FASTING
tion, toward the prompt removal of the soil in which the germ propagates and dies. Germicides merely succeed in destroying the microbe, a process that adds decomposing material to an already fertile and expectant medium. And it is reasonable to assume that a poison powerful enough to kill living organisms within the body is of strength sufficient to deal destruction to cell life itself, and this it also does.
Referring to a former statement concerning the administration of food while high temperature prevails, the question may here be asked:—Why put food into a feverish infant body? A roaring fire is not ordinarily subdued by adding fuel to the flame, and, until disease made its appearance, the patient was ingesting food, and, in all probability, was stricken with a full stomach. Fever, as a symptom, is caused by absorption into the circulation of the products of excess food rotting in the alimentary canal, and, when additional material for fermentation is forced into this mass, either from above or below, the results are a rise in temperature and more aggravated symptoms. The further question is suggested:—Why administer drugs at this time? These are either stimu-
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