Reminding the reader of what was said, a few pages back, of the nature and signs of fever, it may be said now, that what we want to do when those signs {heat, excitement of the circulation, locking up of secretions, and weakness) are present, is, first, and chiefly, to ascertain and remove, if possible, the cause of the attack. We should also try to lessen the heat, promote the return of the secretions, and support the system through its period of weakness.

To diminish heat, cold water is the great remedy. Almost incredible it seems, that physicians were once afraid to give cold drinks to patients suffering with raging fever. A man with small-pox, two hundred years ago, was shut up in a close room, with red curtains hanging about his bed, blankets piled on him to promote perspiration, and, for the same end, only hot and bitter drinks, herb teas, were allowed him ! All the world knows better now, and follows nature's pointing better than that. Thirst is an almost universal symptom of fever; and frequent draughts of cold water are its best remedy. Ice-water is not the best, at least if the draughts craved and taken are large ; it may be, to the most advantage, of about the temperature of deep well water; about 500 to 520 Fahr.; although nearer the freezing-point will answer well. If the stomach is very irritable, as is often the case in autumnal remittent and in yellow fever, small lumps of ice melted in the mouth and then swallowed, at short intervals, will do better than drinking much water at a time.

Cold water outside is a remedy naturally thought of; and it may be used, but carefully. Sudden chilling is not safe. Some physicians, especially in Germany, now treat cases of typhoid fever by immersing the patient for ten minutes at a time in a really cold bath. This seems to me not a plan to be approved. But the sponging of the face, arms, hands, and, part after part, the whole body, with cold or cool water, two or three times a day, is an admirable means of relief in fevers generally. Its service is perhaps most marked in scarlet fever, when the surface of the body is often intensely hot; the whole skin seems to be inflamed. Bear in mind the great principle : we want to temper, to moderate the excessive heat; not to chill the body below its normal degree.

Certain additions to water as a drink will contribute to its refrigerant action. Acids have this tendency. Lemonade and the juice of oranges are generally suitable. Citrate of potassium and acetate of ammonium are the medicines most sure to be safe and beneficial for the same purpose; the former when the bowels are natural or constipated, the latter when there is a disposition towards diarrhoea.

Of the secretions, those of the bowels, skin, and kidneys require attention in fever, In most cases of typhoid fever and some cases of measles, the bowels incline to looseness from the start. When, in those diseases, they are not moved at all during the first day of the fever, a small dose of a mild purgative may be given; in typhoid fever, a teaspoonful of castor oil; in measles, a tea-spoonful of citrate of magnesium (solid), or a half-wineglassful of effervescing solution of citrate of magnesium; or a teaspoonful of Rochelle salt.

These are exceptional febrile diseases. In remittent (autumnal, bilious, malarial) fever, a good brisk purging early in the attack with a saline medicine, such as citrate of magnesium (an even tablespoonful, solid, or a wineglassful of the solution, repeated in six hours if it does not operate) or Ro-chelle salt (a tablespoonful), will be pretty sure to be useful. Typhus fever requires caution, in expectation of great weakness ; half of the above doses will be best for its treatment. Scarlet fever should be, as a rule, the occasion for a good cooling saline dose on the day the attack breaks out.

Purgatives help to clear out from the bowels and from the blood impurities which, while they remain, are poisonous to the system. But real purgation belongs in fevers, as a part of the treatment, only to the early stage. After that, we need merely to see that the bowels are not constipated ; a daily moderate movement will suffice. Some persons suppose that because a sick person takes only small quantities of food, he does not need to have his bowels open at all. But the waste of the substance of the body is going on even faster than during health, and the discharge from the bowels comes from this waste as well as from the refuse or excess of food.