tongue, rapid pulse and headache accompany these "attacks". Persons so suffering are said to be "threatened with a fever."

A fever is a "disorder"--the very term signifies the absence of order in the body. Such terms belong to confused minds who do not know that order reigns in the body in all states of health or impaired health. Physiological laws are never suspended, nor do they ever become confused.

"Fevers" are also called "febrile processes." "We are told that the febrile process does not run its course with an even tenor, but shows exacerbation and remission. The exacerbation usually sets in in the evening and advances until about midnight, when the remission commences, reaching its lowest point in the morning. This simply means that the temperature rises and falls as the organism rests or returns to vigorous work, in a more or less rhythmic manner.

If the temperature never falls to the normal point, the "fever" is called a continued or continuous one. If at some point it falls nearly to the normal point, the fever is called remittant. If the febrile symptoms disappear altogether, to return on another day, the "fever" is called intermittent. If the fever lasts several days, then disappears and returns after a few days, it is called relapsing fever.

Contrary to popular and erstwhile "scientific" opinion, there is no danger in fever. When Schiller declared that "a fever which does not kill, invigorates" he used the word fever to designate the whole complex of symptoms present in a so-called febrile malady, but he thought such fever is capable of killing. It was only confusion that permitted him to think that if this killing process fails to kill, it will invigorate.

Medical men and most drugless practitioners do resort to means to reduce temperature. "While most of them theoretically recognize the beneficent character of fever, in practice, they believe it may rise too high and cause a destruction of the red-blood cells, cartilages, glands and other parts of the body. They, therefore, believe in controlling fever and keeping it down to the point of safety. This is contrary to Orthopathic principles and to Hygienic practices. Every Hygienist knows that the temperature cannot rise high enough to do real damage and that it will fall spontaneously, automatically, as soon as its purpose has been served. Indeed he has learned to regard a high temperature as a hopeful sign. The higher the temperature the more efficient is the curative work and the quicker will recovery occur.