AGUE

An intermittent fever, which comes on at certain intervals, leaving the person in the intermediate periods in apparent health. The febrile attacks are often remarkably regular, whence the division of ague i! into quotidians, which are daily attacks; tertians, which appear every third day, having an Intermi ion of forty eight hours; and quartans, the intermi ion of which is about every seventy-two hours. The period during which the fever continues is called the paroxysm or pyrexial period; and the intermi ion, the a pyrexial period. The febrile paroxysm consists of three stages, which follow each other in regular succe ion; namely, the cold, the hot, and the sweating stage: during the latter, the febrile symptoms abate and disappear. [s. 38]