E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Ac’me.
The crisis of a disease. Old medical writers used to divide the progress of a disease into four periods: the ar-che, or beginning; the anab’asis, or increase, the ac’me, or term of its utmost violence, and the pa-rac’-me, or decline. Figuratively, the highest point of anything
