Impingements excite, create greater nerve tension. Nerve injuries produce excessive heat, consequently, pathological conditions. In neuralgia there is no fever, no constitutional disturbance. In neuritis the tension and pain is in the whole length of the nerve, while in rheumatism and many other diseases the stretch, the tension, is confined to a very short portion of a nerve. A disease is said to be acute when it is severe, of short duration, attended with danger, of rapid progress and its termination for better or worse is quickly reached.
Chronic diseases progress slowly and are of long duration.
Acute diseases should not become chronic and will not if the displaced portion of the neuroskeleton is properly adjusted. Brain fever is diffused heat from an inflamed cerebrum or cerebellum or their membranes. Pneumonia, pneumonitis, is an inflammation of the lungs, when its diffused heat is spoken of it is referred to as lung fever. Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, a serous membrane which covers the walls and viscera of the thoracic cavity. The exudation which collects upon its surface or in its cavity is the thickened viscid liquid serous secretion of the pleura.