APHORISMS
by Hippocrates
translated by Francis
Adams
APHORISMS
SECTION I
Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting;
experience
perilous,
and decision difficult. The physician must not only be
prepared
to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient,
the
attendants, and externals cooperate.
2. In disorders of the bowels and vomitings,
occurring
spontaneously,
if the matters purged be such as ought to be purged,
they
do good, and are well borne; but if not, the contrary. And so
artificial
evacuations, if they consist of such matters as should be
evacuated,
do good, and are well borne; but if not, the contrary. One,
then,
ought to look to the country, the season, the age, and the
diseases
in which they are proper or not.
3. In the athletae, embonpoint, if carried
to its utmost limit, is
dangerous,
for they cannot remain in the same state nor be stationary;
and
since, then, they can neither remain stationary nor improve, it
only
remains for them to get worse; for these reasons the embonpoint
should
be reduced without delay, that the body may again have a
commencement
of reparation. Neither should the evacuations, in their
case,
be carried to an extreme, for this also is dangerous, but only
to
such a point as the person's constitution can endure. In like
manner,
medicinal evacuations, if carried to an extreme, are
dangerous;
and again, a restorative course, if in the extreme, is
dangerous.
4. A slender restricted diet is always dangerous
in chronic
diseases,
and also in acute diseases, where it is not requisite. And
again,
a diet brought to the extreme point of attenuation is
dangerous;
and repletion, when in the extreme, is also dangerous.
5. In a restricted diet, patients who transgress
are thereby more
hurt
(than in any other?); for every such transgression, whatever it
may
be, is followed by greater consequences than in a diet somewhat
more
generous. On this account, a very slender, regulated, and
restricted
diet is dangerous to persons in health, because they bear
transgressions
of it more difficultly. For this reason, a slender
and
restricted diet is generally more dangerous than one a little more
liberal.
6. For extreme diseases, extreme methods of
cure, as to
restriction,
are most suitable.
7. When the disease is very acute, it is attended
with extremely
severe
symptoms in its first stage; and therefore an extremely
attenuating
diet must be used. When this is not the case, but it is
allowable
to give a more generous diet, we may depart as far from
the
severity of regimen as the disease, by its mildness, is removed
from
the extreme.
8. When the disease is at its height, it will
then be necessary to
use
the most slender diet.
9. We must form a particular judgment of the
patient, whether he
will
support the diet until the acme of the disease, and whether he
will
sink previously and not support the diet, or the disease will
give
way previously, and become less acute.
10. In those cases, then, which attain their
acme speedily, a
restricted
diet should be enjoined at first; but in those cases
which
reach their acme later, we must retrench at that period or a
little
before it; but previously we must allow a more generous diet to
support
the patient.
11. We must retrench during paroxysms, for
to exhibit food would
be
injurious. And in all diseases having periodical paroxysms, we must
restrict
during the paroxysms.
12. The exacerbations and remissions will be
indicated by the
diseases,
the seasons of the year, the reciprocation of the periods,
whether
they occur every day, every alternate day, or after a longer
period,
and by the supervening symptoms; as, for example, in pleuritic
cases,
expectoration, if it occur at the commencement, shortens the
attack,
but if it appear later, it prolongs the same; and in the
same
manner the urine, and alvine discharges, and sweats, according as
they
appear along with favorable or unfavorable symptoms, indicate
diseases
of a short or long duration.
13. Old persons endure fasting most easily;
next, adults; young
persons
not nearly so well; and most especially infants, and of them
such
as are of a particularly lively spirit.
14. Growing bodies have the most innate heat;
they therefore require
the
most food, for otherwise their bodies are wasted. In old persons
the
heat is feeble, and therefore they require little fuel, as it
were,
to the flame, for it would be extinguished by much. On this
account,
also, fevers in old persons are not equally acute, because
their
bodies are cold.
15. In winter and spring the bowels are naturally
the hottest, and
the
sleep most prolonged; at these seasons, then, the most
sustenance
is to be administered; for as the belly has then most
innate
heat, it stands in need of most food. The well-known facts with
regard
to young persons and the athletae prove this.
16. A humid regimen is befitting in all febrile
diseases, and
particularly
in children, and others accustomed to live on such a
diet.
17. We must consider, also, in which cases
food is to be given
once
or twice a day, and in greater or smaller quantities, and at
intervals.
Something must be conceded to habit, to season, to country,
and
to age.
18. Invalids bear food worst during summer
and autumn, most easily
in
winter, and next in spring.
19. Neither give nor enjoin anything to persons
during periodical
paroxysms,
but abstract from the accustomed allowance before the
crisis.
20. When things are at the crisis, or when
they have just passed it,
neither
move the bowels, nor make any innovation in the treatment,
either
as regards purgatives or any other such stimulants, but let
things
alone.
21. Those things which require to be evacuated
should be
evacuated,
wherever they most tend, by the proper outlets.
22. We must purge and move such humors as are
concocted, not such as
are
unconcocted, unless they are struggling to get out, which is
mostly
not the case.
23. The evacuations are to be judged of not
by their quantity, but
whether
they be such as they should be, and how they are borne. And
when
proper to carry the evacuation to deliquium animi, this also
should
be done, provided the patient can support it.
24. Use purgative medicines sparingly in acute
diseases, and at
the
commencement, and not without proper circumspection.
25. If the matters which are purged be such
as should be purged, the
evacuation
is beneficial, and easily borne; but, not withstanding,
if
otherwise, with difficulty.
SECTION II.
1. In whatever disease sleep is laborious,
it is a deadly symptom;
but
if sleep does good, it is not deadly.
2. When sleep puts an end to delirium, it is
a good symptom.
3. Both sleep and insomnolency, when immoderate,
are bad.
4. Neither repletion, nor fasting, nor anything
else, is good when
more
than natural.
5. Spontaneous lassitude indicates disease.
6. Persons who have a painful affection in
any part of the body, and
are
in a great measure sensible of the pain, are disordered in
intellect.
7. Those bodies which have been slowly emaciated
should be slowly
recruited;
and those which have been quickly emaciated should be
quickly
recruited.
8. When a person after a disease takes food,
but does not improve in
strength,
it indicates that the body uses more food than is proper;
but
if this happen when he does not take food, it is to be
understood
evacuation is required.
9. When one wishes to purge, he should put
the body into a fluent
state.
10. Bodies not properly cleansed, the more
you nourish the more
you
injure.
11. It is easier to fill up with drink than
with food.
12. What remains in diseases after the crisis
is apt to produce
relapses.
13. Persons in whom a crisis takes place pass
the night preceding
the
paroxysm uncomfortably, but the succeeding night generally more
comfortably.
14. In fluxes of the bowels, a change of the
dejections does good,
unless
the change be of a bad character.
15. When the throat is diseased, or tubercles
(phymata) form on
the
body, attention must paid to the secretions; for if they be
bilious,
the disease affects the general system; but if they
resemble
those of a healthy person, it is safe to give nourishing
food.
16. When in a state of hunger, one ought not
to undertake labor.
17. When more food than is proper has been
taken, it occasions
disease;
this is shown by the treatment.
18. From food which proves nourishing to the
body either immediately
or
shortly, the dejections also are immediate.
19. In acute diseases it is not quite safe
to prognosticate either
death
or recovery.
20. Those who have watery discharges from their
bowels when young
have
dry when they are old; and those who have dry discharges when
they
are young will have watery when they are old.
21. Drinking strong wine cures hunger.
22. Diseases which arise from repletion are
cured by depletion;
and
those that arise from depletion are cured by repletion; and in
general,
diseases are cured by their contraries.
23. Acute disease come to a crisis in fourteen
days.
24. The fourth day is indicative of the seventh;
the eighth is the
commencement
of the second week; and hence, the eleventh being the
fourth
of the second week, is also indicative; and again, the
seventeenth
is indicative, as being the fourth from the fourteenth,
and
the seventh from the eleventh.
25. The summer quartans are, for the most part,
of short duration;
but
the autumnal are protracted, especially those occurring near the
approach
of winter.
26. It is better that a fever succeed to a
convulsion, than a
convulsion
to a fever.
27. We should not trust ameliorations in diseases
when they are
not
regular, nor be much afraid of bad symptoms which occur in an
irregular
form; for such are commonly inconstant, and do not usually
continue,
nor have any duration.
28. In fevers which are not altogether slight,
it is a bad symptom
for
the body to remain without any diminution of bulk, or to be wasted
beyond
measure; for the one state indicates a protracted disease,
and
the other weakness of body.
29. If it appear that evacuations are required,
they should be
made
at the commencement of diseases; at the acme it is better to be
quiet.
30. Toward the commencement and end of diseases
all the symptoms are
weaker,
and toward the acme they are stronger.
31. When a person who is recovering from a
disease has a good
appetite,
but his body does not improve in condition, it is a bad
symptom.
32. For the most part, all persons in ill health,
who have a good
appetite
at the commencement, but do not improve, have a bad
appetite
again toward the end; whereas, those who have a very bad
appetite
at the commencement, and afterward acquire a good appetite,
get
better off.
33. In every disease it is a good sign when
the patient's
intellect
is sound, and he is disposed to take whatever food is
offered
to him; but the contrary is bad.
34. In diseases, there is less danger when
the disease is one to
which
the patient's constitution, habit, age, and the season are
allied,
than when it is one to which they are not allied.
35. In all diseases it is better that the umbilical
and
hypogastric
regions preserve their fullness; and it is a bad sign when
they
are very slender and emaciated; in the latter case it is
dangerous
to administer purgatives.
36. Persons in good health quickly lose their
strength by taking
purgative
medicines, or using bad food.
37. Purgative medicines agree ill with persons
in good health.
38. An article of food or drink which is slightly
worse, but more
palatable,
is to be preferred to such as are better but less
palatable.
39. Old have fewer complaints than young; but
those chronic diseases
which
do befall them generally never leave them.
40. Catarrhs and coryza in very old people
are not concocted.
41. Persons who have had frequent and severe
attacks of swooning,
without
any manifest cause, die suddenly.
42. It is impossible to remove a strong attack
of apoplexy, and
not
easy to remove a weak attack.
43. Of persons who have been suspended by the
neck, and are in a
state
of insensibility, but not quite dead, those do not recover who
have
foam at the mouth.
44. Persons who are naturally very fat are
apt to die earlier than
those
who are slender.
45. Epilepsy in young persons is most frequently
removed by
changes
of air, of country, and of modes of life.
46. Of two pains occurring together, not in
the same part of the
body,
the stronger weakens the other.
47. Pains and fevers occur rather at the formation
of pus than
when
it is already formed.
48. In every movement of the body, whenever
one begins to endure
pain,
it will be relieved by rest.
49. Those who are accustomed to endure habitual
labors, although
they
be weak or old, bear them better than strong and young persons
who
have not been so accustomed.
50. Those things which one has been accustomed
to for a long time,
although
worse than things which one is not accustomed to, usually
give
less disturbance; but a change must sometimes be made to things
one
is not accustomed to.
51. To evacuate, fill up, heat, cool, or otherwise,
move the body in
any
way much and suddenly, is dangerous; and whatever is excessive
is
inimical to nature; but whatever is done by little and little is
safe,
more especially when a transition is made from one thing to
another.
52. When doing everything according to indications,
although
things
may not turn out agreeably to indication, we should not
change
to another while the original appearances remain.
53. Those persons who have watery discharges
from the bowels when
they
are young, come off better than those who have dry; but in old
age
they come off worse, for the bowels in aged persons are usually
dried
up.
54. Largeness of person in youth is noble and
not unbecoming; but in
old
age it is inconvenient, and worse than a smaller structure.
SECTION III.
1. The changes of the season mostly engender
diseases, and in the
seasons
great changes either of heat or of cold, and the rest
agreeably
to the same rule.
2. Of natures (temperaments?), some are well-
or ill-adapted for
summer,
and some for winter.
3. Of diseases and ages, certain of them are
well- or ill-adapted to
different
seasons, places, and kinds of diet.
4. In the seasons, when during the same day
there is at one time
heat
and at another time cold, the diseases of autumn may be expected.
5. South winds induce dullness of hearing,
dimness of visions,
heaviness
of the head, torpor, and languor; when these prevail, such
symptoms
occur in diseases. But if the north wind prevail, coughs,
affections
of the throat, hardness of the bowels, dysuria attended
with
rigors, and pains of the sides and breast occur. When this wind
prevails,
all such symptoms may be expected in diseases.
6. When summer is like spring, much sweating
may be expected in
fevers.
7. Acute diseases occur in droughts; and if
the summer be
particularly
such, according to the constitution which it has given to
the
year, for the most part such diseases maybe expected.
8. In seasons which are regular, and furnish
the productions of
the
season at the seasonable time, the diseases are regular, and
come
readily to a crisis; but in inconstant seasons, the diseases
are
irregular, and come to a crisis with difficulty.
9. In autumn, diseases are most acute, and
most mortal, on the
whole.
The spring is most healthy, and least mortal.
10. Autumn is a bad season for persons in consumption.
11. With regard to the seasons, if the winter
be of a dry and
northerly
character, and the spring rainy and southerly, in summer
there
will necessarily be acute fevers, ophthalmies, and
dysenteries,
especially in women, and in men of a humid temperament.
12. If the but the spring dry and northerly,
women whose term of
delivery
should be in spring, have abortions from any slight cause;
and
those who reach their full time, bring forth children who are
feeble,
and diseased, so that they either die presently, or, if they
live,
are puny and unhealthy. Other people are subject to
dysenteries
and ophthalmies, and old men to catarrhs, which quickly
cut
them off.
13. If the summer be dry and northerly and
the autumn rainy and
southerly,
headaches occur in winter, with coughs, hoarsenesses,
coryzae,
and in some cases consumptions.
14. But if the autumn be northerly and dry,
it agrees well with
persons
of a humid temperament, and with women; but others will be
subject
to dry ophthalmies, acute fevers, coryzae, and in some cases
melancholy.
15. Of the constitutions of the year, the dry,
upon the whole, are
more
healthy than the rainy, and attended with less mortality.
16. The diseases which occur most frequently
in rainy seasons are,
protracted
fevers, fluxes of the bowels, mortifications, epilepsies,
apoplexies,
and quinsies; and in dry, consumptive diseases,
ophthalmies,
arthritic diseases, stranguries, and dysenteries.
17. With regard to the states of the weather
which continue but
for
a day, that which is northerly, braces the body, giving it tone,
agility,
and color, improves the sense of hearing, dries up the
bowels,
pinches the eyes, and aggravates any previous pain which may
have
been seated in the chest. But the southerly relaxes the body, and
renders
it humid, brings on dullness of hearing, heaviness of the
head,
and vertigo, impairs the movements of the eyes and the whole
body,
and renders the alvine discharges watery.
18. With regard to the seasons, in spring and
in the commencement of
summer,
children and those next to them in age are most comfortable,
and
enjoy best health; in summer and during a certain portion of
autumn,
old people; during the remainder of the autumn and in
winter,
those of the intermediate ages.
19. All diseases occur at all seasons of the
year, but certain of
them
are more apt to occur and be exacerbated at certain seasons.
20. The diseases of spring are, maniacal, melancholic,
and epileptic
disorders,
bloody flux, quinsy, coryza, hoarseness, cough, leprosy,
lichen
alphos, exanthemata mostly ending in ulcerations, tubercles,
and
arthritic diseases.
21. Of summer, certain of these, and continued,
ardent, and
tertian
fevers, most especially vomiting, diarrhoea, ophthalmy,
pains
of the ears, ulcerations of the mouth, mortifications of the
privy
parts, and the sudamina.
22. Of autumn, most of the summer, quartan,
and irregular fevers,
enlarged
spleen, dropsy, phthisis, strangury, lientery, dysentery,
sciatica,
quinsy, asthma, ileus, epilepsy, maniacal and melancholic
disorders.
23. Of winter, pleurisy, pneumonia, coryza,
hoarseness, cough, pains
of
the chest, pains of the ribs and loins, headache, vertigo, and
apoplexy.
24. In the different ages the following complaints
occur: to
little
and new-born children, aphthae, vomiting, coughs,
sleeplessness,
frights inflammation of the navel, watery discharges
from
the ears.
25. At the approach of dentition, pruritus
of the gums, fevers,
convulsions,
diarrhoea, especially when cutting the canine teeth,
and
in those who are particularly fat, and have constipated bowels.
26. To persons somewhat older, affections of
the tonsils,
incurvation
of the spine at the vertebra next the occiput, asthma,
calculus,
round worms, ascarides, acrochordon, satyriasmus, struma,
and
other tubercles (phymata), but especially the aforesaid.
27. To persons of a more advanced age, and
now on the verge of
manhood,
the most of these diseases, and, moreover, more chronic
fevers,
and epistaxis.
28. Young people for the most part have a crisis
in their
complaints,
some in forty days, some in seven months, some in seven
years,
some at the approach to puberty; and such complaints of
children
as remain, and do not pass away about puberty, or in
females
about the commencement of menstruation, usually become
chronic.
29. To persons past boyhood, haemoptysis, phthisis,
acute fevers,
epilepsy,
and other diseases, but especially the aforementioned.
30. To persons beyond that age, asthma, pleurisy,
pneumonia,
lethargy,
phrenitis, ardent fevers, chronic diarrhoea, cholera,
dysentery,
lientery, hemorrhoids.
31. To old people dyspnoea, catarrhs accompanied
with coughs,
dysuria,
pains of the joints, nephritis, vertigo, apoplexy,
cachexia,
pruritus of the whole body, insomnolency, defluxions of
the
bowels, of the eyes, and of the nose, dimness of sight, cataract
(glaucoma),
and dullness of hearing.
SECTION IV.
1. We must purge pregnant women, if matters
be turgid (in a state of
orgasm?),
from the fourth to the seventh month, but less freely in the
latter;
in the first and last stages of pregnancy it should be
avoided.
2. In purging we should bring away such matters
from the body as
it
would be advantageous had they come away spontaneously; but those
of
an opposite character should be stopped.
3. If the matters which are purged be such
as should be purged, it
is
beneficial and well borne; but if the contrary, with difficulty.
4. We should rather purge upward in summer,
and downward in winter.
5. About the time of the dog-days, and before
it, the administration
of
purgatives is unsuitable.
6. Lean persons who are easily made to vomit
should be purged
upward,
avoiding the winter season.
7. Persons who are difficult to vomit, and
are moderately fat,
should
be purged downward, avoiding the summer season.
8. We must be guarded in purging phthisical
persons upward.
9. And from the same mode of reasoning, applying
the opposite rule
to
melancholic persons, we must purge them freely downward.
10. In very acute diseases, if matters be in
a state of orgasm, we
may
purge on the first day, for it is a bad thing to procrastinate
in
such cases.
11. Those cases in which there are tormina,
pains about the
umbilicus,
and pains about the loins, not removed either by
purgative
medicines or otherwise, usually terminate in dry dropsy.
12. It is a bad thing to purge upward in winter
persons whose bowels
are
in a state of lientery.
13. Persons who are not easily purged upward
by the hellebores,
should
have their bodies moistened by plenty of food and rest before
taking
the draught.
14. When one takes a draught of hellebore,
one should be made to
move
more about, and indulge less in sleep and repose. Sailing on
the
sea shows that motion disorders the body.
15. When you wish the hellebore to act more,
move the body, and when
to
stop, let the patient get sleep and rest.
16. Hellebore is dangerous to persons whose
flesh is sound, for it
induces
convulsion.
17. Anorexia, heartburn, vertigo, and a bitter
taste of the mouth,
in
a person free from fever, indicate the want of purging upward.
18. Pains seated above the diaphragm indicate
purging upward, and
those
below it, downward.
19. Persons who have no thirst while under
the action of a purgative
medicine,
do not cease from being purged until they become thirsty.
20. If persons free from fever be seized with
tormina, heaviness
of
the knees, and pains of the loins, this indicates that purging
downward
is required.
21. Alvine dejections which are black, like
blood, taking place
spontaneously,
either with or without fever, are very bad; and the
more
numerous and unfavorable the colors, so much the worse; when with
medicine
it is better, and a variety of colors in this case is not
bad.
22. When black bile is evacuated in the beginning
of any disease
whatever,
either upward or downward, it is a mortal symptom.
23. In persons attenuated from any disease,
whether acute or
chronic,
or from wounds, or any other cause, if there be a discharge
either
of black bile, or resembling black blood, they die on the
following
day.
24. Dysentery, if it commence with black bile,
is mortal.
25. Blood discharged upward, whatever be its
character, is a bad
symptom,
but downward it is (more?) favorable, and so also black
dejections.
26. If in a person ill of dysentery, substances
resembling flesh
be
discharged from the bowels, it is a mortal symptom.
27. In whatever cases of fever there is a copious
hemorrhage from
whatever
channel, the bowels are in a loose state during
convalescence.
28. In all cases whatever, bilious discharges
cease if deafness
supervenes,
and in all cases deafness ceases when bilious discharges
supervene.
29. Rigors which occur on the sixth day have
a difficult crisis.
30. Diseases attended with paroxysms, if at
the same hour that the
fever
leaves it return again next day, are of difficult crisis.
31. In febrile diseases attended with a sense
of lassitude, deposits
form
about the joints, and especially those of the jaws.
32. In convalescents from diseases, if any
part be pained, there
deposits
are formed.
33. But if any part be in a painful state previous
to the illness,
there
the disease fixes.
34. If a person laboring under a fever, without
any swelling in
the
fauces, be seized with a sense of suffocation suddenly, it is a
mortal
symptom.
35. If in a person with fever, the become suddenly
distorted, and he
cannot
swallow unless with difficulty, although no swelling be
present,
it is a mortal symptom.
36. Sweats, in febrile diseases, are favorable,
if they set in on
the
third, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, fourteenth, seventeenth,
twenty-first,
twenty-seventh, and thirty-fourth day, for these
sweats
prove a crisis to the disease; but sweats not occurring thus,
indicate
pain, a protracted disease, and relapses.
37. Cold sweats occurring with an acute fever,
indicate death; and
along
with a milder one, a protracted disease.
38. And in whatever part of the body there
is a sweat, it shows that
the
disease is seated there.
39. And in whatever part of the body heat or
cold is seated, there
is
disease.
40. And wherever there are changes in the whole
body, and if the
body
be alternately cold and hot, or if one color succeed another,
this
indicates a protracted disease.
41. A copious sweat after sleep occuring without
any manifest cause,
indicates
that the body is using too much food. But if it occur when
one
is not taking food, it indicates that evacuation is required.
42. A copious sweat, whether hot or cold, flowing
continuously,
indicates,
the cold a greater, and the hot a lesser disease.
43. Fevers, not of the intermittent type, which
are exacerbated on
the
third day, are dangerous; but if they intermit in any form, this
indicates
that they are not dangerous.
44. In cases attended with protracted fevers,
tubercles (phymata) or
pains
occur about the joints.
45. When tubercles (phymata) or pains attack
the joints after
fevers,
such persons are using too much food.
46. If in a fever not of the intermittent type
a rigor seize a
person
already much debilitated, it is mortal.
47. In fevers not of the intermittent type,
expectorations which are
livid
bloody, fetid and bilious, are all bad; but if evacuated
properly,
they are favorable. So it is with the alvine evacuations and
the
urine. But if none of the proper excretions take place by these
channels,
it is bad.
48. In fevers not of the intermittent type,
if the external parts be
cold,
but the internal be burnt up, and if there be thirst, it is a
mortal
symptom.
49. In a fever not of the intermittent type,
if a lip, an
eye-brow,
an eye, or the nose, be distorted; or if there be loss of
sight
or of hearing, and the patient be in a weak state-whatever of
these
symptoms occur, death is at hand.
50. Apostemes in fevers which are not resolved
at the first
crisis,
indicate a protracted disease.
51. When in a fever not of the intermittent
type dyspnoea and
delirium
come on, the case is mortal.
52. When persons in fevers, or in other illnesses,
shed tears
voluntarily,
it is nothing out of place; but when they shed tears
involuntarily,
it is more so.
53. In whatever cases of fever very viscid
concretions form about
the
teeth, the fevers turn out to be particularly strong.
54. In whatever case of ardent fever dry coughs
of a tickling nature
with
slight expectoration are long protracted, there is usually not
much
thirst.
55. All fevers complicated with buboes are
bad, except ephemerals.
56. Sweat supervening in a case of the fever
ceasing, is bad, for
the
disease is protracted, and it indicates more copious humors.
57. Fever supervening in a case of confirmed
spasm, or of tetanus,
removes
the disease.
58. A rigor supervening in a case of ardent
fever, produces
resolution
of it.
59. A true tertian comes to a crisis in seven
periods at furthest.
60. When in fevers there is deafness, if blood
run from the
nostrils,
or the bowels become disordered, it carries off the disease.
61. In a febrile complaint, if the fever do
not leave on the odd
days,
it relapses.
62. When jaundice supervenes in fevers before
the seventh day, it
a
bad symptom, unless there be watery discharges from the bowels.
63. In whatever cases of fever rigors occur
during the day, the
fevers
come to a resolution during the day.
64. When in cases of fever jaundice occurs
on the seventh, the
ninth,
the eleventh, or the fourteenth day, it is a good symptom,
provided
the hypochondriac region be not hard. Otherwise it is not a
good
symptom.
65. A strong heat about the stomach and cardialgia
are bad
symptoms
in fevers.
66. In acute fevers, spasms, and strong pains
about the bowels are
bad
symptoms.
67. In fevers, frights after sleep, or convulsions,
are a bad
symptom.
68. In fevers, a stoppage of the respiration
is a bad symptom, for
it
indicates convulsions.
69. When the urine is thick, grumoss, and scanty
in cases not free
from
fever a copious discharge of thinner urine proves beneficial.
Such
a discharge more commonly takes place when the urine has had a
sediment
from the first, or soon after the commencement.
70. When in fevers the urine is turbid, like
that of a beast of
burden,
in such a case there either is or will be headache.
71. In cases which come to a crisis on the
seventh day, the urine
has
a red nubecula on the fourth day, and the other symptoms
accordingly.
72. When the urine is transparent and white,
it is bad; it appears
principally
in cases of phrenitis.
73. When the hypochondriac region is affected
with meteorism and
borborygmi,
should pain of the loins supervene, the bowels get into
a
loose and watery state, unless there be an eruption of flatus or a
copious
evacuation of urine. These things occur in fevers.
74. When there is reason to expect that an
abscess will form in
joints,
the abscess is carried off by a copious discharge of urine,
which
is thick, and becomes white, like what begins to form in certain
cases
of quartan fever, attended with a sense of lassitude. It is also
speedily
carried off by a hemorrhage from the nose.
75. Blood or pus in the urine indicates ulceration
either of the
kidneys
or of the bladder.
76. When small fleshy substances like hairs
are discharged along
with
thick urine, these substances come from the kidneys.
77. In those cases where there are furfuraceous
particles discharged
along
with thick urine, there is scabies of the bladder.
78. In those cases where there is a spontaneous
discharge of
bloody
urine, it indicates rupture of a small vein in the kidneys.
79. In those cases where there is a sandy sediment
in the urine,
there
is calculus in the bladder (or kidneys).
80. If a patient pass blood and clots in his
urine, and have
strangury,
and if a pain seize the hypogastric region and perineum,
the
parts about the bladder are affected.
81. If a patient pass blood, pus, and scales,
in the urine, and if
it
have a heavy smell, ulceration of the bladder is indicated.
82. When tubercles form in the urethra, if
these suppurate and
burst,
there is relief.
83. When much urine is passed during the night,
it indicates that
the
alvine evacuations are scanty.
SECTION V.
1. A spasm from taking hellebore is of a fatal
nature.
2. Spasm supervening on a wound is fatal.
3. A convulsion, or hiccup, supervening on
a copious discharge of
blood
is bad.
4. A convulsion, or hiccup, supervening upon
hypercatharsis is bad.
5. If a drunken person suddenly lose his speech,
he will die
convulsed,
unless fever come on, or he recover his speech at the
time
when the consequences of a debauch pass off.
6. Such persons as are seized with tetanus
die within four days,
or
if they pass these they recover.
7. Those cases of epilepsy which come on before
puberty may
undergo
a change; but those which come on after twenty-five years of
age,
for the most part terminate in death.
8. In pleuritic affections, when the disease
is not purged off in
fourteen
days, it usually terminates in empyema.
9. Phthisis most commonly occurs between the
ages of eighteen and
thirty-five
years.
10. Persons who escape an attack of quinsy,
and when the disease
is
turned upon the lungs, die in seven days; or if they pass these
they
become affected with empyema.
11. In persons affected with phthisis, if the
sputa which they cough
up
have a heavy smell when poured upon coals, and if the hairs of
the
head fall off, the case will prove fatal.
12. Phthisical persons, the hairs of whose
head fall off, die if
diarrhoea
set in.
13. In persons who cough up frothy blood, the
discharge of it
comes
from the lungs.
14. Diarrhoea attacking a person affected with
phthisis is a
mortal
symptom.
15. Persons who become affected with empyema
after pleurisy, if they
get
clear of it in forty days from the breaking of it, escape the
disease;
but if not, it passes into phthisis.
16. Heat produces the following bad effects
on those who use it
frequently:
enervation of the fleshy parts, impotence of the nerves,
torpor
of the understanding, hemorrhages, deliquia, and, along with
these,
death.
17. Cold induces convulsions, tetanus, mortification,
and febrile
rigors.
18. Cold is inimical to the bones, the teeth,
the nerves, the brain,
and
the spinal marrow, but heat is beneficial.
19. Such parts as have been congealed should
be heated, except where
there
either is a hemorrhage, or one is expected.
20. Cold pinches ulcers, hardens the skin,
occasions pain which does
not
end in suppuration, blackens, produces febrile rigors,
convulsions,
and tetanus.
21. In the case of a muscular youth having
tetanus without a
wound,
during the midst of summer, it sometimes happens that the
allusion
of a large quantity of cold water recalls the heat. Heat
relieves
these diseases.
22. Heat is suppurative, but not in all kinds
of sores, but when
it
is, it furnishes the greatest test of their being free from danger.
It
softens the skin, makes it thin, removes pain, soothes rigor,
convulsions,
and tetanus. It removes affections of the head, and
heaviness
of it. It is particularly efficacious in fractures of the
bones,
especially of those which have been exposed, and most
especially
in wounds of the head, and in mortifications and ulcers
from
cold; in herpes exedens, of the anus, the privy parts, the
womb,
the bladder, in all these cases heat is agreeable, and brings
matters
to a crisis; but cold is prejudicial, and does mischief.
23. Cold water is to be applied in the following
cases; when there
is
a hemorrhage, or when it is expected, but not applied to the
spot,
but around the spot whence the blood flows; and in inflammations
and
inflammatory affections, inclining to a red and subsaguineous
color,
and consisting of fresh blood, in these cases it is to be
applied
but it occasions mortification in old cases; and in erysipelas
not
attended with ulceration, as it proves injurious to erysipelas
when
ulcerated.
24. Cold things, such as snow and ice, are
inimical to the chest,
being
provocative of coughs, of discharges of blood, and of catarrhs.
25. Swellings and pains in the joints, ulceration,
those of a
gouty
nature, and sprains, are generally improved by a copious
affusion
of cold water, which reduces the swelling, and removes the
pain;
for a moderate degree of numbness removes pain.
26. The lightest water is that which is quickly
heated and quickly
cooled.
27. When persons have intense thirst, it is
a good thing if they can
sleep
off the desire of drinking.
28. Fumigation with aromatics promotes menstruation,
and would be
useful
in many other cases, if it did not occasion heaviness of the
head.
29. Women in a state of pregnancy may be purged,
if there be any
urgent
necessity (or, if the humors be in a state of orgasm?), from
the
fourth to the seventh month, but less so in the latter case. In
the
first and last periods it must be avoided.
30. It proves fatal to a woman in a state of
pregnancy, if she be
seized
with any of the acute diseases.
31. If a woman with child be bled, she will
have an abortion, and
this
will be the more likely to happen, the larger the foetus.
32. Haemoptysis in a woman is removed by an
eruption of the menses.
33. In a woman when there is a stoppage the
menses, a discharge of
blood
from the nose is good.
34. When a pregnant woman has a violent diarrhoea,
there is danger
of
her miscarrying.
35. Sneezing occurring to a woman affected
with hysterics, and in
difficult
labor, is a good symptom.
36. When the menstrual discharge is of a bad
color and irregular, it
indicates
that the woman stands in need of purging.
37. In a pregnant woman, if the breasts suddenly
lose their
fullness,
she has a miscarriage.
38. If, in a woman pregnant with twins, either
of her breasts lose
its
fullness, she will part with one of her children; and if it be the
right
breast which becomes slender, it will be the male child, or if
the
left, the female.
39. If a woman who is not with child, nor has
brought forth, have
milk,
her menses are obstructed.
40. In women, blood collected in the breasts
indicates madness.
41. If you wish to ascertain if a woman be
with child, give her
hydromel
to drink when she is going to sleep, and has not taken
supper,
and if she be seized with tormina in the belly, she is with
child,
but otherwise she is not pregnant.
42. A
woman with child, if it be a male, has a good color, but if a
female,
she has a bad color.
43. If erysipelas of the womb seize a woman
with child, it will
probably
prove fatal.
44. Women who are very lean, have miscarriages
when they prove
with
child, until they get into better condition.
45. When women, in a moderate condition of
body, miscarry in the
second
or third month, without any obvious cause, their cotyledones
are
filled with mucosity, and cannot support the weight of the foetus,
but
are broken asunder.
46. Such women as are immoderately fat, and
do not prove with child,
in
them it is because the epiploon (fat?) blocks up the mouth of the
womb,
and until it be reduced, they do not conceive.
47. If the portion of the uterus seated near
the hip-joint
suppurate,
it gets into a state requiring to be treated with tents.
48. The male foetus is usually seated in the
right, and the female
in
the left side.
49. To procure the expulsion of the secundines,
apply a
sternutatory,
and shut the nostrils and mouth.
50. If you wish to stop the menses in a woman,
apply as large a
cupping
instrument as possible to the breasts.
51. When women are with child, the mouth of
their womb is closed.
52. If in a woman with child, much milk flow
from the breasts, it
indicates
that the foetus is weak; but if the breasts be firm, it
indicates
that the foetus is in a more healthy state.
53. In women that are about to miscarry, the
breasts become slender;
but
if again they become hard, there will be pain, either in the
breasts,
or in the hip-joints, or in the eyes, or in the knees, and
they
will not miscarry.
54. When the mouth of the uterus is hard, it
is also necessarily
shut.
55. Women with child who are seized with fevers,
and who are greatly
emaciated,
without any (other?) obvious cause, have difficult and
dangerous
labors, and if they miscarry, they are in danger.
56. In the female flux (immoderate menstruation?),
if convulsion and
deliquium
come on, it is bad.
57. When the menses are excessive, diseases
take place, and when the
menses
are stopped, diseases from the uterus take place.
58. Strangury supervenes upon inflammation
of the rectum, and of the
womb,
and strangury supervenes upon suppuration of the kidney, and
hiccup
upon inflammation of the liver.
59. If a woman do not conceive, and wish to
ascertain whether she
can
conceive, having wrapped her up in blankets, fumigate below, and
if
it appear that the scent passes through the body to the nostrils
and
mouth, know that of herself she is not unfruitful.
60. If woman with a child have her courses,
it is impossible that
the
child can be healthy.
61. If a woman's courses be suppressed, and
neither rigor nor
fever
has followed, but she has been affected with nausea, you may
reckon
her to be with child.
62. Women who have the uterus cold and dense
(compact?) do not
conceive;
and those also who have the uterus humid, do not conceive,
for
the semen is extinguished, and in women whose uterus is very
dry,
and very hot, the semen is lost from the want of food; but
women
whose uterus is in an intermediate state between these
temperaments
prove fertile.
63. And in like manner with respect to males;
for either, owing to
the
laxity of the body, the pneuma is dissipated outwardly, so as
not
to propel the semen, or, owing to its density, the fluid
(semen?)
does not pass outwardly; or, owing to coldness, it is not
heated
so as to collect in its proper place (seminal vessels?), or,
owing
to its heat, the very same thing happens.
64. It is a bad thing to give milk to persons
having headache, and
it
is also bad to give it in fevers, and to persons whose hypochondria
are
swelled up, and troubled with borborygmi, and to thirsty
persons;
it is bad also, when given to those who have bilious
discharges
in acute fevers, and to those who have copious discharges
of
blood; but it is suitable in phthisical cases, when not attended
with
very much fever; it is also to be given in fevers of a chronic
and
weak nature, when none of the aforementioned symptoms are present,
and
the patients are excessively emaciated.
65. When swellings appear on wounds, such cases
are not likely to be
attacked
either with convulsions, or delirium, but when these
disappear
suddenly, if situated behind, spasms and tetanus
supervene,
and if before, mania, acute pains of the sides, or
suppurations,
or dysentery, if the swellings be rather red.
66. When no swelling appears on severe and
bad wounds, it is a great
evil.
67. In such cases, the soft are favorable;
and crude, unfavorable.
68. When a person is pained in the back part
of the head, he is
benefited
by having the straight vein in the forehead opened.
69. Rigors commence in women, especially at
the loins, and spread by
the
back to the head; and in men also, rather in the posterior than
the
anterior side of the body, as from the arms and thighs; the skin
there
is rare, as is obvious from the growth of hair on them.
70. Persons attacked with quartans are not
readily attacked with
convulsions,
or if previously attacked with convulsions, they cease if
a
quartan supervene.
71. In those persons in whom the skin is stretched,
and parched
and
hard, the disease terminates without sweats; but in those in
whom
the skin is loose and rare, it terminates with sweats.
72. Persons disposed to jaundice are not very
subject to flatulence.
SECTION VI.
1. In cases of chronic lientery, acid eructations
supervening when
there
were none previously, is a good symptom.
2. Persons whose noses are naturally watery,
and their seed
watery,
have rather a deranged state of health; but those in the
opposite
state, a more favorable.
3. In protracted cases of dysentery, loathing
of food is a bad
symptom,
and still worse, if along with fever.
4. Ulcers, attended with a falling off of the
hair, are mali moris.
5. It deserves to be considered whether the
pains in the sides,
and
in the breasts, and in the other parts, differ much from one
another.
6. Diseases about the kidneys and bladder are
cured with
difficulty
in old men.
7. Pains occurring about the stomach, the more
superficial they are,
the
more slight are they; and the less superficial, the more severe.
8. In dropsical persons, ulcers forming on
the body are not easily
healed.
9. Broad exanthemata are not very itchy.
10. In a person having a painful spot in the
head, with intense
cephalalgia,
pus or water running from the nose, or by the mouth, or
at
the ears, removes the disease.
11. Hemorrhoids appearing in melancholic and
nephritic affections
are
favorable.
12. When a person has been cured of chronic
hemorrhoids, unless
one
be left, there is danger of dropsy or phthisis supervening.
13. Sneezing coming on, in the case of a person
afflicted with
hiccup,
removes the hiccup.
14. In a case of dropsy, when the water runs
by the veins into the
belly,
it removes the disease.
15. In confirmed diarrhoea, vomiting, when
it comes on
spontaneously,
removes the diarrhoea.
16. A diarrhoea supervening in a confirmed
case of pleurisy or
pneumonia
is bad.
17. It is a good thing in ophthalmy for the
patient to be seized
with
diarrhoea.
18. A severe wound of the bladder, of the brain,
of the heart, of
the
diaphragm, of the small intestines, of the stomach, and of the
liver,
is deadly.
19. When a bone, cartilage, nerve, the slender
part of the jaw, or
prepuce,
are cut out, the part is neither restored, nor does it unite.
20. If blood be poured out preternaturally
into a cavity, it must
necessarily
become corrupted.
21. In maniacal affections, if varices or hemorrhoids
come on,
they
remove the mania.
22. Those ruptures in the back which spread
down to the elbows are
removed
by venesection.
23. If a fright or despondency lasts for a
long time, it is a
melancholic
affection.
24. If any of the intestines be transfixed,
it does not unite.
25. It is not a good sign for an erysipelas
spreading outwardly to
be
determined inward; but for it to be determined outward from
within
is good.
26. In whatever cases of ardent fever tremors
occur, they are
carried
off by a delirium.
27. Those cases of empyema or dropsy which
are treated by incision
or
the cautery, if the water or pus flow rapidly all at once,
certainly
prove fatal.
28. Eunuchs do not take the gout, nor become
bald.
29. A woman does not take the gout, unless
her menses be stopped.
30. A young man does not take the gout until
he indulges in coition.
31. Pains of the eyes are removed by drinking
pure wine, or the
bath,
or a fomentation, or venesection, or purging.
32. Persons whose speech has become impaired
are likely to be seized
with
chronic diarrhoea.
33. Persons having acid eructations are not
very apt to be seized
with
pleurisy.
34. Persons who have become bald are not subject
to large varices;
but
should varices supervene upon persons who are bald, their hair
again
grows thick.
35. Hiccup supervening in dropsical cases is
bad.
36. Venesection cures dysuria; open the internal
veins of the arm.
37. It is a good symptom when swelling on the
outside of the neck
seizes
a person very ill of quinsy, for the disease is turned
outwardly.
38. It is better not to apply any treatment
in cases of occult
cancer;
for, if treated, the patients die quickly; but if not treated,
they
hold out for a long time.
39. Convulsions take place either from repletion
or depletion; and
so
it is with hiccup.
40. When pains, without inflammation, occur
about the
hypochondria,
in such cases, fever supervening removes the pain.
41. When pus formed anywhere in the body does
not point, this is
owing
to the thickness of the part.
42. In cases of jaundice, it is a bad symptom
when the liver becomes
indurated.
43. When persons having large spleens are seized
with dysentery, and
if
the dysentery pass into a chronic state, either dropsy or
lientery
supervenes, and they die.
44. When ileus comes on in a case of strangury,
they prove fatal
in
seven days, unless, fever supervening, there be a copious discharge
of
urine.
45. When ulcers continue open for a year or
upward, there must
necessarily
be exfoliation of bone, and the cicatrices are hollow.
46. Such persons as become hump-backed from
asthma or cough before
puberty,
die.
47. Persons who are benefited by venesection
or purging, should be
bled
or purged in spring.
48. In enlargement of the spleen, it is a good
symptom when
dysentery
comes on.
49. In gouty affections, the inflammation subsides
in the course
of
forty days.
50. When the brain is severely wounded, fever
and vomiting of bile
necessarily
supervene.
51. When persons in good health are suddenly
seized with pains in
the
head, and straightway are laid down speechless, and breathe with
stertor,
they die in seven days, unless fever come on.
52. We must attend to the appearances of the
eyes in sleep, as
presented
from below; for if a portion of the white be seen between
the
closed eyelids, and if this be not connected with diarrhaea or
severe
purging, it is a very bad and mortal symptom.
53. Delirium attended with laughter is less
dangerous than
delirium
attended with a serious mood.
54. In acute diseases, complicated with fever,
a moaning respiration
is
bad.
55. For the most part, gouty affections rankle
in spring and in
autumn.
56. In melancholic affections, determinations
of the humor which
occasions
them produce the following diseases; either apoplexy of
the
whole body, or convulsion, or madness, or blindness.
57. Persons are most subject to apoplexy between
the ages of forty
and
sixty.
58. If the omentum protrude, it necessarily
mortifies and drops off.
59. In chronic diseases of the hip-joint, if
the bone protrude and
return
again into its socket, there is mucosity in the place.
60. In persons affected with chronic disease
of the hip-joint, if
the
bone protrude from its socket, the limb becomes wasted and maimed,
unless
the part be cauterized.
SECTION VII.
1. In acute diseases, coldness of the extremities
is bad.
2. Livid flesh on a diseased bone is bad.
3. Hiccup and redness of the eyes, when they
supervene on
vomiting,
are bad.
4. A chill supervening on a sweat is not good.
5. Dysentery, or dropsy, or ecstacy coming
on madness is good.
6. In a very protracted disease, loss of appetite
and unmixed
discharges
from the bowels are bad symptoms.
7. A rigor and delirium from excessive drinking
are bad.
8. From the rupture of an internal abscess,
prostration of strength,
vomiting,
and deliquium animi result.
9. Delirium or convulsion from a flow of blood
is bad.
10. Vomiting, or hiccup, or convulsion, or
delirium, in ileus, is
bad.
11. Pneumonia coming on pleurisy is bad.
12. Phrenitis along with pneumonia is bad.
13. Convulsion or tetanus, coming upon severe
burning, is bad.
14. Stupor or delirium from a blow on the head
is bad.
15. From a spitting of blood there is a spitting
of pus.
16. From spitting of pus arise phthisis and
a flux; and when the
sputa
are stopped, they die.
17. Hiccup in inflammation of the liver bad.
18. Convulsion or delirium supervening upon
insomnolency is bad.
18a. Trembling upon lethargus is bad.
19. Erysipelas upon exposure of a bone (is
bad?).
20. Mortification or suppuration upon erysipelas
is bad.
21. Hemorrhage upon a strong pulsation in wounds
is bad.
22. Suppuration upon a protracted pain of the
parts about the bowels
is
bad.
23. Dysentery upon unmixed alvine discharges
is bad.
24. Delirium upon division of the cranium,
if it penetrate into
the
cavity of the head, is bad.
25. Convulsion upon severe purging is mortal.
26. Upon severe pain of the parts about the
bowels, coldness of
the
extremities coming on is bad.
27. Tenesmus coming on in a case of pregnancy
causes abortion.
28. Whatever piece of bone, cartilage, or nerve
(tendon?) is cut
off,
it neither grows nor unites.
29. When strong diarrhoea supervenes in a case
of leucophlegmatia,
it
removes the disease.
30. In those cases in which frothy discharges
occur in diarrhoea
there
are defluxions from the head.
31. When there is a farinaceous sediment in
the urine during
fever,
it indicates a protracted illness.
32. In those cases in which the urine is thin
at first, and the
sediments
become bilious, an acute disease is indicated.
33. In those cases in which the urine becomes
divided there is great
disorder
in the body.
34. When bubbles settle on the surface of the
urine, they indicate
disease
of the kidneys, and that the complaint will be protracted.
35. When the scum on the surface is fatty and
copious, it
indicates
acute diseases of the kidneys.
36. Whenever the aforementioned symptoms occur
in nephritic
diseases,
and along with them acute pains about the muscles of the
back,
provided these be seated about the external parts, you may
expect
that there will be an abscess; but if the pains be rather about
the
internal parts, you may also rather expect that the abscess will
be
seated internally.
37. Haematemesis, without fever, does not prove
fatal, but with
fever
it is bad; it is to be treated with refrigerant and styptic
things.
38. Defluxions into the cavity of the chest
suppurate in twenty
days.
39. When a patient passes blood and clots,
and is seized with
strangury
and pain in the perineum and pubes, disease about the
bladder
is indicated.
40. If the tongue suddenly lose its powers,
or a part of the body
become
apoplectic, the affection is of a melancholic nature.
41. In hypercatharsis, of old persons, hiccup
supervening is not a
good
symptom.
42. In a fever, is not of a bilious nature,
a copious allusion of
hot
water upon the head removes the fever.
43. A woman does not become ambidexterous.
44. When empyema is treated either by the cautery
or incision, if
pure
and white pus flow from the wound, the patients recover; but if
mixed
with blood, slimy and fetid, they die.
45. When abscess of the liver is treated by
the cautery or incision,
if
the pus which is discharged be pure and white, the patients
recover,
(for in this case it is situated in the coats of the
liver;)
but if it resemble the lees of oil as it flows, they die.
46. Pains of the eyes are removed by drinking
undiluted wine,
plenteous
bathing with hot water, and venesection.
47. If a dropsical patient be seized with hiccup
the case is
hopeless.
48. Strangury and dysuria are cured by drinking
pure wine, and
venesection;
open the vein on the inside.
49. It is a good sign when swelling and redness
on the breast
seize
a person very ill of quinsy, for in this case the disease is
diverted
outwardly.
50. When the brain is attacked with sphacelus,
the patients die in
three
days; or if they escape these, they recover.
51. Sneezing arises from the head, owing to
the brain being
heated,
or the cavity (ventricle) in the head being filled with
humors;
the air confined in it then is discharged, and makes a
noise,
because it comes through a narrow passage.
52. Fever supervening on painful affections
of the liver removes the
pain.
53. Those persons to whom it is beneficial
to have blood taken
from
their veins, should have it done in spring.
54. In those cases where phlegm is collected
between the diaphragm
and
the stomach, and occasions pain, as not finding a passage into
either
of the cavities, the disease will be carried off if the
phlegm
be diverted to the bladder by the veins.
55. When the liver is filled with water and
bursts into the
epiploon,
in this case the belly is filled with water and the
patient
dies.
56. Anxiety, yawning, rigor,-wine drunk with
an equal proportion
of
water, removes these complaints.
57. When tubercles (phymata) form in the urethra,
if they
suppurate
and burst, the pain is carried off.
58. In cases of concussion of the brain produced
by any cause, the
patients
necessarily lose their speech.
59. In a person affected with fever, when there
is no swelling in
the
fauces, should suffocation suddenly come on, and the patient not
be
able to swallow, except with difficulty, it is a mortal symptom.
59a. In the case of a person oppressed by fever,
if the neck be
turned
aside, and the patient cannot swallow, while there is no
swelling
in the neck, it is a mortal sign.
60. Fasting should be prescribed the those
persons who have humid
flesh;
for fasting dries bodies.
61. When there are changes in the whole body,
and the body becomes
sometimes
cold and sometimes hot, and the color changes, a
protracted
disease is indicated.
62. A copious sweat, hot or cold, constantly
flowing, indicates a
superabundance
of humidity; we must evacuate then, in a strong
person
upward, and in a weak, downward.
63. Fevers, not of the intermittent type, if
they become exacerbated
every
third day are dangerous; but if they intermit in any form
whatever,
this shows that they are not dangerous.
64. In cases of protracted fever, either chronic
abscesses or
pains
in the joints come on.
65. When chronic abscesses (phymata) or pains
in the joints take
place
after fevers, the patients are using too much food.
66. If one give to a person in fever the same
food which is given to
a
person in good health, what is strength to the one is disease to the
other.
67. We must look to the urinary evacuations,
whether they resemble
those
of persons in health; if not at all so, they are particularly
morbid,
but if they are like those of healthy persons, they are not at
all
morbid.
68. When the dejections are allowed to stand
and not shaken, and a
sediment
is formed like scrapings (of the bowels), in such a case it
is
proper to purge the bowels; and if you give ptisans before purging,
the
more you give the more harm you will do.
69. Crude dejections are the product of black
bile; if abundant,
of
more copious, and if deficient, of less copious collections of it.
70. The sputa in fevers, not of an intermittent
type, which are
livid,
streaked with blood, and fetid, are all bad, it is favorable
when
this evacuation, like the urinary and alvine, passes freely;
and
whenever any discharge is suppressed and not purged off it is bad.
71. When you wish to purge the body, you must
bring it into a
state
favorable to evacuations; and if you wish to dispose it to
evacuations
upward, you must bind the belly; and if you wish to
dispose
it to evacuations downward, you must moisten the belly.
72. Sleep and watchfulness, both of them, when
immoderate,
constitute
disease.
73. In fevers which do not intermit, if the
external parts be
cold,
and the internal burning hot, and fever prevail, it is a
mortal
sign.
74. In a fever which does not intermit, if
a lip, the nose, or an
eye
be distorted, if the patient lose his sense of sight or of
hearing,
while now in a weak state,-whatever of these symptoms
occurs
it is mortal.
75. Upon leucophlegmatia dropsy supervenes.
76. Upon diarrhoea dysentery.
77. Upon dysentery lientery.
78. Upon sphacelus exfoliation of the bone.
79 and 80. Upon vomiting of blood consumption,
and a purging of
pus
upward; upon consumption a defluxion from the head; upon a
defluxion
diarrhoea; upon diarrhoea a stoppage of the purging
upward;
upon the stoppage of it death.
81. In the discharges by the bladder, the belly,
and the flesh
(the
skin?) if the body has departed slightly from its natural
condition,
the disease is slight; if much, it is great; if very
much,
it is mortal.
82. Persons above forty years of age who are
affected with frenzy,
do
not readily recover; the danger is less when the disease is cognate
to
the constitution and age.
83. In whatever diseases the eyes weep voluntarily,
it is a good
symptom,
but when involuntarily, it is a bad.
84. When in quartan fevers blood flows from
the nostrils it is a bad
symptom.
85. Sweats are dangerous when they do not occur
on critical days,
when
they are strong, and quickly forced out of the forehead, either
in
the form of drops or in streams, and if excessively cold and
copious;
for such a sweat must proceed from violence, excess of
pain,
and prolonged squeezing (affliction?).
86. In a chronic disease an excessive flux
from the bowels is bad.
87. Those diseases which medicines do not cure,
iron (the knife?)
cures;
those which iron cannot cure, fire cures; and those which
fire
cannot cure, are to be reckoned wholly incurable.
THE END
