JWARA (fever)- a medico historical perspective

"JWARA" is important and critical among all the diseases, because it affects each and every living being. Hence, it has been given first place in the classical texts of Ayurveda. Atharvaveda (AV) has also referred Jwara with the name Takman (son of God Varuna) and drugs like Kustha, Jangida and Anjana have been prescribed for its management. References with regard to Jwara are also found in other non-medical literature Viz., Mahābhārata, Purānas etc. Acārya Suśruta has mentioned that, man comes to this world with Jwara and departs with it. Jwara affects the whole body, the organs of senses and also the mind. According to mythology, Jwara was originated from the hot and destructive breath of Lord Siva, which was produced from his nostrils during the paroxysms of grief and rage on the death of his wife, Durga. It attacks all persons of all ages and in all conditions. Jwara is the king of all diseases, destroyer of all creatures and severe hence a physician should be practically cautious in treating it. All these medico-historical aspects of Jwara have been presented in this article.

Treatment of fevers in Camatkāra Cintāmaņi

Utility of the various formulae of Camatkāra Cintāmaņi can not be minimised due to limited and easily available ingredients. Because the efficacy of the formulae in curing the various diseases has proved them very useful. Treatment of fevers cover near about 93 verses in Camatkāra Cintāmaņi. Therefore an attempt has been made to check the potency and usefulness of the formulae in treatment of fevers.

Inflammation of the mind. On the 300th anniversary of Gerard van Swieten

History teaches that the ancient phrenitis concept has been used until the 19th century. After that time the concept was replaced by the word delirium. By their epigonic character the detailed descriptions of phrenitis by Van Swieten mark only the end of an uncritical use of the term. The epoch-making work of Morgagni, based on clinical-anatomical observations, provides a definitive insight into the location of the condition and into many pathologic features. Pinel is the last author who mentions phrenitis in a classification of diseases. After that time phrenitis became a vanished disease.

Brief history of antipyretic therapy

Both external cooling and pharmacotherapy have been used to treat fever since time immemorial. In the past century such treatments have proliferated at an astonishing rate. The COX-2 inhibitors are the most recent additions to the antipyretic pharmacopoeia. Additional research is needed to determine whether they represent an important new chapter in antipyretic therapy's long history or, for that matter, if the benefits of any currently available treatment for fever outweigh its cost.

Fever hospitals in counties Armagh and Down: 1817-39

This paper outlines the provision for fever patients, (other than those suffering from cholera during the epidemic of 1832-34), in counties Armagh and Down in the two decades prior to the introduction of the Poor Law to Ireland. Possible causes of fever and the numbers of patients treated are discussed. The establishment and location of fever hospitals and the state of the premises are considered and an assessment of the contribution of these institutions to the development of medical provision in the early nineteenth century is also provided.

Tobias Smollett consults a French physician in 1763

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Concepts of fever

If asked to define fever, most physicians would offer a thermal definition, such as "fever is a temperature greater than...." In offering their definition, many would ignore the importance of the anatomic site at which temperature measurements are taken, as well as the diurnal oscillations that characterize body temperature. If queried about the history of clinical thermometry, few physicians could identify the source or explain the pertinacity of the belief that 98.6 degrees F (37.0 degrees C) has special meaning vis-à-vis normal body temperature. Fewer still could cite the origin of the thermometer or trace the evolution of modern concepts of clinical thermometry. Although many would have some knowledge of the fundamentals of thermoregulation and the role played by exogenous and endogenous pyrogens in the induction of fever, few would have more than a superficial knowledge of the broad biological activities of pyrogenic cytokines or know of the existence of an equally complex and important system of endogenous cryogens. A distinct minority would appreciate the obvious paradoxes inherent in an enlarging body of data concerned with the question of fever's adaptive value. The present review considers many of these issues in the light of current data.

The treatment of febrile neutropenia: from the Dark Ages to the present

Developments in the treatment of infection in neutropenic patients are traced from the 1950s up to the present. In addition to the various antibiotics applied at different times, the varying predominance of different groups of pathogens is discussed. Finally, future prospects are considered.

Edward Stone (1702-1768) and Edmund Stone (1700-1768): confused identities resolved

On the 25 April 1763 a letter was sent from Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire to the Right Honourable George Parker, Earl of Macclesfield, then President of the Royal Society, extolling the use of willow bark in curing agues and other feverish complaints. The writer describes how about a pound of bark taken from a common white willow ( Salix alba ) was dried in a bag over a baker's oven for more than three months, pulverized and then used to alleviate the agues, ‘intermitting disorders’ and distempers of 50 afflicted people. The undoubted medicinal properties of bark from willow and other Salix species were not new. They were known to a number of preindustrial cultures and also, in a more systematic way, to the medical philosophers of classical Greece and Rome. However, by the eighteenth century in Western Europe, they were in disuse or had been relegated to the level of folk medicine.

The letter, duly printed in Philosophical Transactions , is often credited with having brought the anti–inflammatory, antipyretic and analgesic properties of these barks, to the attention of the emerging chemists of the late eighteenth century. Attempts to identify the active principles, and then to synthesize them, led to the discovery of salicylic acid and its derivatives, and eventually to the introduction of acetyl salicylic acid––aspirin––possibly the most widely used of all synthetic drugs. This history is periodically reviewed both for general and specialist audiences; the seminal letter is referred to whenever there is a new monograph on these anti–inflammatory drugs, and is the subject of frequent queries to the Royal Society's library. It would seem, therefore, to be useful to remove a confusion surrounding the name of its author, who has been variously referred to as either Edward or Edmund Stone.

Role of fever in infection: has induced fever any therapeutic potential in HIV infection?

Ancient societies had no rational understanding of fever. The Greeks were the first to recognise that it may be part of nature's method of effecting cure in some diseases. How best to assist nature went through many trials and errors. Appreciation of the prognostic value of fever and how it may be controlled was slow to appear. That there was a place in the therapeutic arsenal for induced fever came only with the 20th century. Finding a suitable, safe, and satisfactory means came slowly. The curative power of well controlled and reproducible levels of fever was proved by the arrest of one deadly and incurable complication of a sexually transmitted disease in the first half of this century. The purpose of this review is to promote discussion and, hopefully, well ordered laboratory and clinical trials aimed at learning whether or not induced fevers have a place in the care of patients with HIV/AIDS.