We can raise the temperature of the amoeba as high as we like for we supply the heat from the outside. It is not a product of the cell's own activity. In the body, in fever, this is not so. The heat is the result of the body's own activity and if it goes beyond a certain point, cell activity is automatically lowered and heat production lessened. There is, then, an automatic check to the height fever may rise.

The normal activity of the cells of the human body requires a temperature of about 99 degrees Farenheit. If the temperature of the body is lowered below this point cellular activities are decreased proportionately. If temperature is lowered too far, the processes of life cease and death ensues.

When the temperature of the human body is raised beyond the normal standard, cellular activities are increased proportionately with the rise in temperature, until the point of maximum activity is reached. When the point of maximum activity is reached any tendency to push the increase in temperature higher would be checked by a reduction of heat production consequent upon decreasing cellular activities. This action is automatic and requires no outside regulation.

Animal heat is a vital phenomenon, though its exact method of production is not sufficiently clear. The theory generally accepted at present is that it is the result of the oxidation going on in the body. Eminent authorities once held to the theory that bodily heat results from the conversion of non-living matter--of nutritive processes or of anabolism. Others have thought it is the result of friction in the body. A few have advanced the notion that none of these processes have anything to do with the production of heat, but that it is created by the vital force itself--from what or by what process, is not explained.

Now it is possible that anabolism, oxidation and friction each contribute to heat production under the control of vitality. It is certain that the nerve centers and peripheries exert an influence over both the production of heat and its dissipation and conservation. Self-regulation of its temperature is absolutely essential to the integrity of every warmblooded organism, and the body does not lose its power to regulate its temperature in "disease".

Heat is distributed by the blood and radiated through the skin and lungs. The amount of heat radiated depends on the amount produced, but is always, except in fever, sufficient to keep the temperature of the body down to the normal standard. Both heat production and heat radiation are greatly influenced by the surrounding temperature. If atmospheric temperature rises, heat production is reduced and heat radiation increased. It is not always possible to reduce heat production immediately but heat radiation may always be immediately increased. If external temperature decreases, heat production will be increased and heat radiation decreased.

One of the chief functions of the skin is to regulate body temperature. Heat is radiated through the skin, chiefly through sweating. The body is cooled by evaporation of perspiration. Any fluid, in evaporating, takes up heat. The sweat, in evaporating extracts heat from the body.

By regulating the amount of blood that reaches the skin the escape of heat from the body is controlled. The more blood there is in the skin, the more heat there is radiated from the body. If the body is chilled the blood vessels in the skin contract. This forces the blood away from the surface into the interior of the body and conserves its heat. When the body is hot, its surface vessels dilate. This allows larger quantities of blood to reach the skin and dissipates more of its heat.

Two sets of nerves are concerned in the regulation of heat conservation and heat radiation. The vasomotor nerves which control the size of the blood vessels, and thus control the blood supply, and the secretor nerves, which stimulate the activities of the gland cells. Generally an increased blood flow and accelerated glandular action exist together. It sometimes happens in cases of shock or in nervous individuals that a profuse clammy perspiration occurs with a decrease in the blood supply. The excretion of sweat is regulated by the nervous system. The sweat centers, located in the medulla and spinal cord, are aroused into action by exercise, changes in external temperature, emotions, many drugs, and often by an increase in the temperature of the blood circulating in the medulla and cord.

The body not only regulates the radiation of heat but also regulates the production and distribution of heat. It often happens in people of low vitality, or in shock, that the body's ability to produce or conserve its heat is reduced so that its temperature is below normal In most stages of acute disease the temperature is above normal and the patient is said to have fever. Fever is simply a few degrees more of the ordinary temperature of the body.

In fever there is usually a greater production of heat than under the usual conditions of life, but heat production is not nearly so great as in violent exercise. The reason for fever is not so much an increased production of heat, but a lessened radiation of heat. Skin radiation is suspended. Fever is not always accompanied with increased heat production.

The cells in all the tissues and fluids affected in fever and inflammation are enlarged. There is always an increased exudation of fluid from the blood into the affected parts resulting in increased nutrition and more rapid growth. This elevation in body heat in inflammation and fever is constant and it is impossible for these to occur without a temporary increase in the amount of living matter in the affected areas. The cells always experience increased nutrition.

Slight fever and inflammation do not necessarily result in permanent tissue changes. Many leave no traces behind them. There may be no degeneration of any tissue in the body, no structural change, no evidence left of the struggle. After a fever or inflammation, the organism may be left precisely as it was before the struggle occurred, or, as is the case where suppression is not resorted to, the organism is renovated, cleansed, and renewed.

Fever is often blamed for the very evils it is intended to prevent, as well as for the evils that flow naturally from the means employed to suppress it. The destruction of tissues seen in "fevers" is no more due to the increased temperature than it is due to the rapid heart beat, increased respiration, or dry skin. It is due to toxins and to suppressive treatment.

Where damage to the body or parts of it follow fever it is the cause of, or, more properly, the occasion for the fever, or the suppressive measures employed, not the fever itself, which works harm to the body, so that no good whatsoever is accomplished by suppressing the fever, as is the usual practice among all schools of "healing." The fever itself is an essential part of the acute process, is salutary and constructive in its office, and, itself, is never fatal or injurious. The presence of fever is both a sign of returning health and an evidence that the body still possesses sufficient vital vigor to put up a stiff fight against the foes of life.