Terms for “Fever”

The cuneiform medical texts contain many scientific terms for a patient's high body temperature, and there are also many therapeutic prescriptions that deal with curing this problem.^[67] When interpreting Mesopotamian sources, we have to be careful not to interpret their various terms for high body temperature as fever in the modern medical sense because they possessed neither a physi­ological understanding of the evolution of fever nor any tools for measuring the temperature of the body.^{[68] [69] [70] [71] The cuneiform medical sources refer to the patient's hot temperature with the following Akkadian lexemes: 1) ememu “to be hot” and ummu “heat”; 2) hamatu “to be inflamed” and himtu “inflamma­tion, burning”; 3) sarahu “to heat up” and sirhu or sirihtu “heat”; 4) setu “heat- radiance”.n The use of these medical terms differs according to context.}

The verbal and nominal form of the lexeme ememu/ummu is the most com­monly used term for a patient's high body temperature, and it refers generally to a symptom in the whole body or specific parts of the body.1³ Besides the general use of this term, more specific terms were constructed with this word: ummu dannu “strong heat”, sirihti ummi “flaring-up heat”, ummu hahhas or la hahhas “critical/not critical heat”,^{[72] [73] [74] [75] [76] ummu lazzu “never-ending-heat”, ummu kajjamanu “constant heat”, ummu mithar or la mithar “even/uneven heat”?5 It appears that all of these terms refer to empirical experiences of a change in temperature: strength (mild or strong), duration (permanent or tempo­rary) and intensity (even or uneven)?6 The verbal form of the term hamatu “to burn” occurs more frequently in symptom descriptions, referring mostly to skin and epigastrium. Although references to the nominal term himtu are rare, it is combined with the expression setu in two ways: seta hamit “he is inflamed with heat-radiance” and himit seti “inflammation of heat-radiance”?7 Similarly, sarahu is generally used in symptom descriptions (in reference to the belly or inner part or the head), whereas its nominal forms are rare.}

We can conclude that “fever” was analysed in respect of: 1) the concept of natural heat, burning, inflaming, warming and frost; 2) physical dysfunction, such as high body temperature, shivering, sweating and trembling; 3) specific medical terms for a feverish state like “strong-fever”, “flaring-up-fever” etc.