STUDIES WITH ARTIFICIAL FEVER IN EXPERIMENTAL TUBERCULOSIS1

During the past three years studies of the effects of artificial fever on the cellular equilibria in experimental animals have been conducted in the laboratories of the Department of Medical and Surgical Research, Ohio State University, with a high frequency, short wave radio-therm constructed and serviced by Professors Dreese and Byrne of the Department of Electrical Engineering. That artificially induced fever effects beneficially certain diseased states in man has been rather clearly and definitely demonstrated in recent years. The present task of those interested in this approach toward a better mobilization of the immune forces of the body is to reveal the mechanism or mechanisms by which this desired end is accomplished and to differentiate those conditions in which such therapy may be contraindicated. There are three avenues by which fever might prove bene-ficial in combatting infectious disease: (1) by the actual destruction or attenuation of the infecting agent, the thermal death point for the pathogenic bacteria being lower than that for the host cells; (2) by enhancing the development of humoral antibodies; or (3) by stimulating a more effective mobilization of the phagocytic cells of the blood and tissues; or, of course, any combination of these three effects may be hypothesized. Among those infections mentioned as possibly susceptible to the beneficial results of hyperpyrexia has been tuberculosis. Duncan and Mariette (1) reported the attenuation in vitro of acid fast strains of organisms at human fever temperatures