Fever: A Clinical Study

Fever: a Clinical Study. By T. J. Maclagan, M.D. London: J. & A. Churchill. 1888. Dr. Maclagan has above all things the pen of a ready writer, and this book forms no exception in respect of quality to his previous publications. It is so pleasant to peruse a book whose grammar is irreproachable, and style attractive. In the space of something over 160 pages, Dr. Maclagan enunciates his theories and views upon fever, its causes, phenomena, and treatment; gliding with easy confidence over the choppy seas?so to speak?caused by the conflicting currents of knowledge, half-knowledge, and ignorance. He gives with moderate fulness the views of others on fever, such as Virchow, H. C. Wood, Miller Ord, Hale White, and, still more recently, Macalister; in order, however, to dissent from them, more or less. He quotes with approbation only Jenner, writing more than thirty years ago. Without attempting to give Dr. Maclagan's own views on fever, an epitomised idea of his position may be gathered from these brief quotations :? " There is really no valid reason for supposing that during fever the mutual relation of heat-production and heat-