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The SAGA of Fever

APS History Section
Clark M. Blatteis
E.Atkins, C.A. Dinarello, A.S. Milton and P.A. Mackowiack

Although fever has been recognized as a sign of illness for thousands of years, the first mechanistic concept of fever originated more recently, with Hippocrates (“blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile”) who postulated that fever results from an excess of yellow bile.  His view predominated largely unchanged until the Middle Ages, when demons were added to the mix. It was not until the 19^th century that more rational explanations began to be proffered, particularly after Claude Bernard showed that body heat is generated by metabolic processes. But it was not until the 20^th century that it was appreciated that fever is a defensive response of hosts invaded by infectious microorganisms. After that, our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the febrile response grew exponentially. This progress was highlighted by several seminal discoveries along the way. This symposium is privileged to present four of the most notable contributors to those advances who will personally review their travails on the road to solving one of nature’s oldest and still incompletely resolved scientific enigmas.