1. Inflammation of the brain or of its membranes, attended with delirium and fever; brain fever.
2. In Hippocrates’ classification, acute mental disease with fever. The other classes were mania (acute mental disease without fever); melancholia (chronic mental disturbances of various kinds, not limited to mood disorders); epilepsy (approximately the same as in current use); hysteria (somatoform disturbances, especially paroxysmic dyspnea, pain, and convulsions); and Scythian disease (transvestitism).