even below the normal; the pulse moderate and full; the spleen again of
its ordinary size; the urine that is passed after the paroxysm deposits
a thick brick-red sediment of urates. The three stages together will
probably have lasted six to twelve hours. The paroxysm is followed by a
definite interval in which there is not only no fever, but even a fair
degree of bodily comfort and fitness; this is the intermission of the
fever. Another paroxysm begins at or near the same hour next day
(quotidian ague), which results from a double tertian infection, or the
interval may be forty-eight hours (tertian ague), or seventy-two hours
(quartan ague). It is the general rule, with frequent exceptions, that
the quotidian paroxysm comes on in the morning, the tertian about noon,
and the quartan in the afternoon. Another rule is that the quartan has
the longest cold stage, while its paroxysm is shortest as a whole; the
quotidian has the shortest cold stage and a long hot stage, while its
paroxysm is longest as a whole. The point common to the various forms of
ague is that the paroxysm ceases about midnight or early morning.
Quotidian intermittent is on the whole more common than tertian in hot
countries; elsewhere the tertian is the usual type, and quartan is only
occasional.
If the first paroxysm should not cease within the twenty-four hours, the
fever is not reckoned as an intermittent, but as a remittent.
_Remittent_ is a not unusual form of the malarial process in tropical
and subtropical countries, and in some localities or in some seasons
it is more common than intermittent. It may be said to arise out of
that type of intermittent in which the cold stage is shortened while
the hot stage tends to be prolonged. A certain abatement or remission
of the fever takes place, with or without sweating, but there is no
true intermission or interval of absolute apyrexia. The periodicity
shows itself in the form of an exacerbation of the still continuing
fever, and that exacerbation may take place twenty-four hours after
the first onset, or the interval may be only half that period, or it
may be double. A fever that is to be remittent will usually declare
itself from the outset: it begins with chills, but without the
shivering and shaking fit of the intermittent; the hot stage soon
follows, presenting the same characters as the prolonged hot stage of
the quotidian, with the frequent addition of bilious symptoms, and it
may be even of jaundice and of tenderness over the stomach and liver.
Towards morning the fever abates; the pulse falls in frequency, but
does not come down to the normal; headache and aching in the loins and
limbs become less, but do not cease altogether; the body temperature
falls, but does not touch the level of apyrexia. The remission or
abatement lasts generally throughout the morning; and about noon there
is an exacerbation, seldom ushered in by chills, which continues till
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