concept
Delirium Tremens
delirium tremens
also: белая горячка, white fever
Alcoholic delirium tremens, called "white fever" in Russian folk usage -- the affliction the narrator hopes (repeatedly, and repeatedly in vain) will prove fatal to his employer.
Reading notes
- From the Diary of an Assistant Bookkeeper §1 delirium tremens
The diarist's malapropism for his old employer's ailment -- "белая горячка," literally "white fever," the Russian folk term for alcoholic delirium tremens -- comically overstated as a death sentence he hopes will finally vacate the bookkeeper's post.
- A Fairground "Total" §39 delirium tremens
Alcoholic delirium tremens, glossed by the feldsher himself in the text as "white fever [Latin]" -- Chekhov, a practicing physician, has the barely-literate feldsher's note reach for pseudo-medical Latin to sound more official.