[L,. acutus, sharp.] An intermittent fever, consisting of hot and cold stages in succession, with an intermediate period. It comes on at fixed periods, one, two, three, or more days apart. It is now generally known as, malarial fever. Long supposed to be due to marsh miasma, it is now traced to a bacterial germ, and there is much reason to believe that the mosquito is the carrier of this germ, which it injects into man with its bite.