Daily AncestorIntermittent fever
Intermittent fever was a fever that came and went in regular cycles, normal in between; in older records it nearly always meant malaria.
Intermittent fever describes a fever that rises for some hours and then drops back to normal before returning, often every day or every other day.
Nineteenth-century writers used the term almost as a synonym for ague, and the usual cause was malaria. Daily, every-other-day and every-third-day types were called quotidian, tertian and quartan.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Alfred Pugh, 38, M, W, Married, Ark., October, Intermittent fever, 30 days
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Daily Ancestor. "Intermittent fever." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/intermittent-fever. Last checked 2026-10-01.