Medicine: Fever Every Wednesday?

If a man complains of a headache every Monday morning, it may just be hangover. If he gets fever or a bellyache every Wednesday, or at some other regular interval, he may be suffering from "periodic disease," an ailment which has doctors thoroughly baffled.

Professor Hobart A. Reimann of Philadelphia's Jefferson Medical College coined the name to cover a group of mysterious ailments which have been cropping up in medical records for almost 150 years. .Victims may get fever (up to 104°), abdominal pains, swollen joints, purple spots and patches, swelling or hives. More men than women are afflicted.

In the hundreds of...

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