Note on “Salt fever.”

Abstract

About six years ago one of us 1 published a short account of the rise of temperature which follows the injection of sodium chloride into rabbits, either intravenously or subcutaneously. This fact seems to have been completely overlooked by subsequent investigators, of whom there are many (Bingel, Freund, Samelson, Hort and Penfold, McIntosh, Fildes and Dearborn, and others). Samelson 2 claims that the rise of temperature is due to bacterial toxins contained in the distilled water, and not to the sodium chloride. The observations were made on nursing children. Freund, 3 on the other hand, maintains that the sodium chloride is the cause of the rise of temperature, at the same time admitting the fact that contaminated water may also cause fever.

As we wished to make use of this fact in another connection, it became necessary for us to be sure that the rise of temperature was due to the injection of the salt, and to that end we have repeated the earlier work. Sterile sodium chloride was put in a flask that had been throughly sterilized, and the water, redistilled in glass, was received directly into the flask from the condenser. The mouth of the flask was closed with sterile cotton, and the solution (m/6 concentration) was used as soon as it had cooled down to the proper temperature. There can be no doubt, therefore, of the purity of the solution as far as bacterial contamination is concerned. Antiseptic precautions were observed in making the injections.

The results confirmed our earlier work. The temperature rose steadily after injection, the height being roughly proportional to the dose given. The maximum was attained in from three to five hours, after which the temperature gradually returned to normal.