|
|
Article: Fever: a burning issue.
- Article from:
- Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- February 1, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Fever A Burning Issue
Everybody's had it - that hot, burning feeling that can go along with a headache and body aches, followed the next minute by a chill. Altogether, you feel just plain miserable.
If you were living in the second century, or maybe even as late as the 1700s, you would say your body humors were out of balance and the fire in your heart was trying to burn up and offending humor. Today you would just complain, "I think I've got a fever."
The fire that early physicians imagined to be in the heart of every human being was no poetic expression. They took it literally - visualizing an actual fire in the organ that pumps blood throughout ...