A Treatise on the Eclectic Southern Practice of Medicine Page: 85 of 724

INTERMITTENT FEVER.

with rheumatism. It will sometimes alternate with
rheumatism, sometimes one will have precedence, then
the other.
Local A lammation.-Ague is frequently attended by
inflammation, frequently inflammatory affections of the
chest, but in this climate it is confined in a large majo-
rity of cases to the abdominal viscera.
,Congestion and Effusion.-A very distinguished author,
who has made frequent autopsical examinations, says,
after death, during intermittent fever, we often find con-
gestion and effusion in the head, chest or abdomen. The
mucous surface of the alimentary canal is likewise in a
state of great congestion, and the liver contains a large
quantity of bile. When this disease proves fatal, it fre-
quently does so by great internal congestion; whence
there is fullness of all the blood vessels of the head,
chest, stomach and intestines, and a large quantity of
bile on the liver. When the disease has continued for
a considerable time we have various organic affections,
such as dropsy and other diseases which I shall men-
tion hereafter. But when a patient dies in a paroxysm,
or dies after the disease has existed only for a short
time, we find decided marks of internal congestion.
Enlargement of the Spleen.-" The chronic form of the
disease is very frequently attended by other affections,
and frequently after ague has ceased other diseases
make their appearance. It is very common, for example,
when ague has continued any time, for the spleen to
become enlarged. So common is this in some places,
that the tumor is called by persons "ague-cake." The
tumor thus formed by the spleen, occupies the left hypo-
chondrium, or, frequently, I may say, the whole left
half of the abdomen. Spleens are reported whose weight
exceeded twelve pounds. Enlargements of the spleen

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