cacoethes

Compulsion; mania.

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, […]

A bad quality or disposition in a disease; a malignant tumour or ulcer.

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.