PART 24
XXIV. Some fevers are continuous, some have an
access during the day and an intermission during
the night, or an access during the night and an
intermission during the day ; there are semitertians,
[p. 183]
tertians, quartans, quintans, septans, nonans. The
most acute diseases, the most severe, difficult and
fatal, belong to the continuous fevers. The least
fatal and least difficult of all, but the longest of all,
is the quartan. Not only is it such in itself, but it
also ends other, and serious, diseases. In the fever
called semitertian, which is more fatal than any
other, there occur also acute diseases, while it
especially precedes the illness of consumptives, and
of those who suffer from other and longer diseases.
The nocturnal is not very fatal, but it is long. The
diurnal is longer still, and to some it also brings
a tendency to consumption. The septan is long but
not fatal. The nonan is longer still but not fatal.
The exact tertian has a speedy crisis and is not
fatal. But the quintan is the worst of all. For if it
comes on before consumption or during consumption
the patient dies.