p. 13 | Fevers | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 26, 1903

Fevers

FEVERS are among the most common forms of disease. In general they are not dangerous, considering the great variety of causes by which the body becomes frequently loaded with morbid matter. A fever may be a desirable and useful remedial effort. It is a fire that burns out the impurities of the system, and ought to, as it generally does, leave it in a better state of health than before. Many persons long afflicted with chronic ailments become quite well after having an attack of some form of fever.

The causes of fever are classed as remote and direct. The remote causes are all forms of impurities which accumulate in the body from bad habits; generally from eating improper food, drinking impure water, or breathing air loaded with malaria or other poisons. The direct causes are severe colds or some form of nervous shock.

In a fever, the effort to depurate morbid matter out of the system is mainly through the skin, hence the determination of blood to reach the surface, and a rise of temperature. When the excessive heat of the surface is checked by frequent bathing in tepid water, the extremities kept warm, the head, lungs, and bowels kept at a natural temperature by the application of tepid or cool wet compresses, the sick chamber supplied with fresh air both day and night, and the bed linen frequently changed, death from fever is exceedingly rare, even if there is no other treatment.

We have found the unfermented juice of various fruits an excellent article of food in fever cases, when the food must necessarily be of a light character easily disposed of.—Selected.