It is ascertained that the _Sweating Fever was in general very inflammatory_; and, leaving out of the account its sequel, _came to a crisis at most in four and twenty hours_; yet, within this narrow limit as to time, very various symptoms occurred[679], so that by a more exact observation than could be expected from the physicians of those days, several gradations of its development and violence might have been distinguished from each other. Thus one form of this disease appeared that was wanting in precisely that symptom which was the most essential, namely, the colliquative sweating[680], (as in the most dangerous form of cholera, neither vomiting nor purging takes place,) and which, by its overpowering attack, either destroyed life within a few hours, or perhaps took some other turn of a nature unknown to us. Premonitory symptoms were wanting altogether, unless we may reckon as such, first, an anguish, combined with palpitation of the heart, which may not have been of corporeal origin, but may have proceeded from the general alarm; or secondly, an irresistible sinking of the powers resembling a swoon, which, perhaps, preceded the disorder, in the same manner as it had preceded the general eruption of the plague in northern Germany[681]: or thirdly, rheumatic pains of various kinds, which were frequently felt in the summer of 1529[682]; or finally, a disagreeable taste in the mouth and foul breath, which were very commonly the subject of complaint at that time[683]. In most instances the disease set in like the generality of fevers, with a _short shivering fit_[684] and trembling, which in very malignant cases even passed into convulsions of the extremities[685]; in many it began with a moderate and constantly increasing heat[686] either without any evident occasion, even in the midst of sleep, so that the patients on waking lay in a state of perspiration, or from a state of intoxication, and during hard work[687], especially in the morning at sunrise[688]. Many patients experienced at the commencement a disagreeable _creeping sensation_ or _formication on their hands and feet_[689], which passed into pricking pains, and an exceedingly _painful sensation under the nails_. At times likewise it was combined with rheumatic cramps, and with such a weariness in the upper part of the body, that the sufferers were totally incapable of raising their arms[690]. Some were seen during these attacks, especially women and those who were weak, with their hands and feet swollen[691].