The observation that some patients with general paralysis improve after an intercurrent febrile attack is almost as old as the knowledge of the disease. In a paper dealing with this fact Wagner von Jauregg, as early as 1887, advocated the treatment of general paralysis with malaria. In 1909 he used tuberculin combined with mercury as a means of inducing fever in the treatment of general paralysis. A few general paralytic patients treated by this method were still in remission in 1921. Following his experiments with tuberculin, he used typhus vaccine as a fever producing agent with fairly good results. In 1917 he inoculated nine general paralytic patients with benign tertian malaria. Of this group three were reported still in remission in 1922.1
Since Wagner von Jauregg's pioneer experiments, many methods of inducing fever in the treatment of general paralysis have been tried: E. Meyer2 rubbed Autenrieth's ointment on