It was generally agreed that in respect of other ailments no season had ever been so healthy. Previous diseases all turned off into the plague; and the rest of the people were attacked without exciting cause, and without warning, in perfect health. It began with violent sensations of heat in the head, and redness and burning in the eyes; internally, the throat and tongue were blood-red from the start, emitting an abnormal and malodorous breath. These symptoms developed into sneezing and hoarseness, and before long the trouble descended into the chest, attended by violent coughing. Whenever it settled in the heart, it upset that organ, and evacuations of bile ensued, of every kind for which the doctors have a name; these also together with great distress. Most patients suffered an attack of empty retching, inducing violent convulsions, in some cases soon after the abatement of the previous symptoms, in others much later. The body was neither unduly hot externally to the touch, nor yellowish in color, but flushed and livid, with an efflorescence of small blisters and sores. Internally, the heat was so intense that the victims could not endure the laying-on of even the lightest wraps and linens; indeed nothing would suffice but they must go naked, and a plunge into cold water would give the greatest relief. Many who were left unattended actually did this, jumping into wells, so unquenchable was the thirst which possessed them; but it was all the same, whether they drank much or little. The victims were attacked throughout by inability to rest and by sleeplessness. Throughout the height of the disease the body would not waste away but would hold out against the distress beyond all expectation. The majority succumbed to the internal heat before their strength was entirely exhausted, on the seventh or ninth day. Or else, if they survived, the plague would descend to the bowels, where severe lesions would form, together with an attack of uniformly fluid diarrhea which in most cases ended in death through exhaustion. Thus the malady that first settled in the head passed through the whole body, starting at the top. And if the patient recovered from the worst effects, symptoms appeared in the form of a seizure of the extremities: the private parts and the tips of the fingers and toes were attacked, and many survived with the loss of these, others with the loss of their eyes. Some rose from their beds with a total and immediate loss of memory, unable to recall their own names or to recognize their next of kin.