Melon Fever

[lelliott19]

MELON FEVER - Archaic / obsolete medical term for a disease "peculiar to melon season" characterized by "a slow burning fever, accompanied by a shrinking of the veins and muscles, and other prostrating influences, which if not speedily checked, lapses into typhoid, and speedily carried off its victim." The term appears very rarely in medical texts until at least the late 1880's.

Weekly Chronicle & Sentinel. (Augusta, Ga.), August 19, 1863, page 4.

 

[Ethan S.]

Man, and I thought it was because someone liked melons too much (I'm guilty of that).

 

[ikesdad]

Listeria ?
When we were kids we were cautioned to not eat into the rind lest we get the chills, whatever that meant.

 

[rpkennedy]

I'd guess either a bacteria or possibly some kind of mold since, according to this article, it appears when the fruit is ripened under unusual amounts of rain although excessive rain could also lead to bacteria production.

Ryan