Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/136

 126 F E Y F E Z The decline of the fever takes place either by the occur rence of a crisis or sudden termination of the symptoms, often accompanied with some discharge from the body, such as profuse perspiration, copious flow of thick urine, and occasionally diarrhoea, or by a more gradual subsidence of the febrile phenomena, or, as it is technically termed, a lysis. On the other hand, death may result either from hyperpyrexia or from gradual exhaustion, the patient often passing into the typhoid state (a condition of extreme pros tration of the physical powers, with which are associated low delirium and coma, and which is an occasional mode of death in all acute diseases); or the fatal event may occur suddenly from syncope after slight exertion, in which case it is believed to be due to a softened state of the substance of the heart, one of the known accompaniments of fever. Certain well-marked types of fever are recognized, these being determined by the clinical history and peculiar char acter and sequence of the symptoms. The term continued fever is applied to those forms in which the febrile temperature persists for a more or less definite period, uninterrupted by any distinct intermission till the crisis is reached. To this type belong simple con tinued fever or febricula, typhus and typhoid fevers, and the eruptive fevers or exanthemata, viz., small-pox, measles, and scarlet fever, fielapsing fever is a form of continued fever, the chief characteristic of which is the occurrence in about a week after the crisis of a distinct relapse and repetition of all the symptoms. Occasionally second and third relapses take place. The term remittent is applied to those forms of fever the course of which is interrupted by a short usually daily diminution of the febrile phenomena, followed by a recur rence of all the symptoms. Such fevers are chiefly met with in tropical climates, but occasionally continued fevers assume this form, particularly in children. The condition known as hectic fever, which occurs in the course of wast ing diseases, is markedly remittent in its course. In intermittent fever or ague there is a distinct periodic subsidence of the symptoms, which, according to its dura tion, characterizes the variety as quotidian (where the paroxysm recurs in 24 hours), tertian (in 48 hours), quartan (in 72 hours). Intermittent fevers are most common in the tropics, and are believed to be due to malarial poisoning. The term malignant is employed to describe forms of fever in which the blood appears to undergo rapid de teriorating changes, sometimes designated blood-poisoning. Yellow fever may be said to belong to this category and the continued fevers, more especially typhus and the exanthemata, occasionally assume a malignant form from the beginning. The chief forms of fever will be found described in detail under separate headings. &quot;With respect to the treatment of the febrile condition iu general, it may be remarked that modern therapeutics have furnished several methods of great importance and efficacy. It will be sufficient to refer to two of these, namely, the external application of cold, and the adminis tration of antipyretic remedies or febrifuges. The former of these methods is accomplished by means of baths in which the fever patient is placed, the water being some what below the febrile temperature, and gradually cooled down by the addition of cold water till a temperature of from G0-70 is reached. This process, when continued for only a short time and frequently repeated, has been found to yield most valuable results in many instances of high temperature, both in continued fever and in such febrile ailments as acute rheumatism. The relief to the patient is remarkable, the body rapidly parting with its heat, and the effect usually continues for hours. The explanation suggested by Professor Binz is that &quot; in fever the vessels of the skin are generally much contracted. The cool water acts as a strong stimulant on them, and causes a somewhat stronger contraction to take place, but this is only of short duration. Relaxation for a longer time is the necessary consequence. The hitherto bloodless and dry skin becomes filled and moist, and thus the irradiation of warmth goes on. The cooler the bath the longer it lasts.&quot; Certain drugs possess the power of reducing the heat of fever, and are now largely employed for this purpose. The most important of these is quinine, which, when administered in large doses (gr. x.-xxx.), has a marked effect in lowering the febrile temperature, and, if repeated, of keeping it down. It has been supposed that this effect of quinine is due to its action as an antiseptic upon the poison in the blood giving rise to the fever ; but there seems a greater degree of pro bability in the view that it acts as an antitriptic by retard ing those excessive tissue changes with which the develop ment of heat is undoubtedly connected. This opinion is strengthened by the fact that after the administration of quinine the amount of urea discharged from the body is greatly diminished. It is said that quinine acts best at those periods of the day when the febrile temperature is in clined to undergo slight remission. Many other substances are used for their antipyretic action, among which may be mentioned digitalis, aconite, salicin, salicilic acid, Arc. Alcohol is strongly recommended by some physicians for this purpose, but while its effect in large doses is no doubt to lower the temperature, its extensive employment in fever is objectionable on many important grounds. (j. o. A.) FEYDEAU, ERNEST-AIME (1821-1873), a French author, was born in Paris, March 16, 1821. He began his literary career in 1844, by the publication of a volume of poetry of that mediocre quality which in poetry is fatal. Either the partial failure of this literary effort, or his marriage soon afterwards to a daughter of the economist Blanqui, caused him to forsake for a time the vocation of letters, and to devote his ambition to exchange transactions ; but the study of archaeology gradually supplanted his in terest in speculation, and he was finally confirmed in his original choice of a literary profession by the remarkable success which attended the publication, in 1858, of his novel Fanny, a success due chiefly to the cleverness with which it depicted and excused the corrupt manners of a certain portion of French society. Fanny was followed in mpid succession by a series of fictions, in which immorality was gilded with the same alluring glitter, but, wanting the attraction of novelty, they failed to produce such a marked impression as their predecessor; and as their interest depended little on the portrayal of any but the lower traits of character, and chiefly on the description of intrigues, they were read and admired only within a limited circle. Besides his novels Feydeau wrote several plays, none of which, however, attained much popularity; and he is also the author of Ilistoire gencrale des usages funebres et sepultures des peuples anciens, 3 vols., 1857-61 ; Le Secret du JBonheur (sketches of Algerian life), 2 vols., 1864, English translation, 2 vols., 1867; and L Allemagne en 1871, Paris, 1872, a clever caricature of German life and manners, but characterized in many places by a somewhat llase tone, and disfigured here and there by bitterness of feeling. He died at Paris, October 28, 1873. See Saintc-Beure, Causeries du Lundi, vol. xiv. and Barbey d Aurevilly, Lcs ceuvres et Ics homines au XIX siecle. FEZ, one of the chief cities in the empire of Morocco, into which kingdom it was incorporated in the year 1548. It is situated in 34 6 3&quot; N. lat. and 4 58 15&quot; W. long., being about 197 miles N.E. of Morocco, 100 miles E. from the Atlantic, and 85 miles S. of the Mediterranean. The city is beautifully situated on the slopes of a pear- shaped valley, through which flows the Wad-el-Jubar (or