FEVER.

_Description and Definition._--Fever is a powerful effort of the vital

principle to expel from the system morbific or irritating matter, or to

bring about a healthy action. The reason why veterinary practitioners

have not ascertained this fact heretofore is, because they have been

guided by false principles, to the exclusion of their own common

experience. Let them receive the truth of the definition we have given;

then the light will begin to shine, and medical darkness will be

rendered more visible. Fever, we have said, is a vital action--an effort

of the vital power to regain its equilibrium of action through the

system, and should never be subdued by the use of the lancet, or any

destructive agents that deprive the organs of the power to produce it.

Fever will be generally manifested in one or more of that combination of

signs known as follows: loss of appetite, increased velocity of the

pulse, difficult respiration, heaving at the flank, thirst, pain, and

swelling; some of which will be present, local or general, in greater or

less degree, in all forms of disease. When an animal has taken cold,

and there is power in the system to keep up a continual warfare against

encroachments, the disturbance of vital action being unbroken, the fever

is called pure or persistent. Emanations from animal or vegetable

substances in a state of decomposition or putrefaction, or the noxious

miasmata from marshy lands, if concentrated, and not sufficiently

diluted with atmospheric air, enter into the system, and produce a

specific effect. In order to dethrone the intruder, who keeps up a

system of aggression from one tissue to another, the vital power arrays

her artillery, in good earnest, to resist the invading foe; and if

furnished with the munitions of war in the form of sanative agents, she

generally conquers the enemy, and dictates her own terms. While the

forces are equally balanced, which may be known by a high grade of vital

action, it is also called _unbroken_ or _pure_ fever. The powers of the

system may become exhausted by efforts at relief, and the fever will be

periodically reduced; this form of fever is called _remittent_. By

remittent fever is to be understood this modification of vital action

which rests or abates, but does not go entirely off before a fresh

attack ensues. It is evident, in this case, also, that nature is busily

engaged in the work of establishing her empire; but being more

exhausted, she occasionally rests from her labors. It would be as absurd

to expect that the most accurate definition of fever in one animal would

correspond in all its details with another case, as to expect all

animals to be alike. There are many names given to fevers; for example,

in addition to the two already alluded to, we have milk or puerperal

fever, symptomatic, typhus, inflammatory, &c. Veterinary Surgeon

Percival, in an article on fever, says, "We have no more reason--not

near so much--to give fever a habitation in the abdomen, than we have to

enthrone it in the head; but it would appear from the full range of

observation, that no part of the body can be said to be unsusceptible of

inflammation, (local fever,) though, at the same time, no organ is

invariably or exclusively affected."

From this we learn that disease always attacks the weakest organ, and

that our remedies should be adapted to act on all parts of the system.

The same author continues, "All I wish to contend for is, that both

idiopathic and symptomatic fevers exhibit the same form, character,

species, and the same general means of cure; and that, were it not for

the local affection, it would be difficult or impossible to distinguish

them."

Fever has always been the great bugbear, to scare the farmer and cattle

doctor into a wholesale system of blood-letting and purging; they

believe that the more fever the animal manifests, the more unwearied

must be their exertions. The author advises the farmer not to feel

alarmed about the fever; for when that is present it shows that the

vital principle is up and doing. Efforts should be made to open the

outlets of the body, through which the morbific materials may pass: the

fever will then subside. It will be difficult to make the community

credit this simple truth, because fever is quite a fashionable disease,

and it is an easy matter to make the farmer believe that his cow has a

very peculiar form of it, that requires an entirely different mode of

treatment from that of another form. Then it is very profitable to the

interested allopathic doctor, who can produce any amount of "learned

nonsense" to justify the ways and means, and support his theory.

The author does not wish, at the present time, to enter into a learned

discussion of the merit or demerit of allopathy: the object of this work

is, to impart practical information to farmers and owners of stock. In

order to accomplish this object, an occasional reference to the

absurdities of the old school is unavoidable.

A celebrated writer has said, "The very medicines [meaning those used by

the old school, which kill more than they ever cure] which aggravate and

protract the malady bind a laurel on the doctor's brow. When, at last,

the sick are saved by the living powers of nature struggling against

death and the physician, he receives all the credit of a miraculous

cure; he is lauded to the skies for delivering the sick from the details

of the most deadly symptoms of misery into which he himself had plunged

them, and out of which they never would have arisen, but by the

restorative efforts of that living power which at once triumphed over

poison, blood-letting, disease, and death."

In the treatment of disease, and when fever is manifested by the signs

just enumerated, the object is, to invite the blood to the external

surface; or, in other words, equalize the circulation by warmth and

moisture; give diaphoretic or sudorific medicines, (see

APPENDIX,) with a view of relaxing the capillary structure,

ridding the system of morbific materials, and allaying the general

excitement. If the ears and legs are cold, rub them diligently with a

brush; if they again relapse into a cold state, rub them with

stimulating liniment, and bandage them with flannel. In short, to

contract, to stimulate, remove obstructions, and furnish the system with

the materials for self-defence, are the means to be resorted to in the

cure of fevers.

We shall now give a few examples of the treatment of fever; from which

the reader will form some idea of the course to be pursued in other

forms not enumerated. But we may be asked why we make so many divisions

of fever when it is evidently a unit. We answer the question, in the

words of Professor Curtis, whose teachings first emancipated us from the

absurdity of allopathic theories. "These divisions were made by the

learned in physic, and we follow them out in their efforts to divide

what is in its nature indivisible, to satisfy the demands of the public,

and to give it in small crumbs to those practitioners of the art who

have not capacity enough to take in the whole at a single mouthful."

In the treatment of fevers, we must endeavor to remove all intruding

agents, their influences and effects, and reestablish a full, free, and

universal equilibrium throughout the system. "The means are," says

Professor Curtis, "antispasmodics, stimulants, and tonics, with

emollients to grease the wheels of life. Disprove these positions, and

we lay by the pen and 'throw physic to the dogs.' Adhere strictly to

them in the use of the best means, and you will do all that can be done

in the hour of need."