RF Annual Report - 1935 - The Rockefeller Foundation

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THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION
grant of 26,400 for work on the biological effects
of heat under the direction of Dr. Stafford
Warren
during the one-year period September 1,
1935, to August 31,1936. This project falls within
the field of the application of the tools of physics
to the solution of biological and medical problems.
Previous sums totaling 336,200 have been
appropriated to the School of Medicine and
Dentistry of the University of Rochester for
studies on the physiological effects of fever
temperatures.
The concept that temperatures in the fever
range can kill bacteria deleterious to the host
without damaging the host is one which has
long been in controversy but now has real hope
of clarification. Dr. Warren has been working
for a number of years on the effects of artificially
induced fever temperatures upon the bacterial
and animal agents of certain chronic infections
such as arthritis, gonorrhea, syphilis,
and leprosy. This fever treatment has now been
administered at Rochester to some 500 patients.
In many instances cultures were raised of the
infecting organism, and the death time at 41f °C.
for the particular strain of organism was determined
prior to the fever treatment. The patients
were then given a fever of 41f °C. for the
determined time. In thirteen out of sixteen cases
of gonococcus infection there was prompt and so
© 2003 The Rockefeller Foundation