This section is from "The American Cyclopaedia", by George Ripley And Charles A. Dana. Also available from Amazon: The New American Cyclopędia. 16 volumes complete..
Ague, a word denoting tremor, which has been used by medical writers in the sense of chill or rigor. Fever and ague is a popular name for intermittent fever. (See Fevers.) Cases of intermittent fever, lacking the usual chill or cold stage, and in other respects latent, are sometimes distinguished as cases of "dumb ague." The name "ague cake1' is applied to enlargement of the spleen occurring not very infrequently in the course of intermittent fever.
 
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