The Influence of Artificial Fever on Mechanisms of Resistance

Interest in the therapeutic use of the febrile state was aroused when Wagner von Jauregg (1) reported the improvement in cases of tabes dorsalis and general paresis following artificial infection with malaria, and suggested that the elevation of temperature was responsible for the favorable influence. This observation started a trend of clinical investigation and trial which has led to the widespread acceptance of artificial fever in the treatment of several diseases. The increasing use of this new type of physical therapy has turned attention to the influence of hyperpyrexia on several physiologic and immunologic processes. Physiologic responses to fever have been clearly described, and are covered by the papers of Heymans and Heymans (2), and a review by Bazett (3), and by the later papers of Bischoff, Ullman, Hill, and Long (4), Kissen and Bierman (5), Neymann and Osborne (6), Krusen (7), and Coulter (8).