Cacoethes

The Speculator responded to the letter with a blend of commiseration and alarm: "this young gentleman's situation is truly pitiable. The cacoethes scribendi is certainly one of the most troublesome diseases of the mind; and when it thus totally possesses a man, I scarce know any madness equal to it" (51:20). The cacoethes scribendi, which as An Impartial and Candid Disquisition into the Case of Sporus, by A Lover of Truth and Impartiality (1755) explained, "is a hard Word for a Disease called in plain English, the Itch of Writing," was a staple of literary satire (24).

[…] So swallow pride / And pay the fare, / To climb aboard / As had before / For yet another ride, / On wings of cacoethes, […]

Chap. 14. Of Ulcers hard to be cured, commonly called Cacoethe, Telephium, and Chironium. […] Galen in his firſt Book of the Compoſition of Medicaments according to their kinds, Chap. 18. diſtinguiſheth between theſe Dyſepulote Ulcers, that is to ſay, ſuch as are hardly brought to a Cicatrice, and the Ulcers Cacoethe, or Malignant: and he calleth ſuch of them Dyſepulote, that ariſe from the conflux of either many or ſharp humors; […]

As all Ulcers complicated with great Diseases are of difficult Cure, and therefore called Cacoethe: so these Ulcers labouring under Intemperies though they be well handled, are hard of Cure, and may be truly reckoned among the Cacoethe, malign and rebellious Ulcers.

If the tumour be compressed in some, the parts in immediate contact become tense and swollen. For this reason it is the worst kind of disease. It generally commences by what the Greeks call Cacoethes, or malignant tumour, then proceeds to Carcinoma, or scirrhus, without ulceration: afterwards to ulcer: then to a thymium. None of these can be removed except the Cacoethes: the rest are aggravated by every method of treatment; and the more energetic the remedies, the more irritable they become. […] [N]o one can distinguish a cacoethes, which is curable, from a carcinoma, which is incurable, except by time and experiment.