I remember reading about this years ago and wondering, if it was the heat that killed the syphilis, why they couldn’t just use total immersion in hot baths to raise core temperature (more) safely and in a more controlled manner.
It sounds like it was tried, any idea why it didn’t work?
Just guessing, but I wonder if this has something to do with the physics of heating something from the inside vs the outside—perhaps to get to a high enough deep internal temperature in a heat bath either takes too long or requires such a high temperature as to hurt the skin and outer body.
It’s not safe to do at those temperatures, or not feasible over the necessary periods of time. (Fever round the clock, versus a long bath.* Difference in time. (A more elaborate hypothesis including biological rhythms might make sense as well.))
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If the body heats up in order to fight something, and that’s the body doing something, then maybe it’s being handled by systems for that purpose.
The different diseases have effects on each other. It’s weird to think about, but, in an abstract way, fighting off another infection is a good move if it improves what you’re trying to do—improve host survival, not wipe out populations (so you can spread, etc.)
They were also trying stuff like arsenic. For comparison maybe ‘arsenic’ does not ‘try to keep you alive’.
*(A bath for a lot of people might be hard to pull off—especially if this is treatment at a central facility. Control over temperature or widespread stuff or that might not be present, safe or cheap.) Also, you can try to keep people hot via insulation. I’m not sure whether adding water/humidity has effects other than making heating (someone up) easier.
I remember reading about this years ago and wondering, if it was the heat that killed the syphilis, why they couldn’t just use total immersion in hot baths to raise core temperature (more) safely and in a more controlled manner.
It sounds like it was tried, any idea why it didn’t work?
Just guessing, but I wonder if this has something to do with the physics of heating something from the inside vs the outside—perhaps to get to a high enough deep internal temperature in a heat bath either takes too long or requires such a high temperature as to hurt the skin and outer body.
Maybe:
Maybe they didn’t try that (hot baths*).
Out in versus inside out
It’s not safe to do at those temperatures, or not feasible over the necessary periods of time. (Fever round the clock, versus a long bath.* Difference in time. (A more elaborate hypothesis including biological rhythms might make sense as well.))
-----
If the body heats up in order to fight something, and that’s the body doing something, then maybe it’s being handled by systems for that purpose.
The different diseases have effects on each other. It’s weird to think about, but, in an abstract way, fighting off another infection is a good move if it improves what you’re trying to do—improve host survival, not wipe out populations (so you can spread, etc.)
They were also trying stuff like arsenic. For comparison maybe ‘arsenic’ does not ‘try to keep you alive’.
*(A bath for a lot of people might be hard to pull off—especially if this is treatment at a central facility. Control over temperature or widespread stuff or that might not be present, safe or cheap.) Also, you can try to keep people hot via insulation. I’m not sure whether adding water/humidity has effects other than making heating (someone up) easier.