FEVER (AS. fefer, OlIG. fiebur, Ger. Picber, from Lat. febris, fever, from ferere, to be hot). A condition occurring during disease characterized principally by increase of the temperature of the body. The temperature is estimated according to the state of the internal parts, rather than the external. The term fever is also applied to certain diseases in which high temperature is a promi nent symptom, as typhoid fever, scarlet fever, yellow fever. Fever is a constant accompani ment of these diseases, as well as of pneumonia, which was formerly called lung fever. In most such diseases there is first a feeling of weakness, apathy, loss of appetite, and a chilly feeling, with pains in the body and thrills, and rapid pulse, constituting the period of invasion. Sue ceeding this comes the period of domination, dur ing which the pulse remains rapid, the surface becomes flushed and hot,the temperature rises still higher; thirst, headache, restlessnesi:, and rapid breathing exist ; the skin is very dry, and the urine is scanty. During the decline of the fever the temperature falls, perspiration breaks out, the rate of respiration diminishes, pains cease, and the patient falls asleep. All fever is de pendent upon a morbid process which causes deterioration of the blood or other tissue, and is due partly to chemical changes which occur, and partly to irritation of the nervous system by some substance produced by the disease. There are no 'self-originating,' or 'spontaneous' or 'idiopathic' fevers. Fevers are named accord ing to prominent features, supposed or real causes, or localities in which they are commonly found. Thus we have scarlet and yellow fevers, malarial fever, ship (or jail) fever, Malta fever, spotted fever, dengue (or dandy) fever, etc. If a fever is protracted for several days during which the temperature remains above the normal F.), the type is called continued ; if the temperature drops to the normal and rises again, after intermissions of a few hours, a day, or two days, the fever is called intermittent; if the temperature falls to a point above the normal and ascends again, oscillating in this way for several days, the fever is styled remittent. A
certain fever decreases after several days till the temperature reaches the normal, and then after an interval of a few days it returns. This is styled relapsing fever. An intermittent fever in which the intermission is one day, or two days, or three days. is respectively termed a quotidian, tertian. or quartan type. A rise of temperature due to fatigue, teething, or to vaccination, or a local heat due to an infected sore or a boil, is not called a fever, though probably with a larger knowledge of the pathological conditions of tissue during fever the name might be applied even to these eases.
In treating cases of fever, it is customary to record at certain intervals each day the degree of temperature reached by the clinical thermom eter, placed in the mouth of the patient. This record of temperature is plotted on a special chart, with lines connecting the points reached by the temperature, and the resulting diagram is called the 'fever cure.' For convenience' sake the rate of pulse and of respiration, morn ing and evening, is recorded on the chart, as well as the defecation and urination in certain cases. For simple continued fever, or abortive fever, see FEBRICULA; for ardent fever, see HEAT STROKE; for autumnal fever, see Tvrilom FEVER; for ship fever, jail fever, or camp fever, see TYPHUS FEVER; for spotted fever, see MENIN GITIS (paragraph Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis); for bilious fever (an improper term), see MA LARIA and TYPHOID FEVER. Many other febrile disorders are described under their own names.