Dr. Wm. F. Havard says: "No one ever died of fever. Some observers record temperatures in acute diseases of well over 108 degrees Fahrenheidt, with complete recovery of the patient."

Dr. Shew says, Hydropathic Family Physician, p. 51. "The danger in fevers is not in proportion to the heat and excitement present, as many suppose, but to the debility. The evidences of debility, are great rapidity and weakness of the pulse, as well as weakness of the body generally. If the pulse remains long as frequent as 140 or 150, there cannot be much ground for recovery. Recovery has been known to take place when the pulse has been as high as 160, although it must be admitted that such occurrences with adults are rare. Dr. Heberden knew a case of recovery from fever even after the pulse had been up at 180. Facts of this kind should be known both for the encouragement of the patient and the physician."

Evidences of weakness, or of a declining reactive power, and not the height of the temperature, are the true signs of danger. When these signs appear temperature is more likely to fall than to remain high.

Emerson declares: Essentials of Medicine: "it may be said, in general, that the height of temperature is really no index to the severity of the case. The highest temperatures occur in the least serious fevers, such as relapsing fever and malaria, while in the severest fevers, the rapidly fatal infections, there may be no rise of temperature at all. In the latter case it seems as if the body were unable to make a febrile defense against the infection."

From our viewpoint the height of the temperature is an index to the reactive powers of the body. It is an index of its fighting powers. The intensity of the fever is, in a great measure, a reliable index to the vital capacity of the body to restore its normal equilibrium. "Rapidly fatal infections" are such because there is no fighting power, and this is also the reason the powers of life are so depressed by the infection that little or no fever develops.

In a condition such as pneumonia, those of feeble constitution run a low temperature and are less likely to recover; whereas, those of vigorous constitution may run a temperature as high as 105 degrees Farenheidt and make a rapid recovery, an improved health standard following.

Since the World War the ranks of materia medica have partially recognized, theoretically at least, the beneficial function of fever. A little "orthodox" testimony may be in order.

F. A. Rizquez, of Europe, says, General Pathology: "Fever is a reaction of organic defense, and as such, it should be protected, rather than opposed. Generalized febrile infections are more dangerous when they develop themselves apyretically (without fever), as, for instance, pneumonia in old people, cholera, diphtheria, etc."

Parker's Materia Medica and Therapeutics (for nurses) says (p. 214) : "Fever is now recognized as a symptom and in infectious disease as a. protective condition in which antibodies are formed to counteract toxins. Unless, therefore, the temperature is very high no attempts are made to lower it except for the purpose of making the patient more comfortable."

Emerson, a standard medical author, says Essentials of Medicine (1922) : "While these toxins or germs may be called the cause of the elevation of temperature, yet the word 'reason' is better. Fever seems to be one of the protective measures of the body, a means to an end, and that end is a fight against the germ. The body seems to fight the germ better at a higher than at normal temperature, and so the fever is really rather a part of the defense than a direct result of the toxin in the sense in which the headache is such a result. We emphasize this point because so many people think the fever is an evil and try to lower it by drugs. They can do this easily, but with no benefit--perhaps always with injury--to the patient. We like to see the temperature fall as after a cold bath, but only when we are sure the reason for the fall is victory over the toxin, or that the total result of the bath is beneficial."

The Literary Digest, June 14, 1924, quotes Dr. Oliver Heath as saying in the Lancet, a leading British medical journal: "For many years a heightened temperature was regarded as evil in itself--very much as a heightened blood pressure quite usually is now--and in the treatment of febrile conditions the main line of attack was directed toward its reduction.

"Experience of anti-pyretic drugs led to some doubts as to the actual benefit to be expected from a mere lowering of temperature, and experimental work showed that in infectious conditions some degree was certainly beneficial; animals kept at fever heat were able to withstand infections fatal to normal control."

The absurdities of the "quacks" and "fanatics" have again triumphed. Fever, that every "scientific" physician knew to be an evil that must be suppressed, turned out, after all was said and done, to be the benefit the "lunatic fringe" declared it to be, and its suppression proved to be a veritable slaughter, as we have declared for over a hundred years. Orthopathy will yet find its way into the very citadel of Heteropathy and wreck its elaborate structures and prove its bombast and pretended science to be east wind. Human progress has never come from entrenched institutions nor from the forces of exploitation. The "lunatic fringe" is the source of progress--always.

Despite the theoretical recognition of the beneficial character of fever, suppression of fever is yet the popular practice. Antipyretics are still in common use among all the "schools of healing." It should be obvious that any method of forcibly reducing temperature deprives the sick body of the benefits of the increased temperature, while most of them add their own direct damages to the body.

Dr. Joel Shew in The Hydropathic Family Physician, (1854) declares: (pp. 43-46) : "Whatever may be true in regard to the nature and general tendency of fever, it is to be remarked that patients, when properly treated, and not injured by harsh and injudicious measures, are often found better after an attack. This happens even after certain fevers which have had their origin in malaria or some-other poisons." The benefits following "fevers" are less in evidence where the patient has been through the usual suppressive treatment than where he has been cared for hygienically.

In a previous quotation from Parker, it was stated that unless "the temperature is very high no attempts are made to lower it except for the purpose of making the patient more comfortable." It should be known that it makes no difference in the results, whether the temperature is reduced to "cure" the "disease" or merely to make the patient more "comfortable". Temperature cannot forcibly be reduced, by any method for any purpose, without greatly interfering with the vital curative activities. Part of Nature's defense is broken and all of her curative operations are reduced.

The foundation is laid for much worse trouble. Complications develop; sequalea follow; perhaps the patient is killed.

In a general sense there are two methods of reducing fever; namely: (1) By depressing vital activity, thus reducing heat production; and (2) By forcing the resumption of skin radiation. These two plans will be briefly discussed in the order given.

With reference to the first, Parker says: "The drugs which have some use as antipyretics are the coal-tar analgesics, quinine, and aconite. The coal-tar analgesics act by depressing the heat-center. The heat center is now considered rather a coordinated mechanism and the exact method by which this mechanism controls body temperature is not known, but it is probable that when it is depressed heat production is decreased. The difficulty, however, in using drugs to depress this mechanism is that they also affect the vital centers and cause a general depression. Phenacetine, antipyrine, and acetanilid are especially depressing to the heart if given continuously in long fevers, but they are used to some extent. They relieve the nervousness (by depressing the nerve centers. Author) which accompanies a high fever and are resorted to in cases in which baths cannot be given. Quinine is commonly employed as an antipyretic in the early stages of coryza. From two to four grains *** every four hours will break up a cold. Aconite is safe only in short acute fevers and is being used less and less even in such cases, because of its toxic action on the heart."

Quinine depresses all of the functions of the body and is a frequent cause of serious nervous and mental troubles, blindness and death. It is employed to reduce temperature because it depresses vital activity throughout the system and thus reduces heat production. It reduces heart action, lowers blood pressure, reduces oxidation, interferes with the oxygen carrying power of the red cells, and thus reduces temperature. Quinine may even completely arrest heart action, resulting in death. Sweet spirit of nitre is also used as a febrifuge.

If one goes out for a brisk walk on a cold day the activity increases heart action, accelerates circulation, and increases respiration and oxidation. This enables him to keep warm. Returning, someone picks him up and he rides back. Sitting still, heart action is slowed down, circulation is less rapid, breathing is lessened and oxidation decreased. Drugs that reduce temperature by depressing vital activities slow down the heart. All of them have a "toxic action on the heart."

Such methods of lowering body temperature are, in reality, methods of crippling the organism and handicap it in its battle against the toxins that are damaging its structures and threatening its existence. They hinder and often prevent recovery. They produce serious damages themselves.

The second plan of forcibly lowering body temperature consists of methods which force the blood into the skin and thus result in increased radiation through this structure. The salicylates occasion a mark dilatation of the cutaneous blood vessels, resulting in greater circulation to the skin, with a consequent loss of heat. The salicylates are especially prone to damage the heart. Dover's powders (an opium derivative), ammonium acetate and spirit of nitrous ether, cause the blood to be sent to the surface, away from where it is most needed, and occasion a waste of the body's heat.

Fan baths, baths in tepid water, cold baths, alcohol with much friction, hot drinks, etc., are also employed to bring the blood to the surface and restore sweating. They thus increase the dissipation of heat through the skin and lower temperature. Though lacking most of the directly injurious effects of antipyretic drugs, these methods are equally suppressive and succeed also in depriving the sick body of the needed aid of fever.

Any mode of treatment which reduces body heat without removing the necessity for the increased temperature, lessens the chances of recovery. Fever is only one of a whole group of "abnormal" processes that exist concomitaritly and co-etaneously in acute "disease" and fever cannot be lowered without interfering with the whole series of defensive and curative operations. Depressing the nervous centers, lessening heart action, slowing down circulation, inhibiting respiration, checking elimination, and commensurately reducing other functions, in lowering temperature, are all equally as undesirable and injurious as the lowering of the fever itself.