The terminology is romanticized in Victorian literature, where it typically describes a potentially life-threatening illness brought about by a severe emotional upset, and much less often fatal than in medicine.
Later scholars distinguished between a fever that affected parts of the brain or the whole, but William Cullen denied the existence of such a differentiation on the basis of "observation and dissection".
[3] Symptoms described in the literature included headache, red eyes and face, impatience and irritability, a quickened pulse, moaning and screaming, convulsions followed by relaxation, and delirium.
"[14] The Indian Gentleman, Mr Carrisford, in Francis Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, and Captain Crewe, Sarah's father, both experience brain fever when they think their investments in the diamond mines have become worthless.
[15] Rena, the main character of House Behind the Cedars (Charles W Chesnutt, published 1900) is afflicted with brain fever in her final moments, with symptoms including delirium and hallucinations.