Intermittent (Paroxysmal) Fevers
These fevers were otherwise known as malaria (mal-area or bad air). Swamp origins made sense, although no one understood that the anophelas
mosquito carried the malarial parasites. These parasites invaded the victim's red blood cells to bring on a shaking chill and then profuse sweating.
The intermittent symptoms were caused by the parasites developing in the red blood cells at intervals of as short as a week to as long as many
years before rupturing the cell wall and repeating the cyclic symptoms.
Quinine also called Peruvian Bark because of its South American cinchona bark derivation, was a clear and bitter liquid. It was one of the very few
medicines that was specific for a cure in those days. When a Northern port blockade interrupted the Southern quinine supply, turpentine was applied
externally as an alternative therapy for malarial symptoms. Confederate Surgeon General Moore found the turpentine treatment "amply sufficient to
interrupt the morbific chain of successive paroxysms one application only being required in the majority of cases." Other substitutes included a tonic
brewed from the bark of the dogwood, poplar, and willow trees dissolved in whiskey.