Читать книгу Old Age Deferred. The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures онлайн

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Fever can be produced with similar symptoms by toxic products of different origin, as from small elements of the vegetable kingdom like bacteria, certain plants, and even fruits, as is shown by the urticaria which follows in some persons after eating strawberries. Certain minute elements of the animal kingdom have a similar power, such as protozoa like trypanosomes, and we may also instance certain kinds of animal food like oysters in certain persons, the poison of snakes, and certain insects like tarantulas and scorpions; also certain minerals like arsenic and phosphorus can produce fever. Besides these poisons coming from without, fever with similar symptoms can also be produced by poisons formed within our body by the hyperactivity of a gland—the thyroid. When so many different poisons produce the same result it lies near to suppose that they do this by means of the same agency, which, according to the aforesaid observations, is very probably a thyroid hyperactivity. The modus operandi of all these agents is well studied in Sajous’s work, to which the reader is referred.