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THE
WRITINGS

HIPPOCRAT^&ND GALEN.
Y\A
EPITOMISED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN TRANSLATIONS,
      JOHN REDMAN COXE, M.D.,

MEMBER OF THE BATAVIAN SOCIETY OF SCIENCES AT HAARLEM J OF THE ROYAL
       MEDICAL SOCIETY, AND OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF
           SCIENCES OF COPENHAGEN, ETC.
Multa renascentur.
<>  \Uii*nL Lij.., V
       PHILADELPHIA:
LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON.
           1846. 

         Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846,
                       By John Redman Coxe, M. D.,
In the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
C. SHERMAN, PRINTER,
    19 St. James Street. 
TO  THE  READER.
  The writings that have reached  us  under the  name of Hip-
pocrates, the so-called " Father of Medicine," occupy more than
a thousand folio pages  in the edition by Foesius.  Those attri-
buted to Galen are still more voluminous, embracing no less than
six or eight immense folios.  It may, from this plain statement,
be readily conjectured, how impossible must be  the  attempt to
convey even  a tolerable idea of them, in the  small compass of a
few hundred  octavo pages.—A perfect comprehension of the full
value of both these literary and scientific works can only be
attained by referring  to the original writings, or  to a complete
translation.
  With the  exception of a few of the Hippocratic treatises, an
English translation has never appeared.    Of the  writings of
Galen, not one has received that form,  for the  benefit of the
English reader.   And yet the names of both these  great men
are familiar  to our ears, as though  they were the daily compa-
nions of our medical researches.  Our teachers  refer to them
ex cathedra; our  books continually quote them; and yet, not 
iv                    TO THE READER.
one in a hundred of the Profession, at least in America, have ever
seen them, and if interrogated, could not inform us of what they
treat.
  From what is thus said, it will appear evident to every reflect-
ing mind, that the only object of the Editor, is that of affording a
slight view of the subject-matter of the extensive treatises of
these venerable writers; too slight indeed to constitute  even an
imperfect idea of a tithe of their merits, yet enough, he hopes,
to give an impulse  to a further research  of their interesting
pages.  It is not creditable to the Profession, either of Great
Britain or America, that a  full translation of both these authors
has never yet been given  to  the English reader! and that, in
America at  least, even in the original Greek, or Latin transla-
tion, so few copies are to be found, whilst hundreds of contempt-
ible works are annually issuing from the press, to lumber up our
shelves, and to pass  into oblivion.  Few are the authors of the
present day, who  attend to the Roman poet's important  precept,
of " Nonum prematur in annum."  Scarcely has  the student
escaped from his alma mater, when he deems himself qualified
to become an author, and straightway gives  to the world  a
learned work, purloined  from the " Dictionnaire des Sciences
Medicales," or some analogous production,  on some disease he
has never seen,  but  quoting authorities  of  ancient  date,  appa-
rently familiar as his household gods !
  The gratification  I have experienced in looking over the
writings  of these pioneers  of  medicine, has led  me to believe
that even this imperfect exposition may be acceptable to many;
and that  more especially, since few are likely to possess them in
their complete and perfect form; yet  it is  necessary again to
repeat, that to estimate  the whole  by this  defective abstract, 
                       TO THE READER.                      v
would be like one who judged of the character of a building by
examining a brick which formed a fractional part of it.  I have
therefore to  request all due allowance for this attempt to intro-
duce  to my  contemporaries, a few faint traces of their medical
progenitors, who lived two thousand years before them.
   To enable the reader to judge of the difference of opinion that
has existed, with respect to the writings that have reached us
under the name of Hippocrates, amounting to nearly seventy in
number; I have given the arrangement by three  editors, viz.,
Foesius and  Haller, in their Latin translations, and of Gardeil,
in a French one; by which it will be seen, that no entire agree-
ment between them is to be found.  One thing alone seems evi-
dent, viz., that of these seventy treatises, about twelve or fourteen
only, are uniformly attributed to this illustrious man.  The others
are variously ascribed to his son,  his son-in-law, or to writers
anterior or posterior to him.  The arrangement I have myself
pursued, is that of Foesius ;  not from any particular predilection,
but from the accidental  circumstance of his  edition being the
first that came into my possession, long before I even knew that
the others  had translated these writings.  My copy of Foesius
bears the date of 1624,—that of Haller, 1775,—and that of Gar-
deil, 1801.   Since then, an edition  has been given  by Kiihn, in
1825, in which he  chiefly follows Foesius, with few alterations.
Foesius has abundant notes on nearly every treatise, besides  forty
or fifty pages of " various readings/' from numerous commen-
tators, but  which  would apply solely to a full translation, and
therefore altogether unsuitable to the nature of this work. 
vi                     TO THE READER.
   As this abstract was  originally  formed for personal conve-
nience, and without the remotest view of ever committing it to
press, I have  additional reason for requesting the indulgence  of
my readers for any errors they may find therein.  I am now too
far advanced in  life to again retrace the immense folios, which,
thirty years ago, afforded me  so much pleasure, but  which  at
present I can merely recur to  for occasional reference;  and I
regard this outline but as a pioneer, to aid perhaps the labours of
a younger and more accomplished translator of the  entire work.
                                JOHN  REDMAN COXE.
  Philadelphia, Sept. 16, 1846. 
TABLE  OF CONTENTS
TO THE ABSTRACT OF HIPPOCRATES.
                                                             PAGE.
To the Reader,      .......    3
Table of Contents to this English edition,  ....       7
  "   "     "    to Galen,   ......    9
Arrangement of Foesius,  ------       13
            of Haller,......14
     "      ofGardeil,  ------       15
Introduction, consisting of a concise notice of the lives and writings of
    Hippocrates and Galen—from Le Clerc, -      -      -          17
The Oath of Hippocrates,       -                                 42
The Law of Hippocrates,     ------   44
Of the Art of Medicine,  ------       46
Of the Art of Medicine in former times,     ....   55
Of the Physician, -------       69
Of Decency and Decorum,   ------   75
The Precepts of Hippocrates,    -----       79
The Book of Prognostics,    ------   85
Hippocrates on the Humours,    -----       99
     "     on Crises,       ------   109
     "     on Critical Days,    -----       117
Predictions  of Hippocrates,  Book 1,  -     -      -      -       -   122
    "      "    "       Book 2,     ...      -       124
The Coan Prognostics,       _..---   143
Of the Nature of Man,   ------       147
Of Generation,       -------   159
Of the Foetal Nature,    ------       162
Of the Origin of Man,      -      -      -      -      -       -   167
Of the Seven-Month Birth,       -----       169
Of the Eight-Month Birth,......171
Of Superfcetation,        ------       172
Of Dentition,  --------   174
Of the Heart,.......1*5
Of the Glands,.......176
Of the Nature of the Bones,     -----       177
Of Airs, Waters, and Localities,      -      -       -      -       -   179
Of Flatus,.......198 
Vlll
CONTENTS OF ABSTRACT OF HIPPOCRATES.
Of Epilepsy,      -------       201
Of a Healthy Diet,.......^'4
Of Regimen, Books 1, 2, 3,      -      -       -       -     206' 210> 213
Of Dreams,........215
Of Aliment,......     -       '       217
Of Food in Acute Diseases,  -      -      -      -      "      -   219
Of the Different Parts in Man,   -----       225
Of the Employment of Liquids,       -      -      -      -      -   252
Of Diseases, Books 1, 2, 3, 4,    -      -       -       254, 259, 265, 268
Of Affections,  --------   273
Of Internal Affections,    ------       278
Of the Diseases of Virgins,   ------   284
Of the Nature of Woman,       -----       286
Of Female Diseases,  Books 1,2,     -      -      -      -     291,303
Of Barrenness,   -------       306
Of Vision,........308
Of the Shop or Office of the Physician,   -       -       -       -       309
Of Fractures,  --------   311
Of the Joints,     -------       313
Of the Reduction of Fractures and Luxations,       -      -      -   315
Of Ulcers,.......316
Of Fistulas,   --------   318
Of Haemorrhoids,  -------       319
Of Wounds of the Head,......320
Of the Extraction of  the dead Foetus,                                 321
Of Dissections,      -------   323
The Epidemics of Hippocrates,  Books 1,3,       -       -       -  324, 345
    Pestilential Constitution, ------   351
    Thucydides on the Plague at Athens,        -       -       -       356
    Clifton's proof of this not being that described by Hippocrates,  -   360
Epidemics,  Book 3, continued,    -----       363
           Books 2, 4, 5, 6, 7,       -      -      371, 381, 399, 411, 414
The Book of Aphorisms,   ------       451
Extraneous,   --------   454
    Epistola? Hippocratis,       -                                   454
    Notices of his Life,      .---..   455
    De Hominis Structura,       -                                  456
    De Natura Hominis,     ----..   455
    Liber de iEtate,      .---..       457
    De Septimestri Partu,   ----..   457
    De Significatione Vita? et Mortis secundum Motum Lunee, &c,     457
    De Medicamentis Purgantibus,  -                               457
    De Veratri Usu,      .--...       ^g
    De Antidoto,     -----..   459
    Antidotum,   -----..       453
    De Re Veterinaria,      ------   459
Conclusion  of Hippocrates,      -----       459 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TO  THE ABSTRACT  OF GALEN.
                                                                PAGE.
Introductory Remarks,        ...---   464
Notice of Editions of his Works, -----      473
Prolegomena, seu Libri Isagogici,  -----   473
.Division of his Writings into Seven Classes, &c., -       -       -      474
Introductory Treatises, sixteen in number,   -      -      -      -   478
     Oration in favour of the Arts and Sciences,  -       -       -      479
     A good Physician must be a Philosopher, -      -      -      -   480
     Of Verbal Sophistry,......480
     If the Qualities of Bodies are incorporeal?      -     -      -   481
     Of the appropriate Books of Galen,  -      -       -       -      481
     Of the Order of his Books,     -      -      -      -      -   481
     Of the different Sects in Medicine,                             482
     Of the best Sect, -------   482
     Of the best mode of Education,      ...       -      483
     An Exposition of the Empiric Sect,     ...      -   483
     Essay in opposition to the Empiric  Sect,     -       -       -      484
     Of the Constitution of  the Art of Medicine,    -      -      -   484
     Of Medical Definitions,      -----     485
     Introduction to Medicine, ------  486
     Of the Detection of simulated Diseases,     -       -       -      488
     Of the Art  of Medicine, -      -      -     -      -      -  488
 Class First.—Of Physiology,—28 Treatises,   -      -       -      490
       Of  the Elements,      -      -      -     -      -      -  491
       Of  Temperaments,        -----      492
       Commentary on the Book  of Hippocrates entitled De Natura
         Humana,       -----             493
       Of  the Atrabilis,      -.....494
       Of  the best bodily Constitution,                              496
       Of  a good Habit of Body,.....496
       Of the Bones,      -.....497
       Of  Muscular Dissection,      -----  497
       Of the Dissection of the Nerves,   -      -      -      -     499
       Of  the Dissection of the Veins  and Arteries,  -      -      -   499
       Is Blood naturally contained in the Arteries ?     -      -      500
       Anatomical Investigations,—in 9 Books,      -      -      -  502 
X
CONTENTS OF THE ABSTRACT OF GALEN.
                                                                PAGE.
      Discovery of the six missing Books of Galen,      (Note)       519
      Of the Dissection of the Uterus,      -                        520
      Of the Organ of Smell,    -----       522
      Of the Uses of the different Parts of the Body—in 17 Books, -   523
      Of the Utility of Respiration,     .       -      -       -       533
      Of the Causes of Respiration, -----   535
      Of the Use of the Pulse,  -----       536
      Of the Subsistence of Natural Faculties,     -      -      -   537
      Of the Opinions of Hippocrates and Plato—in 9 Books,    -       538
      Of the Natural Faculties,     -       -       -       -       -   545
      Of Muscular Motion,      ....       -       548
      Of the Motion of the Thorax and Lungs,     -       -       -   549
      The Qualities of the Mind depend on the Corporeal Tempera-
        ment,       -------   550
      Of the Foetal Formation,  -----       552
      Of the Semen, -------   554
      If all parts of the Foetus are constituted simultaneously?   -       556
      If the Uterine  Foetus is an Animal?   ...      -   557
      Of the Seventh-Month Birth,      ....       558
Class Second.—Hygiene,    ---.._   559
      Three Commentaries on the Hippocratic Treatise of Air, Water,
        and Localities,      .-..__   550
      Of the Powers of Aliment,        -       -      .       .       561
      Of the good  and bad Juices of Food,   -                         562
      Commentary on the Hippocratic Book of a Healthy Diet,  -       564
      Of the Reasons for attention to Diet,  -       -      -      .   565
      Of the Ptisan, or Barley-Water,   -                            565
      Of the Game of Fives,  or Tennis,    -                         566
      Of the Knowledge and Cure of Mental Affections,        -       567
      A second Book on the same,   -                                569
      Of Habit or  Custom,      -                                   57O
      Of the Preservation of Health,—in 6 Books,   -                 571
      Whether the Preservation of Health depends on Medicine or
        Exercise?   ------.   574
Class Third.—^Etiology,        -                                   575
      Of the Difference and Causes of Diseases and Symptoms,__in 6
         Books,   ----...       r~~
      Of the Difference of Fevers,—in 2 Books,     -       .      .   500
      Of an unequal Intefhperies,      -                            coo
      Of Atrophy or Marasmus,     -                                -04
      Of Coma,  ---..__
      Of Tremor, Palpitation, Rigor, and Convulsion,       .       .   cor
      Of Difficult  Respiration,—in 3 Books,      -      .              ,-ftr
      Of Plethora,   ----._           ™
      Of Prseternatural Swellings,      -
      Of the Periods or Stages of Diseases,  -       .
                         0                             -       -   588 
CONTENTS OF THE ABSTRACT OF GALEN.
XI
                                                               PAGE.
      Of the Periods of the entire Disease,      ...      589
      Of the Form or Order of Diseases,    ...       -   590
      Address to Writers on the Types of Diseases,     -       -      591
      Of Procatarctic Causes,       -----   591
      1st Commentary on the 1st Epidemics of Hippocrates,     -      592
      2d       "        "   2d     "           »                  593
      3 Commentaries    "    3d     "           "                  593
      Commentary      "    6th    "           "                  594
      Three Commentaries on the Book of Humours of Hippocrates,   595
Class Fourth.—Semeiotics,  ------   596
      On the Parts affected by Disease,—in  6 Books,     -       -      597
      Treatise on the Pulse, for Students,   -                        600
      Of the Difference of  Pulses,—in 4 Books,  -       -       -      602
      Of the Knowledge of the Pulse,—in 4 Books, -      -      -   606
      Of the Causes of the Pulse,—in 4 Books,  -       -       -      607
      Of Prediction from the Pulse,—in 4 Books,   -      -      -   609
      Synopsis of  the 16 Books on the Pulse,    -       -       -      610
      On Urines,    -------   614
      Of Crises,.......616
      Of Critical Days,......618
      Three Commentaries on the 1st Prorrhetics of Hippocrates,      619
      Three Commentaries on the Prognostics of Hippocrates,      -   620
      Of Indication from Dreams,       ...       -      620
      Of Prognosis, -------   621
Class Fifth.—Pharmacy, ------      622
      Of the Powers of Simple Remedies,—11 Books,      -      -   623
      Of Medicinal Substitutes,  -----      625
      Of the Powers of Purgative Remedies,       -      -      -   625
      Whom, with which, and at what time, Purgation is proper,      626
      Of the Theriaca,   ------      626
      Of its use,    -------   627
      Of Antidotes,—in 2 Books,                                   627
      Of the Composition of Local Remedies,—in 10 Books, -      -   628
      Of the Composition of Remedies, per Genera,—7 Books,   -      631
      Of Weights and Measures,   -----   633
Class Sixth.—Instruments  op Clinical Practice,     -       -      634
      Of Leeches, Revulsion, Cups, and Scarification,      -      -   635
      Of Vensesection in opposition to Erasistratus,     -       -      636
      Of     "     in opposition  to the Erasistratians of Rome,   -   638
      Of the Rationale of Bloodletting,                             638
Class Seventh.—Therapeutics,      -----   642
      Of the Mode of Cure,—in 14  Books,      -       -       -      643
      Of the Method of Cure,—in 2 Books,  -      -      -      -   646
      Four  Commentaries on Hippocrates' Book, on  Food in Acute
         Diseases,    -------   648
      Of the Hippocratic Diet in Acute Diseases,       -       -      649 
xu
CONTENTS OF THE  ABSTRACT OF GALEN.
                                                                 PAGE.
       Of Remedies readily prepared,—2 Books,     -      -      649, 650
       Advice for an Epileptic Boy,       .       -      -      -      651
       Of Incantation, Adjuration, and Charms,      -      -       -   651
       Second Commentary on the Book De Natura Humana,    -      652
       Treatment of Ophthalmic Affections,  -                        652
       Of Disease of the Kidneys and its Cure,   -      -      -      653
       Three Commentaries on the Hippocratic Treatise of the Office
         of a Physician,  ------      653
       Three Commentaries on Hippocrates' Book of Fractures,      -   654
       Four Commentaries on Hippocrates' Book on Luxations,   -      654
       Of Bandages,   -       -      -      -      -      -       -   655
       Of Ligatures,      ------      656
       Of Surgical Apparatus,       .....   656
Additional Class—Having reference to Galen's seven Commentaries
         of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, &c,      ...   657
Spurious Writings that have been attributed to Galen,—in thirty-three
         treatises,     ------     659—668
Fragments discovered, having some relation to various parts of Galen's
         works, &c,   -------   669
Difficulties in perusing the old editions of Galen enumerated,    -      670
Chartier's List of the Books of Galen, from Le Clerc,       -       -   671 
ARRANGEMENT OF THE  WRITINGS OF  HIPPOCRATES.
                    By Foesius.—

               Sectio 1.

Hippocratis Jusjurandum.
Hippocratis Lex.
De Arte.
De Prisca Medicina.
De Medico.
De decenti Habitu, aut decoro.
Praeceptiones.
              Sectio 2.

Praenotionum Liber.
De Humoribus.
De Judicationibus.
De Diebus Judicatoriis.
Praedictorum,—Libri 2.
Coacae Praenotiones.
              Sectio 3.

De Natura Hominis.
De Genitura.
De Natura Pueri.
De Carnibus.
De Septimestri Partu.
De Octimestri Partu.
De Superfcetatione.
De Dentitione.
De Corde.
De Glandulis.
De Ossium Natura.
De Aere, Locis, et Aquis.
De Flatibus.
De Morbo Sacro.
              Sectio 4.

De Salubri Victus Ratione.
De Victus Ratione,—Libri tres.
De Insomniis.
Eight Sections.

De Alimento.
De Victus Ratione in Morbis Acutis.
De Locis in Homine.
De Liquidorum Usu.
            Sectio 5.

De Morbis,—Libri 4.
De Affectionibus.
De Internis Affectionibus.
De his quae ad Virgines spectant.
De Natura Muliebri.
De Mulierum Morbis,—Libri 2.
De his quae TJterum non gerunt.
De Videndi Acie.
            Sectio 6.

De Fracturis.
De Articulis.
Vectiarium.
De Ulceribus.
De Fistulis.
De Haemorrhoidibus.
De Capitis Vulneribus.
De Foetus mortui exsectione.
De Corporum resectione.


            Sectio 7.

De Morbis Popularibus,—Libri 7.
Aphorismorum, Liber.


            Sectio 8.

Epistolae aliquot.
Athenensium Senatus-Consultum.
Oratio ad Aram.
Thessali Legati Oratio.
Genus et Vita Hippocratis, Sorani. 
         ARRANGEMENT OF THE W

              By Haller.—In 4 vols.

        Tomus primus continet
 1.  Hippocratis librum  de  Aeribus,
     Aquis, et Locis.
 2.  De Natura Hominis.
 3.  De Locis in Homine.
 4.  De Humoribus.
 5.  De Alimento.
 6.  De Morbis Popularibus, lib. 1.
 7.  De Morbis Popularibus, lib. 3.
 8.  Prognosticon.
 9.  Praedictionum, libri duo.
10.  De Victus Ratione in Morbis Acu-
     tis,—Libros  4.
11.  De Fracturis.
12.  De Articulis.
13.  Mochlicus.
14.  De Capitis Vulneribus.
15.  De Officina Chirurgi.
16.  Aphorismorum,—Sectiones septem.

      Tomus secundus continet
 1.  Hippocratis librum de Corporum
     resectione.
 2.  De Carnibus seu Principiis.
 3.  De Ossium  Natura.
 4.  De Corde.
 5.  De Glandulis.
 6.  De Genitura.
 7.  De Natura Pueri.
 8.  De Septimestri Partu.
 9.  De Octimestri Partu.
10.  De Superfoetatione.
11.  De Dentitione.
12.  De Praedictionibus.
13.  Coacae Praenotiones, sectiones tres.
14.  De Judicationibus.
15.  De Diebus Judicatoriis.
16.  De Morbis Popularibus, lib.  2.
17.   "    "      "        Hb.  4.
18.   "    "      "        lib.  6.
19.   »    "      "        lib.  5.
20.   "    "      "        lib.  7.
21.  De Adfectionibus,—Sect. 3.
22.  De Internis Adfectionibus,—Sect. 3.
RITINGS OF niPPOCRATES,

8i'o.—Lausanne, 1775.

         Tomus tertius continet
   1. Hippocratis librum 1, De Morbis.
   2.     "      ejusdem librum 2.
   3.     «      ejusdem librum 3.
   4.     "      ejusdem librum 4.
   5. Muliebrium, lib. 1.
   6. Muliebrium, lib. 2.
   7. De Natura Muliebri.
   8. De Sterilibus.
   9. De Morbis Virginum.
  10. De Morbo Sacro.
  11. De Insania.
  12. De Flatibus.
  13. De Visu.


         Tomus quartus continet
   1. Hippocratis de Sanorum Victus Ra-
       tione, librum lmum.
   2. "   ejusdem, librum 2dum.
   3. "   ejusdem, librum 3tium.
   4. De Victus Ratione Salubri.
   5. De Insomniis.
   6. De Ulceribus.
   7. De Fistulis.
   8. De Hajmorrhoidibus.
   9. De Veteri Medicina.
  10. De Arte.
  11. De Medico.
  12. De Decenti Habitu.
  13. Prreceptiones.
  14. De Lege.
  15. De Jurejurando.
  16. De Hominis Structura.
  17. De Natura Hominis.
  18. De y£tate.
  19. De iEtate, Fragmentum.
  20. De Septimestri Partu.
  21. De Significatione  Vitas  et  Mortis
       secundum  motum Lunae  et ad-
       spectus  Planetarum.
  22. De Liquidorum usu.
  23. De Medicamentis Purgantibus.
  24. De Veratri usu. 
ARRANGEMENT OF THE WRITINGS OF HIPPOCRATES.
XV
25.  Antidotos.
26.  De exsectione Foetus.
27.  De Re Veterinaria.
28.  EpistolaB.
29.  Vitam ex Sorano.
30.  De Vita et Familia Scriptisque Hip-
     pocratis testimonia.
31.  Fragmenta et Elogia.
32.  Consentientia.
33.  Contradicta et Defensa.
Des Prognostics.
Des Humeurs.
Des Predictions.
De la Nature de l'Homme.
Des Airs, des Lieux, et des Eaux.
Des Alimens.
Du Regime dans les Maladies Aigues
Des Lieux dans l'Homme.
          ARRANGEMENT OF THE WRITINGS  OF HIPPOCRATES,

                By Gardeil.—4 vols. 8vo.— Toulouse, 1801.

  Gardeil divides his  translation into two parts.  The  first comprises only those
treatises that are uniformly attributed to Hippocrates; the second part contains such
as are ascribed to either his son, Thessalus, or to Polybius, his son-in-law.
                           Partie  premiere, savoir,
                                         Du Laboratoire du Chirurgien.
                                         Des Fractures.
                                         Des Articles.
                                         Le Mochlique.
                                         Des Plaies de la Tete.
                                         Des Epid^mies, liv. ler.
                                          "      "     liv. 3me.
                                         Aphorismes.
                               Partie seconde.
                                          De la Diete salubre.
                                          Du Regime.
                                          Des Songes.
                                          De l'Usage des Liquides.
                                          Des Maladies.
                                          Des Affections.
                                          Des Affections  Internes.
                                          Des Affections des Filles.
                                          De la Nature de la Femme.
                                          Des Maladies des Femmes, liv. Ier.
                                           i*     «     "      "     liv. 2de.
                                          Des Femmes Steriles.
                                          De la Vue.
                                          Des Plaies.
                                          Des Fistules.
                                          Des Hemorroldes.
                                          De l'Extraction du Foetus.
                                          De la Dissection des Corps.
                                          Des Epidemies, liv. 2.
                                           «      «      liv.  4.
                                                         liv.  5.
                                           "      "     liv.  6.
                                           «      «     liv.  7.
Le Serment.
La Regie.
De 1'Art.
De l'Ancienne Medecine.
Du Medecin.
De la Decence.
Les Avis.
Des Crises.
Des Jours Critiques.
Predictions.
Coaques.
De la Generation.
De la Nature de l'Enfant.
Des Chairs.
De la Grossesse de sept mois.
De la Grossesse de huit mois.
De la Superfetation.
De la Dentition.
Du Coeur.
Des Glandes.
De la Nature des Os.
Des Vents.
De l'Epilepsie, ou Maladie sacree 
 
       AN ABSTRACT





           OF THE






WRITINGS OF HIPPOCRATES. 
 
INTRODUCTION.
  Could man, as well  as animals in general, invariably subsist in
their natural state;  in other words, if their functions  always con-
tinued perfect in consequence of the perfect state of their organs,
they would enjoy perpetual health, and  disease being unknown,
the objects of the physician could never have come into existence.
This, however, not being  the case, and  disease  from various
sources springing up in his path, man necessarily was led  to  in-
vestigate the causes tending to such a change, and equally impelled
to attempt the discovery of the  means of relief.   As experience
could alone enlighten  him on  a  subject so interesting to his tem-
poral concerns, and as such experience could be elicited solely by
observations, such  observations  long  continued must have given
rise to that science which is designated by the name of Medicine.
  We  stop not to inquire whether such knowledge proceeded from
heaven, as was formerly imagined.  However this might have been
maintained in the early ages of the world, we must now be satisfied
that reason and reflection gave the first impulse to  those inquiries
and researches,  by which  Medicine  sprang  into  existence, and
through which it has  reached us  in  the state we find it.  The
Babylonians are even  affirmed  by Herodotus to  have  exposed
their sick in public  places, for the benefit of the advice of passers-
bv> who might  have previously witnessed  similar cases of disease,
and hence be  enabled to  apply  their experience  for their  cure.
Strabo relates the same, not of the Babylonians alone, but likewise
of the Egyptians and others; hence it appears, that although in the
early periods of the world there might not be physicians strictly so
called,  yet that medicine, practically, was pursued  even by the
most barbarous nations; and although we read in fable, or history
(then, and perhaps even now, not much more real), that the inven-
tion of medicine is attributed to  some particular individuals, we are
not to suppose  that such persons were actually the first who pre-
                              2 
18           _           INTRODUCTION.

scribed remedies, but rather that this honour was given to them,
from their being  among the  first who  particularly devoted them-
selves to medicine, and thereby excelled the common mass, by the
superiority attained through experience  more amply  afforded.
  If Adam and his immediate descendants were subject to the com-
mon laws  of nature, disease from various causes must necessarily
have produced its usual  effects on their frame, and it cannot be
supposed that attempts would not even then be made, and that most
sedulously, from  parental affection, to mitigate the sufferings that
were conspicuous.  Unquestionably then, in a limited view of the
subject, medicine may be presumed  to  be coeval with the  human
race.   Ages however probably elapsed  before any individual
could directly claim to  be acknowledged  as a physician;  and,
accordingly, we   find but few recorded even  remotely as such, or
whose  acquirements  in this  science have descended to us.  We
read of Bacchus, Zoroaster, Hermes, and others, who are supposed
to be the same with some of the early noticed personages of Holy
Writ:  but speculation has  been as endless as  it  is useless, in
attempting to reconcile all the absurdities of remote antiquity, in
which oral tradition was the sole intermedium of  the preservation
of knowledge.
  In proceeding down the vista of  nearly thirty centuries, or half
the period since  creation, little else than fable meets our research
on  topics  connected with our professional history.  Each nation
claims for itself the origin of our science,  and  with equal justice
might our aborigines do the  same.  The  knowledge of all barba-
rous nations must necessarily be limited, and little else than  blind
empiricism must direct the progress of our science, under circum-
stances so unpropitious to its extension  and  permanent utility.  We
therefore  pass them by, without even pausing upon  Esculapius,
who was  regarded by the Egyptians as the  pupil of Hermes, (to
whom they attributed the invention  of  medicine,)  but who was not
the same  with the celebrated Esculapius of the Greeks.
   Among the earlier pretenders to this science, we  find Melampus
of  Argos, who, from a shepherd, became celebrated for the cure of
 the daughters of Praetus, by the use of hellebore, baths, and charms;
 and received for his recompense the hand of one of the princesses
 together with one-third of King Praetus's dominions.  Nor is  the
 centaur Chiron, the tutor of Achilles, less celebrated as a  founder
 of our science, with equal probability to back his pretensions.  His 
                         INTRODUCTION.                      jg

pupils are among the most illustrious heroes of the fabulous age, as
Hercules, Theseus, Telamon, Teucer, Jason, Peleus, and Achilles,
all of whom were more or less acquainted with the healing art.
  The Grecian Esculapius was  however  the first, or at least the
most famous of all the presumed inventors of medicine.  Galen has '
unfolded his history in the introduction  to his  writings,  entitled
" Medicus," and  in other parts.  Charms, enchantments,  amulets,
magic incantations, and such like  means, appear to have consti-
tuted the basis of the therapeia of most of those  early aspirants to
medical  celebrity.   It  is nevertheless  presumable, that, although
the birth of Esculapius is ascribed to Apollo, yet such an individual
really had  existence,  and probably  possessed uncommon attain-
ments for his time.   Enveloped in the mystifications  of those dark
ages, it is impossible to ascertain his real merits.  He was regarded
as a god, and as such worshipped by the Greeks, and subsequently
at Rome;  temples in abundance were erected  to  his worship;  and
his sons Machaon and Podalirius arc  immortalized by Homer, as
being actively engaged at the siege of Troy.   The latter is said to
have first employed blood-letting, and among his children to have
had one named  Hippolochus, the reputed ancestor of Hippocrates.
   My object in  these few details of what had preceded Hippocrates
in the way of his profession,  and to which he  unquestionably must
have had access, is to evince that we are unwittingly led, unduly to
estimate his pretensions, as though he were the  actual father and
great head of our exalted science.  Now what is already stated is
amply sufficient to  show, that  facts known  and enumerated  for
centuries before him, were merely embodied into writing by him,
in  place,  as  previously, of being  sustained  chiefly  through  the
medium of oral tradition.—What actual  portion of those writings
that have reached us under his name, belonged exclusively to him,
it is  impossible to say.  I should myself judge but few,  and that
one of his chief merits consists in having afforded them, through his
writings, a "local habitation and a name."
   The fanciful and imaginative powers of the ancients are proba-
bly as well illustrated by the various  names afforded to their medi-
cal divinities as by  any other means, as evinced by the etymology
of  several of them.  Thus, the sun, under the name of Apollo,.is
the  presumed author of medicine;  Esculapius, the  asserted son of
Apollo, is taken for the air; Hygeia, or health, is called his wife or
daughter,  because our health depends on the air we respire above 
20                      INTRODUCTION.

all things;  JEg\e, or light, denotes that air, illumined and purified
by the sun, is the best of all;  Panacea, and Iiiso, or cure and uni-
versal medicine, signified that a  good air cured all  diseases; and
so of the rest.  But imagination is a poor guide in the mysterious
approaches to the temple of medical  science, and it is useless  to
occupy time in elucidating the views detailed under the histories of
Medea, Circe, Cybele, Latona, and a host of other female divinities
or enchantresses, with which  our ancient medical legends  abound:
and I proceed, therefore, to afford an outline of our science from
the period of the siege of Troy, in about the twenty-eighth century,
to that of the wa> of Peloponnesus, near eight hundred  years subse-
quently, that is, in the thirty-sixth century of the world.
  During this prolonged period, according to Pliny, medicine re-
mained concealed in thickest darkness, until Hippocrates brought it
into view.  Strictly speaking, this, however, was not the fact; for,
during that interval, some of the most illustrious of the ancient phi-
losophers existed, who first began seriously to attempt  an  explana-
tion of the laws of physiology and of natural science.   Such were
Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, and, generally speaking, the
descendants of Esculapius, or the Asclepiades, from  whom Hippo-
crates traces his descent.
  These  descendants of Esculapius have been reputed  to have pre-
served in their family, uninterruptedly, the  knowledge  of medicine,
and which, but for the loss of the writings of Eratosthenes, of Phe-
recydes,  of Apollodorus, of Arius of Tarsus, of Polyanthus of Cy-
rene,  and of others who had carefully written their history, we
might  have better  known.  From  his  own  account,  Hippocrates
was the eighteenth in descent from Esculapius, which, fabulous  as
it may be,  we  must be  content to  receive.  By some  or other
branches of  this family, the schools of  Rhodes, of Cnidus,  and of
Cos, were established;  and from them  sprung  most of the philoso-
phers who added so greatly to the reputation of Greece.
   The first  scientific labours in medicine, and the first  traces of
medical  history are probably to  be  alone found in  the philosophic
schools of Greece; for  although up to  the period  of  the siege of
Troy, as we have seen,  little but fable is known as to medicine, and
of that little nothing of importance; and although, from that period
to the thirty-sixth century, that is  for a period of  about  seven or
eight hundred years, nothing has formally reached us  as a medical
treatise,  until Hippocrates truly brought to light what was  known 
INTRODUCTION.
21
up to his time, yet the evidence of  physiological research, of much
anatomical and other knowledge, of the materia medica, of diete-
tics, of exercise  and gymnastics,  &c, as applied to  medicine, is
sufficiently extensive to point out the vast resources to which Hip-
pocrates could have, and must have had recourse, to permit us to dig-
nify him exclusively with those honourable, though specious appel-
lations, by which his predecessors  and contemporaries are entirely
rejected, and himself unduly elevated.  Nor can  we believe that
Hippocrates for an  instant dreamed of assuming such a  character,
to the  degradation of his predecessors, inasmuch  as  he  has given
us an express treatise " De prisca Medicina," in which the preced-
ing  views of medicine  are unfolded, and reference is  frequently
made  to  it in  other  of the treatises  which under his name have
come down to us.—We may cursorily indicate some of the indivi-
duals who preceded him, and  notice some writings that  have been
ascribed  to them.—Democedes, a contemporary  of  Pythagoras,
Thales,  Epimenides,  who  has  been  by  some regarded  as  the
author of the Cnidian Sentences ascribed to Hippocrates, as  the
Coac Prsenotions have been ascribed to the physicians generally of
the Coan school, anterior to Hippocrates, and of which school he
was a member.   Anatomy has been  thought to have  been  known
to many of them, and that in no inconsiderable a degree, since they
practised surgery successfully.  If we may judge from the writings
of  Hippocrates,  they must have had  a  competent knowledge of
osteology, of angiology, of many of the viscera, as the  stomach and
intestines,  the  liver,  spleen, kidneys, bladder,  uterus, diaphragm,
heart,  lungs, brain,  &c, as well as of  many  of  the more important
humours of the body, and of the various excretions from its diffe-
rent parts.
  Thales, the  Milesian,  who  lived about A. M.  3330,  has been
regarded as the first who wrote on natural  philosophy, which
would seem  to imply some acquaintance with medicine,  and to
Pherecydes of  Scyros, his  contemporary,  has  been attributed  one
of the books on Diet, to be found among the writings of Hippocrates.
Pythagoras, by far  the most celebrated of  the ancient  philosophers,
according to Celsus, was the oldest of those who  joined the study
of  medicine to that of physics.  He  lived about the sixtieth Olym-
piad, or nearly A. M. 3420.  His science  was universal to its then
extent, and his disciples were scarcely inferior in their attainments.
All, more or less, appear to have pursued physiology,  and to have 
22                      INTRODUCTION.

been more or less proficient  in medical attainments.   Empedocles,
one of them, is said to have  written on medicine not less  than six
thousand verses,  and he was nearly contemporary  with Hippo-
crates.  Democritus, whose merits in comparative anatomy  are
attested by Hippocrates himself, was also  his contemporary, and
he wrote on the Nature of Man, which is the same title with one of
the books ascribed to Hippocrates.  He wrote also another on pes-
tilential diseases, a third treatise  on prognostics, a  fourth on  diet,
a fifth  on the  causes of diseases, &c,—and others on seeds, trees,
fruits,  and  animals,  and even one on  the Stone.  In short,  the
galaxy of science  scarcely ever  shone so  resplendent by  its culti-
vators  than at this very point of  time, when the illustrious Hippo-
crates  began his career.  Whatever then may have been  the real
value of the writings of Democritus, it  is obvious they must have
been a source of great advantage to the  opening and observant
genius of Hippocrates.—We may incidentally remark, that Colu-
mella  quotes two books of Democritus, one on  Agriculture, the
other on Antipathies, in the latter of which he seems to have been
the first to attach  the powers of  death and destruction to caterpil-
lars and insects generally in our  gardens, if a female  in the men-
strual period walks thrice around the borders, barefooted  and  dis-
hevelled ;—a  ridiculous assertion,  void of truth,  but which is, per-
haps, not even  now altogether  discredited.—Besides  the  above,
Ceelius Aurelianus speaks of two other  books (Acut., lib.  cap.  14-
16, &c.) that passed under his name, but which he expresses doubts
of;—one treated of convulsive diseases, the other of  elephantiasis,
in which bleeding is especially commended.
   That  Hippocrates  had the highest esteem for this  great man,
cannot be questioned, from  the facts that have reached us.   Elian
even remarks  (Var. Hist. lib. 4, cap. 20) that  on his account, Hip-
pocrates wrote all his books in the Ionic dialect,  although the Doric
was his native idiom; and this fact, unquestioned I believe, has
strongly led me to infer, that many of the books, even of those that
have been  absolutely ascribed to  Hippocrates, are the writincs of
others given under the sanction of his name.   I would not* for an
instant throw this aspersion on the character of this great man, were
it not  allowed by Galen himself,  and by writers anterior  to him
that very many of the books that have reached  us under his name,
are the  absolute  production of others;  and that even of  those as-
cribed tohim, doubts have not been wanting as to which are really 
INTRODUCTION.
23
such.  Now, since  certainty cannot here be attained, whilst at the
same time conclusive evidence is produced that some called his are
not so, I do not perceive that my veneration for Hippocrates should
be questioned, because in a matter of uncertainty I hold the possi-
bility of his having  employed, or  rather collected (for which we
owe him thanks) into one work, the writings and opinions of those
who preceded him.  I shall not pretend to affirm, that, as literature
then existed  chiefly orally  and traditionally, as we  have seen, he
was bound absolutely  to point out his  respective authorities, which
might  have been of extreme difficulty, if not altogether impossible ;
but  that being of that  vague description which  forbid him  to as-
cribe them positively  to any particular individual, he might con-
sider them  as public  property, and therefore  made them  his by
embodying them into one general  mass, for which  accident alone
has given him the sole credit.   It is very certain that many of the
remedies employed by Hippocrates had been in common use long
before  him,  such as  elaterium, colocynth,  hellebore, and others;
and the employment of such active articles certainly implies a con-
siderable acquaintance  with the  Methodus Medendi, which only
wanted the facilities of printing to have established a character for
the Materia Medica of the age, but the want of which, necessarily
devolved it on him  to rescue it from oblivion, by embodying in his
writings all the medical information that had reached him.
   To condense what  has been said above, it would  appear, that at
 least during the first three thousand years of the world, all that has
 reached us, as  to  medicine, is chiefly  fabulous,  uncertain, and of
 little importance;  that the discoveries made were few and superfi-
 cial.  Notwithstanding this, if  medicine consists rather in effects
 than in words, and if the invention or discoveries  of remedial means
 is more important  than all our reasonings on disease, then it will be
 perceived, that  the first physicians actually were  intimate with what
 is even  now considered  most essential in our science, and that
 prior to  Hippocrates  they knew and  employed  almost all  the
 important and fundamental means of cure which have reached our
 times.  Thus all those ancient physicians esteemed  bleeding and
 purgation as universal remedies, and employed them accordingly,
 even  in those  fabulous times,  quite  as familiarly as Hippocrates
 himself.   They sedulously attended to diet, to bathing, and to exer-
 cise, which are not less deserving of attention  at the present day,
 although far too much neglected.   They were acquainted with the 
24                      INTRODUCTION.

effects of opium, if Homer is to be accredited, and apparently with
specifics for many diseases.
  All this,  indeed,  may be considered as being acknowledged  by
Hippocrates himself, for he expressly tells us " that medicine in  all
its branches had been long established ; that they had found out the
principle, and the  route of discovery as already had been done, of
many excellent things which would serve for the further discovery
of more, provided  those that  undertook the task were fitted for it,
and, possessing a knowledge of what had already been done, should
pursue a similar route.  He, that rejecting  all (he adds) that  is al-
ready known, should pursue another plan  for his  researches, and
boasts of having found out something  new, deceives  alike himself
and others also."  Now this ancient route of which  he  speaks, is
that of observation and experience; and his remarks may be con-
sidered  as  a  full acknowledgment of the important advantage his
predecessors  had  been to him; and had he been equally generous
in specifying  them individually, by naming his authorities, the re-
marks  I have made  would have  been  altogether  inappropriate.
Whatever merit then we may think  fit to award Hippocrates, assu-
redly we ought not so far to forget the other great men  by whose
means he was enabled to reach  the pinnacle of fame, as  not even
to grant them a niche  in  that  temple, of which he was indeed the
brightest ornament; but  in admitting his  claims, which  have thus
rolled down the stream of twenty-three centuries, I think it must be
conceded, that with the overshadowing I  have thus  presented, we
cannot in the full force of the term admit, that the title of Father of
Medicine  is justly his  due!—nor, indeed, of  several  other equally
highsounding  appellations, without  encroaching  on  the  rights of
others ; especially since it is incontestably proved that many of those
treatises we admire as his, have really emanated from other sources.
We follow the routine of our forefathers in this respect, and yet
scarcely with any of the well-grounded  reasons  they possessed.
They actually read, and studied thoroughly his  writings, whilst
now, should  he happily possess a nook in our libraries, it is almost
the sole communication  we  have with  this "divine old  man."
We treat  him as  a deity by enshrining him where no mortal eye
can reach  him, and are  satisfied to afford him at second-hand  the
tribute which we suppose to be his due.
   Galen has  done ample justice  to the merits of  Hippocrates, by
stating that he held the first rank among  philosophers as well as 
INTRODUCTION.
25
among physicians:  assuring us that Plato rejected none of his opi-
nions, and  that the writings of Aristotle are chiefly commentaries
on his philosophy, and that he himself had done nothing more than
interpret Hippocrates and Plato.   If this be true (exclusively of the
vast merits of Aristotle  on other points) assuredly  his writings
ought not to be neglected.   Galen farther remarks, that  it is from
Hippocrates and Plato that Aristotle  has derived his doctrine of
four primary qualities, viz.: hot, cold, dry, and humid.  Hippocrates
does not indeed  speak in  direct terms  of these qualities; but  he
admits of four elements, air, water, fire, and earth, which he after-
wards reduces to two, viz.: fire and water.  Now these contradic-
tions are presumed to be reconciled by the statement above detailed,
that the various writings are mixed up with those of Hippocrates
that are not his, for the book in which this appears, is one of those
that very anciently was set down as supposititious.    Hippocrates,
however, recognised a general principle, by him  called Nature,*
and which is used in various senses by  him; yet  in all  possessing
great power, and superior to all others;  acting  through the medium
of the faculties, its aids or servants: on  the one side attracting what
is good or expedient, on the other rejecting what maybe superfluous
or hurtful, and on these propositions turn nearly all the physiology of
Hippocrates,  which  is  meagre and threadbare,  when  compared
with the extension  it received from the expanded mind of  Galen.
To use the expression of Hippocrates himself, in his own  hands, his
theory is crude and unconcocted ;—in those of Galen, it becomes a
beautiful  and imposing structure, almost the work of his own
labour, based on the rude materials already existing, which, although
ascribed in general to Hippocrates, are, as has been shown, when
individually considered, almost without a parent, seeing  that many
of the  books, which chiefly develope his system, are  suspected  not
to be  his  (especially those entitled " Dc Flatibus," " De  Carnibus,"
"DeNatura Hominum," " De Natura Pueri," and" DeDieta,")—it
is consequently scarcely necessary to  dwell  on  such apocryphal
productions in order to swell  the praise of Hippocrates, or to sing
pecans, to what is,  as it respects him, almost intangible.
   We must not however omit to mention, to the credit of this illus-
trious man, that he was the first founder, if we  may so say, of  the

  * See Le Clerc, Hist,  de la Med. p. 107.  Auva^c, faculte, pouvoir, force, vertu, pro-
priete. 
26                      INTRODUCTION.

humoral pathology. Not that he troubled his head with the absurd dis-
tinctions  since made as to solidism and humoralism; for he possessed
too much good sense not to perceive that a mass of  matters, con-
stituting by far the largest part of the system, and in fact, the very
part from which the identical lesser proportion itself had been de-
rived, could not be independent of the causes of disease;  that  if
excessive or defective in amount, or modified by any circumstances,
or change of place, productive of an error loci, they could  not fail
of inducing disease proportionate to such modifications ;  and in the
changes  induced in these respects  in  the blood, pituita or phlegm,
yellow bile and black  bile, his four cardinal  humours, Hippocrates
founds a large proportion of morbid actions or diseases.
   According to him, the body of man is composed of the above
four substances, and it is by them that  disease and health ensue.
We continue  in a state of health so long as they continue in a
natural state, and in  due  proportion  as to  quantity, quality, and
mixture.  On the  contrary, disease .ensues when either of  them is
deficient or excessive in amount, when either separates from  the
other in  any part of  the body,  or when all of them are wanting in
their requisite qualities, or are not  united together as they ought to
be.   If  these positions assumed by Hippocrates do not constitute
him a humoral pathologist, we are altogether ignorant of, or mis-
taken in, the real nature of the term ;  yet, with these forcible illus-
trations of his doctrines before our eyes, he  is absolutely set down
by many, as a supporter of the dogmas of solidism !   If necessary,
this might be  entered upon in extenso, and more  largely demon-
strated,  but it would be only a work of supererogation, which, per-
 haps,  after all, would not  satisfy the tenacious  maintainers of
 sympathetic solidism and ventricular centralization !  I will merely
 add, that passages in his writings  would appear to indicate that he
 considered the bile and pituita to be the  chief causes of disease by
 mixing  with  the  blood, or from  defect of  quantity or quality, or
 relatively to the part in which they ought or ought  not  to mix or
 meet. The solid parts or the containing, are the subjects of disease
 and health, inasmuch  as they are  so, only according to the good or
 bad disposition caused in them by the  humours and spirits  or the
 advantageous or unfortunate impressions made on them by foreign or
 external bodies.  It  is  on  these  principles that  Hippocrates  lays
 such stress on the coction or crudity of the  humours,__a matter of 
INTRODUCTION.
27
no importance in the  doctrines of solidism, or at least in only a
secondary degree.
  This coction of the humours requiring, according to his views, a
certain definite period for perfection, led to the doctrine of crises or
critical days, in which more particularly, certain changes were an-
ticipated in disease; and these anticipated changes give rise to and
continue to afford the chief means of forming our prognostics  as to
the event.   Now these prognostics of course  can only be formed
on the presence of symptoms ;  and the attention of Hippocrates to
symptomatology, is that which has  chiefly gained him his title to
immortality on the records of medicine.   It is true much is abso-
lutely false as to  the prognostics he has left us; or rather it should
be said  that we know not precisely his own, from  the admixture of
his successors  and predecessors.  Long as was his life, however,
it is impossible but that much must have been derived from the
previous experience of his Asclepiadean ancestors, rejecting  what
he found to  be erroneous, and combining  together only what con-
formed  to his own practical knowledge.
   His symptoms were derived from every source; from the coun-
tenance, the  eyes, the  mode of decubitus, the motion of the hands,
the loquacity or taciturnity of the individual,  his respiration, watch-
fulness  or  somnolency, his excretions of  all  kinds, such as faeces,
urine, sweat, crepitus, saliva, sputa, tears, &c, all considered in
relation to quantity, quality, and the like.  It has even been asserted
by some writers  that he employed the sense of taste to discriminate
many;  this has,  however, been denied by others, who  affirm that if
done at all, it was effectuated by the organs  of the patient and not
by his own.
   One  thing bespeaks greatly the  independence of mind of this
great man, viz.:  that, although living in an  age in which supersti-
tion constituted a large portion of the practice of the physicians,
he did  not  yield to its  influence;  his reasoning, his observations,
and his remedies in no respect seem tinctured with this failing.  He
bled freely, and used purgatives of the most active nature;  diure-
tics and sudorifics were also employed  by him;  but  after all,  his
principal reliance was on dietetics, in which  none have  ever  ex-
celled him.  Fomentations and other external measures were not
omitted, both topical and  general, and for the period in which he
flourished, he may be considered as a bold practitioner.  In surgery
he appears  to have been very proficient, and to have practised 
28
INTRODUCTION.
 many important operations.  Even now, his sentiments and maxims
 relative to medicine and physicians  in  general, are  not  unworthy
 of deep regard.
   Let  us  now proceed to a brief consideration  of  the  illustrious
 Galen, whose works may be said with truth  to have bound  the
 medical world for many successive ages in a chain of adamantine
 strength, superior even to Hippocrates himself.   Nor will any one
 be  surprised at this who will  even  cursorily  glance them  over.
 Here, we  see our way, and mark with astonishment the eagle-flight
 of this extraordinary man.  His writings are confessedly his  own;
 few adventitious books of others swell his pages, further, than as a
 commentator on his predecessors  this was requisite, but for which
 he was fully qualified, from his persevering attachment to the  study
 and pursuit of his profession.
  He was born  at Pergamos, in Asia Minor, a city  celebrated  for
 a temple dedicated  to Esculapius, about A. D. 130—in the fifteenth
year of the reign of Adrian.  He  lived  to the age of one hundred,
under Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Commodus, and
Severus.   His father Nicon was a rich and learned man, skilled in
the belles-lettres, the philosophy, astronomy, geometry, and archi-
tecture of the  times ; and  who spared no pains  nor expense in  his
education, attending to it himself in the first instance, and then sup-
plying  him with  the best preceptors.   He studied first in the school
of the Stoics, next in that of the Academicians,  then of the Peripa-
tetics  and Epicureans, so that  he was  fully qualified to judge of
their respective merits.  With this preliminary knowledge he  com-
menced the  study of medicine at the age of seventeen, and had in
its pursuit several masters.   In  his youth  he  travelled  much, as
well to profit by the conversation of the best physicians, as  to in-
struct  himself respecting various  medicines derived from  different
countries.   He dwelt some years  in Alexandria amidst the cultiva-
tors of science ;  then proceeded to Cilicia, Palestine, Crete, Cyprus,
and elsewhere, passing to the Isle of Lemnos to investigate'the pro-
perties of the  Lemnian earth, at that period in  high  esteem :  from
thence he went  to  Syria to examine the opobalsamum, and  at
twenty-eight  years  returned to Pergamos, having acquired  great
skill in the treatment of wounded nerves, which he successfully
pursued with the wounded gladiators of  that place.
  At  the  expiration of four years he went to  Rome with  the  in
tent of there fixing himself, but the jealousy of the  physicians drove 
                         INTRODUCTION.                      29

him  thence in  a few  years: however, during his residence at
Rome, he became intimate with different persons of consideration
in rank or knowledge, which was apparently the principal source
of the ill will of rivals for public favour.  Leaving Rome at about
the age of thirty-seven, he returned to Pergamos; but was soon re-
called by Marcus Aurelius, and  thenceforth continued  to reside at
or near the metropolis.—It  is unnecessary to pursue further the
particulars of his life.  His facility in writing is well established by
the  numerous works that have come down  to us, independently of
many that are lost.   More than  five hundred books are stated by
Suidas to have  been written by him on medicine and philosophy,
and nearly half that number on other branches of  science.  Two
books were written  by him merely enumerating his works, and to
record, as to some of them,  the place and  time in  which he com-
posed them, the occasion leading to  it, and the order in which they
were to be read; and  we learn from him, that a part of his literary
labours was  lost by a fire that destroyed  the Temple  of Peace at
 Rome, in which they had been deposited.
   His works were greatly esteemed, even by his contemporaries;
 and we need scarcely remark, that they were the dominant source
 of all medical acquirement for more than twelve centuries!   Euse-
 bius, who lived five hundred years  after him, says that the venera-
 tion in which he was  held was such, that he was by many regarded
 as a god, and that religious worship was paid him.  Trallian enti-
 tles him  most divine; and  Oribasius,  by  his extracts, as well as
 by his praises, evinces the high estimation in which he held him.
 Ae'tius and Paul of iEgina, as well as Avicenna and other Arabian
 physicians, equally copied from him. He had, however, opponents,
 especially of those sects whose opinions he  combated ; but still, the
 far greater  part of the medical world adhered to  him  closely as
 their principal authority on every question  of importance.
    To enter on  his various opinions  in  this  brief outline of his life
 would be useless and imperfect.   It is principally from  the vast
 collection of facts embodied  in  his  writings by which his worth  is
 to be estimated and his actual  acquirements  judged of.   It is this
 that leads me to press him on the profession as deserving of regard,
 and thereby appreciate fully the high extent of medical information
 of  a  period so remote, but which pride and self-sufficiency forbids
  us  to acknowledge.   Perhaps   I should rather attribute  it to an
  absolute ignorance of the subjects  he treats,  for  to  me,  it seems 
30
INTRODUCTION.
 impossible  to imagine that any medical  man  can actually peruse
 his writings, without finding in them a complete encyclopedia of
 ancient medicine, both practical  and theoretical, amply sufficient
 to repay him for what  may at first be considered  as a task, but
 which in its progress will be found to be in the highest degree en-
 gaging and instructive.  If indeed any one can  read him without
 admiration at his wonderful attainments, I  can only say 1  think
 him greatly to be pitied.—It  must not from this be supposed that I
 am insensible to his defects! They are unquestionably considerable;
 yet they ought to be rather esteemed the defects of the age than of
 his own immediately.   It must be  borne in mind,  that he wrote
 under disadvantages that are not  now experienced.   The lights of
 science then, compared with ours, were dim and obscure; and im-
 perfect  as  they  were,  we have the  greater cause for admiration
 that he wrote so well.  Had he lived in our time, with all our aids
 for his co-operation, he would  have been  a bright  and shining light
 that  would have dimmed the  minor luminaries of  our numerous
 aspirants for  medical celebrity!  Consider that we are elevated on
 a pinnacle  of sixteen centuries, of which he constitutes the base;
 yet, elevated thus above him, where is the man who will now ven-
 ture to dispute his superior title to  the palm of medical  glory, or
 who  will venture to take a  more extended view of our science in
 all its  bearings  by  his oivn  contracted  vision,  than Galen has
 accomplished so  many  ages in advance ?  We  want his energy,
 his perseverance in preliminary attainments.  The very facilities we
 possess, are among the chief causes of our imperfection.  Like the
 hare  in the  fable, we  lie down  to repose, in full persuasion that the
 hours of indolence may be easily regained; or,  trusting to the  exer-
tions of more active  members, whose  improvements  are  at  once
diffused over the habitable globe  by means  of printing, we  make
them  ours, with  no exertions, and  no acknowledgments on our
 part.
  It has been said that Galen has  evinced great vanity throughout
his writings !  He has so; and if  any man, legitimately, was%nti-
tled to show it, that man was Galen !  But shall a weakness, common
to every one in riding  his respective hobby, be pardonable in the
 majority, yet reprehensible in  him ?  I apprehend, indeed, that no
one, who cannot claim to be his equal, is entitled to say what should
be considered as vanity in Galen.  He is undoubtedly reprehensible
 when he allows  his contempt for his  contemporaries to permit him 
INTRODUCTION.
31
to call them the " Asses of Thessalus."  Yet some extenuation may
be made for him when we recollect that friendless and a stranger
at first settling at Rome, the persecutions he  met with drove him
thence.  The associations of early lacerated feelings must no doubt
have  had an important influence  on  his mind, more  especially as
time had placed  him in the foremost rank in medicine:  he might
indeed have employed the pens of others, and probably would have
done  so, had parasites been in such abundance as at present!  Wri-
ters were, however,  few, and the requisite apparatus for writing
rare  and costly.   I do not  think  this fault of Galen  is exclusive;
few writers of ancient times neglected the opportunity of noticing,
without  a blush, their  own pretensions, and certainly Galen's were
at least of equal weight.
   It is scarcely necessary to attempt to excuse or apologize for his
 superstition  as to  dreams, incantations,  and other  characteristic
 fooleries of the age;  when, at this enlightened period, we accredit
 snakestones, panaceas, Perkinism, Mesmerism, clairvoyance, &c,
 surely we have no right to reproach him.
   We have already  stated  that a succession of great and  learned
 men had for  ages collected together, and preserved in one family a
 vast  assemblage  of facts relating to the healing art.  The observing
 character of Hippocrates, and his peculiar disposition to order and
 arrangement, led him to place them on a basis more secure; and
 what had  previously depended on oral  tradition  chiefly, through
 twenty  generations of the family  of the Asclepiades, became by his
 care  embodied  into  one.  No contending doctrines  marred their
 progress, nor did he  deem it essential to  his practical views to de-
 face  this  fair autograph of medical knowledge with the fantastic
 garb of hypothetic observations, which soon began to shed a bane-
 ful influence.  Whatever might,  indeed, be his private  reasons for
  avoiding  speculation, certainly we may  gather  from the extrava-
  gance of his followers, down to the present era, how little the bounds
  of truth  are thereby enlarged.   Successively changing,  we find
  presented to us even in the  time of Galen, no less than six prominent
  sects in medicine, each one combating the others, and all equally
  liable to objection.  These sects  were, the Dogmatic, the Empiric,
  the  Methodic, the Episyinthetic, the Pneumatic, and the Eclectic.
  From these, Galen was  to make his choice; and  although he pro-
  tests he will not be  called a follower of either of them, yet, so far
  as he can be said to choose among so many, it  may be esteemed 
32
INTRODUCTION
 the last, or the Eclectic, for he seems to have selected from all, as
 his judgment indicated.   It is true, the doctrines of Galen are based
 in great measure on those of Hippocrates; and if it could be shown
 clearly that Hippocrates was the sole framer of the opinions main-
 tained in his writings, and that all the writings under  his name are
 really his, and  from which, by piecemeal as it were, the doctrines
 must be  picked out;  and further, that they were  not the  general
 sentiments  of all the  Asclepiadean family throughout a series of
 several centuries; then, indeed, we might award its merit, if  any,
 to him,—but it is clear that the doctrines of four elements, &c, had
 been long previously maintained.
   Galen, adopting this system, has embodied it in a more compact
 and beautiful  manner than had  previously been known, and  may
 therefore be considered as its true founder;—but since the doctrine
 is fundamentally false in itself, inasmuch as the four bodies, fire,
 air, earth, and water,  are no longer regarded  as elements, it  may
 be properly  asked why the subject is dwelt upon ?   Now, although
 it is true that the above four bodies are rejected as elementary in
 the present day, yet it is equally true  that a very large  number of
 elementary  bodies have, through  the agency of chemistry,  been
 brought to our knowledge, of which many enter  into the composi-
 tion of the  animal machine,  and by their union constitute  the
 organization of the animal kingdom in.all its diversified forms;  and
 by the changes ensuing in the forms, sizes, and proportion of these
principles, so will there  be a proportionate departure  from a state
of health.  Hence, whatever would in former times afford evidence
of truth as to the doctrines founded on the former affirmed  four
elements, by Hippocrates or Galen, it is obvious that the same  will
hold with respect to  the present elements assumed  by us,  and
strengthened through the aid of chemical analysis, an engine of re-
search unknown to the ancients;  and  hence, their forcible expla-
nations and illustrations are the  more surprising.   In  order to
demonstrate this, a concise outline of the system Galen  adopted will
not be misplaced, as exhibiting a  display of talent and power of
combination in  its  construction, never excelled,  if  indeed  ever
equalled !  Certainly, other theories, ancient or modern, compared
with his,  have  been ephemeral; all have sunk into the common
tomb of wire-drawn hypotheses; few have survived  even the archi-
tect  of their existence, and some have died before their authors
without a sympathetic  feeling for their wounded pride by contempo- 
INTRODUCTION.
33
rary practitioners !   Now, it is true, that the same fate has attend-
ed Galen ; but it must be remembered to his superior merit, that his
doctrines  maintained a proud and  universal ascendency for more
than twelve centuries;—will those of present  notoriety reach even
to the end of the present? we are constrained  to doubt it.  In truth,
it  may  be affirmed, that  nearly all, if not the whole, of past and
present  theories, are really  to be found, at least in embryo, in  the
writings of the two great men whose views  in medicine are  thus
succinctly noticed.
   In order to comprehend the state of medicine in the time of Galen,
it is necessary tp recall to mind the diversity of sects then prevalent
in Rome. How many offsets of inferior interest might have merged
in  the six above mentioned, we cannot now determine;  of these,
the Methodists were chiefly in vogue, and  next to them the Dog-
matists, who split under the respective leaders, Hippocrates, Erasis-
tratus, Asclepiades, and others.  The Empirics were less esteemed,
nor were the Eclectics  much  more regarded.  The others were
rather scintillations from  the Methodists.
   Though Galen protests that he will  not avow himself a follower
of any preceding physicians, and considers  all those as  slaves who
in his time called  themselves Hippocratists,  Praxagoreans, or by
other names; and therefore apparently ranks among the Eclectic
 division,  choosing  the  best, from all  former  writers indifferently;
 yet, with all this, he was an undoubted Dogmatist, or Hippocratist,
 for he  followed  him alone, although  differing from  him in many
 particulars.  He was his favourite  author; and although not  spa-
 ring him  in  his  commentaries on  his writings, he nevertheless
 evinces the highest esteem for him, and avows that he had laid the
 foundation  of true medicine.   Thus prepossessed, he wrote  various
 books  against the other  sects, to  overturn  their doctrines,  and re-
 establish the Hippocratic principles.   He even affirms that  all pre-
 vious commentators to  himself, had failed, and that he alone had
 penetrated  the true meaning of his favourite predecessor.   Had he,
 indeed, done  nothing more than  illustrate  the medicine of Hippo-
 crates, his labours would  have been  of high  importance; for, if
 Hippocrates had taught  the only true medicine,  certainly his  suc-
 cessors had strangely deviated from the route he pointed out.  It
 is not this, however, from which he assumes most honour; it is that
 he first pointed out a just and rational method of treating medicine,
 and which is omitted by  Hippocrates;  and  to  fully inquire into
                                3 
34                      INTRODUCTION.

which, would be to establish a complete essay on  the institutes and
practice of physic in conformity to his principles;  but of which a
short and general idea can here alone be given, yet  sufficient to es-
tablish the relation and difference in the medicine of these two cele-
brated men.  Attention to  it will, I think, demonstrate that even
thus contrasted, its merits are pre-eminent;  and  that a  man who
could write so well as often to persuade, if not always to convince,
is not lightly to be rejected or forgotten, merely from being clothed
in a garment not at present fashionable.
  Galen sets off with the judicious  remark, that in order to become
acquainted with any art, we must know the end which that art pro-
poses to attain; and that the same  mode that should be followed to
distinguish other arts, will equally  apply to make  known the art of
medicine.   Some arts are merely  contemplative,  as arithmetic, as-
tronomy, &c, others, wherein a  certain  effect is obvious, but  so
soon as that  effect ceases, the operation of the  art  is no longer
conspicuous, as in dancing.  In others, the effect  is permanently
conspicuous,  as  in  architecture.   There  are others again, whose
whole design consists in acquisition, as in venation and fishing, &c,
but which may be considered as producing nothing.   Medicine is
of the number of those arts which produce something, and whose
work is evident, although its action ceases.  Hence it appears, that
in arts whose effects continue, a distinction may be drawn, the one
producing something that  did not exist  previously, the other re-
establishes  that which had  a previous existence,  as in the case of
medicine, which  maintains or preserves  the health of  the human
frame, or restores it when it is lost.
  This being admitted, Galen proceeds to say, that as an architect
ought necessarily to know all the parts of a house,  whether under-
taking to build a new one,  or  to repair one that is  old, so he who
would desire to establish an art, the subject of which  is  the human
body (viz. medicine), ought to be acquainted with  all the parts com-
posing that body, their substance, magnitude, figure, situation, num-
ber and inter-connexion; all which is attainable only by  anatomical
examination.  But the physician is distinguished from the architect
in this, that he should not only know  the  parts  of the human body,
but also the action of each  part,  since there  is no  one  part that has
not its own particular action or function.
  The duty of  the physician thus  instructed, is in the first place to
preserve the parts in their natural healthy  state, so as to subserve 
INTRODUCTION.
35
their destined use, and freely perform their functions.   2d.  To re-
establish them  in their former  state, when  those functions are ob-
structed, or even to endeavour  to reproduce when possible, parts
that are defective.   Now, without stating further what is advanced
on  these points, I think it must  be admitted that this foundation of
the Galenic system  is good, and perfectly true.  It is from this point
that speculation begins, but it will not  yield in  ingenuity to any of
the systems  of the  present  day, either in  lucidness or in  a firm
adaptation of all its parts.  Archimedes exclaimed, " Give me  a
place to stand on,  and I will move  the earth;" with equal justice
might Galen say, " Admit my  premises, and my superstructure is
perfect."
   The first elements of all the parts above adverted to, as of all
other bodies, according to Galen, are  fire, air, earth, and water.
The qualities of these elements are  heat, cold, moisture, and dry-
ness.   So long as none of the elements or qualities are predominant,
or  while there is an exact proportion between them, conformable
to  the natural disposition  of similar parts,  such parts have a  just
temperament, and perform their ordinary functions correctly; but
if any one of them  is defective  or excessive, an intemperies follows,
which,  reaching a  certain point, either destroys the function, or
changes it from what it should  be.   This temperament and intem-
peries  has  relation  also to  organic  parts,  inasmuch  as they  are
compounds of similar parts; and it  is to be remarked also with re-
gard to organic parts, that they are, or are not in a natural state,
accordingly as they do, or do  not, possess their ordinary figure or
magnitude, or as they are, or are not, in their accustomed place or
number.   Add to  this, moreover, their union or defect of union,
and a knowledge will be thus acquired of the good or bad disposi-
tion of  the  body, in which  health and  disease  may be affirmed to
consist.
   In relation to the possibility or impossibility of curing disease,
this has a  bearing both on nature and on the physician.   There are
certain things which nature can accomplish, and others which she
cannot.   She can  reproduce flesh  removed by a  wound or  con-
sumed by an abscess, because flesh is a part that owes its origin to
the blood; but she  cannot regenerate  a nerve or  an entire bone.
Now that which nature cannot effect,  neither can the physician
who is  only her assistant; but he  aids nature by seconding her
efforts,  or  by following her  intentions in all that can at times be 
36                       INTRODUCTION.

accomplished  by herself.   If nature can fill  up a deep ulcer with.
flesh, the physician  labours on his part to make the flesh grow, by
removing every obstacle  that can  oppose it, so far as it is  in  his
power.
  Medicine, says Galen, is an art that teaches how to preserve and
to restore health, or cure disease: and elsewhere, that it is a science
that  teaches the knowledge of what is  healthy, unhealthy, or inter-
mediate  between both ;  which, although ascribed to Herophilus,
has yet been explained or commented on very differently by Galen,
and  in a manner replete  with ingenuity and  good sense.  Thus
says he, there are three kinds of things that are objects of medicine,
and which the physician regards as healthy, unhealthy, and neutral.
These three things  are, the human body, the symptoms of disease,
and the causes of disease, on all which  he largely reasons and ex-
plains.   It is necessary here merely to notice, that the body may
exist under three dispositions, viz., of health, of disease, and neutral
or intermediate between both, and  these comprehend  all the extent
or distance from  extreme  health to extreme  disease, each disposi-
tion  having  its peculiar range, depending on  the due or undue ap-
portionment of the  principles of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness,
and  the  due or  undue disposition,  size,  figure, connexion, &c, of
the  various parts; and these are subdivided by the greater or less
predominance of the one over the  other; superadded to which is a
certain inexplicable peculiarity or  property of the bodies of some
individuals, having  no connexion with the qualities stated, but de-
pending on occult or hidden causes.  This peculiarity of tempera-
ment is  called idiosyncrasy; by which one person has an aversion
to some  peculiar food, another, to another kind ; some are affected
by a peculiar odour, &c.   The different temperaments may deviate
indefinitely from their relative existence in health,  yet this does not
produce  actual disease, so long as  the intemperies  that causes them
to diverge from perfection, does not hinder the action of the  parts;
but as soon as this ensues,  the body is in a  morbid  state.   Hence it
is, properly speaking, the  impediment to the proper action of parts
that constitutes disease.  All that space between the two is neutral
that is, a state neither of disease nor health ; the individual is not  yet
sick, because the action of parts is not yet sensibly impeded ; he is
not  well, because the disposition exists in those actions, not  to  fol-
low their accustomed train.  He then describes at large the sio-ns
of a good and bad constitution of the body, as  well as of the neutral 
INTRODUCTION.
37
state: they are derived from his first named qualities,hot, cold, &c,
when similar parts are in question, and when compound or organic
parts are the subject, from the due or undue proportion of their
size, figure, situation, &c, and he derives the causes of these three
different constitutions from the same source.
  It may  be remarked,  that  Galen,  like Hippocrates, establishes
three principles of animated bodies, viz., the solid parts, the humours,
and the spirits.   The solids  he divides into similar  and organic.
He  also .recognises the four  humours of Hippocrates, viz., blood,
pituita, bile, and melancholy ;  and his  opinions relative to hot, cold,
dry, and moist, are nearly the same as those of his illustrious pre-
decessor.  As to the spirits, he divided them into natural, vital, and
animal, which he supposed answered to, and were instrumental to
three sorts of faculties residing in those parts in which each kind of
spirit  was produced.  Without  entering further  into his views, I
shall merely mention that phrenological ideas were assuredly fami-
liar to him, for in one part of his writings, according to  Heurnius'
quotation,  he is made to say, that when the brain  is affected " apud
anticos ventres suos lsedi imaginationem ; sin 1111 medios secum  ven-
triculos trahant, perverti et cogitationem."   Now although Galen's
opinions on this point are really of no  moment in deciding its truth,
it is nevertheless  worthy of consideration, whether the reasonable-
ness of  its investigation is not supported, by perceiving it to be the
natural emanation of a strong and vigorous mind, even sixteen cen-
turies  before it was recognised as a  science.
   The preceding, together with some  minor distinctions and terms,
 may be considered as the foundation  of all Galen's reasonings or
theories on ihe causes and nature of  health and disease.   He pre-
 sumed that health was maintained so  long as the  faculties are'fit to
produce their ordinary actions, or while those actions  are entire
 and perfect; whilst the  reverse of  this induces disease.  Now, as
 the actions cannot be free or  entire  unless the  solids  as well as the
 fluids  are well disposed, it may be  said that health depends in the
 first place on the  symmetry  of the organic parts, and in the union
 or  connexion of them  all.   So  long as the humours and solids
 continue thus, the spirits which follow  the nature  of the humours
 cannot be otherwise than well-conditioned,  and  consequently the
 actions (the result of the organs of the spirits, which are themselves
 directed by  the faculties mentioned), cannot  but  be perfect.  On
 the contrary, let the humours and solids become  altered, deranged, 
38
INTRODUCTION.
or disunited, the spirits  must become disordered, and their actions
interrupted.  And here  I must  be permitted to remark,  that, at
least in my opinion, this theory of Galen, embracing as it does both
the solids and the fluids, is infinitely superior to the dogmas of our
times, by which the doctrines of Solidism or of Humoralism are
separately maintained ;  for it  is utterly impossible that those parts,
so essentially united by the Deity, can  be separate and independent
media  of disease, individually considered.  If we might  be per-
mitted  to apply to these respective and equally essential  parts of
the animal economy, the anathema of the  marriage ceremony, we
might emphatically repeat on this point: " What God hath joined,
let no man put asunder!"
  On the principles above unfolded, Galen defined disease,  to be an
unnatural disposition or affection of the parts  of the body, which
primarily, and  per se,  prevents  their action ;  and he  established
thereon three principal genera of disease.  The  first regards similar
parts;  the second, organic or compound parts ; and the third, was
common to both.   It  is  unnecessary to enter into particulars as to
each of these; I  will merely  say, that, admitting the premises to
be correct, the superstructure  is  not unworthy of his expanded
mind;  neither can I enter into a detail  as  to wherein he agrees or
differs  from the  fundamental  views of  Hippocrates.  He  has, as
occasion required, added to, or  retrenched  from  them ;  and has
thereby constituted a whole, far superior  to that  of Hippocrates,
more  consolidated  and  perfect.   Whoever  desires more fully to
investigate the respective views of these great and illustrious men,
will do  well closely to read their works; or if  they are not attain-
able, at least to study them, as  given in the excellent  histories of
medicine by Le Clerc, Friend, and  Sprengel, especially the former,
—who, after giving pretty fully in detail the system of Galen, says,
that its  faults, if examined in connexion with the Cartesian philoso-
phy, or that of Democritus, of Epicurus, or of Asclepiades, will not
permit  us to disavow that it is  very ingenious, and perfectly well
carried out; that if we find some  scholastic questions that if use-
less may be passed  over, many things are to  be discovered in it
which  greatly assist in forming the physician,  and pointing out to
him the road  to  practice; and  that  this would  be especially dis-
covered, if in place of giving a  mere  idea of his  medicine, an
abstract had been given of all his writings; which, we may add,
whether referring to his particular  knowledge of the individual 
INTRODUCTION.
39
branches of the science, or to his more extended and general views
of the whole, bespeak such a profound' degree of knowledge, as to
call forth our warmest veneration  and  respect.   Engaged as he
was most fully in the practice of his  profession, the mind is over-
whelmed  by the consideration of his  extensive literary and scien-
tific productions ; six immense folios on medicine have reached us,
besides a  vast number of his writings, nearly equal in amount, that
have  perished by the  chance  of time,  bespeak  his  indefatigable
exertions, proving  that not  a moment passed him  unattended to!
Can  such a man  be cast into  oblivion,  or  suffered to remain un-
known to us, except by name, in these days of inquiry and  research'?
If nothing more, curiosity alone should urge to a more full inquiry
as to what a writer, of nearly  the  period of our Saviour, has left
behind him:  and should that powerful engine provoke to the  re-
search, it will soften down to the calmer desire of really  becoming
acquainted with him ; for we shall soon discover that his  pages are
replete with facts and observations not less important to our science
now,  than at the distant period  at which he  flourished ; and I most
sincerely hope and trust that the day is not far distant when we shall
be enabled to view him fully in an English translation, and thereby
prove, that hundreds of the  profession have  derived their celebrity,
from  our general ignorance of  the  learning and attainments of
Galen, by stripping the laurels from his honoured brow, with which
they  have unduly weaved  a wreath  to place around their own,
altogether undeserving of it. 
 
THE  WORKS  OF  HIPPOCRATES.
          THE OATH OF HIPPOCRATES.

                    SECTION I.—TREATISE I.

          JUSJURANDUM HiPPOCRATIS,   .   .   FffiSIUS, p. 1.
          De Jurejurando.....Haller, iv. p. 197.
          Le Serment......Gardeil, ii. p. 179.

   This treatise, constituting the celebrated Oath of Hippocrates, we
 are told by  Haller, contains the rules or statutes of medicine, which
 the student  was required to receive, and confirm by taking it.  It
 points out the gratitude due to the preceptor;  adverts to the treat-
 ment of the sick, and abjures the use of all dangerous remedies or
 measures.   It leaves certain  operations to the professed artists in
 that line;—and  he  adds, that it might be supposed to be written
 after  the  subdivision of medicine into distinct branches.   Some of
 the ancients acknowledged this treatise, but Mercurialis considers
 it  as  spurious.   It has been largely and learnedly  commented on,
 by various  writers, more  particularly by Meibomius,  who has
 pressed into his service the aid of not  less than four hundred au-
 thors, in law, physic, and divinity.1
   It is  scarcely to be credited  that Hippocrates was the author of
this oath—many, besides  Mercurialis,  have ascribed it to  other

  1 Z. Zwingerus, J. Gorrseus, B. Hollerius, Rauchinus, &c., are among  the most
celebrated. 
42                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

persons.   A strong presumption of its not being his, may be derived
from the oath itself, in which  every means of  inducing abortion is
sedulously prohibited;  and yet, in the treatise " De  natura pueri,"
we find a female made to abort under the author's exclusive direc-
tion and  prescription.   Now, if Hippocrates  was the author of this
last named treatise, and was  the pious  character which his wri-
tings pretty generally  indicate, it is inconceivable that he should
thus have perjured himself.   If not his, it has never  been shown
satisfactorily, whether it is anterior,  or posterior to his time, though
probably posterior.—Ed.
  The first part of the oath is taken up by an adjuration to Apollo,
Esculapius,  Hygeia, Panacea,  and  all  the  deities,  faithfully  to
fulfil all its requirements, to the  best of his  knowledge and power.
Next follows the avowal of gratitude, and  its  scrupulous perform-
ance in the highest degree, towards his preceptor and all his family:
regarding him as a parent, and his children as relations; engaging
to teach the science to them without a fee, in its full extent, as he
would  do to  his  own, and  that without  a  previous assumption of
this oath, he would teach the science to no one.  In the next clause
of the oath, he  promises to act faithfully towards the sick, prohibit-
ing all  that could harm them, and never prescribing (medicamen-
tum  lethale,  Foes.;  tpappccxov,  Hip.)  poisons, or  remedies for pro-
curing abortion/  Neither will  he operate for the stone, but leave
it to those who  are devoted  to it.   He professes  to live a chaste
and pious life—to observe profound secrecy in his profession as to
family transactions; will avoid all  corrupt influence with either
sex in  the employment of aphrodisiacs, whether bond or free, and
in case he should act in opposition to the  above, he  prays that he
may neither live long, be successful in his pursuits, or become cele-
brated  in his profession ; but that  if  he  scrupulously observes these
rules, the reverse may be his destiny.

  That part of the oath which has a reference to venery (appo^uv),
might, without much difficulty,  perhaps, be made to refer to a de-
  * Pessum subdititium ad foetum corrumpendum, Foes
ler ; ITiccoy ^>6o/>/cy, Hippocrates.—A dangerous pessary. 
THE OATH OF HIPPOCRATES.
43
termination to give no attention to syphilis and its various compli-
cations ; [" ab omni scelere voluntario  et  corruptila, turn alia, turn
operum venereorum in corporibus mulierum ac virorum, liberorum,
ac servorum procul remotus," Haller.]  Foesius  differs  but little.
Such were the libidinous and sodomitic propensities at that period
in Greece, that it surely cannot  be supposed that  all venereal dis-
eases were then  unknown !—or, that, being known, their cure might
not have been left to particular  individuals.  It is  probable, how-
ever, that it is not  the intrinsic intent of the text.—Ed.

  Note.—" O^uc, item Jusjurandum.  Medicis peculiare conscripsit Hippocrates non
adeo ineptum.  Prcestatio Juramenti non solum  lingua, sed et  corde, vel animo puro
fieri debet."—Castelli Lexicon Medicum. 
        THE LAW  OF  HIPPOCRATES.

                   SECTION I.—TREATISE II.

  OF THE  REQUISITES TO CONSTITUTE THE ACCOMPLISHED PHYSICIAN.

        HirpocRATis Lex,.....Fcesius, p. 1.
        De Lege,.......Haller, vol. ii. p. 195.
        La Rkgle.......Gardeil, vol. ii. p. 181.

  Haller tells us, that this treatise  was  every where  accredited
by the ancients, but was rejected by Mercurialis; and that it refers
to the  education, &c, of the physician.  That medicine, although
of the highest rank, had yet been extremely degraded,  and points
out the causes.  The rules for its attainment  are stated particu-
larly, under  six requisites, in order to become fully masters of the
science.
  As this treatise  is  short, I have  judged it to be  sufficiently
interesting to give  it nearly in detail.   It has been, I believe, trans-
lated  by M. Dacier—but I  have never  met with it.  It has been
illustrated by Zwingerus, Heurnius, Fonseca, and others.—Ed.
  Of all the  arts, medicine is the  most illustrious ;  but the  igno-
rance of its professors, and that of  those who judge of  their quali-
fications, is the cause of its having  been considered as  among  the
most contemptible.  This, in  my opinion, arises chiefly, from  the
circumstance, that  medicine  is  the only  profession, for which, in
our cities, there is no penalty attached to such as ignorantly pursue
it, beyond that of contempt.   But  ignominy scarcely wounds  the
ignorant.   It is  with  them, as  with  the  dumb performers of  the
theatre: they have the form,  the  dress, and  mask of  the  real
actors,  but in nothing else do they resemble  them.  So we find
many who are physicians in  name  and appearance,—but few who
are  such in reality.  Six  things are required to constitute a physi-
cian:—Natural talents—a good education—a competent instructer
—early study—industry,  and  adequate time.  The chief of these 
                    THE LAW OF HIPPOCRATES.                 45

is  natural talent.  In  want of  this, all is  useless.  But if this is
possessed, the art may be acquired, by due attainments previously;
—and by beginning to study it  at  an early  age, and in a  proper
place.   We must, moreover, be industrious,  and continue  long in
study, by which  means the science  becomes,  as  it were, natural,—
rapidly  increases,—extends its researches,  and brings forth  mature
fruit.
   The  study  of  medicine may be compared  to the culture of
plants.   Our nature or disposition is  the  ground; the precepts of
the teacher are the seed ; commencing our studies early, resembles
the sowing of the seed in a proper season; an appropriate location
for the  pursuits  of study, resembles the surrounding atmosphere
which  affords  nourishment and growth to the  plant; diligence in
study,  is like the various  means  pursued to render  the   ground
fertile ;  finally, the long continuance  of our  studies, resembles the
period  essential to full and perfect fructification.
   Those who  fully attend  to the above precepts, will attain to  a
true  knowledge  of  medicine,  and should every where  be con-
sidered  as  masters of their profession, and  not merely  nominal
physicians.  They  may  come  forward with  confidence;  whilst
ignorance proves but a poor foundation, and an empty treasury at
all  times ;  the  enemy of all confidence  and trust;  a source of
audacity as well as  of timidity—since timidity is the offspring of
weakness,  as  audacity  is  of ignorance.   Science and   opinion
govern  the world : the one points out our knowledge—the latter
our deficiency.   Things of a sacred character should be unveiled
to the  pure alone; for it is  sacrilegious to  communicate  them to
the profane, before they  have been initiated  into the  mysteries of
science.

   Note.—"Lex, vo/Aot, licet proprie non sit terminus medicus, Hippocrates tamen
transsumsit e foro politico in medicum, &c."  De necessitate  legum adversus pseudo-
 medicos, vide C. Regies, Camp. Elys. Q. 21. n. 16.—Castelli Lexicon Medicum. 
ON  THE  ART  OF  MEDICINE.
                    SECTION L—TREATISE III.

         De Arte.......Fojsius, p. 2.
         De Arte.......Haller, vol. iv. p. 155.
         De L'Art,.....Gardiel, vol. ii. p. 183.

  In  his prefatory remarks,'Haller says that Mercurialis regarded
it as  spurious, and  unnoticed by  any  of the ancients  except the
author of the  Definitions.   He says it is altogether a tissue of rea-
soning; it enters into a defence of physicians, and regards them as
free  from blame when death  takes place, which he  considers  as
rather dependent  on the fault of the patient, or the impotence of
medicine from the insufficiency of its means, when  no suspicion of
the intelligence or attention of the physician can be apparent.  Nei-
ther is it considered as correct, that any one is  restored to health
without the employment of medicine,  although unattended by  a
physician, since  every thing that is beneficial or injurious, pertains
to medicine.  Nor is  the  physician  blamable  who refuses  atten-
tion to desperate diseases.   It proceeds  then to the consideration of
several particulars of  an obscure nature in the human body, which
are to be comprehended through a process of reasoning, depending
on the  manifest  qualities of the  excretions, &c.  Some notice  is
taken of several of the cavities, the cellular tissue, &c.
  The order of the treatise is a dissertation  against the calumnia-
tors of medicine, whether sophists or the common people.  It refers
primarily to the arts in general, and then to medicine in particular,
the  certainty of which, as an  art, it professes to demonstrate; this
is followed by a variety of topics, appertaining  to the physician, to
the  patient,  and to the disease.  We give a  free translation of the
whole.—Ed.
  Note.—" Ars, t^v*, verum est genus medicinse, quicquid nonnulli Arabum secuti
placita regerant.  Denominatio a fine petenda est ultimo.  Qua?cunque igitur termi-
nantur operations sunt artes : quorum terminus est sola cognitio, scientiarum nomine
venire debent.  Imo £*t it-o%»i vocab. hoc Medicinam significat., 1. aph. 1 " &c—
Castelli Lexicon Medicum. 
ON THE ART OF MEDICINE.
47
  Many undertake to  decry the  arts, not from any expectation of
destroying them, but merely to evince their genius.*  The real in-
tention of an  enlightened mind, however, is that of attempting to
discover something  new  that may be  useful, or  to perfect that
which is already known.   To pretend  to  tarnish the  labours of
others by idle  remarks  without improving them, for the sole purpose
of lessening their merit in the eyes  of ignorance, is a proof rather
of malevolence than of a good disposition. As  ignorant and wicked
people are naturally envious, it is  of course to be expected that they
will attempt to overturn what is good, or to  ridicule its deficiencies:
but  they cannot  attain  their end.  It is incumbent on all to uphold
their profession to the  best of their abilities, against insolence and
temerity; and here  it is  my intention to defend medicine against
injustice and calumny.  If, in this  intention, there is any presump-
tion, considering whom I  am to attack, the  art I profess to defend,
will render my attempt easy,—the  principles on which  it is  based
will afford ample means.
   It will be admitted  at  once, that there can be no art, in respect
to things that  have no  existence; it would  be  absurd to treat of a
non-entity in any way ; for how  can any conceive the mode of ex-
istence of what has no existence'? and if it is impossible  to see what
does not exist, as we see that which does, by what means shall we
know it, or whether it be good or bad!  Were this possible, I can-
not perceive  how we  could discriminate between non-entities and
those things that are cognizable to  our senses.  Existing things may
always  be  perceived—and  by  this alone that existence is  appre-
ciated.   Those arts which exist, are known  by our seeing them,
for  not one exists that is not manifest in some way.  Now it is the
particular species of art, that has given to each its especial title.  It
would  be absurd to suppose the particular species is'owing to its
 name,—that is impossible.  Names are merely conventional  terms,
 whereas species are the real products.  If the reader does not com-
prehend this sufficiently, he must have recourse to other works.
   As to medicine, our present subject, I undertake to demonstrate
 its  existence, and what it actually  is,—I commence therefore  with
 its definition, according to my apprehension.
   Medicine is an art that cures the sick, or lessens their pains, and
 which  has nothing to do  with incurable  diseases : for that which is
* Ostentationem sciential. 
 48                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 irremediable, medicine  knows not how to attempt its cure.  And I
 now proceed to prove, that  it performs what it  promises, and that
 it is always capable of doing so;  and I will  at the same time refute
 the  reasons of those who attack  it in those  parts, wherein to them
 it seems most weak.
   My first proposition  no one can deny.   It will be admitted that
 some of those who apply for medical assistance  have been cured,
 but  not  all:  and it is this which has given rise to the  opposition
 against  medicine.  Its enemies assert, that the larger part of those
 attacked by the same disease, and who are  restored to health, owe
 it to good luck, and not to the rules of art.   Now, I have no desire
 to rob Fortune of her just  rights, and therefore I  must acknowledge
 that all who  are well attended to, are very fortunate, whilst those
 who are neglected or illy treated, are extremely  unlucky.  But how
 happens it that those who are cured, should prefer ascribing it to
 any thing rather than to art, when their cure has been actually ac-
 complished solely by their  having  employed and  attended to  its
 rules?  They did  not commit  themselves to fortune, but called in
 the assistance of art.   Hence, they  are in  this  respect  altogether
 absolved from all  acknowledgment to the former, but not so with
 respect to art.   They recognise  art, insomuch as they pursued  its
 rules, and cannot deny its existence, when evinced in the effects it
 has produced.
   But  it will be said,  that many sick persons  have been cured
 without  the  aid of a  physician.  Who doubts this ?  It  is very
 possible, that  without having called in  a physician, they, neverthe-
 less, have fallen  into the arms  of medicine.  Not that they knew
 what medicine  approved of,  or  disapproved ;  but  they  happilv
 employed the very means which a  good  physician would  have
 himself made use of, had  he been called to  their assistance ; and,
 it is a strong  evidence of art and its powers,  when those, who have
 no belief in  it, yet  owe their safety  to  its rules  : for it is certain,
 that  those who have recovered,  without the aid  of a physician,
 must have  beerj cured, either by doing certain things, or by doing
 nothing.  In fact, they have been  saved, by food  or by abstinence;
 by drinking or abstaining from drinks; by bathing or not bathing
 by labour or rest; by watching or sleeping; or by an alternation°of
 all these.  Now, since benefit was obtained, they must of necessity
 admit,  that there  was something done, by which  that benefit was
obtained.  On the contrary, if injury was sustained,  it must equally 
ON THE ART OF MEDICINE.
49
have arisen from something.  It  is indeed true, that few are quali-
fied to distinguish between what  was beneficial or hurtful to them.
He,  however, who is* capable of such  a discrimination, and  of
justly appreciating the measures he may have adopted, will equally
discover, that what has saved him, is, in fact, a part of medicine.
Even the faults he may  have committed,  are  not less  striking
evidences of the existence of medicine: for, that which benefited,
did so, only on account of its timely employment; as, on the con-
trary,  what was  injurious, was  so,  only  on an opposite reason.
Now, wherever the good, or the  bad, has its own peculiar termina-
tion, how can it appear that art  has no existence 1  For myself, I
think, that art can alone be absent, when what was done, produced
neither a good nor a bad effect;  and that, when either appears, the
existence of art, is fully substantiated.
   I admit, that if medicine and physicians effected cures by purga-
tives or astringents alone, our arguments would be weak ;—but we
see the ablest physicians  cure diseases by regimen, as well  as  by
every  other kind of remedies.   Now,  we must admit,  unless we
are ignorant, or deficient in understanding, that the  employment of
regimen, is a dependent on art.  Nothing  is useless  in medicine in
the hands of good physicians—we see various remedies, and cures
in many instances, under the operation of nature, as well as through
that of human industry ; and such as  have been restored without
the aid of a physician, can in no respect attribute their recovery to
chance, with any just foundation.
   Chance, when we come to examine the phrase, means absolutely
nothing.   Every  event has a certain cause, which is, itself, the
effect  of  some preceding  one.   Chance, therefore, cannot be said
to have existence.  It is a term employed by ignorance for what it
does  not comprehend.   But medicine is, and always will be, seen
and demonstrated in its effects,  induced by causes, which neces-
sarily are incapable  of producing  any others,—and this  is our
answer  to those who attribute  their  recovery  to  chance, rather
than to the art of medicine.
   As to  those who allege the number of deaths under the employ-
ment of  medicine, I wonder what reason  so evident can be given,
that complaint should  be  made of the  ignorance of the physician,
rather than of the irregularity of the patient; as if it was possible
for the former, alone, to practice  incorrectly, and  impossible for
the latter, to counteract his directions !   It is much more credible,
                               4 
5Q                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

that the latter is the case.  In fact, when an able physician under-
takes a patient, and is sound in mind and body-is he not qualified
to reason on the present state of the patient, and to compare his
disease  with such  as he had  previously seen, either  the same, or
approaching thereto, and which  he  has cured by the  admiss.on of
the patient himself?  Whilst the patient knows ne.ther his disease,
nor its  causes, he knows not its termination, or  what has taken
place under  similar  circumstances.   He  receives  his  directions
under present pain, and  future dread.  He thinks only of  his dis-
order,  and  is weakened  by want  of food.  He  desires what  is
agreeable,  rather than what may cure him ;—not that he is de-
sirous of dying, but that he detests physic.  In  such a case, which
is most probable?   That the patient  duly obeys  his physician, in
all his directions, or, that the latter, with the qualities above stated,
should practice erroneously?  Is it not more likely that the physi-
cian performs his duty correctly, and that the patient  (incapable
sometimes of paying obedience) does disobey,  and falls a victim
to his own folly ?   Those who incorrectly judge of events, accuse
 the innocent, and exculpate the guilty.
   Others there are who condemn medicine, under the pretext that
 physicians never  undertake  the care of those, who are already
 overpowered  by disease.  They say, that he cheerfully attends on
 such as would recover without him—but  not a step will he take in
 behalf  of those who are  most in  need of his assistance.  If there
 was an art of medicine, they moreover say, it  ought to cure these
 as well as the former.  Those  who speak thus, would have more
 reason to complain of a physician who  would not  treat  them as
 fools, than they have, to accuse medicine  in  such manner.  He
  who requires of an artist, what belongs not to his art, or what is
  beyond its power, is more knave than fool.  We can effect every
  thing that is capable of being  accomplished through the means of
  Nature, or of the instruments of our profession ; but we possess no
  more.   When  the disease is  more  powerful  than any  of  these
  means, it  cannot  be expected that  medicine can overcome  it.
  Thus, we have many caustics in  medicine, of various powers, of
  which fire is the most  so.  We  may reasonably doubt, in such
  cases  as require  the use of caustics,  whether the highest  degree of
  evil  in  such case,  would not resist the fire,  whilst we have  no
  doubt of its utility in an inferior grade.  Now,  in such cases which
  fire cannot reach, nothing can be expected of an art that has no 
ON THE ART OF MEDICINE.
51
power stronger  than fire.  It  is the same with all the instruments
of medicine,  and I apprehend, therefore,  that when  employed in
extreme cases without advantage, the fault is in the violence of the
disease and not in the art.
  Some  there  are  who reproach  us  for  avoiding  such  as  are
already worn down by disease: this is  like requiring of any art, to
do that which does not belong to it.  Nominal physicians will, it is
true,  undertake  this from  a  desire  of  admiration ;  but they are
looked on as ridiculous by real ones.   Those who are  masters of
their  profession, care neither  for  the  praise  nor reproof of such
people—they esteem  those only  who  know  how to  discriminate,
and  discern when  and wherein the operations of art are perfect
or imperfect, and whether  the imperfection arises from the work-
man  or  his subject.—We  may, perhaps, in a future  treatise, take
notice of what  belongs to other  arts.   As to medicine, we have
already shown what it is, and now proceed to point  out  how it  is
to be judged of.
   All who are acquainted with it, will admit that there are  two
classes  of diseases: one, affecting  the external  parts, and few in
number;  the  other is in  vast amount and  attacks the parts  that
are internal and concealed, wherein they manifestly differ from the
former.   They  are apparent  both to  sight  and to  the  touch, by
tumours,  redness, &c.; and evince themselves by hardness, cold-
ness, moisture,  heat,  &c,—and  thus  enable  us to  recognise the
presence  or  absence of such or such qualities as may or may not
belong  to them.  There ought to be  no  mistake as to these,—not
that  they  are easy to be comprehended,  but  because they are
readily discovered, at least by those who are qualified  to  seek for
them, by industry  and natural attainments.   Our art abounds  in
resources  for visible  diseases,—nor  are they  less   abundant for
those of a hidden character, or which  attack the cavities or bones.
The  human body has many cavities: thus, two exist for  the recep-
tion and discharge of food, with many others, known to those who
have studied  the subject.  All those  fleshy,  rounded parts, called
muscles, are cavernous; all parts, in fact, in  which there is defect
of continuity, are cavities, whether  covered by flesh  or skin,—and
they are filled with air (spiritus)  in  health, but in disease with  un-
healthy  humours.  Such fleshy  parts are seen in  the  arms,  the
thighs, and legs.   Even those parts  that are  not fleshy, have  a
similar structure.   For  instance, the  liver concealed in the abdo- 
 52                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 men, the brain in the skull, the lungs in the thorax, &c, all  have
 cavities with subordinate divisions, or vessels, filled with humours
 of a  healthy or injurious tendency.   There  are, moreover, nerves
 and  vessels innumerable, passing  to the bones ;—and ligaments and
 cartilages belonging to the joints, wherein  the bones  move,  and
 which are moistened  by  a  glairy fluid  (synovial) emitted  from
 small cavities,  which sometimes  discharge  much  sanious matter
 when they  are opened, accompanied with  extreme pain.  Now,
 none  of all these parts  are apparent to our  sight,—and hence the
 above division  of diseases  into concealed  and  apparent.  It  must
 not,  however, be supposed, that  those thus latent are beyond the
 reach of medicine.  The  possibility of  this depends  very much,
 nevertheless, on the accuracy of the report  by the patient of his
 complaint,  and  the tact of  the  physician  in  his  interrogatories.
 Sometimes this seems to be attained  as by intuition, although more
 time and labour are required than in the case of external diseases.
 The evil experienced by the sick  from the  delay of making known
 their  disease, ought not to be attributed  to medicine, but to the
 patient, or to the actual violence of the complaint.   The physician
 who cannot by sight detect  it, nor by the imperfect statement of
 the patient, is obliged to recur to  reasoning;  for  it  is  certain, that
when describing their internal  complaints, they speak more from
opinion than  from  any  certain knowledge.  Were  they possessed
of this, they would  not  require the aid of  the physician, since the
same  science  which enabled them to know their  disease, would
equally teach them  the  appropriate means of cure. Hence, since
the physician cannot derive from  the  patient's report a certain and
absolute knowledge of  his complaint, he is obliged  to attain  it in
some  other mode—which  necessary delay, is not the  fault of art,
but arises from the nature of  the case itself.   Medicine  requires
only  to know the disease, in order to proceed to its cure; yet, with
prudence devoid of  temerity, and  depending more on patient atten-
tion  than on violent efforts.   It  is requisite  also, that the disease
be curable, and that time be  allowed  for the  purpose.  If then the
 disease is  known, and  is found to be too powerful, either from its
 nature or from  delay of calling  in  medical  aid, the  patient  will
 die;  for it rarely happens that it  is too powerful, if soon attended
 to.  Disease is rarely victorious, except from being permitted to
 gain too  great advance, which arises from its  concealed  charac-
 ter, or from  delayed assistance.   It  is, therefore, in my opinion, 
ON THE ART OF MEDICINE.
53
more correct  to  praise the art of medicine for  the  cure of such
concealed diseases, than for undertaking, what it  is impossible  it
can perform.  Is there no  parallel to be found in the  other hitherto
known  arts?  Those who  employ fire  in their operations,  must
remain inactive when their fire is extinguished, and must postpone
their labour until it is again relighted.  Most of the  arts are exer-
cised on subjects, where the work can be corrected; such as wood,
leather, brass, iron, and similar materials.  Here, nevertheless, far
from  precipitancy in working them, all necessary time is afforded
in order to perfection.   Should any requisite instrument be want-
ing,  the work is suspended, and remains imperfect.   In all  these
cases, in  which  slowness  is more inconvenient  than useful,  such
delay  is nevertheless  approbated.  Medicine is the  only  art, in
which,  although error is  almost  invariably  irreparable,  haste  is
required to satisfy the impatience of the sick, without due attention
to its rules, although, as we have stated, it is incapable of attaining
a knowledge of  many diseases, by the sense of feeling or of sight.
It neither  perceives the diseases of the liver or of the kidneys, nor
the abscess  that may exist in the chest or other cavity.   Here, and
in like  cases, it  has adopted  other  means of conduct.  Thus,  it
considers  the  voice, as to its clearness or hoarseness.  It examines
the discharges from certain regular  channels;  and  drawing con-
sequences from   their  odour,  colour, consistence  or fluidity,—he
judges  of the character of the disorders, and the existing state of
the patient; and by the  same means, medicine is even enabled,
not only to ascertain the past, but likewise his future state.  After
having  thus become acquainted with diseases, by their symptoms,
if nature  is unable to effect a cure, art then teaches  how to excite
those salutary movements, by  which, without danger, the system
may discharge itself of what is injurious to it.
   It is in the efforts of nature that  an  attentive and skilful physician
perceives the  measures he ought to adopt.   If pituita  predominates,
by diet and acrid drinks, he excites  the natural  heat, and thus dis-
charges it.  By exercise, he causes respiration to testify still further
to his senses.   Sometimes, he has recourse  to sweating, through
the agency  of warm baths.  In some cases, he  prefers to examine
the  urinary evacuation; and by  appropriate food and  drinks, the
humours  are  aided in their discharge, which would  not otherwise
be accomplished.  But as the vitiations differ, so also are there dif-
ferent symptoms, and different remedial means, through which the 
54                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

physician becomes enabled to estimate the treatment he ought  to
pursue.
  It is then by no means surprising, that the physician should  be
slow in forming his judgment of diseases, before he undertakes their
cure;  since  he  has,  as it were,  to  negotiate with  them,  by the
agency of an interpreter.  It appears, then, from all I  have said,
that medicine has an appropriate means of discovering the mode  of
cure, or at least of assuaging the sufferings of disease; and  that it
is not  deficient in  substantial  reasons, for declining those that are
incurable, or at any  rate, of overthrowing the  unjust reproaches
made against physicians when  unsuccessful in such cases.   Much
more might be said in these particulars, as derived from the mani-
fest and daily proofs afforded by skill and attention.   Facts are far
superior to reasoning; and instead of calling for admiration of their
eloquence, such practitioners will  refer you to the visible effects  of
their care and attention. 
     THE ART OF MEDICINE IN FORMER TIMES.

                   SECTION I.—TREATISE IV.

         De Prisca Medicina.....Fcssius, p. 8.
         De Veteri Medicina,  ....   Haller, iv. p. 129.
         De l'Ancienne Medecine,   .   .    .   Gardeil, ii. p. 197.

  This treatise, says Haller, is correctly considered as spurious, by
Mercurialis.   It is  manifestly posterior to the time of Aristotle,
whose principles it altogether repudiates.   It is entirely devoted to
reasoning, but learnedly and acutely written.  The origin ascribed
to medicine is very probable, in a due attention to  what  proved
hurtful or useful in  diet, and in  conforming its employment to the
state of disease.   It was  undoubtedly imperfect at  first, but is not
undeserving of praise.  It confutes the  hypothesis of four primary
qualities, viz.,  hot, moist, cold, and  dry.  Asserts diseases to  arise
independently of these, and attributes  them to an acid,- saline, acerb
or bitter humour, secreted, and acting alone, or conjointly, by which
changes  occur in them; or to  a change of form in various ways,
productive of fluxions, wind, &c.
  The treatise is stated as pointing out the antiquity, invention, cer-
tainty, and importance of medicine.  Of food, generally and parti-
cularly, as of broths, drinks,  bread,  wine—by the first- of  which,
seems to be chiefly  meant barley water  of varied strength, and con-
stituting a chief part of dietetic  practice; it then proceeds  to con-
sider primary and  secondary qualities, and is followed  by  that of
fluxions, humours, and flatus.—Ed.

   Those who have undertaken to treat of medicine, have manifest-
ly been deceived in most particulars, by attempting  to  found this
doctrine on the hypothetical notions of cold and  hot, of dry and
moist, thus reducing to one or two principles  the causes of death
and of disease.  Of this our art  may  reasonably complain, since its
reality is acknowledged by its daily employment, and  its cultivation
in the hands  of the most able practitioners.   Doubtless there are 
 56                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 among physicians both good and bad ; and this  is another proof of
 its existence, since, if  it  did  not  exist, this  could not he  the case,
 for all would be alike ignorant, and chance alone would  decide as
 to the mode of treatment.   We see, however,  in  medicine, as in
 other arts, workmen of infinite difference, as  it  respects  the prac-
 tice, both manual and mental.
   Recourse to hypothesis should therefore be avoided in medicine,
 and left to subjects obscure and doubtful, which afford nothing
 better to their advocates.  Thus  in astronomy,  &c, however per-
 suaded we may  be of the truth of our opinions, yet we cannot esta-
 blish them  fully, so as  to destroy completely the doubts of  others,
 since there is no established  rule of truth, to which we can at all
 times refer.   Such a rule, however, exists in medicine;  it is an art
 of long existence, of sure  principles, and certain regulations, through
 which, for a long period, numerous discoveries have  been made,
 and which are confirmed by experience, unmixed with  hypothesis.
 Much  is, however, still  required to render it perfect,  by the re-
 searches of the learned ;  and  by the aid of what  is already known,
 endeavour to obtain the knowledge of that we  know not.  All those
 who depart from well-established rules, to riot in the path of novelty,
 and boast of having discovered  something in our art, deceive them-
 selves as well as others.  I  shall endeavour  to prove this, by point-
 ing out what medicine really is; from which it will appear, that
 all deviation from its present route is to be avoided.
  And first it seems to  me, that in  treating of  this art, we ought
 chiefly to notice  such things  as  all  mankind will agree in,  for the
 researches of the physician  should be confined  to  diseases to which
 every one is liable.  It  is true, that as the  majority are uninformed,
 they cannot of themselves  know how  their disorders   commence,
nor how  they will end; what increases, nor what moderates their
force.  This is, however, readily acquired through the information
derived from those acquainted with the subject,  and this more easily,
since nothing is  remembered with more facility than that which is
the result of self-experience.  A physician who  is unable to make
himself understood by the most ignorant, or convince them as to the
nature of their complaints,  would be ignorant himself,  and  would
 not mend the matter by mere speculation.   Medicine would never
have been  discovered,  had  not  speculation come to its  assistance.
No one, indeed; vvould  have troubled himself respecting it.  What
 need could the sick have had  of medicine, who lived  exactly as 
             THE ART OF MEDICINE IN FORMER TIMES.          57

those in health, had they never drawn a comparison between their
own state, and of those who pursued a different regimen, and ob-
served the superiority of the one to the other ?  It was by noticing
an apparent injury or benefit, which led them to a discovery of our
art.   This arose from the sick  discovering that  they were injured
by the use of food that was beneficial in health, just as we now find
to be the case.  We  may  even  go further, and  say, that the diet
and  food in health  that  is now  employed, would not have been
found out, if men had been content with that of animals, such as
grass, hay, and the fruits and productions of the earth.  All  animals
well fed, are healthy, without any other kind of nourishment.   At
first, mankind lived  like the beasts; and food, as at present pre-
pared, has only been introduced, because  that which was first em-
ployed was too simple  and indigestible, and was, as  at present, the
source of indisposition, violent pains, severe disease, and  even of
death.  It is true, habit, then, rendered it less  dangerous and more
supportable, yet still it proved injurious.  They whose stomach was
enfeebled, soon perished, whilst such as were of a stronger constitu-
tion, resisted for a longer time.  Just so we find it at  present; some
readily digest the strongest food, which to others is difficult in the
extreme.  Hence arose the necessity  for seeking a diet adapted
to their nature, and by degrees they  were led  to that we now em-
ploy.  After having thrashed out and washed the grain, ground and
sifted it, it was kneaded and made into bread and cakes, or boiled
and  roasted with other things.  A mixture was formed by food of
different strength, in order  to  accommodate it to the constitution,
from the  belief, that eating any thing  too  strong  and  indigestible
would induce pain, disease, and even death, whilst that which was
appropriate and readily digested, became the source of  health and
strength.
  Now, what  more fitting name  could be given to this discovery
than that of medicine,  which means the method of remedying evil,
since this invention was intended to produce a healthy nourishment,
and  to  preserve health, by  securing them  from an  irregular diet,
productive of pain and disease ?   It may indeed  be said, that  this
primary invention is not an art, since, in what is now well  known,
and  uniformly employed,  it would perhaps be unusual, to qualify
the practice by the name of an  art.  It at  least is the  fact, that such
practice and invention  is highly important, and is the fruit of great
art and much  consideration.  We  see in the present day, indivi- 
53                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

duals appointed  in our gymnasia to superintend the Athletse, con-
tinually making discoveries in the same way, as to the most appro-
priate diet for those persons.
  Let us examine now, how medicine, properly so called, and in-
vented for the benefit of the sick, deserves the name; how it gave
rise to artists, and why there is so  much  difference between them.
I believe firmly, as I said before, that no one would have  been led
to seek for it, had the  same food and regimen  been equally proper
both in health and sickness.  We still observe among nations where
medicine is  unknown, that both in health and sickness, the  same
diet  is employed.  Every thing gives  way  to  the  wish of  the
moment, nor do they abstain from any thing that gratifies them.
But, where the art is known and its dictates pursued, it is reasona-
ble to presume that similar  impressions  led  to the same results, as
in the case above mentioned. They began by lessening the amount
of food in case of  sickness.  This proving  beneficial  in  some in-
stances, but  insufficient in others of greater intensity, a still weaker
diet was deemed  requisite.  Thus they were led to employ diluted
food or  broths, by  mixing small quantities  of stronger food with
water, and thereby weakening  them, as  well  as  by their mode of
preparation.  If even  this nourishment proved too powerful in some
diseases, it was discontinued, and liquids of  a simple nature, regu-
lated both as to  quantity and quality, came into use.   Even such
slops (Sorbitiones) are occasionally  injurious, increasing  the  com-
plaint without strengthening the patient—all  which proves, that food
over-proportioned to the state of the patient, is equally injurious as
in health.  What difference then is there between the discovery of
an  appropriate regimen  in disease, by a physician, and that  origi-
nally contrived, in the change of the primary savage  diet, to that
which is now universally adopted?   I think  it is the result, in both
instances, of one and the same invention.  There is only this dif-
ference,  that the last is more varied and extensive, requiring greater
reflection and experience, although it is plainly deducible from the
former.
  If we  compare the regimen of health and that required in disease,
it will be perceived that  ordinary food would be  much more inju-
rious in  sickness  than the first rude and  savage nourishment would
 be in health.  Thus, a person  attacked with a disease, not of ex-
 traordinary violence,  and yet somewhat  dangerous, unacquainted
 with the risk he runs, eats bread, flesh, or other food appropriate to 
THE ART OF MEDICINE IN FORMER TIMES.
59
health, whilst another, in health, employs  that which  is used for
animals, such as peas, barley, &c.  It is certain that the latter will
not be equally incommoded as the former, and this is an additional
proof of the art of medicine having been discovered in the manner
I have stated.
  If it was the fact, as some imagine, that  too strong food alone is
hurtful, and that a weaker kind was equally useful in health and in
disease, nothing would be easier than to fix upon  a good regimen;
for all that would be required, would be the mere reduction of all
to a proper medium.  Unhappily this is not the case.   The fault is
not lessened, yet the evil is as great, from the excess or defect of
nourishment.—Hunger has an amazing power over man, either to
cure, to weaken,  or even  to destroy life.  Repletion  causes many
different  disorders; inanition is productive  of  others not less ha-
zardous.   Hence this last,  as  a remedial means,  is more extensive
than the former, and demands more care and attention.  A happy
medium is a desideratum;  but for this we have neither weight nor
measure to assist us.  The personal feeling  of the individual seems
the best resource; but how we are to avoid all error  in the case, is
the difficulty; and  I  will cheerfully praise the physician, who, in
such circumstances, is guilty of but trifling mistakes;  to avoid them
entirely is almost impossible.
   Most physicians  resemble  unskilful  pilots, whose faults are un-
perceived in calm weather, but should a storm arise their ignorance
is manifest, and  destruction follows.   So with the ignorant physi-
cian, in his treatment of trifling diseases, wherein  he may make the
grossest mistakes with impunity and escape detection; but if by
misfortune they meet with a  violent  and dangerous disease, they
are at fault; their ignorance  and presumption  are apparent to all,
and their punishment  promptly  follows.
   That improper fasting is as  dangerous  as over-eating may be
proved by the example of those in health.  Some have made  it a
rule to eat but once a day.  Others, to preserve their health, make
two meals daily.  I  do not refer to those who occasionally, or from
revelry, do the same,  for there are constitutions which are enabled
to bear such changes with  impunity, and make one or two repasts,
although not accustomed thereto.  There are many, however, who
cannot deviate from  their customary  habits, without immediately
feeling its influence.   If, used to one meal only, they take  another,
they feel tired and stupid; they yawn, are drowsy, and very thirsty. 
60
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
Flatulence and colics assail them, and not unfrequently some severe
disease  attacks them;  and all this arises from deviation from their
single meal.  On the other hand, when the first accustomed repast
is  neglected, the usual  period  for  it  has scarcely past, when they
feel weak and  tremulous; their eyes are languid,  their  urine  be-
comes hot and turbid, and a bitter taste is felt in the mouth.  Belly-
ache  succeeds, with  vertigo, irritability, moroseness,  and dulness.
At the arrival of the period for their  second  meal, they are incapa-
ble of digesting it.  It is attended with flatulence  and  colic, and
costiveness ensues.  Their sleep is disturbed, uneasy,  and  troubled
by dreams.  And in like manner, these symptoms are the precur-
sors of severe sickness.
  From whence do these symptoms  originate?  In  my opinion, he
who  is  accustomed to one meal alone, is  incommoded only from
not allowing his digestive organ full time for disposing of his pre-
vious  meal of the preceding day—but he fills it afresh, before  the
former food is  properly  concocted.   Such stomachs  digest  much
more  slowly than others;  they require more relaxation and repose.
He, on the other hand, who  has been accustomed  to two  meals,
and omits the  first, suffers from not affording his system  the nou-
rishment it required at a fixed period; that which  had  been pre-
viously taken having been completely exhausted.  It is hunger that
undermines and consumes him, and his situation I ascribe altogether
to  it:  and any one who should pass two or three days without food
would experience similar symptoms.   Those constitutions that  feel
violently and speedily  the  slightest errors,  may be considered as
being  weaker than others.  Disease  is the near neighbour of such
debility  of constitution.   The difference is, that the  debility in  this
case being greater, the  slightest error  in diet must  be  felt in a
greater degree.  Medicine requires,  therefore, in such cases, very
great  strictness.   It is  undoubtedly difficult  to attain  a certainty;
but art  has discovered  various  modes of  approximation,  which
ought to be well known, and will be duly treated of.  There  is no
justice in opposing  the ancient  medicine  as being founded on  bad
principles, from the pretext that it is not yet  perfect.  On  the con-
trary, it is  deserving  of admiration from  its advancing  so  far
towards it, and from its having,  in a  period  so unenlightened,  dis-
covered the route pointed out by reason, as the sure way  to reach
perfection.
  As  to those who  have endeavoured to attain the art by a plan 
THE ART OF MEDICINE IN FORMER TIMES.           Q\
altogether new, and strive to establish its foundation on hypothesis,
I would ask them which it is that is prejudicial, hot or cold, dry or
moist; and if a skilful physician ought to correct each of these qua-
lities by their opposites ?   Give me an individual of a weak consti-
tution, and let him feed on wheat just thrashed, or  raw flesh, and
drink only water;  they must  admit that such fare will  produce
much evil, such as violent  pains, deranged stomach, debility;  he
would not long survive.  What assistance does he require ?  Cold,
hot, dry, or moist?   Which shall we  select?   If it is one  of  these
four that has caused the disorder, we  must choose its opposite, ac-
cording to them. But the most direct and certain remedy is a change
of food, giving bread instead of grain, cooked meat in place of raw,
and add wine to his water.  Such a change would speedily restore
him to health, unless the injurious regimen had been too long per-
sisted in.  Will they persist in saying that his disease had been
caused  by cold, and that they had dissipated it by heat, or reversely?
It would be difficult to prove the truth of such  responses.
   In making bread, the above four qualities are removed from the
wheat.   Besides this, water, fire, and many other things, each pos-
sessing its own peculiar powers and qualities, are employed.  It loses
part of  what it had, and what remains is a compound mixture.  I
am convinced, that the action of bread on man is very different,
 according as it is made from well-washed grain or from that which
 has  not been  washed; or from  white or brown bread;  between
 that which has been kneaded with much or little water, and between
 ill  and  well-baked bread.   Many  other  circumstances  produce
 great difference.  The same  may be  said of barley cakes, where
 we find numerous and different qualities.   How can one, who has
 never examined this, nor thought about it, become acquainted with
 diseases, when each of the particulars above  mentioned is produc-
 tive of different sensible effects, on which depend the lives of healthy
 persons, of convalescents, and of the sick ?   Nothing is more im-
 portant than  a full acquaintance with all these different  qualities.
 They who  have rightly pursued the art of medicine, have therein
 found the variation in the nature of man : a  subject  so extraordi-
 nary, as to have ascribed it to a Deity.  They have not considered
 whether it was the cold, hot, dry, or moist, that benefited or injured
 man ; but believed that injury was the result of an excess of power,
 which  human nature could not overcome, and which they  therefore
 strove to weaken, by opposing mild things to  stronger of  the same 
 62                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 nature, weak  bitters to the more powerful, &c, and  thus of every
 thing carried  to its highest  grade.   They observed  that  all these
 qualities were found in man, and  all at times  became prejudicial.
 In fact, there is  in him, both bitter, saline, mild, acid, acrid, insipid,
 and many other qualities, possessed of different powers, in propor-
 tion to their quantity and degree of strength.   All of these, when
 well united, and tempered by each other, are insensible to us, and
 do  no injury;  but if one should  separate, and exist  alone, it then
 becomes sensible, and ravages the system.   It is the same with ali-
 ment.   That which is improper for  us, is either bitter, saline, acid,
 or too strong.   Hence it is productive of the  same inconvenience
 as the humours I have mentioned, whilst that which  is appropriate
 possesses  none of those  injurious qualities, nor is  it  too powerful.
 Such is the case with bread, barley cakes, and other similar articles,
 employed in profusion by mankind.   I do not speak of dishes  and
 preparations, intended solely to gratify the taste or irritate the appe-
 tite.  Such are highly pernicious.  I refer to common nourishment,
 which causes  no uneasiness, or any separation of  the particles of
 the humours of  the body, and serving only to  strengthen, nourish,
and promote its growth.  All these benefits arise from its well-attem-
pered state, in which nothing  predominates, nothing is irritating,
nothing too strong.  Every thing is reduced to  a point, so  as to be
esteemed  simple, homogeneous, and  at the same  time, of adequate
strength.
  I cannot imagine how  the partisans of this doctrine, which is so
distant from the true route of medical science, and  so beset with
conjectures, could contrive to practise on their  system, for I  do not
think they have ever discovered any thing, that is, per se, hot, cold,
dry, or  moist,  and  unparticipating in  any other quality;  nor that
they have other  varieties of food  and drinks than those familiar to
us; but it has  pleased them to  call such a thing hot, that one cold,
this  dry,  and  another moist!   Now  they  must  be   embarrassed
should they order something hot, and the patient  should  ask them
which;  they must therefore either trifle with him, or  change their
notions; for if the hot  is always conjoined with  the  bitter in one
thing, with the insipid in  another, and with the nauseous in a third,
and if  many other qualities are also  united with the hot, even such
as are of  a contrary nature, which of all these hot things will  he
direct?  the hot and bitter, or hot and insipid, or perhaps,something
that is cold and bitter, for such  there are as well as cold and taste-
less.  But we  well know that each of these four varieties produces 
THE ART OF MEDICINE IN FORMER TIMES.          63
contrary effects, not on man alone, but  likewise on leather, wood,
and many other bodies, far less sensible than that of man.
  It is not the hot 'that exercises such power, but the  bitter, the
tasteless, and the other qualities I have mentioned, that  produce a
powerful effect  both externally and internally on  man, whether in
eating or drinking, or  in employment of external applications.   In
a word, heat and  cold, of all qualities, I conceive to be  those that
have the least power over our bodies, and for the following reasons.
Whilst the hot and cold are well united together, they do no harm,
since they mutually neutralize each other; but if disunited, or either
predominates, then they prove injurious.  Even here, however, if
it is cold that affects us, the injury is not of long duration ;  for our
internal heat immediately opposes it with all its power, without the
need of other assistance, and this both in health and disease; hence
we see that if in health we are made extremely cold, by winter or
cold bathing, or other cause, the  greater the degree of cold, not
amounting to an actual freezing of the  body, in the  same propor-
tion will he be warmed by clothing himself, or getting under cover.
 So likewise, if much heated by the warm  bath, or a  large fire, he
 continues with the same clothing, in a place but little cooler, it will
 appear  much  colder  to  him; and should  he expose himself to a
 draft of air, or fan himself, the sense of cold will  be greatly aug-
 mented.  This is still  more evident from walking upon ice or snow.
 The feet, the hands and face, suffer much from the cold, and when
 covered up in bed, they suffer from heat and  irritation, and some-
 times small  vesicles appear on the skin, as if it had been burnt by
 fire.  So long  as the cold continued, this was not felt, so true it is,
 that these two opposing powers succeed each other quickly.  Many
 other instances might be adduced, but we  will now examine what
 ensues in case of sickness.  In the instance of fevers, in proportion
 to the violence of the  chill, will be that of the subsequent hot stage.
 If the chill was not of long continuance, the fever is commonly of
 short duration, and rarely dangerous.  In terminating, the  heat re-
 tires last from the feet, as being  the part of the body in which the
 cold  had been most  severe, or of longer  continuance.  At length,
 when the sweating stage has carried off the fever, the patient's sen-
 sations are much more  cool and refreshed, than  if he had not had
 the  preceding  febrile state.   Since, then,  these  two opposites  so
 quickly succeed each other, and thereby  temper their respective 
G4                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

excess, what great harm can result, or what need of much foreign
assistance ?
  It is asserted that those who have ardent fevers, or inflammation
of the  lungs or other parts, are not so speedily liberated from the
heat, nor do they feel this beneficial influence of  the cold.   I reply
to this, that  I consider it  a certain  proof, that fever  does not arise
from heat alone, but requires the co-operation of other causes.  We
have a hot bitter, a hot acid, a hot  salt, and many more of different
character; and the same may be said of  cold.  Now these are the
causes of the disease.  Heat  is present  undoubtedly, but it exerts
no injurious  effects, unless conjoined with  some other quality, which
irritates,  and  augments  its  influence, without which it  possesses
alone its own appropriate power of warming.
  We have one fact, among many others, of the most conclusive
character, that is, when  attacked  with a cold in the head, and  a
discharge from the  nose  takes place, the humour is more acrid at
the  beginning than that which  is natural to the parts.  The nose is
swelled and inflamed, and the increased heat is manifest to the
touch.  If long  continued, the humour  produces excoriation; at
length the symptoms become moderated, but not  until the humours
become thicker, less acrimonious, more concocted and commingled,
than at first.  It is true we have such fluxions, manifestly induced
by cold alone ; such are cured by warmth, just as affections result-
ing  from  heat  alone  are removed by  cold, and in both cases,
promptly  and without coction.  All  other fluxions  arising from
acrimony  and an ill state of the humours, are only cured  by the
concoction and bland state that is brought about in them.   So also
we  see fluxions on the eyes, owing  to various acrimonies that ulce-
rate the lids, excoriate the cheeks, and even destroy the  cornea.
These  violent  effects are  only terminated by the  concoction of the
humours, becoming  thereby more consistent, and  of a purulent na-
ture.  Now  this concoction is accomplished through the  mixture
and  modified  temperature of the  humours.   We observe  in  like
manner fluxions on the fauces, throat, &c, inducing hoarseness,
quinsy, erysipelas, peripneumony;—all such humours are at first
salt and irritating, and thus produce and maintain  these complaints;
but  when they become thicker, and by concoction lose their acri-
mony, then the fever declines, and  the evil passes away.   Now if
hot  or cold, without the addition of  any other quality, should induce
disease, and  such is sometimes the  case, then it ought to  terminate 
THE ART OF MEDICINE IN FORMER TIMES.
65
so soon as they are  respectively  changed for each other; in all
other cases, the evil ensuing arises from the agency of other powers.
Thus, when a humour, called yellow bile, is diffused through the
system, what  anxiety, heat,  and debility immediately ensue!  A
spontaneous discharge from the bowels, or produced by medicine
duly and appropriately, almost  as  rapidly put them to1 flight.   But
if this humour is allowed  to remain, crude  and unconcocted, the
fever and pains will continue  unabated.   But  if the humour be that
called green  bile (aeruginosi  humores),  how  raging  are the symp-
toms, and the pains in the intestines and chest!  Nor do they cease,
until this bile, mixed and weakened by other humours, is discharged.
There are  several  ways of concocting, weakening, and inducing
the natural consistence of such humours; and to these we are  won-
derfully assisted, by a knowledge of crises, and of critical days.   It
is neither on the hot nor the  cold that we are to operate, for they
can  neither concoct,  nor render consistent.   What then is  accom-
plished?  We reply,  that they  are capable of admixture, and that
by this they destroy each other's influence.  Mixed with  any  thing
else, they still  are  hot and cold, and cease not to  act, unless  com-
mingled  together.   The other qualities  in man, the more they are
mixed together, so  much the milder and better they become; and
man is never  in better health, than when  these humours are tho-
roughly concocted  and at rest, without any one predominating; and
this, I trust, is sufficient, so far  as  respects the hypothesis of  these
four qualities!
   I will now say a  few words relative to- sundry philosophers and
physicians, who affirm, that it is impossible to  become acquainted
with medicine without previously knowing the nature of man, and
how he was first formed and  created.  I think myself, that all that
they have written or said about nature, is infinitely less useful to the
physician than to the  book-maker; and  that, whatever can be best
attained respecting the nature of man, is through the means of me-
dicine itself;  nor can it be attained, without a full acquaintance
with this art  in all  its vast extent.   I have known  many  persons
thoroughly  acquainted with all that has  been  said by those writers
respecting the  nature of man, &c.  But  all  that is  requisite for the
physician, on  this  head, in order  to practise successfully, is that
which is connected  with his food and drink, and the changes which
different  articles are capable  of producing in him.   It is not  suffi-
cient to say that cheese is  injurious, because it induces pain  from
                               5 
66                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

eating  it in excess.   We must know also, what kind of pain, and
which, and why, such or such parts of the body suffer from it.
Amidst our food  and drinks, there are many that are bad, which
do not affect the system in the same way.  Pure wine, taken in
excess, weakens—as  those  acquainted with  its powers well know,
as well as the parts of the body on which it  acts.  Now I wish the
same information, as  to other things.   Cheese, since  we have men-
tioned this, is not  injurious to every one.  Many employ  it largely,
without any bad effect.   Nay, it is beneficial to thin persons; al-
though, it is true, that some are much incommoded  by its employ-
ment.  This depends  on a  difference of constitution, and  this is
owing  to something in the system that is inimical to cheese, and by
its presence it becomes excited ; and the more abundant the humour
and powerful, the greater will be the opposition it occasions.  If,
however, cheese was contrary  to  the nature  of man, all  should
equally suffer from it, and those who are fully sensible of all this,
will  not be  led  into  mistake.  In convalescence,  as well  as in
chronic diseases, many troublesome symptoms  ensue, some arising
spontaneously, others from  the rash  or imprudent use of different
things.  I have known many physicians, as well as common people,
attribute such symptoms to something out of the way done  by the
patient, as bathing, walking, or eating what  they  were not ac-
customed  to; and limiting  their views to  this  alone, although, in
many instances, it might be the most appropriate step they could
have taken.  Ignorant of the cause, they blame at hazard, and pro-
hibit that which is most  proper.  This is an  evil of  no trifling im-
port.   In order to avoid it, the physician should be acquainted with
the different  effects of bathing at a fit or improper time, and so of
other things,  for all  act  diversely  according to circumstances.
Now, a physician  unacquainted with the comparison of action of
different things, on man, under different circumstances, can neither
know their effects nor employ them properly.
  He ought, moreover, to  know how to distinguish  between those
affections that arise from the functions, and those of his organiza-
tion.   I mean by the  functions or faculties, the highest  grade and
power  of  the humours; by organization, the conformation of the
parts that  compose the body. Some  of these are  hollow and con-
tractile, some  expanded, others solid and round,  or  broad and
pendent; some are broad, long, dense, thin,  florid, spongy, and soft.
Of all  these, which are best adapted  to attract moisture from the 
             THE ART OF MEDICINE IN FORMER TIMES.           g*

rest ?  The hollow and equally expanded, or the solid and round,
or the hollow, gradually  diminishing ?  Doubtless, the last, as ex-
emplified  externally.   A man, for instance, cannot drink with his
mouth open; but he closes his lips, so as to leave only a small open-
ing, or by employing a tube,  when the liquid is readily attracted.
Cups, have been made on this principle, with a large belly and small
orifice, to attract the humours from the  flesh.  There are in nature
many things analogous.  In the human body, the head and bladder,
and  uterus, for they all manifestly  attract, and  hence  are always
full of moisture.   Those  that are hollow, but expanded, although
retaining fluids that are poured into them, yet they cannot attract
them.  Such parts as are solid and round, neither attract nor con-
tain, for the liquids finding  no place,  will  run over them.  The
spongy and soft parts,  as the spleen, the lungs, the  breasts, suck up
the moisture presented to them, by which they  swell  and become
hard.  It is so likewise, with the cavities containing humours, as
the stomach, or any into which a  daily flow is made, with no power
to distribute from its structure.  These imbibe the  humour, and  by
its incorporation,  although small and empty,  they become dense,
firm, and hard, if concoction does not ensue, and the humour is not
discharged.  All this promotes flatus and pain, causing  the sound
that is heard in the large and hollow cavities of the chest and belly;
for as this wind is not confined to one spot, its motion is according-
ly accompanied by noise and uneasiness.  Should it press upon the
soft and fleshy parts, these will feel a sense of fulness and of numb-
ness.   Or should it be opposed by some large  part, which is not
strong enough to resist it without suffering,  nor  yet so weak  as to
yield, and give way to it; if, like the liver, the part is tender, florid,
sanguineous, &c, its size and firmness prevents it giving way; the
wind, from this resistance becomes  more  powerful, and greatly
augments the evil.  Hence so  frequently arise such severe pain in
the liver, terminating often in tumours and abscess. So also with the
diaphragm, though in a less degree.  It  is a  firm and resisting part,
but being more  tendinous and  stronger, it is less sensible to pain;
yet this.occurs at times, and even abscesses  are formed.
  Many other varieties of form exist, both  in and  externally, very
different from  each other, and  modifying the  occurrences both of
health  and of disease.  A large or small  head,—a large, long, or
short neck, a round or flaccid abdomen, narrow or broad  chest and
ribs, and many more, whose variations all require to be known, in 
68
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
order to be enabled to discover  correctly,  the  true cause  of the
symptoms we perceive.
  As to the powers of the humours, or what they effect on the sys-
tem, we should be acquainted with their respective  affinities.  For
instance, we should know, if a  mild humour is changed into another
kind, not  by any mixture,  but by degenerating from its pristine
state, what is the first alteration it undergoes ; whether it  becomes
bitter, saline, austere, or acid.  The last  of these is  certainly the
most injurious of all these changes which it could pass through ; and
whoever can, by his research on external  circumstances,  extend it
to those of internal character, will be the  best qualified to estimate
their proper treatment, which consists in the removal, as far as pos-
sible, of every thing hurtful to the  body. 
OF  THE  PHYSICIAN.
                    SECTION I.—TREATISE V.

        De Medico.......Fcssius, p. 19. "
        De Medico.......Haller, v. iv., p. 169.
        Du Medecin,......Gardeil, ii., 225.

  Haller, in his preface to this treatise, says, a  more appropriate
title for it would have been, " Of the Shop or Office of the Physician
or Surgeon," which is minutely described;—nothing is stated as to
plants or medicines.  It  might be supposed to be written after the
subdivision of the art, and during a period of peace, since the author
recommends attendance  on foreign campaigns, in order  to attain a
knowledge of the treatment of wounds.  The treatise is intended to
point out what a physician ought to be, both in respect to body and
mind.   It then describes the plan of his office or shop, in regard* to
situation, light, the various instruments and appurtenances required,
and speaks of several operations, as cupping, scarification, bleeding,
&c, of the extraction of darts, &c, of ulcers, and of tubercles.—Ed.
   This treatise is  intended  to  point out some short precepts and
advice, as to what is essential to the physician; and first, as to his
exterior;  he ought to have a healthy appearance, and be of propor-
tionate size to his  particular constitution:  for should he be other-
wise, the public will believe  him unqualified to attend to the health
of others.—His dress  should be neat, and his person  clean and un-
perfumed, lest it might be supposed he employed perfumes to  con-
ceal some disagreeable emanation, that might be unpleasant to the
sick.
  As to internal qualifications, he should  possess much prudence;
not that merely which prevents indiscreet or untimely conversation,
but in  all his concerns.  His mode of life should be  perfectly  cor-
rect ; for good manners and modesty contribute greatly to his re-
putation.   He ought to  possess circumspection  and humanity:
haste and assurance will  be followed  by contempt, although they 
70                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

may occasionally benefit him, for it is not always possible to avoid
his  services.   They  are at times useful, but rarely to be employed
by the physician who desires to secure esteem.
  In regard to manners, he  should be grave, without austerity, lest
he should be considered proud or  misanthropical;  and  he should
avoid perpetual laughter and hilarity, for they are not at all times
acceptable.—In  his  moral character,  justice should  predominate.
It is at all times of infinite importance, and especially in that inter-
course that exists between the physician  and his patients.  These
place themselves entirely in  his  hands;  at all times, wives, daugh-
ters, and goods  are placed  at  his  discretion.   Well then does it
behoove  the physician to be continually on his  guard.—And  thus
much in  regard  to his mind  and body.
  We will now take notice  of what is  requisite in the study and
practice  of  his  profession.   In  order to excel, it is essential to be
careful  in  the choice of a teacher.   Those who give  instruction,
usually have every thing requisite about them.   They ought  to  be
careful  in  the location of their  dwelling, that it should not be  in-
commoded  by the wind  or  sun, to the  injury of the  sick.   Too
strong a light, though  not  felt  by the  physician, is painful to the
sick, and detrimental to  the  sight; the  meridian sun ought  to  be
carefully guarded against, and the light  should rather  be admitted
from the opposite side.*   The  seats of  the patients should be of
proper dimensions.  No ornaments of brass about them; such are
only adapted  for the instruments; in any other respect  they should
be  considered inappropriate.  Good and pure water  for drink should
be  provided for the  sick, and the towels should be  clean and soft.
For the eyes, soft linen is employed, and sponge's for wounds; the
property they possess  of swelling  up,  renders  them  very useful.
All the instruments  ought to be  well made for use,  as respects size,
 weight,  and  finish.   In regard to external applications, such as
compresses, bandages,  plasters, and cataplasms, the greatest atten-
 tion should be  paid  to  their accurate adjustment,  especially when
 they are to be of long  continuance.  The removal of dressings, and
 their renewal after washing and cleansing wounds, is   soon done;
 the thing  to  be chiefly attended to, is as to the frequency of this,
 for much depends on  acting correctly herein.   As  to  bandaging,

   » It would appear as if a dispensary or hospital is here described. It seems scarcely
 allied to the private domicile of the practitioner. 
OF THE PHYSICIAN.
71
two things are essential, that the pressure should be on  the appro-
priate part, and not be unduly tight. Attend also to the temperature,
for the impression of the air is at times to be guarded against.  He
must  also be acquainted with those weak  parts, that will not bear
too strong  a pressure.  Pay no regard to those  intricate bandages
that are more ostentatious than useful; they are  superfluous, and
often  injurious.   It is not ornament,  but  utility that  is required.
With respect to operations, either by the knife or by cautery, they
demand both promptitude and caution, for both at times  are proper.
When a single incision is required, do it quickly; for, as cutting is
attended with great pain, we must  make  it as short as possible;
but when accurate dissection is necessary, it must be slowly accom-
plished,  since, if  too hastily  effected, the pain  is continual and
severe, whilst some intermission of it is experienced by the former
proceeding.   Of  instruments, it may be stated, that large or small
knives are not to  be  indiscriminately employed.  In the body are
parts  from whence the  blood flows largely, and is   not readily
arrested, as  from varices, &c.   Small incisions here  are proper,
 and give us the means of more ready restraint, whenever it may
be necessary to  allow its discharge,  but  in parts not dangerous,
 nor attended with haemorrhage, large  knives may be made use of,
 and the blood will be evacuated, which would not otherwise  be the
 case.   It is disgraceful  in  the surgeon not to effect  properly the
 intention he had in view.
   Cups are employed in  two ways.  If the fluxion is  deep-seated,
 the neck and belly should be narrow, and the handle long, but light.
 Cups of this description draw in  a  direct line, and attract towards
 the surface the deep-seated humours.  But if the affection is more
 external and diffused,  the cups, in other  respects similar  to the
 above, should have a wide orifice, which adapts it to draw from a
 more extensive  surface what  is  to be evacuated.   If they are at
 the  same time  heavy,  by their  greater  pressure, they  act more
 deeply, and less  superficially, thus  perhaps leaving behind  a part
 of the external humours.   So  likewise, if  the fluxion  is  profound,
 should the orifice of the  cups be large; they then act upon the sur-
 face, which thereby, from the moisture thus attracted, prevents that
 of the deeper-seated humours, thus leaving behind what was inju-
 rious, and drawing off that which did no harm.   The size of the
 cups must  depend on the parts to which  they  are  applied.   If
 scarification is necessary, make the incisions perpendicular to  the 
72                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

surface, which affords  a greater discharge from the tumid part, in
which the blood has accumulated.   The bistouries for this  purpose
should be rounded, and of a moderate size, for sometimes the serous
and  bloody fluid evacuated, is thick and  tenacious, and would be
left,  should the incisions be too small.
  The vessels in bleeding must be sustained by ligatures, for in.some
cases, they readily move under the skin, from not being sufficiently
adherent to the parts beneath, and hence  the skin  is pierced with-
out  touching the  vessel.   If  only  slightly  penetrated, the parts
swell, the discharge of  blood is impeded, and suppuration  may
ensue.   Two evils  hence  follow,  pain for  the patient,  and dis-
grace for the operator.  And this remark holds good in all similar
cases.
  Besides the instruments  mentioned as essential, others are also
required, such as forceps for drawing the teeth, and for taking hold
of the uvula ; these  are in common use and extremely simple.
  Tumours  and ulcers are diseases of more importance,  and de-
serve attention.  The principal point as to  the former, is to  disperse
them, and prevent their  enlargement.   Should this take place, we
must endeavour to reduce them as much as possible, and equably;
otherwise they  may chance to become excoriated, and form ulcers
of difficult  cure.  They are  not to be  rashly removed, nor should
they be opened, until their contents are fully concocted.  The means
for  promoting this  are elsewhere  described.   As to wounds and
ulcers, four  kinds  are  observed.  1.  Characterized from depth:
these are fistulous,  cicatrizing above,  but hollow and  filled  with
sanies.  2d.  Characterized  by elevated carnosities.   3d.  By  their
breadth or extent of surface, and denominated  creeping.   4th, and
most natural, is attended with suppuration;—all these are seated in
fleshy parts, and have a common relationship. We have elsewhere
detailed their respective  symptoms and method of treatment; viz.,
to resolve congestions, to fill  up cavities, destroy excrescences, and
restrain their enlargement.   We must particularly attend to the
due  adaptation  of poultices, dressings, and bandages.   The first,
correctly placed, are of immense utility, and help  to  sustain the
dressings.  Their composition assists in the cure, by their action on
the surrounding parts.   Time and  circumstances must determine
their composition; this cannot be noticed at present, but it  requires
both knowledge and experience. 
OF THE PHYSICIAN.
73
  We have only further to take notice of battle wounds from jave-
lins, &c, of which few examples occur in towns, though frequent in
hostile encounters.  Whoever wishes to excel in  such cases, must
follow the camp, and quit  his home, as the only means of pursuing
this the most laborious and yet useful branch of his profession.   A
knowledge of the symptoms of a concealed weapon in the body, by
which its presence is denoted, is a high degree of surgery; its
continuance detects the ignorant,  for science only is capable of un-
dertaking those cases.  Of this we have elsewhere treated.
•'V'.   V .*
\ ,-■
 
 ON  DECENCY  IN  MANNERS  AND  IN  DRESS.

                  SECTION I.—TREATISE VI.

         De Decoro, aut Decenti Habitu,    .   .   Fresius, p. 22.
         De Decenti Habitu......Haller, iv. 178.
         Df. la Dbcence,......Gardeil, ii. p. 232.

  Haller says this treatise has been always considered  spurious,
and is unnoticed  by  the ancients.   The  writer,*whoever he may
have been, is  nevertheless a philosophic physician, and the work is
replete with sound morality.  It instructs the practitioner as to what
is essential in his attendance on the sick, so that he may be esteemed
a learned, prudent, careful, and  attentive man.

  It is with justice that philosophers commend wisdom in the com-
mon concerns of life.  There are, however, many kinds of wisdom
or philosophy which  tend in my opinion to  no  useful purpose.   I
mean such as consist of mere verbiage on points of no importance.
Yet of these something may be learned, provided  it is unmixed with
depravity—I  say  depravity, for ignorance and inutility are nearly
allied to mischief, and often lead to it.  Every thing that awakens
attention and accustoms the mind  to think, leads to  good  habits;
even  discussions  on subjects  not  in  themselves of much utility.
Such things  as are  connected with the improvement of science,
and subservient to the  welfare and honour of  mankind, are with
reason  to be preferred; whatever is not base in  itself, or merely
connected with worldly advantage, is deserving  of attention, but it
must at the  same time be perfectly  innocent.   Youth often fall
into the  hands of persons who  are continually arguing;  but when
arrived  at  maturity, they regard  them  with contempt, and at a
later period, from indignation perhaps, obtain the passage of some
law, to banish  them.  Such persons are  well adapted to hold forth
in  public assemblies, where they industriously propagate their  de-
ceptions, and thus extend them through a community.  They may
be known  by their dress and  their manners.   The more extrava- 
ON DECENCY IN MANNERS AND IN DRESS.
75
gant their attire, the more carefully should they be shunned.  How
different are those who are neat and simple in their dress; you see
at a glance that they are deserving of esteem, and their prudence
and moderation are readily appreciated; always uniform, there is
neither pride nor ostentation in their demeanour.  Serious in conver-
sation and mild in  reply, they are nevertheless acute in argument,
and not  readily  discomposed in pursuing it.   They are amiable
amongst friends and moderate towards all; silent to the  clamours of
others, and deliberating before they speak, they await patiently for
the  proper occasion.   Temperate in  their mode of living, a little
contents  them,  and  when  necessary,  can submit  to  abstinence.
Lucid in  their discourses, they  conceal nothing that they are ac-
quainted with; and from their graceful delivery, are respected by
all who hear  them, for they assert nothing which they cannot de-
monstrate.  To nature they are principally indebted for  all these
qualifications, which, when  attained, enable  them  rapidly  to  ad-
vance in  science, for  in the acquirement of knowledge, some prepa-
ratory attainments are absolutely requisite.  Nature and art  then
happily combine in their improvement.  We  see many who, from
the deficiency both  from nature and  from  teaching, attract no
notice; hence if required by any one  to demonstrate what  they
have asserted, neither nature nor art can aid them.   Yet they have
pursued the method of the Sophists we have animadverted  on, but
 being deficient in essentials, they are exposed, and  finally become
 contemptible.
   Instruction, to be  beneficial,  should  be founded on facts.  Arts
 are deduced from reflection;  but any reflections or reasoning, not
 accompanied  by facts,  evince  that fault  somewhere  exists.   To
 think merely, and produce nothing, is a proof of error, or of igno-
 rance especially in  medicine.  Here,  opinion  alone  is  criminal,
 and becomes injurious to the sick.  Confidence in self-opinion  is
 delusive, since fact too  often proves its falsehood, as  impure gold
 is tried  in the furnace.   The common  remark, that " finis coronat
 opus," is lost on such persons as I have  pointed out, although the
 true method of attaining the science  is daily manifested to all who
 desire its acquirement.
    It may be  concluded then, admitting the truth of the preceding
 remarks, that  knowledge  and  medicine  must go  hand in hand.
 The physician who is truly a philosopher is a demigod.  Medicine
 and philosophy are  closely  allied.  That which is taught by the 
76
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
 latter, is practised by the former,—contempt of riches, moderation,
 decency, modesty,  honour, justice, affability, cleanliness, gravity, a
 just appreciation of all the wants of life,  courage in adversity-
 opposition  to fraud and superstition, and due consideration of the
 Divine power.  The physician is perpetually exposed to the hazards
 of incontinence, turpitude, avarice, intemperance, detraction, and
 insolence.  How far these  may  influence his character, may  be
 estimated  by  his conduct towards  his patients, his friends, and
 families.  In all  these  particulars, the appropriate connexion  of
 wisdom  and of medicine is conspicuous;  but particularly so  in
 respect to the Deity, towards whom  the thoughts of the physician
 must be perpetually directed;  for the various  accidents  of life
 which come under  his notice  must compel him to  acknowledge
 His omnipotence.   He dare  not ascribe  to  his art  unqualified
 power, when he reflects on its frequent failure; even when success
 attends, it is to Heaven alone he owes it.   We perceive  now, how
 medicine leads to wisdom.   They, even, who disbelieve in Provi-
 dence, are  compelled to recognise it in  their examination of what
 takes place in the system,  in the change of  forms produced, and  of
 the cures,  both surgical  and  medical, from operations, or from
 internal remedies, and good regimen.   These are considerations  of
 extreme importance.
   Besides what is  said above, something more is wanting to the
 physician.   This is  urbanity.   Austerity,  repulsive  to those  in
 health, is much more so to the sick.  He  must carefully avoid
 exposing his body  too much, or discoursing with the  bystanders
 beyond what is absolutely necessary.   A  good  physician  avoids
 all  measures that are not conducive to the welfare of the patient;
 he adopts nothing that is singular or inefficient.
   A  physician should  always be prepared  for whatever may
 occur, by having  every thing essential to  his  practice duly  at
 hand, or it  may chance  that some article may be wanting when
 he is most in  need of it.   He ought to accustom himself at  all
 times to prepare his remedies, &c, such as  lotions,  liniments,
 pledgets, compresses, and  bandages of different kinds,__collyria,
&c;  and he should  have in readiness all sorts  of instruments
 machines, and apparatus.   Deficiency in these, implies a want  of
foresight that may  prove  injurious.  A smaller collection should
be kept ready  in case of a distant call.  All should be properly
arranged, so that what is  necessary  may  be immediately found, 
             ON DECENCY IN MANNERS AND IN DRESS.          77

for it  is impossible to carry every  thing with him.  His  mind
should fully  retain the  recollection  of his  medicines and  their
virtues,—that also of diseases, their various forms and accompany-
ing symptoms.   This  may be esteemed the A, B, C, of medicine.
He is also to acquaint himself with the compounding of his drugs
for the various  intentions  he has  in contemplation; such as  dif-
ferent  drinks, purgative potions, &c,  having due  regard  to  the
articles he employs, not only  as respects their source and species,
but likewise  the bulk, and  age, &c., all in reference  to what is
required in visiting his patients, so as  to be certain of having them
at the time they are essential.
   Previous to seeing the sick, he should consider what he may find
it necessary  to do,—for it  is assistance  that  is needed, and  not
speculation.  Experience will enable him to foresee what may take
place; this gives him credit, and is not always very difficult.   On
entering a sick chamber,  he should pay attention to his mode of
seating himself, and arranging his  dress (mantle);  he  should  talk
but little, and neither be disturbed himself, nor trouble others.   Ad-
dress the patient cautiously, and let  his own remarks be calm, even
if agitation  and apprehension exist around him.  By this he  will
show that he knows what is to  be  done on the existing occasion.
He then may give his directions,  and mention his opinion as to
what further may ensue.
   Frequent visits  are  required to  regulate the changes that  may
take  place from  error or  inattention.  The disease will thus be
better understood,  and mistakes less  liable.   The humours  are
perpetually varying, either from their peculiar nature or from acci-
dent.  If the proper moment is neglected for timely assistance, the
disease soon  increases, and the patient may be carried off from the
concurrence  of numerous  unsurmountable  symptoms,  that would
have readily subsided had  they  been foreseen and  promptly at-
tended to, by the experience acquired from similar cases.  Notice
should  be taken  of the  faults committed  by the sick,  who  often
deceive with respect to their remedies.   Many fall  victims to  this
duplicity, arising from their  aversion to them.   So  far from avow-
ing  this neglect, they  blame the physician.—Care  is requisite re-
specting the sleeping apartments, which should be  accommodated
to the season, and to the nature of the disease.   Some require beds
in an elevated situation; others, low, and in dark rooms. All noise
and odours  should be guarded against,  especially  that of wine, 
78                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

which is very hurtful.  If changes of situation are requisite, let all
be done with perfect silence, and as quickly as  convenient, so as
not to  disturb the patient, for tranquillity is highly essential to his
welfare.—The physician  should  possess the tact of directing his
patient's longings, by a proper intermixture  of  mildness and deter-
mination,—and afford them every consolation,  without  letting them
know the nature of their disease,  or its probable event.—Inattention
in these particulars has tended  to augment the present danger, and
hasten on the future.
   It is requisite to have the co-operation of a  pupil or assistant, to
receive and  execute the  orders  of the physician.  He should be
selected from amongst the more  advanced in their studies, capable
of acting,  in any  sudden emergency, without  injury and of detail-
ing with accuracy all that has taken place during his absence.   By
no means should the patient be committed to the ignorant and  un-
skilful; their ill conduct will be ascribed to the physician.  Nothing
should  be  equivocal; by  which all  blame will be avoided, and his
merit acknowledged.—Let the physician  therefore announce to the
attendants  all that may be anticipated.
   Since what we have  said respecting decorum and wisdom is
equally applicable to philosophy and to medicine,  and  to  all other
arts, the physician will attend to  them in their  particular connexion
with  himself, without neglecting what  is common  to  him  with
society at large; for what  is favourable to a good name should be
generally pursued by all mankind.   Such is the  method by which
celebrity may be attained, both present and future.—If intelligence
is, however, unhappily wanting, at any rate, let prudence, as far as
possible, supply  its place. 
         PRECEPTS  OF  HIPPOCRATES.

                   SECTION I.—TREATISE VII.

         Hippocratis Pr^eceptiones,*  .   .   Fcesius, p. 25.
         Hippocratis Pr^eceptiones,   .   .   Haller, iv. p. 186.
         Avis,.......Gardeil, ii. p. 240.

  With respect to this treatise, Haller says, that although spurious,
it is by no means unimportant.  Its commencement and conclusion
appear to be derived from Hippocrates, to whose brevity and gra-
vity it approximates.   It  gives advice to the  physician concerning
his fees, his remedies, and food.   Treats  of consultations, and de-
nounces  the impudence of quackery.  In  short, like the preceding
treatise, it contains many general  precepts that are  well  calculated
to excite reflection in  a philosophic physician, and  to prove  useful
to him.
  Opportunity is the work of a moment;  itself, of short duration.
Aid  from medicine is sometimes the work of time, but not unfre-
quently, it is immediately called for.   This is to be well considered
in our intercourse with the sick, who require to be  treated, not from
mere probabilities, but by  observation  in  connexion with  reason.
Reflection is a well-regulated  remembrance of events perceptible to
the  senses.  Events are evident facts, which  are transmitted to the
mind through  the medium of the senses. Impressions thus frequent-
ly produced, the regular train of such events, antecedently and sub-
sequent, is preserved by memory.   Reasoning becomes allowable,
provided it  is  based on the complete train  of events which  are re-
traced by memory  in their proper order and  succession.  It would
seem that nature is impelled to its various changes and  movements
by many different causes, which serve to illustrate it; because the

  * "Prteceptiones—Trapayytxu—significat prtsceptum, sive comprehensionem aphoris-
ticam et brevem,qure facit vel instruendum Medicum, vel etiam ffigrum, aut adstantes.
Ita Hippocrates libellum prseceptionum ad medicum pertinentium conscripsit, &c."—
Castelli, Lexicon Med. 
80                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

event that ensues is fixed and certain, and  the mind can only be-
come acquainted with it in  the way I have pointed out, the only
way in which it can  arrive at certainty.  If, on the  contrary, our
reasoning is not founded on an evident chain of certain facts, but
merely of probable events, the most fatal consequences may result
from  the opinions that may be  formed; resembling the case of a
traveller in an  unknown and  trackless country.   Such  persons,
therefore, who  practise medicine on  such doubtful  principles, de-
serve to  suffer  for their bad success.   Is  it not sufficient  that the
unhappy patient is prostrated  by sickness, without having it aug-
mented  through the unskilfulness of his physician?   I repeat there-
fore, that success cannot  be anticipated from reasoning alone, but
through the agency  of the means  above referred to.  The mere
babbler  is certain of  nothing, and is replete with error and deceit.
An accurate  attention to events, without neglecting  attending  cir-
cumstances,  can alone  promote that sure  and  certain  practice
which is called medicine.   It is this only that can render  the phy-
sician useful to those around him.
  No difficulty should be made at  receiving information from the
most illiterate, provided it appears that they have  some knowledge
of the subject  under  consideration.  It was  thus, I  think, that our
art had  its origin; collecting together, from  all quarters, a body of
facts.  We ought not to neglect what chance  may present, espe-
cially if it be  reiterated; listening with attention in  order to profit,
and  not  repulsing our informant, by  boasting  of our cures,  and
deeming his  experience void of utility.  Doubts as to  remedies
spoken of as if alone appropriate,  are  highly proper.  This does
not imply obstinacy ;  all diseases, from a variety of  circumstances,
require at times a difference of treatment.
  A point deserving of attention in medicine, is respecting the fee
of the physician.  If he commences by speaking of payment, the
patient will presume that he will not  be neglected.  By not attending
to this, he will be led  to imagine that your attendance will be irre-
gular.  I apprehend therefore that a stipulation as to this particular
is perfectly correct, except in cases of an acute nature.  Here, the
rapidity of the disease admits of no delay; and humanity will lead
the physician to think more of the esteem he may acquire, than of
mere profit.  It is far preferable in such cases to bear the ingrati-
tude of those you preserve, than to stipulate  for payment whilst the
patient is in danger.   It is true, some  persons who  under  the pre- 
PRECEPTS OF HIPPOCRATES.
81
tence of the hospitality afforded, or the  facility of  cure, object to
payment.  Such are worthy of contempt alone.  The sick should
be considered in the light of the shipwrecked mariner.  And where
is the real physician who will not  rather faithfully afford his ser-
vices, than  act with  inhumanity and  rigour?   Wherefore, when
you  have made yourself acquainted  with the  disease, pursue  a
regular  mode of  treatment, and  neglect  nothing that may  prove
conducive to a cure.  Your views as to payment should be mode-
rate, yet sufficient  to  recompense  your  labour, without however
despising wealth.   And with respect to the poor, to  visit them gra-
tuitously ; preferring thus the pleasure of  a grateful mind, to the in-
crease of pomp and  parade.   Strangers and  the  poor  demand
peculiar attention from the physician, for  no one can have a proper
regard for medicine, who  forgets his duty to his fellow-creatures.
Some, on their recovery  from sickness,  appreciating  the danger
they have gone through, extol the  benevolence of their physician,
repaying thus a debt of gratitude. It is highly praiseworthy to give
advice,  preservative of health,  and even of bodily appearance.
The ignorant physician cannot  comprehend  such wholesome pre-
ventive  admonitions;  but  being  carried  away  by self-sufficiency,
he evinces by his  conduct that his  standing is  misplaced, and his
sole desire is that of gain; hence he demands payment  both  from
the rich  and poor.   Proud  in prosperity, he spares  no expense in
his luxurious habits, and cares not for the faults he commits,  under
a conviction of  impunity;  but if adversity overtakes him,  he is
submissive and base in the extreme.  The true physician earnestly
strives to avoid  mistakes, and by this, deservedly merits the name
of master of his art. In the pursuit of his  duty, he neglects nothing,
not even to those in  the most  abject  poverty, for good faith and
justice accompany him in all his actions.   The  reverse of this, is
evident  in  those of an opposite  character.  Dangerous diseases
they sedulously avoid, and undertake those only that can give  them
£clat.  Consultation with other physicians they carefully shun, by
declaring their want of confidence in their opinion  and  judgment.
Their patients consequently experience all the unhappy effects, re-
sulting from  their  imprudent choice.   A  better  selection might at
least have proved beneficial, a circumstance of no trifling import-
ance at  times, even if inadequate to a perfect cure.   The  same
reasons   that led them to  have recourse  to quacks, the hope of a
                              6 
g2                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

speedy and  perfect restoration to health, frequently induce great
impatience and neglect  in the due continuance of  remedies, or in
perpetually changing them.
  If, now, you would institute a  comparison as to the ingratitude
of patients, it will be seen that for the most part all are deficient in
a due recognition of the services of  the physician.   The  poor, at
first, are mild and obedient, but  ingratitude  and ill behaviour too
often  succeed.  The  affluent,  in sickness, are  exuberant  in their
professions and promises; but in health, when reminded  of pay-
ment, they excuse their neglect by their rents not  being received,
and then think no more on the subject.   Enough, however, on  this
head.  The physician must  act according to  circumstances.
  A physician, if embarrassed by the state of the patient, or by the
novelty of the disease, ought to feel no repugnance  in calling for
aid in consultation, for  it often happens that in a  dangerous  and
unyielding disease, anxiety leads to the omission of  much  that
might be useful, by destroying that presence of mind which is so
highly necessary to the medical  man.  Many  regard it as a right,
that in consultation, their opinion  should be  acquiesced in;  or per-
haps they sustain it by calling in question that of  others.    Now I
am persuaded, that a  physician  who  is prompt to blame others,
must render  himself contemptible: it is the common  practice of
quacks. Consultations, however, are not constituted  on such illiberal
principles, for it is fully admitted, that with even the highest attain-
ment of medicine, still, much is wanting to be known.
  These particulars being thus disposed of,  one still remains to be
noticed, as marking the accomplished practitioner,  viz., the due en-
couragement of the sick, and checking that anxiety with regard to
the progress of disease, which so usually is present.  Such anxiety
is extremely prejudicial, and he who knows how to prevent or allay
it, is of infinite service.   How many fall victims to this despair that
invades them!  When, therefore,  any one is charged  with the care
of the  sick, their confidence will be gained by stating that our art
consists in following nature, and  not striving to oppose her. Anv
other plan will prove unsuccessful.  In  truth, health is that natural
state, in which foreign agencies are not employed, but a certain har-
mony of action existing between the air and heat and the concoction
of the humours.  Nature exerts herself in the promotion of health, by
means of our food, and the appropriate functions of the body, unless, 
                   PRECEPTS OF HIPPOCRATES.                 83

indeed, some malformation exists from birth, in which case attempts
to remedy it should be made; for all derangement is unnatural, even
although it may progress but slowly.
   The physician should carefully avoid all  affectation, such as the
use of perfumes and similar superfluities.  His dress should be neat
and  decent, without an admixture of finery  or  ostentation.   An
excess of attention, even to this, is sometimes morbid;  of little im-
portance, if duly confined, but  when carried  to  an  extreme,  it is
injurious to him.   I would on no  account depreciate gentility.  It
is essential to him  in his pursuits; but it is important that he should
know its boundaries, and its true  intent.   In a public discourse, he
should not be too flowery or poetical in his remarks; they rather
proceed  from  idleness or ignorance,  than  from real knowledge.
All  information, if even  the offspring  of deep  research, is to be
carefully avoided, if it has no bearing  on  the  subject before us.
This is  particularly the  case in medicine, which is  sufficiently
attractive in itself, and requires not the foreign aid of ornament.
   They  who begin the study of medicine late in  life are much to
blame.   Self-experience  is  insufficient;  that  of others is often of
great importance;—but their  memory of what  has been handed
down, is so confused as  to confound  and render useless all they
say.—They  talk  of their superior  knowledge,  as  if desirous to
instruct  the friends around their patients, who have attended to re-
ceive their orders.  For my part, when  called in consultation with
such boasters,  I do not stop to  argue with them  about the disease,
but  come  at once to the point, by asking what plan they propose
for  adoption.  As  they  may chance to know something of what
should be  done, although otherwise  deficient, I desire  only  their
practical information, and pay  no attention to their assumed know-
ledge in the principles of the art.—Experience, constant, and of long
continuance, can  alone lead to a full and  thorough acquaintance
with them.  Those who profess to understand them, may be allowed
the  privilege of talking; but their practice must be deemed the test
of their  knowledge.
   A severe regimen, if not too long continued, increases the desire
for food, but if not cautiously administered,  it will augment disease.
 Should all the  wishes of a blind man be indulged, how much injury
would it not be productive  of,  even in those which he might  most
particularly desire. 
§4                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  Some few remarks of an aphoristic character here follow.—Ed.

  Sudden changes of the air are to be carefully avoided.
  In youth every thing seems pleasing;—such is not the case in age.
  Difficulty in speaking may arise from some disease, or from im-
perfection in the organs of hearing;—from too rapid pronunciation,
or extreme rapidity in the evolution of ideas.—Such is by no means
uncommon in those who pursue the different paths of science.
  Youth is sometimes the best remedy in slight affections.
  The continuance of disease, with no  alteration, indicates that  it
will prove of long  duration.
  Diseases are terminated by crises.
  Little is required to cure, unless the part affected is of great im-
portance.
  As we suffer by  sympathy from the affections of others,  so also
will pain in one part of the system sympathetically call into action
other parts.
  We  should bear with patience the complaints of those in pain.
  Extreme labour  is deserving of some  indulgence.
  A healthy locality is very desirable. 
SECTION  II."
        THE  BOOK  OF  PROGNOSTICS.

        Hippocratis Pr^motionum Liber,    .   Fossius, Treat, i. p. 36.
        Hippocratis Progxosticon, .   .    .   Haller, i. p. 166.
        Traite des Pronostics, ....   Gardeil, i. p. 29.

  This book is uniformly considered as one of the genuine writings
of Hippocrates.   In the preface to  it, Haller speaks of it  as  " con-
taining all the symptoms, good or bad, of diseases,  as derived from
every  source, and arranged  in a natural  order, which is unusual
for  him.   The first  symptoms are drawn from the countenance,
the  mouth, the lips, and eyes:  next, from the decubitus; then from
the  appearance of wounds or  ulcers;  from  tossing about  of  the
hands, or picking the bedclothes ; from respiration, sweat, the state
of the  hypochondria, swelling  of  them, or of the belly.   It next
treats of suppuration ; of dropsical symptoms  in acute diseases ; of
the power of the patient  in  sustaining his disease; his limbs, &c,
as to colour, temperature, and sense of feeling.  Of sleep, alvine
discharges, urine, vomiting,  sputation, and  of empyema  from  an
acute disease ;  of auricular  abscess—paraphrenitis—inflammation
of the  bladder;  general  termination of fever, acute pain  of  the
head, and ears ;  ulcers of the throat, and angina ; tumour  of  the
uvula;  termination of fever  in abscess; prognostics of  vomiting,
and of  nasal hemorrhage, and convulsions.   Towards the conclu-
sion, Hippocrates demonstrates the  absolute necessity of the various
symptoms enumerated, as the basis of a faithful prognosis.  Adding

  a This section, under the head of Semeiotica, vel " Ea de quos Signis agunt,"  con-
tains six treatises.—~2.»y.uai>rix»,—pars medicirfte quee signa morborum  dijudicat.—
Lexicon Hederici.—" Semeiosis, significatio, notatio, aut designatio dicitur.  Compre-
hendit sub se Dignotionem ct Prffinotionem: et pars medicinae doctrinam signorum
diagnosticorum et prognosticorum comprehendens, vocatur Semeiotica, rectius Semi-
ologia,  estque pars medicina?, signorum omnium differentias et  vires expendens."—
Castelli Lex. Med. 
86                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
that those symptoms, which in Greece are good or bad, are equally
the same in "every other country:  that even in Scythia, whoever is
acquainted with them, is  capable of prognosticating.  The same
prognosis holds  good  in  relation to diseases  not  mentioned,  but
which terminate on  the same  days.  The careful  observation  of
epidemics and of the atmospheric constitution, is enforced.  The
pulse alone seems to be here overlooked."
  In addition  to the above  from Haller, I  shall introduce a few
preliminary remarks from  Gardeil, who, among other particulars,
states that it has been well translated by M. le Febre-Villebrune—
a work I have  not seen.  After saying that the  first section  of
Foesius contains none of the writings ascribed to Hippocrates, he
thus  proceeds: " It is unquestionably one of the  most precious of
the writings of the father of  medicine.   In  it, the physician will
find the foundation of the whole doctrine of crises, of urines, expec-
toration,  hemorrhages, abscesses,  &c, and every where a master's
hand is apparent, so that it appears perfect and complete.   Such is
not the case with  the aphorisms,—and I  think every physician
would find it useful to commit it to memory.  Its brevity is its prin-
cipal defect.  It is nevertheless highly probable,  that many of our
present race of  doctors will ridicule many things  that  are to be
found therein, more especially the statement relating to urines; for
it is  now beneath their dignity to examine the urine of the sick,
or even their expectoration for the most part!  My own constant
observation of the urine,  preserved  in  glasses for  inspection, has
confirmed me  in my opinion of the correctness of the Hippocratic
doctrines.  In  respect  to the pulse, which Hippocrates attended to
but in a  very slight degree,  I  think we  err in depending  so much
upon  it to the exclusion  of those  particulars almost entirely, in
which he had the greatest  confidence."—Ed.
  A physician should endeavour to become acquainted with the
phenomena of diseases.   He who can inform the sick, not only of
their present state,  but  of what preceded and  of what may be
expected, and point out what they have omitted to mention, will
readily  be esteemed  as  being  perfectly  acquainted  with  'their
disease, and they will therefore with confidence commit themselves
to his  care.  A foresight  of what is  to be expected, enables him
the better to fix upon his plan of treatment:  a certain cure at all 
                   THE BOOK OF PROGNOSTICS.                 87

times is impossible, although of more importance than a foreknow-
ledge of events.  Some are carried off by the violence of disease
before a physician  is called  on; others, immediately after;  some
survive for a day, others  longer;  time is not always afforded to
employ fully the resources of  our  art.   It is of  consequence how-
ever in all cases, to know if  the nature of the disorder transcends
the power of the constitution ; or  if there  is not in it something
supernatural; (Seiov  <n.  Hipp.; divinum. Hall., Foes.)   In all  cases
we ought to be  acquainted with what  may take  place, as  a means
of acquiring  a  just celebrity, and of meriting the character of an
experienced practitioner;  for if a disease  is capable of cure, he is
the best qualified to effect it who can best guard against  the evils
anticipated :  moreover, by being  capable of prognosticating  the
event either of death or recovery, all blame is avoided.
   In acuteMiseases, the first thing to be noticed is the countenance.
Does it  look like that of  health? especially  is it perfectly  natural?
The more it differs therefrom the worse.  A  sharp nose, hollow
eyes, temples collapsed, the brows knit, ears cold and contracted,
and their lobes inverted, the forehead hard, dry, and tense, the whole
countenance pallid, greenish,  black, livid or of a leaden hue.  If at
the commencement of disease such is the aspect, without other  ac-
companying  symptoms, in order to form  a  right judgment, it will
be proper to  inquire whether  it may not depend on excessive want
of rest, on violent  purgation, or even on want of food.  In either
case, the state of the countenance  is of less  consequence,  and,  the
disordered system may be restored in twenty-four hours;  but if it
arises from other causes, and does not change in  that space of time,
we may safely affirm that death is not far distant.   If the disease
is  of more than three or four days' standing, and the countenance
has assumed the  above-described  appearance,  we must  examine
into the  causes that could especially lead to it ; at the same time
attending to the signs that  may exist in other parts of the body.
   In  examining the eyes, we should  ascertain if the light affects
them,  or involuntary  tears flow ;  if squinting attends, or  one eye
seems smaller than the other; if  the white is of a reddish hue, or
the lids of a livid tint, with the small vessels turgid with dark blood",
the cornea coated with sordes, the  globe of the eye turned  upwards
or pressed forward, or deeply ensconced  in  the orbit,  with  dimi-
nished transparency, and the whole countenance changed in colour;
such  symptoms should  be considered of the worst character, and 
 88                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 even mortal.   The eyes sometimes are seen in sleep, from the lids
 not closing;  if this is customary to the individual, it is less impor-
 tant, or when it arises from  a diarrhoea,  or  from a  purgative;
 otherwise it is a bad symptom, and usually portends death.
   If the eyelids, the  nares, or lips are convulsed, or cold, pale, or
 livid, accompanied by any  other bad symptom, death  is not far
 distant.  So also may it be said when the lips remain flaccid, cold,
 and  pallid.
   With  respect  to the  decubitus of the patient, that situation is
 best, that approaches  nearest to that of health—as lying on  the
 side, with the arms, neck, and legs  slightly  bended, with a gentle
 moisture over the  surface?   To lie on the  back, with rigid neck
 and limbs, is bad; but if the patient slides from the  pillow towards
 the foot of the bed, it is infinitely worse.  The  feet  uncovered and
 cold, the legs, and arms, and neck the same, and  in continual jactita-
 tion, are symptoms indicating great anxiety.   Sleeping on the back,
 with the mouth  constantly open, and the legs strongly interlocked,
 is fatal.  Lying on the belly, if unusual in health, is symptomatic of
 delirium or severe pain.  Sitting upright at the acme of the disease,
 is bad in all acute  cases, but in pulmonic affections, indicates  the
greatest danger.  Gritting of the teeth  in fever, unless it  be a long-
 existing habit, is a sign of approaching delirium and death: if  oc-
 curring in the state of delirium, it is fatal.
  Sores, both old  and recent, should be noticed.  If the disease is
 mortal, they become livid, dry, or pallid, and quite  dry shortly  be-
 fore  death.
  My remarks as to the motions of the hands are the following.   In
 acute fevers, pulmonary inflammation, phrenitis  or headache, if  the
 patient  moves them before his face,  to and  fro, as if catchino- at
 flies  or motes, or picks the bedclothes or  the walls,  his  state is
 desperate.
  Frequent respiration denotes pain or inflammation above the dia-
 phragm; deep and very slow respiration announces  delirium; cold
 exspiration from  the nose and mouth is mostly a fatal sio-n.   An
 easy breathing  in  acute  diseases, with  fever which  terminates
*vithin forty days, is very salutary.
  Sweats are beneficial in  all  acute diseases, if they  occur  on
 critical days, and remove the fever.  Likewise  when they are uni-
 versal, and do not weaken the patient;  otherwise they are injurious
 Cold sweats, or, if  limited to the head, the  face, or neck  are bad' 
THE BOOK OF PROGNOSTICS.
89
and if associated with violent fever, indicate death.  If the fever is
moderate, they indicate a long disease.  If they form in drops, like
millet seed, about the neck onhj», it is bad; but if universal over the
body, it is a favourable symptom.  Sweats arising from debility, or
from violent inflammation, are never salutary.
  The state of the hypochondria is best when no pain is felt there,
and when they are equably soft.  If inflammation and pain attend,
with tension and inequality, danger is to be suspected.  If pulsation
is  felt  in  them, it indicates great disturbance, or delirium.   The
eyes should be inspected, for if much agitated, madness is to be
feared.  Hard  and painful tumours in the hypochondria, if exten-
sive, are very bad; but if on one side only,  the danger is less, par-
ticularly if in the  left  side.   Death  may  be  soon expected, if  this
state continues; or, if the fever and swelling extend beyond twenty
days, suppuration ensues.  A bleeding from  the nose, of  a salutary
tendency, sometimes takes place within a  week, which may be ex-
pected if  the patient complains of headache and disturbed vision,
and  is under thirty-five years of age.  Tumours, soft,  and unac-
companied by pain, and yielding to the touch, are longer in dura-
tion, but less dangerous.  If fever attends, and they do not recede
within sixty days, an abscess may be expected.  Such  is the  case
in whatever part of  the belly the tumour  exists;—and  all  such as
are large, hard, and very painful, announce the danger of speedy
death.  If soft and less painful, death is more remote.  Abdominal
tumours are less liable to form  abscesses, if seated in the epigas-
trium, than if in the hypochondria.  If below the umbilicus, suppu-
ration seldom occurs.  Haemorrhage is more common from tumours
above the umbilicus.   Suppuration, however, is to be apprehended
under  all  these circumstances,—and in considering this chance, we
may conclude that tumours pointing outwards are least dangerous,
even if extensive, whilst smaller ones, deeply seated, if free of pain,
and the surface retains its natural appearance, are not often hazard-
ous.  When suppuration ensues, that pus is  best that is white, smooth,
and  soft to the touch, without any offensive odour.  It is bad in pro-
portion as it varies from this standard.
   Dropsies, supervening acute  diseases, are  all dangerous.  They
do not dispel the fever, but are accompanied with much pain,  and
are usually fatal.  Some have their origin in the iliac regions, some
in the lumbar, and others proceed from the liver.  In  the former,
the feet swell, and  obstinate  diarrhoea attends, without diminution 
5)0                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

of the pain, or of the aqueous depositions.  In the latter case, con-
tinual disposition to cough exists, which is harsh  and dry; the legs
swell, and costiveness ensues, with much pain and little evacuation.
Swellings of the  belly  are  occasionally  seen, sometimes on one,
sometimes on the other side; sometimes  they are persistent, and at
times disappear.
   Coldness of the head, feet, and hands, conjoined with heat in the
breast and  belly, is a bad  symptom.   The best state consists in  an
equable and  mild temperature  over the whole  body.   An easy
change  of  position is favourable; but a  feeling  of heaviness and
weight in so doing is dangerous.   If to this  is added  a lividity of
the nails and fingers, death  is  close at hand; a  dark  or  black ap-
pearance of those parts  is less to be dreaded.  All conjoined symp-
toms are to be noticed ;  for  if the patient appears to  bear his illness
pretty well, and others  equally favourable ensue, the  formation of
an  abscess may be hoped for, that will prove beneficial, and the
mortified parts may happily separate.  A retraction of the testes
and scrotum and penis are significative of severe pain and danger
of death.
   With respect to sleep, it ought to approximate to that of health,
resting at night, and awake  during the day.   The reverse of this is
bad.  It is true that sleep from six to ten in  the morning  is less  in-
jurious  than after that period ; but it is far worse not  to be able to
sleep at all; whether arising from pain, or fatigue,  it may portend
delirium.
   Those alvine discharges are  the best, which have a due consist-
ence, without being hard, and which take place at  the accustomed
time of health, and in quantity proportioned  to  the food taken in.
Such are indicative of a healthy  state of  the bowels.  If  the stools
are liquid, it is better that they  should not be frequent and large, or
accompanied with flatus.  They disturb the  patient—prevent sleep
—and often, if too copious and frequent, induce fainting. According
to the nature of the food, and its  amount, two or three discharges
by day, and one during  the night may be considered  as  right, the
largest in the morning, as usual in health.  This,  however, depends
on habit.   As a crisis approaches, the discharges ought to become
more consistent, and of a yellowish  tinge,  without any  very bad
odour;—round worms discharged at the same time  are deemed to
be favourable.
   In all diseases, a soft and un-enlarged belly, is a good sign. If the 
                   THE BOOK OF PROGNOSTICS.                 gj

discharges are very liquid, white, green, or very red and frothy, all
such are bad ; so are also such  as are small, tenacious, whitish, or
greenish.   The worst discharges are  black, oily, livid, eruginous,
and extremely fetid.  Those of a mixed character may continue for
a longer time, but are equally dangerous; also such as resemble the
washings of flesh,bilious, porraceous, black;  sometimes separately,
at times commingled.  Wind discharged with little or no noise is
favourable; but it is better to be so discharged than to  be retained.
When passed with crepitus,  it often indicates pain  or delirium,
unless indeed this is done at the caprice of the sick.
   Swelling and  pain  in the praecordia, if recent, and not attended
with inflammation, pass off by rumbling in those parts, especially if
superadded to this, there is a faecal discharge, with wind and urine;
the gradual descent of the rumbling  to the lower bowels is of itself
a source of relief.
   Urine, which, up to the crisis, deposits a white, light, and equable
sediment, is the  best, and denotes a short and not  dangerous  dis-
ease.  If it be irregular, sometimes without, sometimes with a sedi-
ment, the disease will be longer in  duration, and  more  uncertain.
When it is red, and  the sediment  likewise, it will be longer, but
safer.   The sediment resembling coarse meal is bad ;  yet worse if
it has the appearance of small scales.  White and very tender sedi-
ment is pernicious ; the worst of all is the branlike sediment. White
clouds in the urine are good;  black  clouds  are bad.  As long as
the urine continues red and limpid, no coction ensues in the disease;
if this symptom is prolonged there is much danger lest the disease
should be fatal before concoction can take place.  The worst urine
is that whose odour is fetid, and clear as water, or black and thick ;
of these the black is the most dangerous, both in man  and woman,
but the aqueous in children.  If the urine continues thin and crude,
whilst the  other symptoms are more favourable, an abscess below
the diaphragm may be  apprehended.  A greasy, web-like appear-
ance on the surface  of the  urine, denotes a colliquation, and  the
danger of consumption.  The clouds  in the urine should be  exa-
mined, whether they  are high in it, or fall to  the bottom ; the latter,
if of the good colours stated  above,  is favourable:  but the reverse,
if the colour is of the bad ones enumerated.  In order to avoid de-
ception  in prognosis  from urine, careful examination  should be
made whether any particular disease of the bladder exists; in such 
92                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

a case, the symptoms are declaratory only of the bladder, and not
of the  system.
   Of vomiting.—The vomiting of bile and phlegm, if not too exces-
sive, is very  beneficial.   Either of them, singly discharged, is less
favourable.   If the discharge is  green, livid, or black, it is a bad
sign; but dangerous  in the extreme, should all of them combine.  A
livid-coloured discharge, of an extreme fetor, denotes death.   Fetor
of any kind in the discharges from  vomiting is  always bad.
   Of sputation.—The expectoration in all diseases of the lungs and
breast  ought  to be prompt and  easy, and of a yellow uniform tinge.
If after some continuance of pain, it is yellow or red, with much
coughing, and not well mixed,  it  is a  bad sign.  A yellow unmixed
sputation is bad.  If white, viscid, and globular, this  is also  unfa-
vourable, as is also that which is grayish and  frothy.  If not well
mixed, and if black, it is highly dangerous.  If nothing is discharged
by coughing, but the rattling in the throat evinces the surcharge  of
the lungs, it is very bad.  In all  diseases of the lungs, coryza and
sneezing, whether preceding or succeeding the attack, are  dange-
rous ; but in other, and even dangerous diseases, sneezing is a good
symptom.  Yellow expectoration, with a  slight intermixture  of
blood, in the onset of peripneumonia, is salutary; but if this extends
to the seventh day and  more, less  so.  All sputation, unaccompa-
nied by relief, is bad, especially if  black.  All are  beneficial when
they afford relief.   Whenever, in these  cases, relief is unobtained
by expectoration,  purging, bleeding,  or by  other  remedies, or by
diet, suppuration may be expected.  If  suppuration ensues whilst
the expectoration continues bilious, whether alone or mingled with
pus, it is very  pernicious, especially if  the  pus is thus apparent
with the  bilious  expectoration  on the  seventh  day of the disease;
for the danger of death on the fourteenth day is great,  unless some
favourable  symptom  should  occur in the interval.   Thus,  if the
patient sustains  his  disease with  ease, breathes and  expectorates
with facility and with less pain, has his body of an equable tempe-
rature  and softness,  and  is  not  very thirsty;  if, also, the urine,
stools,  sleep,  sweat, and other  signs  are favourable, as previously
mentioned, every hope may  be  entertained of a happy termination;
but if several of these good symptoms are wanting, he will not sur-
vive the fourteenth day.  If, on the contrary, the disease is badly
supported, the breathing quick and frequent, pain  unmitigated, ex- 
THE BOOK OF PROGNOSTICS.
93
pectoration  difficult, thirst  extreme, unequal heat of the body, the
belly and  breast very hot,  forehead, hands, and feet, cold,—sweat,
sleep, urine,  stools, of a bad character; all these are dangerous
symptoms; for if any of them are conjoined with  bilious and  puru-
lent expectoration, the patient will die on the ninth or eleventh day.
In these conjunctures, such sputation must be deemed  fatal, and as
announcing  death before the fourteenth day.   By a  comparative
estimate of these good and  bad signs, we deduce the prognosis, and
thereby look into  futurity.
   Some of these abscesses break on the twentieth  day, some on the
thirtieth and fortieth,  whilst a few extend to sixty days.  We may
presume that suppuration has commenced from the day that fever
has shown itself,  or previous  chills, particularly if the patient com-
plains of a great weight, instead of pain of the affected part, for
such is the  usual mode of an incipient suppuration.  The time of
the abscess  breaking will  be as above stated, reckoning from  the
beginning of the  disease.   In order to know on  which  side, or if
only on one, the  abscess exists, the patient should be  turned on
each alternately,  and thereby ascertain  if he suffers pain in one
alone, and feels a greater heat in either; if lying on the sound side
he feels as it were a weight pressing above  it, the abscess exists in
the side  in which the weight is felt.   The general diagnosis of an
empyema* is as follows. The fever is  permanent, slightly remitting
during the day, but augmenting at night, with copious sweat, cough,
and tracheal irritation, with  but trifling expectoration.   The eyes
become hollow, the cheeks red, the nails curved, the fingers  be-
come hot at their extremities; the  feet  swell, and the  appetite is
lost; pustules arise  over all the body.   In all chronic abscesses of
the thorax,  these symptoms  appear, and may  be depended  upon
unhesitatingly.  But  in recent empyema, the symptoms previously
mentioned as occurring at  the beginning  of a  suppuration, are
present, to which may be added great difficulty of  respiration.
As to  the prognosis  in empyema, the  following symptoms will
guide us, as to the  period of their rupture.  If at the commence-
ment there is severe pain  and oppression, with cough unaccompa-
nied by expectoration, it may be expected  on  the twentieth  day
or sooner; if the pain is moderate, the other symptoms existing as
above,  it  will rupture later,—but previous to this event, the  pain,
* Vomica, ffAvun/u*. 
94                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

oppression, and cough, will greatly augment.  After the rupture of
the abscess, those  escape, in whom the fever terminates the  same
day, with a return of appetite and cessation of thirst.   The fasces
are small in amount  and solid;  expectoration is easy and without
severe coughing, of well-concocted pus, of  a  uniform  colour, and
unmixed with  phlegm: a cure soon follows.  In proportion as  the
existing symptoms differ, in the same degree will  health  be post-
poned.  If the fever does not cease, or if afterwards it returns with
violence, attended  with  nausea, thirst, diarrhoea;  if the matter ex-
pectorated is  greenish, livid, and frothy, and  pituitous, death will
assuredly follow; but if only a part of these symptoms take place,
some will die, whilst  others recover  after a long time.  All these
and every other symptom  are to be attended to, in forming a prog-
nosis.   In  pulmonic  diseases, if abscesses about the ears ensue, or
about the lower limbs, these depositions are favourable, and cure
will follow.  It is to be noticed in these cases, that when fever con-
tinues, with unmitigated pain, and expectoration is  unduly small in
amount; the stools neither bilious nor well  mingled ; the urine tri-
fling, with little sediment,  whilst other symptoms  are  favourable,
such  metastases may be looked for.   Abscesses form  in the lower
extremities, when  pain  and inflammation about the hypochondria
have existed; but in the  upper extremities, when  they have been
free from those attendants, and the difficult breathing has  subsided
without any evident cause.   Abscesses in the legs in  dangerous
peripneumonies, are  always favourable ; the most so, are those  that
take place at the time of a change in the expectoration.  If swell-
ing and pain take  place, when the expectoration becomes purulent,
and easily discharged, the patient  will certainly recover,  and the
abscess will soon heal  without pain.  But if the sputation is bad,
and the urine  affords a bad sediment, there is danger of the abscess
causing lameness, or great trouble.   And  should  such abscesses
disappear, and  expestoration  not follow, but  the fever continuing,
delirium and death are to  be looked  for.  Internal  abscesses from
peripneumonies are  usually fatal to old people.  Young people are
more in danger from abscesses elsewhere.
   Fever, accompanied with pain in  the loins or lower limbs, be-
comes  dangerous  by metastasis to the diaphragm.   Other attendant
signs are  to  be attended to, for if they are bad, the  state  of the
patient is hopeless.   If, on the contrary, they are favourable, an
 internal abscess  may be anticipated. In all  abscesses, opened 
                   THE BOOK OF PROGNOSTICS.                  95

either by cautery or incision, if the pus is white, and not offensive,
health will follow; but if it  be sanious and muddy, death is to  be
looked for.
   Of Symptoms derived from  the  Bladder.—A hard and  painful
bladder is  altogether dangerous  and fatal,  especially  if accompa-
nied with continued fever.   The pains of the bladder are of them-
selves adequate to  produce death.   They  induce such  obstinate
constipation, that the hardened  mass  can  only be  removed  by
force.   If the urine becomes purulent, with a white and light sedi-
ment, the danger is removed;  but if, notwithstanding, the pain con-
tinues, the tension of  the bladder also, and the fever, there is every
reason to expect a speedy death.  This state is most usual in youth,
between seven and fifteen years.
   Of Fevers and their Crises.—The day on which fevers terminate,
is ascertained, from observation, long continued, of  the day of the
recovery or death of the sick.
   The mildest fevers, accompanied by the  most favourable symp-
toms, usually terminate on  the fourth day or sooner.  Those of a
worse character, and most  unfavourable  symptoms, end in death
on or before the fourth day.  Such  is the shortest course they run.
The second series terminate on the seventh day; the  third  on the
eleventh; the fourth extends to fourteen days; the fifth to seventeen
days; the  sixth to twenty.   Thus  all acute diseases  terminate in
from four to twenty  days, with  intervals  of about four days.  An
absolute accuracy cannot be attained; for neither are the years or
months determined  by a precision  in days.1  Another series then
occurs, in  which the first circuit extends  to thirty-four days, the
second  to forty, the third to sixty days.  To ascertain at first the
crisis of diseases of long duration, is very difficult;  it is equally so
as to their absolute  commencement.  Strict observation  is neces-
sary from the first,  and thenceforward by quaternary periods, in
order to discover how the disease  will end.  The  same order is
observed in our judgment  as  to quartan fevers.  It is easy to pre-
dict the event  in diseases of  a  short  course, for their character is
different from  the beginning.   Such as  tend to  recovery, are
accompanied with  easy respiration, without  pain;  the  patient
sleeps well, and other good symptoms attend.   Those tending to
death are  in  all respects the  reverse, and  have delirium, with all
1 Owing to the frequent intercalation of the Greek calendar. 
 96                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 the train of dangerous symptoms.   Such being the case, we form
 our prognosis, near the period of their crisis, from  their duration,
 and from  every existing circumstance.  In predicting the events
 which  follow  delivery in females,  we  are to  reckon from that
 period.
   In fever with violent and  continual headache, with other dan-
 gerous symptoms, death generally ensues; but should it extend to
 twenty days, without other  bad symptoms, a  bleeding from  the
 nose, or an abscess in  the lower parts,  may be expected.  These
 may also be looked for at the commencement, if the pain is felt  in
 the  temples and forehead.  Hemorrhage is more common  under
 thirty-five years, and abscess after that age.
   Acute ear-ache, with continued fever of  extreme violence, is a
 most dangerous, symptom; it indicates delirium  and death, and
 therefore demands particular attention  to  every  other  symptom
 from the very beginning.  Death takes place, in youth, within  seven
 days, but in adults  at a much later period:  the fever and delirium
 in these are much less intense, and the  suppuration of the ears  is
 enabled to take place.  Relapses are more likely to carry them off.
 The former perish  before suppuration  is  established, unless a flow
 of whitish pus ensues, when there is  some hope, more  especially if
 some favourable symptom should show itself.
   Ulcers of the fauces, with fever, are very dangerous, particularly
 if any of the bad symptoms enumerated appear.  Quinsies are most
 dangerous, and speedily prove fatal,  whenever they  are unattend-
 ed by any  sensible appearance in the neck  or fauces, but  are ac-
 companied by violent pain and  orthopnoea.   Death  in such  cases
 often happens  in  twenty-four  hours, although it may be deferred to
 the second, third, or even the fourth day.  If a tumour  and  redness
 attends, the danger is imminent, and in proportion to the inflamma-
 tion; but the termination is more distant.  When the inflammation
occupies both the throat and  fauces,  the period may be of yet fur-
ther extension.  Some under  these  circumstances  escape;  espe-
cially if the redness of the neck extends to the breast,  and'should
not strike in.   But if this erysipelas does not recede on the  critical
days, and no external tumefaction appears,  if no pus  is coughed
up, the patient free from pain, and seeming well, death is indicated,
or a retrocession of the  erysipelas.  It  is  less dangerous when the
swelling and redness soon appear externally;  but should the  disease 
                   THE BOOK OF PROGNOSTICS.                 97

extend to the lungs, delirium follows, and it not unfrequently termi-
nates in empyema.
  When the uvula is  red  and tumid, there is danger in burninc,
scarifying,  or cutting  it, for it  is followed by  inflammation and
hemorrhage.  Other measures must  therefore be duly employed to
relieve it.  But if it becomes paler, and the relaxation  gives  the
round appearance at its extremity of a grape, whilst its upper part
appears thin, it may then be safely removed.  It is proper to purge
gently before the  operation, if the hazard of immediate  suffocation
will admit of the  delay.
  When fevers disappear  without  the accompanying  favourable
signs at the critical  periods, a relapse may be apprehended.   If
they continue for a long period without any inflammation or other
manifest cause of pain, an abscess with  tumour  and pain in some
of the joints, especially of the lower extremities, may be looked for;
—such occur more speedily,  and  more frequently in persons under
thirty years of age, and rarely until the fever has continued more
than twenty days.  Old people seldom suffer in this way, even in
fevers of the longest duration.  Such abscesses occur in continued
fever; but if it is  erratic in its type, and comes and goes, it will, as
autumn advances, be likely to assume the quartan form.  And, as
above stated, abscesses are more common before the age of thirty,
so after that period and in  old age, quartan fevers are predominant.
Abscesses are  more  common  in the  winter; they  are  longer in
healing, but are less liable to  recur.
   Of vomiting.—Whoever labouring  under  a  fever that  is  not
dangerous,  complains  of violent headache, with cardialgia, and
nubiculae floating before his  eyes, will  vomit  up  bile.   If rigor
accompanies those  symptoms, and  the inferior  parts of the prae-
cordia are cold, the vomiting  is at  hand and will be hastened by
eating or drinking.  Those who suffer from  headache at  the time
of attack will have it augmented on  the fourth  and fifth  days, and
on the seventh it  will terminate.   It is more usual for the headache
to begin on  the third day;  the fifth is  then the worst, and the ninth
or eleventh  it ceases.   Should it  begin on the fifth day, and be in
other respects as above mentioned, the disease  ends on the four-
teenth.  Such is  the case with adults, both  males and females, in
tertians especially.  In young people also, but more so in  continued
fever, and  those  of a true tertian type.   When in  these sorts of
fever headache occurs, and weakness of  vision, or sparks appear,
                               7 
98                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

with tension of one or the other hypochondria,  without pain or
inflammation, epistaxis and not vomiting may be  expected.   This,
especially in young people; it is not so common beyond thirty, and
in advanced life:  in these, vomiting may be expected.
  Of convulsions.—When  children  have  an  acute  fever,  with
costiveness,  insomnia, and  are readily terrified  and  cry,  with
frequent change of colour from florid to pale  or yellowish, convul-
sions  may be anticipated.  These  readily  take  place  from the
slightest causes in infancy to seven  years;  beyond that period,
convulsions in  fever are more uncommon, without the attendance
of such dangerous symptoms as are seen in phrenitis.  Our prog-
nosis in the diseases of children, both of health and death is,  as in
other cases, to be  deduced from all those symptoms that have been
mentioned:  we mean in  acute  diseases, and those which  result
from them.  Now, whoever wishes to  foretell whether  health or
death will take place,  or whether the disease  will  be  long or short,
ought to make himself fully acquainted with all the symptoms and
their respective strength, especially as to those derived from  urine,
and  from expectoration  in which there is a mixture of pus and
bile.   He  must also be able  to determine promptly, the  nature of
existing epidemics, and the constitution  of the atmosphere—never
forgetting, that in every  year and season bad symptoms are the
evidences of ensuing evil, and good ones  of a fortunate issue.   Such
as I have described, are equally true as to Lybia, Delos, or Scythia.
The  verification of our prognosis in those regions  will not surprise.
if given with deliberate judgment, and an accurate estimate of all
the symptoms.  Those diseases that have not here been  spoken of
by name, are  all to  be judged of by the same indications when
their crises occur in the same periods. 
HIPPOCRATES  ON  THE  HUMOURS/
        DeHumoribus......Fcesius, Treat, ii. p. 47.
        DeHumoribus......Haller, i. p. 89.
        Des Humeurs,......Gardeil, i. p. 57.

   In his preface to this treatise, Haller tells us that Galen appears
 to have thought it  genuine, since he wrote a  commentary upon it,
 or  else upon another that  has been lost.  Mercurialis  considered
 it doubtful, since ancient critics mostly repudiated it.   To me, says
 Haller, it  seems genuine, and the production of the  writer  of  the
 treatise, -De Locis," for we find  in it  the same alternating supe-
 riority of  bile and  pituita, that is there  depicted.  It  also contains
 some things  that are  to be found in the first Epidemics, a book that
 is undoubtedly genuine; as well as some aphorisms, the same to a
 word, as  in  the book under that title.   It possesses, moreover,  the
 brevity of Hippocrates;  for we find the names of things alone, with-
 out the slightest comment.   It commences with a theory of the hu-
 mours, and  of  their  various  tendencies.   It  briefly rehearses  the
 signs of diseases, and the common rules of practice;  notices  the*
 critical days, and the power of different  ages, years, and winds, and
 affords examples of metastases from the Epidemics.
  In  its general  character  it consists, according to Haller, of me-
 dical precepts,  relating  both  to  the  sick,  and  to  the diseases
 themselves, their different  sources in  atmospheric changes and
 constitution ; how to  foretell those different constitutions from  the
 existing diseases,  and of the  preventive powers of hemorrhoidal
 affections.
  According to Gardeil, if this treatise is compared with a  com-
 mentary on  it, by Galen,  it  will be  found  to  be  mutilated  in
several places.   Haller has  conveniently divided this treatise under

  • x»l"U succus> humor,—in a general way, may be considered as embracing all the
various fluids of the body, chyle, blood, bile, &c. 
100                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

eight short  chapters, in which I follow him, with the heading to
each one.—Ed.
                         CHAPTER  I.

The collection of humours is to be conveyed away by appropriate channels at proper
       times, or must be resolved by derivation, revulsion, and other means.

  The colour of the humours, unless deep-seated, is  perceived, like
an efflorescence on the skin.  When they tend at any time to break
forth, they should be directed through their appropriate excretories,
with the exception of such as require time for maturation,3  observ-
ing carefully, whether their tendency is outwards or internally, and
taking every due  precaution, by attention to  the rise  of symptoms,
and  to  any difficulty they may present.  The state of the  hair, of
the viscera, the fulness of the lower parts, and the good state of the
superior; what has a tendency of its own accord, either upwards or
downwards, and what  appears injurious or beneficial;  what is in
conformity with custom, region, age;  the state of the  season, and
nature of the disease; what  is deficient, or in excess, or altogether
wanting.   The discharges,  remedies,  variation or decline of dis-
ease, or its tendency to the head or sides, or downward by revulsion
from the upper parts,—or upwards, from  the  inferior.  All  these
particulars require attention; so also as to what parts  require de-
siccation, or moistening, or  other means of  relief.    Effused fluids
are to be prevented  returning, and their passages are  to be  dried
up.  Disturbance in the bowels, how 1o cleanse  them; if  abscess
threatens in  the  fundament, and if to be remedied by medicine  or
by suppuration; if there is a congestion, or  appearance  of pustules,b
a discharge of flatus, or food, or worms, or  great heat, or any other
disease.

  » "Ducere oportet quam in partem momento feruntur, per loca accommodata, nisi
quorum maturahones progressu temporis contingunt, qua: vel foras, vel intra vel alio
quo expedit tendunt."-FceS.,  p. 47.  It might be supposed without difficulty,  that
what is marked above in italics has reference to some of the exanthematous erup.
tions, as measles or small pox.                                         r
  b ^Ktta-TufAa.; pullulatio, Fees.; pustulosa eruptio, Hal. 
ON THE HUMOURS.
101
                        CHAPTER II.


What is to be regarded by the physician—Activity essential in the art of medicine—
   Considerations respecting irregularity of humours—Of infra-umbilical pains.

  Notice is to  be  taken of what  terminates spontaneously;  if the
pustular eruptions  arise from heat, and if they are injurious or be-
neficial.  So too',  we are  to observe the form, mobility, elevation,
and depression of tumours, sleep, insomnia, anxiety, jactitation; and
thus foresee what  we are  to do, and what to  avoid.   Attention is
required as to vomiting, purging, expectoration, nasal mucus, cough,
flatulence both up and down, singultus,  sneezing,  urine,  tears,
itching, excoriation,  palpitation, thirst,  hunger,  repletion, dreams,
facility or  inaptitude  to work.   We are to  attend  to  the state of
the mind, as developed by its ideas, by memory, speech, and taci-
turnity.
  In  female affections, regard is to be  paid to  the  uterine dis-
charges; if upwards, inducing tormina; if sebaceous,  uniform, un-
mixed,  frothy, hot, acrimonious, eruginous, of different colours,
feculent, bloody, not flatulent, crude,  concocted,  dry, and also the
discharges of the parts adjoining.  How all these are sustained, and
when and how they are to be checked;  which tend to maturation,
and  to  be  evacuated downwards; the  fluctuation  of  such  as  are
seated above, or are discharged from  the uterus; the  sordes from
the ears; the maturation, rupture, discharge, heat or coldness, both
internally and  externally.  Intestinal tormina below the umbilicus
are less intense and frequent than when above.
                        CHAPTER  III.

                    Alvine evacuations considered.

  We are to notice the character and  appearance of the alvine dis-
charges, if, or not frothy,—whether crude or concocted, cold, fetid,
dry, moist, or very offensive.   Does thirst arise without great heat,
or other apparent cause ?   Examine the urine, and nasal moisture; 
102
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
is there great jactitation and heat of the body, and difficulty in respi-
ration ? How are the praecordia and extremities, the eyes, the coun-
tenance, the pulse?  Is there palpitation, rough cuticle? How is the
state of the tendons  and joints, of the voice, mind, person, hair, and
nails?  and  how does the patient bear his sickness?  All these  are
so many symptoms  for our  attention.
  Other symptoms are derived from the odour of the body, or of the
mouth, the  stools, the ears, flatus, urine, ulcers, sweat, sputum, tears,
&c.   Are  any of these humours saline?  All  these signs  may be
under particular circumstances good, or bad. Insomnia also affords
us information, as likewise  what occurs in sleep. '  We must ascer-
tain if the  patient hears well, and  is obedient  to directions, and if
the majority of symptoms, and the  strongest, are favourable. If the
patient is perfect in his senses, and readily accommodates himself
to every thing around,  as odours, conversation, clothes, figures, and
if he  seems benefited by any of them.  All these, if natural,  are
advantageous, especially towards  a crisis.  Eructations, and  the
urine  deserve attention also, the last especially, if it is  at  proper
times  and in due amount; if  the signs are adverse, we must direct
our care to restrain the evil.
  Those  parts that are nearest to  the organ affected, or which are
alike  in function, are the first to become influenced by it, and in a
higher degree.  Its  nature is  judged  of by the primary symptoms;
the crisis  is  estimated by the urine and all other concurrent signs,
such  as the  change of colour of  the  skin, difficulty of breathing,
and others associated.  We  must examine whether or no the ex-
cretions are natural,  whether of  the  urine, from the uterus,  the
sputa, by  the nostrils.  Examine  the eyes, and if any exudation
occurs from tubercles, wounds, or pustules, compare what may be
natural, and what the effect of art; what connexion exists between
all these about the crisis, whether for good or evil, that you may
as much as possible avert  the bad,  and  aid  those  that are of a
favourable  nature.
   We must also attend to the skin, the extremities, and  joints, the
praecordia,  the eyes,  mouth, tongue,  manner  of decubitus,  and
sleep; from all which indications are derived as to the crisis
and the measures  to  pursue; they aid in estimating the formation
of abscesses;—we  must not omit  to judge of the  effects produced
from  the different foods and drinks, and odours;  from seeing hear- 
                       ON THE HUMOURS.                    J03

ing, ideas, thinking;  from  heat  and cold, moisture and aridity -,
and with respect to  remedies, we must attend to their effects,
whether they be  unctions, liniments, cataplasms, plasters, or asper-
sions,  singly or conjointly.
  We must  consider if  the patient be  accustomed  to  work, or
inactivity; notice his sleep and watchfulness;  if easily excited or
depressed, and if such influence is partial  or universal, or  the result
of the measures adopted.  Also, if at  or near the increase  of the
disease, or at its decline, and if the feet are cold.   In periodic com-
plaints, during the access, we  must not give food or force it upon
him.   At the crisis, and  even  a  short time before, nothing should
be done, but leave all to nature.  After  concoction has taken place,
then we  may act;  never whilst  the humours are crude, or at the
beginning, unless by their force they tend to discharge themselves,
which is rarely the case.   When  necessary to evacuate, effect this
through those channels  to which  a tendency is evident.  The utility
of evacuations is not to be estimated by their quantity, but by their
fitness, and  by the  relief  they  afford.   When it is necessary to in-
duce  debility and faintness, this  may be  effected  by derivation, or
by drying up, or moistening, as the case  may be, that is,  if the pa-
tient can bear it.  This is known by parts naturally dry,  becoming
hot, and those that  are moist, becoming cold.  Alvine discharges
are here generally to be restrained.   If the disease is periodic, and
well marked by exacerbation on  uneven days, emetics are given,—
and purgatives on even days;  for we find spontaneous evacuations
useful, unless the exacerbation  occurs on even days,—in which case
the treatment is to be reversed.  Such,  however, seldom occur, and
with  difficulty is a crisis  produced.  If  such a type continues for
any time, as for instance if the increase is well marked on the  thir-
teenth or fourteenth day, then we should purge on the  thirteenth,
and vomit on the fourteenth, by which a crisis is assisted.  In such
as extend to  twenty days, besides the regular stools, copious purga-
tion should be employed before the crisis.
  In  acute  diseases, much purgation is unnecessary in those who
are worn down by them.   In fevers, abscesses of tfoe  joints or pa-
rotid  tumours  take place near where pain has been felt, which is
commonly in the superior parts.   If the disease be slow, and tends
downwards,  the  abscess  will  be in  the  inferior  parts.   Hot  feet
generally indicate its location  below;  and cold feet, in  the upper
parts.  In convalescence, if the patient experiences sudden pains in 
1Q4               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

his  hands and feet, there the abscess will form;  or if, previous to
falling sick, he  had pains in any part, there will the  deposit take
place.  Such was the  case in  those with  coughs and  anginas at
Perinthus, for they as well as the fevers ended in abscess.  Such,
too, occurs in  those surcharged  with  humours,  or by  a wasting
away of the body or mind.   Hence it is necessary to know at what
season the humours are most turgid, and to what diseases they give
rise, with  their  appropriate  symptoms.  We should be acquainted
likewise with the disease to which a patient may be most liable in
any part,—as to an indurated spleen.   And as regards other parts,
what is it that produces an  unhealthy colour of the skin, or shrivels
up the body ?—and so of the rest.
                       CHAPTER  IV.

Of the uneasiness of the mind and body—The sudden sight of a serpent induces a
          pallid countenance—The earth assimilated to the stomach.

   We are also  to  consider what are the effects of intemperance
in food or drink;  of too much  or too  little  sleep;  or of  the
passions, as of  gaming;  of great  fatigue, whether of  body or
mind, and  if or not of an accustomed character.   The  changes
which take place are to be investigated, together with their causes
and effects.  Thus,  as to what are the effects of mental labour, in
deep research, thought, seeing, converse;  or from  sorrow, anger,
avarice,  and all  that  can exert an  influence  on  the  mind  and
body, through vision  or hearing.  The noise of a  grindstone sets
the teeth on edge;  the sight of a precipice near to which we pass,
makes the legs tremble; as do our  hands, when any thing is sud-
denly snatched from them that we wish to retain;  the unexpected
sight of a snake induces paleness.  Fear, modesty, pain, pleasure,
anger, &c, all  produce some change in some part of the body, as
sweat, palpitation, and similar effects.
   External agents  are beneficial or  hurtful, according to circum-
stances; as anointing, shower baths, liniments, plasters, cataplasms,
bandages, and such like.  They produce effects internally, just as
internal  remedies produce  external  effects; sleeping on  unclean
woollen  fleeces, smelling  the cumin  called royal.    We  observe
the  effects of catarrh on the voice  and speech,—the influence of 
ON THE HUMOURS.
105
age on the mamma?, the uterus, the  testicles, and  their secretion,
inducing hysteria, cough, and difficulty of breathing.  As the earth
is to vegetables, so is the stomach to animals, in the production of
nutrition, warmth, and cold ;  warmth  when it is full, and cold when
empty.  As the ground  well manured is warm in winter, so is the
stomach.   Trees  have  a dry and thin bark, but  if their interior is
dry and pulpy,  they are healthy, lively, and not apt to decay.  It is
the same with animals,  such as tortoises and the  like, under similar
ages, seasons, and years.  The actions of life are all benefited by
moderation.  As a new cask leaks, and an old one retains its con-
tents, so the stomach transmits its  nourishment, but  retains the
recrements.


                        CHAPTER  V.

Of the modes of diseases—Diseases dependent on the seasons—Seasons judged of by
                            diseases.

  The forms of disease  are various. Some are congenital, and are
detected by inquiry.   Some  are  endemic,  peculiar  to  certain
regions, and attacking numbers.  Others originate from a peculiar
constitution,  regimen, locality, or season.   Unhealthy situations
produce diseases  corresponding to the constitution of the atmo-
sphere that is  dependent on  their locality.  Sudden  changes  of
temperature bring on complaints analogous to those of autumn, and
so of other changes.    Some  diseases arise from marsh and  other
exhalations; or from the nature of the water, producing calculus
or affections of the spleen.   The winds are also of a beneficial or
hurtful character.  As are the constitutions of the year, so are the
diseases. If mild and not tempestuous, the diseases are not difficult
to manage.  Diseases peculiar to certain seasons, indicate by  their
appearance the  approach' of those  seasons.  According to  the
variation of the seasons in their constitution, diseases of a regular
or irregular type appear.  If the season is natural, they are  of a
common kind;  in autumn, repeated variation in  heat and cold in-
duces jaundice.   If heat predominates, the diseases are bilious, and
should it be extreme, the spleen becomes affected.  If similar varia-
tions  take  place  in spring, jaundice  is  likewise  seen.   If summer
has the character of spring, the fevers  are accompanied  by sweats ;
they are mild, and not very acute, and the tongue is moist; but if 
106               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

spring resembles winter, and the cold is long continued, the diseases
resemble those of winter,  and coughs, pleurisies, and sore throat
are common.   Again, in  autumn, if the cold is  tardy in appear-
ance, the usual seasonable complaints  are wanting;  and  when
they appear, they are of anomalous character; for seasons,  like
diseases, have  their irregularities,  whether of too early, late, or
sudden  approach.   Generally,  however,  the  seasons  and their
diseases  are sufficiently  uniform,  and it  is proper  to  pay some
attention to the state  of  the system at  these different seasons of
the year.

                        CHAPTER VI.

  Irregularity of the seasons are productive of difficulty in crises; and also induce
                             relapses.

   A  south  wind affects the sight  and hearing,  induces  headache
and lassitude; if of long continuance, the discharge from wounds
and ulcers is augmented, particularly those  of the mouth, pudenda,
&c.  If the north wind prevails—coughs  and  sore  throats ensue,
with costiveness and  paucity of urine, and pains  in the side  and
breast.   These are  all more  likely to  appear  as the wind predo-
minates—and  should  it  still  continue,  accompanied by drought,
fevers will follow, equally as after  rains, or other  extremes of the
atmospheric constitution,  according to the  state of the body during
such successive constitutions, and the humour  that predominates
in  it.  The aridity  of the north and  south winds  differs in many
respects, as to the  degree of dryness at  different seasons of the
year, and in different countries.  In summer, bile is  produced, and
blood in spring—and thus of the other humours.   All vicissitudes
induce disease, and those, proportioned  to such  changes which
occur in different  seasons.  The change  is sometimes  insensible,
and the seasons are then  less sickly.  So with food, cold, and heat;
they ought to be slowly  diversified  as the ages  of life pass into
 each other.  The constitution  differs in   relation  to the  season;
 some are improved by winter, others  by the summer.   They  vary
 likewise in respect to climate, age,  food, and  even to disease-
 some constitutions are less influenced by these than others.  Some
 readily  adapt themselves to seasons, climate,  diet, and  disease.
 There are  food and drinks, and regimen peculiarly adapted to the 
                        ON THE HUMOURS.                    107

different seasons.   Winter is a season of relaxation, and requires
light  nourishment  and of easy digestion; this  is  of importance.
The autumn is  that of labour and  exposure,  and demands  much
drink, different sorts of aliment, wine, and fruit.


                        CHAPTER VII.

The character of diseases may be conjectured from that of the seasons; and from
  the character of diseases we may predict the nature of the subsequent season—Fore-
  telling of dropsical complaints—Variation of complexion according to the seasons.

   As we are capable of conjecturing the various complaints of the
different seasons,  so  also,  by the  diseases  that  ensue,  are we
enabled  to  foretell the  occurrence of  drought, of rain, and the
direction of the winds.  Attention will confirm  this remark.  We
observe, for example, some cutaneous affections and pains in the
joints, that are affected with  much itching on the approach of rain
—and so in other cases.  Rain occurs  at  times periodically, viz.:
daily, every third day, or continued, or at other  intervals.  Certain
winds likewise  blow  for successive days, others  in  opposition to
them ;  some  continue for  a brief  period—others,  at  fixed and
settled times, having an apparent connexion with the constitution of
the seasons, but of less duration.  If a peculiar constitution of the
air continues  throughout a great portion of the year, the diseases
to which it gives  rise will  also  continue; and the more  violent
they  are, so will  they be  more extended, and  of  longer duration.
Humidity  after extreme drought is promotive of dropsies  on the
coming on of rain, or when  slight changes of the wind  are appa-
rent.   We  may hence  form an idea of  what diseases  may  be
expected from the state of the winds and moisture; and  endeavour
to ascertain what  kind of spring  or summer will  succeed to such
or such  a winter.
   The  complexion is  not  uniform, either in the seasons, or in the
constitutions of the air,  induced by the  north or south winds; nor
at the  different periods  of life, whether by comparison of indivi-
duals with  themselves, or  with others.   This must  be referred to
causes which we know to be productive of such irregularity ; age
itself acting in  a measure like the seasons, both as to complexion
and existence. 
108
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
                       CHAPTER VIII.

      To what diseases those affected with hemorrhoids are not subjected.

  Those who have hemorrhoids are  not subject to  pleurisy, in-
flammation of the lungs, to  phagedenic ulcers, furunculi or tuber-
cles ;  perhaps not to lepra, nor to vitiligo: but if the  hemorrhoids
are unseasonably healed  up,  they  are not unfrequently attacked
by  some  of those  complaints,  and  sink under  them.   Besides
hemorrhoids, other  abscesses  are occasionally preventive of dis-
eases, and  sometimes cure  them when  supervening  during  their
actual existence;  but where they are concomitants of the disease,
they cannot be regarded in  this  salutary point of view.  Parts, of
which we have apprehension of  danger, are at times preserved by
the accession of pain  and uneasiness  in the parts already diseased,
or elsewhere, or by  some  sympathetic  connexion : blood, if not
then  any  longer discharged,  may  be expected  as  near  at  hand
from  the  lungs.  And  here,  in some  cases, bleeding  is found
proper; in others, its omission  is most  correct: the  season,  pain
of side, bile, &c, will help to determine its propriety.  If swellings
about the ears do not suppurate at the crisis, the disease will return
on the subsidence of those tumours; and if at  the crisis of this
relapse  they are again elevated, and continue so  to imitate the
periodic type of the fever, it may be expected that the disease will
be transferred to the joints.   The urine  sometimes becomes  thick
and white (as in  the case of  Archigenes), in fevers attended with
great lassitude,  on the fourth day, with advantage,  especially  if
aided by copious bleeding from the  nose,—by which means suppu-
ration is prevented.   A person  who was afflicted with  the  gout,
was attacked with pain of the bowels, which assuaged that of the
joints; but when the  pain of  the bowels ceased, that of the gout
returned with redoubled force. 
HIPPOCRATES  ON CRISES.
 De Judicationibus,........Fcssius, Treat, iii. p. 52.
 De Judicationibus,........Haller, ii. 2f5.
 Des Crises, c'est-a-dire, Des Jugemens des Maladies, .    Gardeil, ii. 250.

  This treatise is in  an aphoristical form, and of great brevity, as if
written, says Haller, by some pupil of Hippocrates, who had  col-
lected together the maxims of his  master.   Many of the presages
appear in  various other of the books, as in the Aphorisms,  Prse-
notions, and De Locis.  This contains a statement of  the crises of
diseases, both good and bad, as derived from the alvine discharges,
the urine, sweat, abscesses, symptoms,  and other  circumstances;
and of which are good or bad in fevers and other diseases.
  In order  the better to  comprehend this  treatise, it may not be
improper to precede it by  a short exposition of the subject of crises,
as laid down by the ancients.  By them a crisis was considered to
be a sudden and unlooked-for change in a disease, pointing to reco-
very or death, occasioned by the  contest between nature and the
disease; wherein,  if she was superior, the  patient was  preserved,
otherwise death was the result.  In  a more limited sense, the term
sometimes was  applied to the secretion of some  humour;  but
usually it was intended to convey the idea  of a judgment  formed
on the existing disease.  In this view, crises were  considered as
either perfect, or imperfect.   The first implying a perfect and abso-
lute liberation of the sick person from his disease, either by a resto-
ration  to health, or a termination  in death.   Hence it was  termed
salutary, or fatal.   A salutary crisis required the following circum-
stances.   1.  That it  should be attended by  a train of the most fa-
vourable signs  or  symptoms.   2.  That it should be manifest and
clear.   3.  That it should occur  on  a  critical  day.  4. That  it
should be trustworthy.  5. Absolutely certain and secure; and 6. 
j 10               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

Of a character befitting both the disease and the patient.   The im-
perfect crisis consisted in its not producing a perfect termination
of the complaint, but in part only, leaving this for a future recur-
rence, which might  be  for the better or worse.  If for  the better,
although not entirely removing the disease, yet the patient was evi-
dently benefited by  it;  whilst, in the  opposite case, every thing
became exasperated  and more dangerous.   Many considered a
crisis as depending upon the motions and influence of the moon and
stars.  Others  supposed  it owing to the greater  or less  degree of
maturation of the  humours, &c.; whilst others ascribed it to a dif-
ference in the constitution of patients, and to the plan of  treatment
that was pursued.  The term crisis is derived from xp,vw> judico.
  I follow Haller's division into chapters, as  in  the preceding trea-
tise.—Ed.
                         CHAPTER I.

   What sweats, alvine discharges, urines, and other important symptoms, portend
                    a favourable change and crisis.

  The symptoms which portend a  speedy recovery are the same
as those which, for the most part, are indicative of health.
  The best sweats are such as most speedily diminish fever, which
take place on critical  days, and finally subdue the fever.   Those
are also  beneficial which are universal, and relieve the  patient.
When they do not produce this effect, they are of no advantage.
  When disease is tending  to a crisis, the alvine discharges should
be more  consistent, slightly yellow, and  not  very offensive.   The
discharge of worms at this period is beneficial.
  The best urine is that which deposits a white, light, and uniform
sediment, during the progress of the disease.   It indicates safety,
and  a short  attack.  If the disease ceases at the coming on  of
sweat, and a white sediment appears in  a reddish urine,  it will
recur on the same  day, but terminate happily on the fifth day.   In
those whose  recovery is at hand, we find them  free from pain
tranquil, with sound sleep at night,  and other favourable appear-
ances. 
ON CRISES.
Ill
                        CHAPTER  II.

Of the causes and solution of headache in fevers not of a dangerous character—Of
  critical days, and by what channel a  crisis occurs—What a jaundice indicates in
  such cases.

  In slight fever, accompanied with headache, with other attendant
symptoms, bile predominates.  When those attacked suffer much in
the commencement, and the pain augments on the fourth and fifth
days, the fever will subside on the seventh day.
  Fevers terminate in a crisis in the same number of days in which
the sick die or escape.  When of the mildest  character, accompa-
nied with  favourable symptoms, they finish on the fourth or sooner;
but if dangerous in their nature and in their accompanying symp-
toms, death ensues on the fourth or before. This is the first period;
the second extends to the seventh day, the third to the eleventh, the
fourth to the  fourteenth, the fifth to the seventeenth, the sixth to the
twentieth.  This order of diseases then,  (acute,) extends to twenty
days,  by  intervals of four, which however are not to be strictly
and rigorously enumerated.  The months and  years do not exactly
coincide in their subdivisions.
   In ardent fevers, the best symptoms are such as approximate to
those of health; those are less so that indicate  a remission on the
third day, &c.  If after the seventh day a jaundice occurs, sweat-
ing  may be  expected.  Usually they do not tend, per se, to sweat,
or  to  suppuration.  The heat  subsiding, sweating follows, and a
crisis  consequently ensues, accompanied by a copious urinary or
alvine discharge, or a bleeding from the nose, or copious sweat or
vomiting.  In females the  menses sometimes appear.  All  these
united will constitute a  crisis, or  a near  approach to it;  sometimes
it is  less  marked  and different from  the above.   When jaundice
occurs in ardent fever, on  or after the  seventh day, with difficult
yet abundant expectoration (and  this  happens  in  other fevers also),
and the fever does not decline,  it denotes that instead of terminating
as above, an  abscess will form in some great tumour, with severe
pains, or a colliquation from the febrile heat of the humours. 
112
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
                        CHAPTER III.

Judgment as to health, death, or long continuance, of ardent fever—Its change into
  a lyperia or epialis; jaundice succeeding—Good, bad, and doubtful signs—Judg-
  ment of tertian and acute fevers.

   Exacerbations and remissions in ardent fever indicate its prolon-
gation, and  if of great violence, the probability of death.  Other
ardent fevers without remissions are less  dangerous, and terminate
on the seventh or fourteenth  day.   They  sometimes change into a
lyperia, continuing  for forty days, and  ending in an  epialis.  Ly-
peria exhibits symptoms which appear and disappear the same day,
with considerable headache.  When lyperia does not terminate in
forty day?, but  headache and delirium attend it, purge freely.  But
in whatever manner ardent fever ends,  if jaundice succeeds, sweats
and  abscesses rarely follow, but recovery ensues.  Tertian fever
usually terminates on  the seventh accession.  If, in violent fevers,
jaundice appears on the seventh, ninth, or  fourteenth  day, it is fa-
vourable, provided  a hardness does not  occur in  the right hypo-
chondrium; if  so,  it is  of a doubtful  character.   Acute diseases
commonly terminate in fourteen  days.  Fevers  are terminated by
sweats, if they occur  on the third, fifth,  seventh, ninth,  eleventh,
fourteenth, twenty-first, or  thirtieth day;  if they do not  on one of
those days,  much trouble  may be expected.  The coction of the
urine by gradual maturation, if occurring  on a critical day, puts an
end  to the disease.  What  respects the  urine, may be  compared
with what we see in ulcers.  If they are covered with a white pus,
a  speedy cure  may be looked for; but if the discharge is sanious,
they assume a bad  character.  A similar  presage  may be derived
from the urine.   If after pain it becomes  clear, we should investi-
gate the cause;  and if the disease  increases and it still  continues
clear, we must not expect the disease soon to terminate.
   If in headache fever should succeed, and the pain should still con-
tinue when  it ceases, it  is not critical.  Many symptoms, even if
favourable, may yet be associated with  a  tardy crisis.
   Small and soft tumours  in the  praecordia, without pain, and rea-
dily yielding to  pressure, indicate a continuance of disease, but of
less danger than when the  tumours are  opposite in character.  The
same may be said of other ventral swellings. 
ON CRISES.
113
                       CHAPTER IV.

Judgment derived from the urine as to gouty diseases—From sweats and alvine dis-
          charges, as tending to health, to death, or to a continuance.

  If the urine when evacuated is turbid, it indicates, though the se-
diment  be white and  uniform, that the crisis is distant, and not  as
certain as when the urine is of a more healthful character.   If it is
red, and the sediment also red and light, the crisis will be still more
remote, but at the same time salutary.  All  gouty affections, unac-
companied by inflammation, terminate in forty days, the symptoms
mostly improving  in this slow tendency to a crisis.  When death
threatens, the crisis occurs  in twenty-four hours; the symptoms are
those  of great debility, as after taking a  powerful medicine that
operates both up and  down, with anxiety and symptoms of  a simi-
lar  kind.  If they do not cease in twenty-four hours, the case may
be esteemed fatal.   Of all sweats the worst are those that are cold
and arise about the neck;  they announce a prolongeoT disease, and
death.   Alvine discharges of different colours continue indeed for a
longer period than black ones, but are not of a less pernicious cha-
racter, and they are ultimately fatal.   Some of these stools have the
appearance of the  washings of raw flesh, some are bilious, bloody,
porraceous, black, sometimes all combined, sometimes separate and
distinct.  Urine that  is sometimes  clear, and at times deposits a
white and  smooth sediment,  indicates a longer persistence than
when it is of  a healthy appearance. If it continues for  a long
time red and clear, there is a great chance that the  patient  cannot
bear up to  the  period of its maturation;  but if some other  favour-
able symptoms combine, an abscess in some part below the dia-
phragm may be looked for.  Tn fevers, changes in the urine indicate
a prolonged disease, and the patient will vary for better and  worse.
If it is  irregular, from  thin, becoming thick, then  clear and  per-
sistent, a crisis is difficult and uncertain.
8 
114
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES
                        CHAPTER  V.

Judgments derived from cold and copious sweats—From the heat and coldness of the
  body, from evacuations, from the pulsation of vessels, from the face, hypochondria,
  tremors of the hands, dyspnoea, watchfulness—From tetanus, jaundice, singultus,
  and critical days.

  Cold  sweats in acute fever are a fatal symptom, but if the fever
is of a  milder kind,  they  indicate  a  continuance of  the disease.
That part may be considered  as  the seat of disease, wherein cold
and heat alternate, and when such changes are frequent.  If those
mutations are universal in the system,  with  frequent change of
colour, they indicate  a long disease.   It is a bad  sign when fever
does not diminish on the  coming  on  of sweat,—the  disease  will
be of long continuance, accompanied with a superabundance of
humours.   Cold  sweats occurring  in  fevers  announce their long
continuance.  In health, a copious and incessant sweat denotes an
approaching ^disposition ;  milder, if in summer, more severe,  if in
winter.   If  the discharges have a deposit resembling  scrapings,
but in small amount, the disease is trifling; if  large, then  it will be
more considerable, and the bowels require to be cleansed.  If black
bile is voided in small amount, the disease is moderate, but of more
violence,  if it is  abundant.   If  the vessels pulsate,  the  forehead
tense, the hypochondria hard and prominent, a prolonged  disease is
to be looked for, terminating  in convulsions, epistaxis,  or violent
pains.   Subsultus tendinum indicate a long continued fever, or an
approaching  crisis, followed  by increased disease, and  the proba-
bility of death.   Such as  are soon to die, have extremely violent
symptoms from  the very  onset, such  as  difficult respiration, sleep-
lessness, and others of equal danger.  If continued fever exacerbates
on the fourth and seventh  days, and does not finish on  the eleventh,
it is mostly fatal.  Tetanus is commonly fatal in  four days, but if
that is surmounted, health is  restored.  If jaundice and singultus
 occur on the fifth day, it is fatal. Relapses happen in  fevers, when
 obstinate insomnia or disturbed rest occur, with  great debility of
 the body, or pain of the limbs, and when  the fever has  ceased on
 a non-critical day without any signs of crisis.   Even if sweat suc-
 ceeds the fever,  and  the urine deposits a white sediment, itself being 
                           ON CRISES.                        U5

red, a return of fever may be expected the same day.  Such relapses
are, howrever,  not  dangerous, and terminate on the fifth day; but
if, after the crisis, a red urine deposits a red sediment, and a return
of fever occurs the same day, very few of such escape.   Mostly, a
relapse of ardent fever is accompanied with sweat, especially if it
continues as long as at first.  The fever even returns a third time,
unless the relapse terminates  on an uneven day.   If the urine  is
unconcocted, and  no  reasonable symptoms have preceded, the re-
lapse happens  on a critical day, and sometimes even when it is not
the case.
                        CHAPTER VI.

Judgment as to relapses, abscesses—Of tetanus, melancholy, phrenitis, mania, suppu-
           ration—Of pains in the inferior parts—Of ardent fevers.

  When, at the  period of a crisis, tumours about the ears do  not
suppurate, the disease, as the tumours disappear, returns as it were,
in the nature of  a relapse, with a chance of an abscess forming in
some other place.  If the urine  is thick, resembling the white  ap-
pearance  in the urine  of  those labouring under  a  quartan,  the
abscess is prevented.   In some  of these cases a bleeding from  the
nose takes place, which does not put an end to the disease; this is
accomplished by an abscess forming.   Hemorrhoids occurring in
melancholic and phrenitic cases are beneficial.   Those who at the
spontaneous  termination of disease become insane, are  cured of
this, if a pain of the feet or breast supervenes, or if a severe cough
attacks them ; if this should not be the case, blindness follows  the
cessation of the insanity.  Stuttering and repetition of words, with-
out a  proper control of  the lips, in disease, are followed by an im-
posthume, when  those impediments cease.  A severe pain in  the
lower extremities, or copious bleeding from the nose, are removed
by  deafness.  Insanity  sometimes  removes  violent  constitutional
diseases.  Ardent fever is cured by ischiatic pains, or by distortion
of the eyes and  blindness, or  swelling  of  the testicles or breasts,
and at times by  epistaxis.  In such fevers,  the occurrence of chilli-
ness indicates sweating.  Shiverings in such fevers  end in delirium.
If such fevers  are not  removed by deafness coming on, mania
necessarily  occurs, which is cured by  epistaxis, by bilious stools, 
116               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

by dysentery, or by pains in the knees or ischium.  Fever succeeded
by cold, is removed thereby.


                       CHAPTER VII.

Judgments of unexpected pains—Of dropsy—Of leucophlegmatia— Diarrhoea—Vol-
          vulus—Cephalalgia—Ophthalmia—Convulsions—Tetanus.

  In sudden pains, with swelling of the hypochondria, if the pains
extend to  the  false ribs, bleeding and  purging remove them ;  for
fever will  not attack with violence a weakened part.  In dropsy, if
the water finds a passage by the vessels to the intestines or bladder,
a cure will result.   A copious diarrhoea cures a  leucophlegmasia.
Such as are affected with  a chronic diarrhoea, accompanied with
cough, are not cured, except  a  severe pain  in  the feet  attacks
them.  If any change in the nature of a disease is likely to happen,
no diarrhoea attending, and  merely flatus discharged, showing  the
absence of humours,  you  may  safely  administer what  is  proper
for the patient.   In iliac passion, give plenty of pure, cold wine, by
small doses, until sleep, or  pain of the  legs ensue:  fever or dysen-
tery stops its progress.   A discharge of  pus from the ears or
nostrils, checks  headache  in diseases.  Whoever in health  is sud-
denly attacked with headache, loss of speech, and snoring, will die
within seven  days,  if fever does not come  on.   In  severe and
general headaches, apply cups  to the  upper parts.   Should pains
of the ischium or knees, or asthma take place, the headache  ceases.
In ophthalmia, a diarrhoea  is useful.  In spasm or  tetanus,  a fever
coming on  removes  it.   In fever,  if  spasm occurs,  the fever is
arrested within  three  days.  In  spasm of  the hands and  feet, if
mania occurs, if the  vessels of the hands beat,  the face  full, the
hypochondria  hard and swelled, the disease will be  tedious,  but
without convulsions. 
 OF  CRITICAL DAYS,  OR OF WHAT HAS A  RELATION
                         TO CRISES.

     Hippocratis de Diebus Judicatoriis Liber,    .   Fcesius, Treat, iv. p. 56.
     HiprocRATis de Diebus Judicatoriis Liber,    .   Haller, ii. p. 215.
     Des Jours Critiques,......Gardeil, ii. 261.

  According to Haller, this treatise was not by the  ancients attri-
buted to Hippocrates, although Mercurialis considers it as contain-
ing his  opinions.  Haller  regards it as  an  abbreviated transcript
from  the book " De Internis  Adfectionibus,"—in which are con-
tained the  Gnidian  sentences;—referring  sundry  diseases here
mentioned  to similar ones in thaj treatise.  All, however,  are  not
from that source.  Diseases are by the author derived, some from
bile,  or  from bile and pituita, or blood.   The book in general treats
of the judgments to be formed by the art of medicine ;  and of the
requisites  by which the  physician can form  a just  estimate  of
diseases;  and  of the  various symptoms  and  circumstances  by
which his judgments may be formed.—(Ed.)
                        CHAPTER I.

What is essential to be known by the physician is here pointed out, to prevent his
                          being deceived.

  I esteem  it an important part of our  art, to be  well acquainted
with the best writings that have reached us on the subject; for he
who is thus  informed and properly employs his knowledge, cannot,
in my opinion, make many mistakes.  Now, he  should  know the
constitution  of  the  different seasons of the year and of diseases
accurately ;  and of diseases individually—the good or bad of each,
either as depending on their own peculiar character, or on the exist-
ing state of things; the signs that announce  their  duration  and
danger;  of  chronic diseases, which are  salutary;  and if acute— 
118               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

which are dangerous, which safe. He should know from these how
to judge of the order of critical days, and  to  predict from them
the event;  and deduce his rules as to the proper regulation of diet,
as to time,  amount, and quality.  It is of the highest import to the
welfare of a patient in  ardent fever,  that the  disease and  every
thing  connected with it, should be  consistent with its nature; for
what depends on natural laws, is salutary.  A second and not less
important circumstance is, the concurrence of the  season with the
disease;  for the nature of man is not superior to the power of the
universe.   After this, we  are  to notice  the general appearance of
the patient; if the face is extenuated ; if the vessels of the  hands
and in the angles of the eyes, and the  eyebrows are quiescent,
after having been previously  active ; if the  voice is  weaker and
softer; the respiration less frequent  and laborious than before;—in
such a case, a  remission will  occur the following day ;  and hence
the importance of attending to every circumstance connected with
crises.   Examine the tongue,  whether its body or tip is furred or
moist, and in  what  degree.   If /ill these signs are but slight, a
change for the better will occur probably on  the third day ; but if
more strongly  marked, the succeeding day, or even the  same day,
when they  are of the highest grade.  The white of the eye, more-
over, is necessarily rendered dull when the disease is violent; when
brilliant,  it  is a sign of health, and indicates its approach in propor-
tion as its brilliancy  is restored.
                        CHAPTER II.

Description, causes, signs, and symptoms of acute affections of the liver—Fanciful
                     influences in such affections.

  Acute diseases originating in an afflux of bile  to the liver, and
tending to  the head, proceed as follows:  the liver tumefies, and is
pressed towards  the  diaphragm;  immediately headache ensues,
especially at  the temples; hearing  and  sight are  diminished; and
chills and fever come  on.  These symptoms are the first observed,
and vary in intensity  in different cases.  As the disease progresses
the pains increase; the eyes wander and become  obscured ;&if the
finger is presented to them it is  not perceived, as may be concluded
from their not winking at its  approach ; yet the patient appears to 
OF CRITICAL DAYS.
119
see something, for he picks the bedclothes as if catching bugs; and
in proportion as the liver presses  against  the diaphragm,  he be-
comes delirious, thinking he sees snakes and wild  beasts around
him, or soldiers fighting with  him,—talking at the same  time in
terms, as  if  this was  truly the case.  He strives to escape, and
threatens  those who oppose him.   If raised up, his legs fail him,
and he falls down;  his feet are constantly cold;  and when sleeping
he starts, and has horrid dreams, as may  be presumed from his
waking suddenly in  a fright; and when recovering his recollection
he  details his  dreams, which correspond  with  his actions and
talking during  sleep.   Such  are his sufferings;  at  times he is
speechless for  twenty-four hours; his  respiration rapid, and  ele-
vated ; his reason returns at  the ceasing of his flightiness, and  he
replies consistently  to  any question,  and  understands every thing
that is said,  but almost immediately relapsing  into his  preceding
condition.   Such affections  are more  common in long journeys
across deserts, but are not confined to these.
                       CHAPTER'III.

     Three varieties of tetanus described, and the judgment respecting them.

  There are two or three kinds of tetanus:  when it arises from a
wound, the jaws are rigid like a piece of wood, and the mouth can-
not be opened.   Tears flow abundantly at times, and the eyes sink.
The back  is stiff, and  neither the legs, arms, nor spine,  can be
bended.  Food  and  liquors taken  previously,  are frequently dis-
charged through the  nostrils.   In opisthotonos, the symptoms are
similar.  It arises from the tendons of the back of the neck being
affected  from  angina, or from an affection of the uvula, or other
parts of the throat or  tonsils.  Sometimes it occurs from fevers
attacking the head. That arising from wounds, affects the posterior
parts; the  pain .renders the spine rigid, and the breast suffers; the
spasms are so severe, that the patient  can scarcely be prevented
from being thrown from the  bed.   There is  another variety, less
fatal than  the former, arising  from the  same causes, and affecting
in like manner the whole body.
  Ardent fever does not originate as tetanus.  It at once shows its
nature to resemble that of a great fire.   It commences  with a vio- 
120               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

lent thirst and high fever;  the tongue cracks, becomes rough and
dry, and from its  natural colour,  turns  black.   If this  change of
colour is early in  the disease, the  crisis  will be hastened ; if later,
so will be the crisis.
                        CHAPTER IV.

           Of the distinction and judgment of sciatica and jaundice.

  Sciatica commonly arises  from  long exposure to the sun, by
which the hip joint becomes heated, and its humours are dried up;
that this is the case, is apparent from the patient's inability to turn
or move his  limbs, owing  to  the pain of the joints, and to  a con-
striction of the spine.   The pain is most severe in the loins and
vertebrae adjoining the  ischium, and in the knees;  but  it is often
felt in the groin.   If the patient is raised up he cannot move him-
self, the severity of the  pain  causes  him to groan  aloud, and not
unfrequently  convulsions attack him, followed by rigor  and fever.
Bile is the origin of sciatica, and sometimes blood, and pituita. The
pains in all  these diseases  are pretty similar, and chills  and slight
fever sometimes attend.  There is a species of acute jaundice that
speedily terminates in death;  the skin is every where of the  colour
of the rind of a pomegranate, verging  on a green, similar to that
of some lizards; the sediment of the urine is nearly of the same
hue, red like orobes ;a the fever and chill are inconsiderable.  At
times the patient cannot bear any covering; he feels in  the morn-
ing internal twitchings,  as if from a grater, and although the intes-
tines are empty, there is great rumbling.   If spoken to, or  raised
up, he complains.  Death takes place usually within fourteen days;
if that period is surmounted, he recovers.


                        CHAPTER V.

          Diagnosis and critical days of peripneumony and of fevers.

  Peripneumony occurs as follows: violent  fever, respiration hot
and impeded;  anxiety,  debility, and restlessness; pains  about the
                        1 A leguminous plant. 
OF CRITICAL DAYS.
121
scapula, clavicle, and breast;  a sense of weight in the chest, with
delirium.  Sometimes there is an absence of pain, although cough
has commenced; such cases are of longer duration and more dan-
gerous.   At first the cough yields only a white and frothy sputum;
the tongue is yellow, but ultimately assumes a dark colour.   If
dark-coloured at the beginning, the changes are more rapid than
when this colour ensues at a later period : the tongue finally cracks,
and  if the finger is applied, it adheres to  it.   The change in this
disease and in pleurisy is announced by the state of the tongue.  It
continues at  least fourteen  and  may reach  to twenty-one days,
during which period the cough is vehement, and the expectoration
tinged with blood ; at first, indeed, it is copious and frothy.   On the
seventh or eighth day, when  the fever is at its height, the inflam-
mation softens down, and the  sputum thickens, though  not invaria-
bly ; on  the ninth and tenth days,  it changes to  a palish  green,
intermixed with  a little blood ;  from the twelfth to the fourteenth, it
is profuse and purulent.   In  those of a moist temperament, the dis-
ease is very violent, but much  less so in those of an opposite cha-
racter.
  As to critical  days, I have elsewhere mentioned them.   Fevers,
however, have their crises  on the  fourth, seventh, eleventh, four-
teenth, seventeenth, and twenty-first days.   Some of an  acute na-
ture even, terminate on  the  thirtieth,  fortieth, and sixtieth day,
beyond which the diurnal characters are entirely lost. 
      PREDICTIONS  OR  PROGNOSTICS.

                            BOOK I.

 Hippocratis Pr^edictorum, Liber primus,    .    .   .    Fcesius, Treat, v. p. 67.
 Hippocratis Liber primus de Pr^edictionibus,    .   •    Haller, ii. p. 125.
 Traite Des Predictions, Livre premier,    .    ,   .    Gardeil, ii. p. 268.

  Fcesius has a  preface  to  this  treatise and its immediate sue
cessor, (the  second book  of  Predictions,) explanatory of the two,
but too long to be here inserted, and indeed not forming a part of
my plan, viz., that of giving a brief view of the different treatises,
without troubling  either  myself or reader  with any extensive re-
search as to the real author of each.  It is perhaps sufficient, as in
the preceding treatises, to give the short exposition of Haller, serv-
ing as a preface or  head-piece, and  which is  to  the following
effect, viz.:  that  Galen  considered this  treatise as the  produc-
tion of one of Hippocrates' children, but that although  initiated in
the art of prediction, yet it was in a degree vastly inferior to Hip-
pocrates  himself.   He knew not  how  to  deduce general axioms
from  particular events, and  not unfrequently has given particular
observations for axioms.  He has not sufficiently  discriminated the
symptoms depending on the cause of disease,  and  too often exhibits
as symptoms different and incoherent events.   He oftentimes men-
tions  the names  of the sick,, from  whose  diseases  he  derives his
axioms; among them  some of Cos, from which island Hippocrates
is  supposed to have  removed  at an  early  period.  He  likewise
makes use  of obsolete words,  or else  employs them in an unac-
customed sense.   Nearly half the  treatise is taken up with delirium
and the  symptoms of  soporose  diseases.  A third part  is taken up
with  convulsions, and the remainder  with hemorrhages  and ab-
scesses,  especially of those  occurring  behind  the  ears.   On this
treatise  Galen has written a commentary.   As  the general argu-
 ment of the treatise, Haller adds,  that it consists of the  enunciation
 of what is salutary or injurious in diseases,  and of what portends 
PREDICTIONS OR PROGNOSTICS.
123
good or evil; as also, what the peculiar occurrences are, which in
almost all diseases happen to the sick.
  It is divided into eleven chapters by Haller, and  under one hun-
dred and seventy short sentences by Foesius.  This treatise, together
with Foesius's  comments,  has been very  ably  translated by Dr.
Moffat, under the title of Prorrhetics,  (tfgog^rrxov, Hipp.;  implying
vaticinium, proedictio,) Lond. 1788, together with the Prognostics,
and will compensate the reader for its full perusal.  As this can be
readily obtained, I have deemed it less necessary to  give more than
a very brief outline of the contents, although I have translated the
whole.—Ed.
  Presages  respecting those who are attacked with coma,  phre-
nitis, madness, melancholia, their various  signs, and symptoms;—
of what  throbbing pains about the navel, leg, and  thigh, portend;
presages from pains of the loins; from the voice,  thirst, mode  of
reply, the eyes, teeth, respiration, countenance, alvine and urinary
discharges, in acute  and bilious  diseases; vomiting, forgetfulness,
imperception, rigors  and heat in the  side, redness of the face, dis-
tortion of the eyes,—all of which are bad.  In what circumstances
purging  is improper; pains in the cardia, neck, and with tumid
praecordia, &c.; soporose fevers, and their concomitants; vomiting,
variety of;  non-discharge  of  puerperal lochia; apoplexy; lumbar
pains, and translation of, to the stomach; pains of the fauces without
swellings, but with difficult breathing, extreme  danger of; various
soporose and spasmodic affections, their danger: singultus; pains of
the neck with  sopor, sweat,  tension  of  the abdomen; ulcerated
mouth, &c.; lumbar pains, their  fatal metastasis to  the praecordia
and  head; rigors; pervigilium,  involuntary discharge of urine in
sleep; headache, with sopor, &c, in pregnancy; fatal signs of some
anginose and other affections of the fauces;  signs of convulsions;
variety of alvine  discharges;  good, bad, indicative  of convulsions,
&c.;  what  convulsions indicate  in  fever and  mental  affections;
of various convulsive states and  mental emotions, especially in fe-
males ;  their causes and symptoms; of hemorrhages, &c, how to
estimate them; presages from epistaxis;  nasal  stillicidium; of tu-
mours and  abscesses about the ears,  &c.; suppression  of urine;
alvine discharges; various  pains, &c, deafness,  &c, all connected
with parotid swellings; danger from, in  various diseases; convul-
sions from hemorrhages from different parts, and their association
and connexion with abscesses  of and about the ears. 
      PREDICTIONS  OR  PROGNOSTICS.

                            BOOK II.

      Hippocratis Pr/Edictorum, liber secundus,    .   Fcesius, p. 83.
      Hippocratis liber secundus de Pr^edictionibus,    Haller, i. p. 193.
      Traite des Predictions......Gardeil, i. p. 75.

  This  book, (says Haller,) the genuine production of a great man
as we may readily  perceive, from the weight,  modesty, method,
and continued succession of  observations  it evinces, is far superior
to the first  book.—It  commences with a  notice of the ostenta-
tious  predictions of some of the  physicians of  his time.  It then
speaks of the  predictions in a healthy state, derived  from the dis-
charges, and from  the  respiration.   This is followed by a notice
of several  diseases;  dropsy,  phthisis, empyema, gout,  epilepsy,
ulcers, wounds in general, and particularly of those of the head, the
cubit, and spinal marrow; of sanguineous angina, diseases of the
eyes,  dysentery, diarrhoea, lientery;  of easy  or difficult conception,
of headache, of chlorosis,  nyctalopia,  epistaxis,  enlarged  spleen, a
disease  closely allied  to scurvy ;  of sciatica, leprosy, lichen, and
morphew.   It  points  out  the  principal  events  and  symptoms  of
each, and I cannot think the first book of Predictions  can possibly
be referred to the same class of genuine writings.  The book may
be considered as adverting to the ancient modes of prediction; to
the predictions of  most importance in the  art,  together  with the
good  and bad symptoms, from which such predictions are derived.
  Hippocrates  in this treatise, (says Gardeil,) seems to  have princi-
pally  had in view the exposure of the vanity of the diagnostics and
prognostics of  the gymnastic physicians, and to establish firmly the
foundation of a true science of prognostics, by  a copious detail in
many instances.—Ed.1

  • Clifton has given a translation of this treatise under the head of " Hippocrates on
Prognostics."  Haller has divided it under nineteen chapters, but I have followed
Clifton in making no  distinct parts.—Ed. 
PREDICTIONS OR PROGNOSTICS.
125
       We hear much of numerous surprising and wonderful predictions
     made by physicians, such as I must confess I have never made my-
     self, nor seen made by others.   Some of them I will here relate.
       A man in  the last extremity, was so  considered  by all around
     him ;  another physician being called in, exclaims, " This man will
     not die,  but  he will lose his sight."  In  another  case of  equal
     danger he predicted that the patient would survive,  but that he
     would lose the use of his hand.   In a third, not expected to live, he
     declared  that he would recover, but that his toe-nails would become
     black, and fall off from putrefaction.   Many others are related of a
     similar nature.
       Another method, in predicting to such as are engaged in business,
     is to announce death to some, or mania, or other disease; which they
     pretend to know from past events, and declare they have never been
     deceived.   In the gymnasia, among  the athletae and others who go
     there  for  exercise and  to strengthen their system, they profess to
     determine accurately whether any deviation has been made in their
     accustomary and prescribed regimen or drinks,  or  in  their  stated
     exercise,  or  if venery has  been indulged  in.  Nothing of all this
     can be hidden from us, say they, however slight the fault,  so perfect
     is our art.  And all  this foolery is dignified by the name of predic-
     tion.
       For my part,  I pretend  not  to  such  predictions; I  describe
     merely the symptoms by which we  may judge if health or  death
     will follow; of the continuance of the disease, and  whether future
     health or death may be expected.  Elsewhere  I have treated of
     abscesses  that occur, and how to  judge of each by their respective
     appearance.  I think that those persons who  have  predicted  lame.
     ness and  such events, have made the  assertion after the disease was
     confirmed, and  when it was  evident that the abscess could not be
     restrained ; for I cannot persuade myself that their prediction  could
<■     have preceded its formation; and I think the same as to their other
:     asserted predictions.   Their proceedings are by no  means difficult
:     to such as choose to follow them.  Thus, who is so ignorant as not
     to know  a dropsy, or phthisis?  and as for insanity,  it is  easily
     known if  a predisposition to it  exists, or if they have previously
     suffered from it.  Such  persons, by excess in drinking or in eating,
     or privation of  rest,  or by imprudent  exposure to the vicissitudes of
     temperature,  are  assuredly very likely to be thus attacked.   So in
     those   affected with hemorrhoids; if  in winter we notice them with 
126               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

a high colour, and drinking freely, is it not easy to predict what so
often is observed to follow, viz., that in the spring a copious hemor-
rhage will take place, followed by pallid countenance and  dropsical
effusions  in  the summer?  He,  however, who desires to  excel in
this kind of quackery, will do well to attend  to  these particulars,
and also consider if he will gather laurels from  it.   From works
already in our hands, we are  enabled oftentimes to foretell both
death, delirium, and recovery.  Much more might be added, but I
have determined to write  only what is most easily to be  attained;
at the same time advising  every one to be very prudent and re-
served, not  only as to their predictions, but also in  every part of
their profession; being well  assured that, by just predictions, they
will be esteemed and regarded by every intelligent person, whilst
deception or failure in prediction, will  cause  their  discredit, and
very soon lead others to consider them fools.  I recommend, there-
fore, the  utmost prudence in advancing predictions or other asser-
tions, for I daily see  and  hear persons of but little judgment, who
erroneously  relate  every thing that is done, said, or written, in rela-
tion to medicine.
  With respect to the predictions affirmed to have been made to
those  who frequent the gymnasium as a means of improvement of
health, I  have no faith in the statements  as they have been related;
yet if any one thinks fit to  believe them, he  has my full consent.
Opinion will scarcely be  set aside by probability, good  or bad, or
be deemed sufficient  by an  individual who  has pinned his faith on
the subject  asserted ; for such faith  has not  been the result of a
strict examination.  I leave  every one therefore to believe as he
chooses.   If nevertheless there is any truth in  the assertions made,
or in those things  which the physicians  of the gymnasium profess
to affirm, relative to  the omissions in the regimen they may have
directed;  still, he who has made such  divination, must have founded
it on  some symptom, and  have  spoken of it doubtfully at first,
though by subsequent extension it assumes a marvellous character.
It is not easily ascertained in diseases, when errors  are committed
in regimen; although here, the  patient  is confined to his bed, and
his treatment is simple, so  that inquiries are necessarily very limited.
Many are  restricted to  mere liquids,  others  in addition  employ
broths, or solid food of a stronger nature.  Now, in such cases, if
the simple drinks are too largely taken, respiration will be impeded,
and the discharge of urine increased.  If broths are taken beyond 
PREDICTIONS OR PROGNOSTICS.
127
due amount, or a stronger nourishment, thirst and fever are  super-
added, and the belly becomes distended and hard.   The physician
can readily by examination convince himself of these changes and
of any others, by  means of daily observation.  By the use  of his
reason and of sight, when visiting a person who ought to  have re-
mained quietly at home, under a particular regimen, it is easily as-
certained if any deviation has taken place; as for instance if he had
been moving about, or had eaten  different articles; and by the aid
of his  own hands, he can discover the  state of the belly or of the
pulse.  The sense of smell, in fevers,  affords him much assistance,
for the odour varies  greatly in  them, which  is not  the case in
health  if accompanied with  an appropriate diet.   Even our  ears
enable us to judge of the  voice and of respiration in diseases, differ-
ing as they do from what is perceived in health.  Suppose a physi-
cian to be acquainted with the nature of diseases and the habits of
the sick, yet  he  is not thereby qualified to form a prediction; for if
the disease is as yet unsettled, the above symptoms do not authorize
it, and we must  await its further progress before we can safely
judge of what is to follow.  If the symptoms  above mentioned are
the mere results of some error in regimen, they will probably dis-
appear in twenty-four hours, and if such an event is announced, it
will no doubt prove true. So  far I cheerfully acknowledge that we
may determine wherein a patient thus confined at  home, may  have
proved disobedient; but  as to those persons who frequent the gym-
nasia, and commit  errors in  diet, &c, I listen to the reports  re-
specting  them, and laugh at the narration.   When  only  trifling
errors are committed, I  know no means  of assuring myself about
them; but if they  are considerable, I will  state  how we  may be
 led to their detection.
   We must, in the first place, carefully observe the individual for
 at least a day, in the same place and at the same hour, especially
 at sunrise;  at that time, fasting, and empty from  his evacuations,
 he has had  nothing to tire him, save  perhaps a short walk, of no
 injurious tendency.  He who follows a good regimen, will neces-
 sarily, at this time, be of his  natural standard, both as to his  com-
 plexion  and  his whole  system ;  whilst the observer is also then
 more  acute in mind and in vision.  He ought to consider the cha-
 racter, habits, and  powers of the person; for some more  readily
 than others conform to directions.  If one on a restricted diet should
 go considerably beyond it, it will be evident  from an increase of 
128
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
 fulness of the body and of its colour, except  indeed  the excretions
 are increased in due proportion.  Labour is moreover better sup-
 ported ; we may inquire also if wind is discharged up or down, as
 is usually the case  from such excess in eating and drinking.   If the
 regimen requires frequent meals, and hard  work, and the  proper
 quantity is not taken, or drunkenness is indulged in ; or if, after a
 hearty  supper, exercise  is pretermitted, this state  of disobedience
 may be thus discovered.   If, after omission of his supper, his usual
 exercise renders him more  active, agile, and fit for  work.   If the
 exercise after supper is omitted, eructations, and flatulence ab ano
 take place, with little or no relief of  a sense of fulness.  Sweating,
 from work is  more easily induced,  respiration  is  difficult and op-
 pressed, and the alvine discharges are more copious and less con-
 sistent.   If both  supper and exercise are omitted, languor and flatu-
 lent extension  are  increased.   Should  he have  been inebriated,
 sweating is more profuse, with  a difficulty  of respiration, a sense of
 weight, abundant urine, and, unless headache exists,  an augmented
 gayety.  If venereal desire attends, and  be moderately indulged in,
 it  is useful; but if in excess, lassitude  follows,  the  skin becomes
 rigid, and of an unhealthy colour.
   As to the predictions from the alvine discharges,  it may  be  re-
 marked, that people who work hard, with little sustenance, have
 such evacuations, small and hard,  daily,  or  every  three or four
 days, or even at  longer intervals, when there is danger of an  attack
 of fever or diarrhoea; but liquid dejections, not moulded in passing,
 are of a worse character.  Those who work hard and eat copious-
 ly should have easy discharges, the  amount of food  being propor-
tioned to their labour; hence, with equal quantity of food, in health,
 if the work is great, the discharge will be small;  whilst if the work
 is inconsiderable the discharges will be greater, and this is a rule of
 general standing.  Liquid dejections or diarrhoea without fever, and
 ending  on the  seventh day or sooner, are  advantageous, provided
 the discharge  is made at once and  not repeated;  but if fever  at-
 tends, or the diarrhoea is frequently renewed and obstinate, they are
 altogether bad, whether  bilious, watery, or crude.  Each of these
 varieties requires its own particular regimen and  remedies.
  The  urine ought  to be proportioned  to  the fluids taken in, pass
 off in  an equable  stream  and  with ease emptying  the bladder,
 having a rather greater density than the drink taken.   If less so in
 this particular, and  at the same  time  more abundant  than the pre- 
PREDICTIONS OR PROGNOSTICS.
129
scribed  drink, it indicates that more was taken, or that the  nutri-
ment was carried off by this channel.   If discharged with  a  slight
hissing sound, purgation is  indicated, or  may denote the existence
of some affection of the bladder.   A  slight discharge of blood,
without pain or fever, is of little importance, and  may arise from
fatigue;  but if it is of frequent occurrence, and is  accompanied by
pain and fever, it is unfavourable, and we may predict a subsequent
discharge of  pus with relief to the pain.  A thick  urine, depositing
a lightish sediment, denotes tumour or pain  in some of the joints.
All the other sediments in the  urine of those who labour, arise from
vesical affections, as manifested by pains not readily removed.  All
this, and similar, I have noticed, and have judged it proper to detail.
I have associated with those who have  talked of the exact predic-
tions elsewhere made, I have conversed with their children, and
with their disciples, and  have read  their writings,  and having thus
made myself fully  master  of their opinions, but  finding no solid
grounds for them, I was thence determined to  commit  my own to
writing.
  With  respect to  dropsy, phthisis, gout, and epilepsy, I  shall re-
mark that this is common to them all, viz., their extreme difficulty
of cure  when congenital.  And now of each in  particular.
  For the cure of dropsy, sound viscera and  adequate  strength,
with good digestion, are very essential; good  breathing, freedom
from pain, equable temperature of the whole body, no emaciation of
the limbs, but rather; a fulness, although  the absence of both is best,
with natural softness  and  size,  and  the belly  soft  to the touch.
There  should  be neither cough, thirst,  nor dry tongue, whether
after sleep, or at  other times, as often is the case.  The  appetite
should be good, and after eating no uneasiness.  Purgatives should
operate promptly, and at other times the stools should  be soft and
figured.  The urine should correspond with the regimen, and with
the changes of wines.  Labour should be readily supported without
feeling fatigued.  Such is the best state for an  hydropic person, to
give the expectation of recovery.   In proportion as   it  deviates
therefrom are our hopes to be less sanguine; but they  must entire-
ly cease when  the  reverse of what is  above stated is the actual
condition; or only be maintained according to  the existing state of
things.
  It is much to be feared that  dropsy will succeed large discharges
of blood from the stomach and bowels; when connected with fever
                               9 
130               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

it will be of a brief character, and few recover.   A  prediction to
this effect may be safely made to the friends of the patient.   Large
cedematous swellings,  disappearing, and recurring again, are more
readily  cured  than in the preceding  case.  They are, however,
very deceptive, inducing the patient to dismiss his physician, and
thus dying without assistance.
  Of phthisis, advanced to  the state of cough and suppuration, I
shall refer to what  I  have already said of empyema.  If likely to
recover, the expectoration is easy, and should appear white, uni-
form in  colour and in  consistence, and free from pituita.  Humours
from the head  should  flow  freely by the nose;  fever  should be
absent, so that nourishment  need not  be  interdicted,  and no thirst
should attend.   A daily evacuation of healthy faeces, in  amount
proportioned to the  food taken, should  take place;  emaciation
ought not to occur;  the  chest should be  square and hairy; and
the sternum, small and well covered with flesh, should not project.
With such accompaniments, there  is little danger; without them,
death is not remote.   In youth, when suppuration forms from con-
gestion, or  from previous  ulceration, or any similar cause, or from
a repetition of an abscess, a  recovery is not to be looked for, unless
there is a  combination of nearly all  the  above  favourable signs.
Such persons commonly die  in the autumn, as is usually the case
in all other chronic affections.  Women and girls, in whom phthisis
occurs  from suppressed menstruation, rarely escape.  If it occa-
sionally happens, besides  the presence of the  above  symptoms, a
perfect  and regular return  of the catamenia  must follow, or there
is no hope  to be entertained.  No less fatal in man, woman,  and
girls, is the suppuration succeeding to a profuse haemoptysis.  It is
by duly attending to all the  symptoms mentioned, that a prediction
can be  given of health or death in  phthisis accompanied with sup-
puration.   Those  who  after haemoptysis  experience   less  pain in
their back and  breast, are most likely to recover; for their cough
is less frequent, and though  fever attends, it is accompanied with
but trifling thirst.   Nevertheless, the  hemorrhage is often renewed,
or an abscess is induced  with  a discharge of blood.   When, with
pains of the breast, emaciation slowly advances, with cough, and
 difficult breathing, but  unaccompanied  by fever or  discharge of
 pus, we must inquire  if something of a compact nature and of an
 offensive odour  is  not discharged by coughing.
   As to gout, my sentiments are as follow:—Old people who have 
PREDICTIONS OR PROGNOSTICS.
131
tophaceous concretions of the joints, with continual  suffering, and
habitual  costiveness,  are  incurable,  at least  by  any  measures
known to me.   They  are relieved by pain in the  intestines (dysen-
tery,  Hal.), and by  the  humours  tending  to  the  inferior parts.
When the patient is  young, and not  affected with articular nodo-
sities, if he leads an active life, and is very  regular in his evacua-
tions, and in a duly adapted regimen, he may hope for a cure.
  Epilepsy is  very difficult to  cure, when  arising  in childhood;
and  it strengthens by age.  Next to  this, when  it  arises in  man-
hood from twenty-five to forty-five years.   Then those, who have
a  sudden  attack without  any  previous symptoms in any  part.
Such as have it springing from the  head,  or  sides, or  hands, or
feet, are more readily cured.   Even here there is much diversity;
for if arising from the head, it is most difficult, and next from the
sides:  it is much more easy to cure, when its origin is in the feet,
or hands.  The  cure  is to be  attempted by the  same means which
are useful in  young, vigorous, and  laborious people, unless the
mind is  affected, or  an  apoplectic tendency exists; for all vehe-
ment emotions of the mind are very  bad : other  emotions tending
downwards are useful on whatever organ they may fix, especially
if a  sanguineous discharge is promoted.  As to epilepsy occurring
in old  age, it  is mostly fatal;  if not soon destructive, they recover
spontaneously, and without any medical assistance.   When  chil-
dren  suddenly squint, or  are  still more changed as to their vision ;
if tubercles of the neck  occur, or stammering in speech, or long-
continued dry cough ;—or, if rather older, tormina take place  with-
out discharge, and contortions  in the sides, with varicose vessels
on the belly, or a hernia of the omentum, swelled  testicles, wasting
of the hands  or feet, or their  complete impotency, without  any
apparent cause—be assured that in all  such cases, there has been
an attack of epilepsy. This  will often be  admitted by those  who
have the care of them.   Some however have not observed it, and
therefore  deny that such an event has taken  place.
   In  order to predict the termination of ulcers, it is essential pre-
viously to study carefully the  constitution of the  individual; (or in
some they readily heal up, in  others they do not.  Age likewise is
to be had  in view, for each advance of life  has its peculiar ulcers,
of more or less  easy  removal.  The parts of the  body are equally
different in  this respect.   Especially is it necessary to be well in-
formed as to the good or bad  in all these cases;—and he who has 
 132               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 made himself fully master of them, is alone qualified to predict their
 events; for how is it possible, if this is not the case ?  Now a good
 state of the .body consists in its agility, good  proportion, a healthy
 state of the viscera, and  being neither  too  fat nor  too meagre.
 The skin  should be fair, brown, or of  a light fleshy tint.  All of
 these separately are good ; but if intermixed with a greenish hue,
 or  if pale or livid, this is unhealthy :  in fine, every deviation from
 the  three colours  above mentioned, may be  reckoned to be bad.
 As to the  connexion of age  with  ulcers, children are  liable to
 tumours, which suppurate, and to struma, which for the most part
 readily heal.  If older, such also occur, and  are less easily cured.
 Men are  not so liable to them, but they are  to tumours of an en-
 cysted, or cancerous nature, often concealed, and of a high degree of
 danger;  sometimes to pustular eruptions and creeping ulcers, up to
 sixty years of age.   A still more advanced period brings  with it a
 disposition to cancers of  the internal organs, or of  the extremities,
 scarcely ceasing but by death.   The most difficult of these to cure,
 are  seated in the  axilla, in  the loins, and  thighs, to which parts
 the humours are most abundantly directed, and a return of them is
 very usual.  In affections of the joints,  the  thumb and great toe
 are the parts most liable  to be attacked, especially the latter.  The
 tongue is not unfrequently ulcerated  by some adjoining  decayed
 tooth.
   Wounds are mostly fatal that are made in the large vessels; like-
wise in those of the neck and groins, or in  the brain  and liver,
 intestines  and bladder; the danger is proportioned  in a measure to
 the extent of the wound, as well as to its direction:  the constitution
is also  to  be considered;—in some persons,  little or no fever or in-
flammation  take place after wounds,  whilst  others are  promptly
affected thereby. If the patient becomes delirious, whilst the wound
appears otherwise trifling, every attention must be  paid to it that
 art can bestow, seeing  that death  occurs from all description of
wounds.   There are an immense number of vessels, both o-reat and
small, from which a spontaneous hemorrhage  might prove fatal,
but which on other occasions  might  be  opened with advantage.
 Many wounds occur in parts of little importance, and which appa-
rently have  nothing formidable  in them, which are,  however, at-
tended with such severe pain  as to  impede respiration.  At times,
instead of this, the pain induces delirium and fever, with death.  If
 subject to  these symptoms, it  is less alarming when  they occur. 
                   PREDICTIONS OR PROGNOSTICS.              I33

 Nor is this surprising, considering the difference between men, both
 as to  mind and body, and  of what  resistance they are capable.
 Should wounds  happen  under these  circumstances of mind and
 body,  whilst there seems  from the irritation  and violence  of the
 injury, but little hope of restoration to his senses and to health, every
 thing must be abstained from, save only what is absolutely required to
 restrain the frequent faintings.  As  to all other wounds, especially
 if recent, their cure should be undertaken and persevered in,  until
 all fever  subsides, or danger of  hemorrhage, or of a degeneration
 into eating ulcers.  Always be watchful to guard against accidents,
 for it  is of much  importance.  Eating  ulcers, with great  depth,
 blackness, and dryness, are  fatal.   The  state of such as  afford a
 blackish sanies is very dangerous.  When the discharge is white
 and mucous, they are  less fatal, but  more frequent, and of longer
 continuance.   Tetters,  of  all the eating ulcers, are the least fatal,
 but they  are,  like occult cancers, difficult of  cure.  In all these
 cases  a fever for twenty-four hours affords relief, especially if the
 suppuration is white and  thick.  The  exfoliation of a tendon or of
 a bone, or of both, is useful  in deep and black  suppurations, for  it
 then happens that the pus improves and the putrefaction ceases.
   As to wounds  of the head, such  are the most to be dreaded  that
 reach  the brain.   All are dangerous, if accompanied by denudation
 of the  bone, by compression, or by  fracture.  If the wound  is  small,
 but with extensive fissure of the bone, the danger is greater;  and
 yet more so, if it be near the sutures and  the upper part of the
 head.   In  all cases of  wounds of the head deserving attention,  if
 recent and fresh, we should inquire if  the  person fell from the blow
 at once, and became  drowsy.   If  so, greater  care is requisite, as
 there  is reason  to presume the brain is  interested.   Should  the
 injury  be of longer standing, other symptoms must be regarded  and
 carefully  considered.   Now,  it is very favourable if there be an
 absence of  fever, hemorrhage, and  inflammation, and no pain  has
 succeeded.   If any of  these attend, it is better that it should have
 taken  place immediately,  and been  of short  duration.   If pain
 attends, an  inflammation of the edges of  the wound is favourable,
 and after the hemorrhage,  that pus should make its appearance ; if
fever, that the favourable  signs elsewhere described in treating of
acute fevers should attend ; the reverse of which  is  unpropitious.
But when  the fever begins  on the fourth,  seventh, or eleventh day,
it  is a  fatal  symptom.  It commonly has a  crisis on the eleventh 
134               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

day, if its commencement was on the fourth;  on the  fourteenth or
seventeenth, if it began  the seventh; and on the  twentieth, if it
began  on the  eleventh, conformably to w hat  is written on fevers
arising without any manifest cause.   If, at the commencement of
the fever, delirium takes place, or paralysis of any part, the  person
will  die, unless  some very favourable symptom  is present, or his
constitution is  very strong.   This must be particularly attended to,
for in some cases there is  a hope of recovery, yet with the continued
loss of the limb that had been affected, if he should survive.
   In wounds of the limbs, if large, and the tendons are divided that
are connected  with the joints, it is evident that the use of them will
be destroyed.  If any doubt as to this exists, that is, of the  wound
of the  tendons, when  pierced by a  dart, a  direct wound is more
favourable than if oblique.   If the weapon inflicting  the injury be
heavy and blunt, the danger is equally great, and is to be estimated
by the  depth of the wound and other symptoms.  Among these are,
whether suppuration extends to the joint,  which is very  dangerous;
whether  obstinate tumours continue, producing  induration  of the
parts, of long  duration, even after the wound is healed ; in which
case the motion of the joint will be long in restoration, especially if
the limb has been suffered to remain in a state of extension  during
the cure.  When the probability  is that the tendon will  exfoliate, it
is  correct to predict lameness of  the  part, especially if in the lower
extremities.  The destruction of the tendon may be known  by the
long-continued discharge of a white, thick, purulent matter, with
pain  and inflammation of the joint from the onset.  The  same is the
case when the bone separates.  In fractures of the elbow, with in-
flammation, and ending in  suppuration, incisions and cautery  are
required.  In affections of the spinal marrow from falls or other
cause, or if spontaneous, the  use of  the legs  is lost; if  the hand is
placed  on the  belly or bladder, no sensation is  felt.  At the com-
mencement, neither faeces nor urine  are discharged except by medi-
cine ; but if of  longer standing, they pass off involuntarily, and death
soon follows.
   When the fauces are filled with blood, by day and  by night, un-
accompanied by headache or cough, or vomiting, fever, or°pain in
the breast or back; the fauces and nostrils should be  examined, to
ascertain whether it may not arise from ulceration or  from a leech.
   Watery eyes  are  easily cured, when the  swelling, tears,  and
sordes  all commence at once;  if the tears and sordes are inter- 
PREDICTIONS OR PROGNOSTICS.
135
mixed, without much heat, if the sordes be white and soft, and the
swelling  light and extended, and the  lids agglutinated, but without
pain, little danger is to be dreaded, and the disease will be of short
duration.  But if the  tears  are abundant,  hot, with a  small  dis-
charge, and swelling in  one eye only, it  is of longer continuance,
although not dangerous,  and without pain. Here, it is highly neces-
sary to attend to the crisis, which may be expected on the twentieth
day; if it extends beyond this period, it occurs on the fortieth, or
even proceeds to the sixtieth.  During all which time the discharge
should be examined, whether it is mixed with the tears, if white
and soft, and this especially at the time of the crisis, as such will
be the case if the disease is about  to terminate.  If both eyes are
affected  equally, there is more  hazard of ulceration, and the crisis
will be less  prolonged.  Ophthalmia, if dry,  is very painful;  it is
not of long continuance unless ulceration ensues.  If the swelling
is large, dry, and without pain, it is not  dangerous; but if  it is
painful and dry, an ulceration of the eye may be feared, and accre-
tion of the lids.   There is danger when the  pain is accompanied
with tears, for from  such  hot and salt  humours ulceration of the
pupil or  lids may be apprehended.  If the swelling  continues,  with
discharge of tears and sordes for  a  long time, an  eversion of the
lids is to be expected in men; and the same, together with ulcera-
tion, in women and  children.  Should the sordes be of  a greenish
or livid tinge, the tears abundant and  scalding, with heat of the
head, and  pain extending from the temples  and  fixed in the  eye,
preventing  sleep,  ulceration will ensue in the eye, with danger of
its bursting.  A fever supervening is favourable, as is also a  pain
about the  loins.   To predict in such  a  case, the time of the com-
plaint must be kept in view, as well as  the nature of the discharge
 from the eye, the pains, and the insomnia.   When enabled to ex-
 amine the eye, if any  part is found ruptured,  and through the open-
 ing any part should  project, this is very unfavourable, for  it  is
 difficult to replace it.  Should it be in a state of putrefaction, there
 is no hope of its recovery; the  sight  is entirely lost.  The results of
 other ulcerations may be predicted from a consideration of their  loca-
 lity, and the extent and depth of the ulcer, for  the cicatrix that ensues
 will be  in  proportion thereto.  When the eye  is ruptured and the
 pupil is  thereby displaced, there is no further hope of the recovery of
 sight, either from time or from remedial means.   Slight displace-
 ments may indeed be relieved in young  subjects, provided nothing 
136               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

bad  supervenes.  We  may anticipate  in  youth, if  no further evil
ensues, that the cicatrices, if recent, may be removed by time or by
art.   As to the part wounded, the most dangerous is that in which
the pupil is  interested,—next, when it  is  above the supercilia, and
then according to the proximity to  them.   When the pupil assumes
a grayish, argentine, or bluish tint,  it is a bad sign.  If it contracts,
it  is more favourable;  or if it enlarges and contracts, or even as-
sumes an angular  appearance,  whether  spontaneously, or from
some obvious cause.  Obscurity  of vision, clouds, and white spots,
diminish and disappear, unless an ulcer should attack the part, or a
previous cicatrix or pterygion had existed.   If a  cicatrix  of the
black of the eye should occur, giving to the part a whitish appear-
ance, and in time becoming thick and rough, it will leave behind it
evidence of its existence not easily eradicated.
   The crises as described in fevers, are similar in these cases.  In
order to  predict them,  we must  be master of the symptoms, know
well the diseases of the eyes, and  their differences.  The greater
the number  of the  unfavourable signs, the disease will be  in the
same ratio prolonged, as is explained in writings on  the subject.  If
the symptoms are good, in the  like ratio  will be the period of the
disease, and a crisis may be looked  for on the  seventh  day, or
shortly after, and all danger considered as  past.   Relapses are to
be guarded  against, when such changes for the better occur on
non-critical  days, and  without the  accompaniment of good symp-
toms.  In all  affections of the eyes, the urine should be inspected,
and  the fleeting nature of opportunity should be kept in constant
remembrance.
   Pains in the bowels,  attended with fever, and a variety of alvine
dejections, with inflammation of the liver, of the praecordia or belly,
with nausea and thirst,  are always bad ; and the more of these there
are,  in  the same degree  are they dangerous.  If few in number,
the hope is the greater.  The greatest danger is at about five years
of age,  and thus up to  that of ten,  after which it is  much lessened.
Such pains  as are  beneficial are  unattended by the above symp-
toms.  When  accompanied with bloody stools, and such as  resem-
ble the  washings of flesh, they  terminate  on the seventh or four-
teenth, the twentieth or fortieth day, or at some intermediate  period.
Such discharges often  give relief to other diseases.  If of a chronic
nature,  that relief is more slow,  but  quicker if they are  recent.
Women, during pregnancy, are  subject to them  up to, and even 
PREDICTIONS OR PROGNOSTICS.
137
after  delivery.  The discharges of blood and  matters resembling
the scraping of the bowels, and that for months, are not always the
source of abortion,  unless conjoined  with pain  and other of the
enumerated symptoms of dysentery.  If so, they prove fatal to the
foetus, and of  great danger to the mother, until parturition and the
discharge of the secundines;  and afterwards, if then the dysentery
does not at once cease, or soon after.
   Frequent and long-continued lientery, coming on  at all hours,
both by day and night, with or without strepitus, with a discharge
of crude and  undigested or dark-coloured  matters, and unformed,
of offensive smell, are  uniformly bad.  They excite thirst, but the
fluid  is  not conveyed away by urine.  The  mouth becomes ulce-
rated, blotches and  spots of different colours appear in the face,
similar  to what are called freckles, and the skin of the belly be-
comes rough, like dough in fermentation.  The appetite entirely
fails,  and all exercise or work is out of the question.  This disease
is most  severe in old  age; in middle life, less so; but much less so
in early life.   In all  cases, except  the two first  mentioned, when
the above formidable symptoms are not in great amount, it is less
to be dreaded.  It requires to be  carefully attended to, until  the
urine is discharged  in  due amount to the drink  taken  in,  and the
system  appears to  derive nourishment from the food, and the skin
to be liberated from  its  mottled appearance.  The other profluvia,
unaccompanied with fever, are of short duration, and generally of
a mild character;  they commonly cease spontaneously, or yield to
lotions.   We  may announce  the evacuations about to cease, when
on applying the hand to the belly, no motion is felt, and when flatus
is discharged  at  the close of an evacuation.  Diarrhoea,  in  men
afflicted with  the hemorrhoids, occasions a  prolapsus  ani;  and
dysentery induces  the same in children with calculus, and in  old
people who with difficulty evacuate their mucous accretions.
  We may estimate  the facility or difficulty of  conception in  the
manner following.  First, as to the exterior.   Small women are
more apt to conceive than large ones;  thin women than fat; brown
than  pallid; white than florid;  such as have prominent veins, than
those in whom they are deep-seated.  Excessive fleshiness is un-
favourable to  conception  at an advanced age.  Large and turgid
breasts  are favourable; all of which  signs are  apparent to view.
With respect to the interior, it is necessary to know the state of the
uterus, as to its health, its dryness, and softness; neither retracted 
138               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

nor too low down; its orifice should not be awry, nor compressed,
nor too extended; for in all such cases pregnancy  is impossible.
So likewise we must ascertain  the state of menstruation; if it duly
takes place  every month, in adequate quantity, and  of  a proper
colour; at regular and equal times in a month.  If so, the circum-
stances are favourable. When therefore conception does not occur,
if the woman is pallid, free from fever, and no apparent fault of the
bowels; if she complains of headache, of painful and ill-conditioned
catamenia, in  small  amount, and at distant and irregular periods,
the uterus requires to be evacuated.   If the woman has  a good
complexion, with much flesh and fat, so that the vessels are unseen;
if free from pain, and menstruation is entirely absent, or trifling and
ill-conditioned, it is very difficult to promote conception.  On the
contrary, if the body is  vigorous, the menses  superabundant, and
pregnancy does not occur,  there is some fault of the womb; it is
retracted, or too open.   Other  affections of that organ are con-
nected with pain, and a bad complexion, together with emaciation.
Should there be an ulcer in the womb, the result of parturition,  or
of  some  tumour or other   cause, fever is the consequence,  with
swellings and pains in the groins: and if to this  an  interruption of
the lochia be added, the evil is rendered worse and more obstinate;
and there are, moreover,  superadded, headache  and pains of the
praecordia.   When  the  ulcer  heals, the part is left in an indurated
state, and the aptitude to conceive is diminished.  When the ulcer
is in the left side only, and whilst continuing, conception takes place;
 or if it has healed, and the state of health is  otherwise  good, it is
 most probable that the child is a male;  but if  it is the right side
 that has been affected, the probability is  greater  of its  being a
 female.   If pregnancy  cannot take  place, and fever and  a cough
 oppress her, it is necessary to  ascertain whether an ulcer of  the
 womb exists,  or  any of the affections I have  mentioned; and if
 there is  not, a vomiting of blood may be anticipated,  presuming
 that the menses have  necessarily disappeared:  but if they return,
 and the  fever leaves  her  after the  hemorrhage, pregnancy may
 ensue.  If the bowels are greatly disordered previous to  the hemor-
 rhage, there is danger "of dying before the vomiting up of the blood.
  Some persons imagine themselves pregnant when it is not the case,
  and persevere in the mistake for many months.  The menses  dis-
  appear,  the belly enlarges, motions are felt, headache and pains
  of the neck  and hypochondria attend; but little or no  milk in the 
                  PREDICTIONS OR PROGNOSTICS.               139

breasts, or if any, of an aqueous nature.   When the belly subsides
and becomes soft, if nothing else prevents, conception may occur;
for  such a state is calculated  to  promote a change in the uterus
favourable thereto.   All the above-mentioned pains are not felt in
true pregnancy, unless from being  previously accustomed to them.
Headache exists and milk is secreted.  In long-continued uterine
fluxes, we should inquire if headache, and pains  of the  loins  and
pelvis are present;  and also if there are toothache, dimness of sight,
and humming of the ears.   Whenever, fasting, bilious matters are
vomited for  many  successive  days, without being in a pregnant
state,  or having  fever, ascertain  whether lumbrici are  not  also
voided at the same time.   If the answer is in the negative, we may
announce  their probable occurrence;  for it is by no means uncom-
mon with women and virgins, but  less the case with men.
  They who suffer  pains without fever are not in danger of death,
but of a long continuance, together with  metastases and  relapses.
Of  these pains are headache, sometimes  trifling, at others severe.
We must  notice if  there is dizziness,  with redness of the eyes and
itching of the forehead, in which  case bleeding, or a  spontaneous
discharge of blood,  will afford relief; it is a simple case.  But when
headache and pain in the forehead  arise from exposure to winds
and cold, whilst much heated, a  catarrh sometimes dissipates it.
Sternutatories are useful, producing a copious discharge of mucous
pituita from the  nose.  Catarrhs  very  naturally are followed by
cough, and  if the  accompanying sneezing does not give relief,
swellings  and changes of complexion succeed.  Where obstinate
and universal headache  occur, with apparent cause, if the patient
is thin and  exhausted, a  more severe disease is  to be feared.  If
the pains  fly from the head to the  neck or back, and then return, it
is worse; and still more so, if at the same time all  the three parts
mentioned are suffering from it.  An  abscess occurring any where
affords relief, so does a  purulent expectoration, a hemorrhoidal
discharge, or a crop of pustular eruptions  over the body.  A scald-
head  sometimes cures it.
  In  case of drowsiness, with intolerable itching of the whole head,
or some particular  part, with a sense of coldness over the head at
times, we should inquire if the itching  extends to  the end of the
tongue.  If so, some disease of difficult  cure is  forming; otherwise
the cure is easy.  Its mode of termination  may be deduced from
what has  heretofore been said respecting abscesses, which however
are less frequent in these cases.  Should vertigo be conjoined  with 
140               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

the pains, the disease will prove obstinate  and threatens  mania.
Old people are more subject to this.   Other affections of the head,
which  often  attack  both  men  and  women, are less dangerous,
though violent and of long duration.   Boys and girls often suffer
from them, particularly the latter, at the approach of menstruation.
The headache of women in most particulars is similar to  that of
men, but with less  itching and bilious affections, unless  after the
cessation of the menses.
  All those who  in  early life  have  a bad complexion for  a long
continuance,  not however icteritious, whether men  or women, are
subject to headache; they devour earth and  gravel, and are affect-
ed  with  hemorrhoids.   A  bilious  complexion,  of an  obstinate
character, but not of a  strongly  marked icteritious nature, is ac-
companied with  similar complaints; but in  place of the unnatural
appetite mentioned, they have  much more pain in  the praecordia.
Long-continued  paleness with tumid face,  is  accompanied  with
headache or  pain in the bowels,  or they have some disease of the
rectum.   In  other respects the   disorders mentioned  are  seldom
single,  but often remain latent and subsequently  appear.
  Nyctalopia is  an affection indicated  by seeing in the dark.  It
occurs in youth, both in childhood and adults;  it disappears spon-
taneously, sometimes in  forty days, at  times in seven months, or
even continues a year.   The period  of its cessation  may be judged
of from the degree of the affection  and the age of  the patient.  A
cure follows  a formation of abscesses  on  the lower  extremities,
which  is not  however common in early life.  Women are  exempt
from it, and girls also when menstruation appears.   If the disease
follows a long-continued  flow of the tears, inquiry should be made
if previously  headache was common.
   If without  fever or an unhealthy complexion, headache and pains
in the temples are customary, when  no tendency to  eruption in the
face exists, nor hoarseness of the  voice, nor toothache, we may an-
ticipate a hemorrhage  from the nose.  In such  cases, although
apparently enjoying good health,  we shall find the spleen enlarged,
and headache, or sparks flying  before the  eyes.   In most cases,
affections of the  spleen are accompanied with headache.
   Ulceration  of the gums and fetid breath are  frequent attendants
on enlarged  spleen.  When with enlarged  spleen  there is neither
hemorrhage  nor offensive breath, it will be  found  that there exist
ill-conditioned ulcerations of the legs  and  livid scars.   If, more-
over, eruptions of  the face attend, hoarse  voice,  and  toothache, 
PREDICTIONS OR PROGNOSTICS.
141
epistaxis may be looked for.  The spleen is enlarged also in such
as have the lower lids tumefied.  If the feet swell,  and appear to
be anasarcous, the belly and the loins should be carefully examined.
  Twitchings of the face, without the rest of the body suffering,
soon disappear,  either alone or by some slight remedy; otherwise
there is a chance of apoplexy.   And if to the loss of motion, atro-
phy of the limb is united, its restoration to health is not to be ex-
pected ; but if it still continues to receive  its nutrition,  motion will
be restored.   In order to  estimate the period  of its  restoration,
regard must  be  had to the extent  of the complaint, its period of
commencement, the age of the patient, and the season of the year;
always bearing  in  mind that the older the  disease the more obsti-
nate and dangerous it is, as well as  more frequent  in  recurrence,
and  more  particularly  in old age.  Autumn  and winter  are less
favourable for its removal than spring or summer.  Pains in the
shoulders descending to the hands, and there inducing  numbness,
are  not  followed by abscesses, but  are relieved  by vomiting up
black bilious matters.   When the pains remain fixed in the shoul-
ders,  or extend  to  the back, a  discharge  of  pus or of black bile
restores  health.   The  issue of each  of the above  may be conjec-
tured by  the respiration  being  free  or difficult;  if  free,  and the
patient is thin, the presumption is in favour of the bilious vomiting;
if difficult, and  the countenance is florid beyond what is usual, and
differing from its common hue, the probability is that pus will be
discharged.  We should ascertain if the feet are swelled, as this is
a confirmatory symptom.  This disease is  more usual and violent
from  forty to sixty years of age, which is likewise  the period at
which sciatica is most prevalent.
   With  respect  to  sciatica,  the  following  observations  demand
attention.  In age,  if subject to cramps, with coldness of the loins
and  legs, the penis torpid, the intestines moved only by medicine,
and  then principally of mucosities, the disease will be very obsti-
nate.   It  may be predicted to continue for a year at least, unless
relieved by spring and summer.   In young people, the disease is to
the full as painful, but it is of  less duration; forty days  will usually
bring it to a  termination.   The  cramps are less severe with them,
as is likewise the coldness of the loins and legs.  When the pains of
the loins and thighs are not sufficiently great to keep  them  lying
down, we must  examine if in  the  sciatic region there is any swell-
ing,  and if the  pain extends to the groin;  for if either of these be 
142               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

the case, the disease will be of long continuance.   Inquire also if
there be numbness of the thigh and of the ham.  If the  answer is
affirmative, ask if it extends to the leg and  tarsus.   When this is
the case, it may be foretold that the thigh will have alternate acces-
sions of heat and cold.   Should the disease quit the loins for the
inferior parts, we may give encouragement to the patient; but if it
continues in  the loins and  sciatic  region, and extends  upwards, it
may be considered as very serious.
  In all intermitting pains and swellings of the joints, not having a
gouty character, the viscera will be found enlarged, and a white de-
posit takes place in the urine.  If in such cases there is tumefaction
of the  temples, there will  likewise be much pain and night sweats.
But if a white deposit does not take place in the urine, and there are
no sweats, there is danger of lameness  of some joint, or a forma-
tion of the kind of tumour denominated meliceris.   Such occur in
those persons who in childhood and youth were subject to bleeding
from the nose, which had been arrested.  Inquire, therefore, if such
had been the case, and whether sharp itching and heat of the back
and breast are present, and if also there is a  sharp and constant
pain of the  bowels, or hemorrhoidal tumours; for these  are  com-
monly  the source of the  complaint.   If  the complexion  alters,
inquire if  headache exists, and such  will be  found to be the case.
  When the pain of the  belly is confined  to the right  side, it is
more  severe than if on  the left,  particularly in those in  whom the
pain extends from the hypochondrium to the liver.   Such pains are
sometimes relieved by the discharge of wind, which is followed
soon after with that of much pale urine. This disease is not fatal,
but of long  duration;  and if very inveterate,  is apt to  affect the
sight.    We should make inquiry respecting any hemorrhages in
youth,  or defect of vision,  respecting the colour of  the urine,  and
of the discharge of flatus, and  whether benefited thereby.
  Impetigines, and vitiligo, and morphew, occurring in infancy or
in youth,  apparently trifling at first, ultimately augment;  the ab-
scesses and  eruptions attending are  not the consequence of, but
constitute a  part of the disease itself. In fact, when a tumour  forms
here suddenly, and is large, it becomes  a real  abscess.   A species
of white leprosy, called elephantiasis, is one of the  most fatal dis-
eases.   All these affections arise from atrabilis.  The more recent
they are, the more readily are they cured  in early life,  and when
confined to the most soft and fleshy parts. 
THE  COAN  PROGNOSTICS.
   Hippocratis Coi Coacarum PrjEnotiones,   .   .    Fcesius, Treat, ii. p. 115.
   Hippocratis Coac<e Pr^enotiones,  ....    Haller, ii. 142.
   Prenotions Coaques,......Gardeil, ii. p. 289.

  Duretus (says Haller in his preface to this treatise), like most of
its commentators, divides it into several parts.  Haller himself, con-
stituting it as a single book, divides it into three sections, consisting
of twenty-seven chapters.  Gardeil divides  it into  three books, as
Duretus has done;  the first of which is  simply subdivided into one
hundred and sixty-six sentences.  The second book contains twenty-
six chapters, subdivided into three hundred and fifty-nine sentences;
as is the  case also with  the  third book, containing four  chapters,
and  two hundred and  forty-six sentences.   The whole number of
sentences is  seven hundred and seventy-one.  Foesius makes six
hundred and  forty-nine sentences, accompanied by copious notes,
and  preceded by a long prefatory dissertation, of considerable inte-
rest, but scarcely embraced by my present intentions.  Haller  tells
us that Galen considered  this  treatise  as spurious, and that Foesius
did not much esteem it.  It is admitted by all to be  very obscure.
Questions are propounded, to which  no one  can reply, and  many
fallacious aphorisms are given with too great precision.  Many, are
the same  with those that  are given in  the preceding book (De Pre-
dictionibus, Lib.  i.)  The  first part of the treatise is devoted to such
particulars  as belong to fever.  The second treats  of those  that
are  connected with the various  parts of the human body, as the
head, neck, chest, abdomen, &c.; and the prognostics are stated in
connexion with the parts from which the symptoms are derived.
The third division derives  the first  part  of its presages  almost
entirely from  the  Prognostics;  a second  portion  is assigned  to
wounds of  the head  and other parts; and  the  third portion  is de-
voted to  female diseases.   An addition is  made of the presages
derived from the various excretions, &c. 
144               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  The book may be generally considered as delivering the existing
and  supervening symptoms  of  fevers,  and  other diseases, both
febrile and non-febrile, affecting the whole  system or its parts, and
explained by theorems, with  the predictions  to  be derived  from
them, both benefical or injurious.
   In a note at the commencement of this treatise, Gardeil  states,
"that it is usually designated by name of the Coacae simply, and
that it is constantly referred to in medical writings.   It is  not con-
sidered  by the  learned as the work of  Hippocrates,  in which  opi-
nion (says he) I acquiesce." Nevertheless it is much  esteemed, for,
notwithstanding its imperfections, its authority in medicine is of the
highest grade. It is supposed to be the composition of some physician
of the celebrated school of Cos, of which Hippocrates was the most
illustrious member;  but  it is uncertain whether this collection of
sentences was anterior or posterior  to him.  I have  pursued, says
Gardeil, the order adopted by Duretus, as being very commodious,
although not always  adapted to the discovery of what we are seek-
ing, in consequence  of  its division  in the distributed matter.   It
would indeed be impossible to effect this, without continued repeti-
tion of  those  sentences  that have  reference  to more than  one
particular.
  M. De Mercy, in 1815, printed at Paris a  French translation of
this  treatise, entitled " Prognostics de Cos, D'Hippocrate, traduits
sur le texte grec, d'apres la collation des manuscrits  de la  Biblio-
theque Imperiale,  avec une  dissertation sur  ces manuscrits, des
variantes, des notes explicatives, et une table analytique."
  This analytical  table is so excellent, that I have deemed it better
to give it here, than to  attempt a more full and complete translation
of the whole,—omitting at the same time his references,  which
could only be applicable  to the entire translation.   As  it  is, this
analysis extends to nearly fifty pages.
  It  may be  further remarked, that  the latter part, commencing
with chap, xxviii.,  entitled " Prognostics common to all parts of the
body," and constituting the third  book of Duretus, contains gene-
rally what is to be found with more  minuteness in the Predictions,
Prognostics, Aphorisms, &c. Sometimes the precision is remarkable! 
                     THE COAN PROGNOSTICS.                 145

   It may be concisely stated, that M. De Mercy, in his prefatory ob-
 servations on this treatise, divides it under five principal heads.  The
first, up  to  the one hundred and sixtieth sentence, relates to acute
 and epidemic fevers, and their varied  and complicated symptoms,
 such  as  rigor, chills, hemorrhages, menstrual discharges,  hemor-
 rhoids, bilious  vomitings, and  purgings,—urine, sweat,  parotids,
 abscesses,—crises, good and bad, as announced by various symp-
 toms,  such  as insomnia, subsultus  tendinum,  sputation, alteration
 and loss  of the voice,  delirium, convulsions, and all that charac-
 terizes the  highest grade  of fever.   The second part consists of
 inflammation  of  the  organs and different viscera, with continual
 fever,  such  as acute headache, phrenitis, convulsions, suppuration,
 and sphacelus of the brain, &c, otitis and deafness, &c, as  noticed
 in the  headings of the succeeding  chapters.   The third part has
 reference to external  lesions and wounds, &c.  The  fourth  to the
 diseases  of females; and  the fifth  to the different  excretions, as
 vomiting, sweat,  urine,  and the dejections.
   Most of the sentences here enumerated are  to be found in some
 one or other of  the Hippocratic writings, and are pointed out by
 M. De Mercy; such are the parts relating to the face,  which  he  tells
 us are the same as in the Prognostics, and in the Prenotions also,
 but less correct;—the same of the eyes.  Some Aphorisms are here
 found, and a few passages from the  book, " De Morbis." Some are
 alike with parts of the Predictions, &c, and his observations termi-
 nate as follows: "The  intentions of the  different sentences  cannot
 be  misapprehended.    Many passages  are  extracted  from other
 works, especially ' De Morbis,9 which certainly is not one of Hip-
 pocrates'.   We can discover no other object than that of forming
 a general collection of the prognosis of disease.  It is easy to assure
 ourselves of this,  even from the conclusion of the book, which is a
 recapitulation of all the  varieties  of the different  excretions, of
 which mention is made  throughout the treatise.  No doubt  the
 Coan  Prognostics are  a  very  estimable  and essential  part  in the
 practice  of  medicine; a kind of vade mecum, but difficult from their
 number, to  be recollected.  The  analysis of the chapters is intended
 to render the connexion of the different  sentences more clear-  and
 distinct,  and will  in a degree subserve the purpose of an index."
   It would  'too much prolong this, if continued;  I give, therefore
 only the heads of the chapters.—Ed.
                               JO 
146
THE WORKS OF  HIPPOCRATES.
COAN  PROGNOSTICS.
Chap. I. a. Of Fevers.
        b. Of Paroxysms.
        c. Of Ardent Fevers.
BOOK I.
Chap. I. d.  Of Phrenitis.
        e.  Of Compound Fevers.
        /.  Of different kinds of Crises.
	BOOK 11.	
Chap. I. Of Headache.		CHAr. XVII.
II. Of Carus, and Coma.		XVIII.
III. Of Diseases of the Ear.		XIX.
IV. Of Parotids.		XX.
V. Of Diseases of the Face.		XXI.
VI. Of Diseases of the Eyes.		XXII.
VII. Of the Tongue and Fauces.		XXIII.
VIII. Of the Voice.		
IX. Of Respiration.		XXIV.
X. Of the Neck and Throat.		XXV.
XI. Of the Hypochondria.		XXVI.
XII. Of the Back and Loins.		
XIII. Of Hemorrhages.		XXVII.
XIV. Of Palpitations, Shakings,	Con-	XXVIII.
vulsions.		
XV. Of Angina.		XXIX,
XVI. Of Pleurisy* and Peripneumony.		XXX.
Of Phthisis.
Of Hepatic Affections.
Of Dropsy.
Of Dysentery.
Of Lientery.
Of Diseases of the Bladder.
Of Apoplexy, Palsy, and Pa.
   raplegia.
Of Melancholy and Madness.
Of Coldness of the Loins.
Of Tumours, and on Bleed-
   ing.
A chapter of Cautions.
Prognostics  common to all
   parts of the Body.
Of Dangerous Wounds.
Of Wounds, and Fistula?.
                       APPENDIX.

        OF THE DISEASES INCIDENT TO DIFFERENT AGES,

Chap. XXXI. Of the Diseases incident to Females.
     XXXII. Of the various Excretions.
               a. Vomiting,  b. Sweats,  c. Urine.
d.  Stools.
  ' In this and some other parts of the Hippocratic books, various expressions would
seem to  indicate, that percussion of the Thorax of some character was occasionally
employed.—Ed. 
SECTION   III.
           ON  THE  NATURE  OF  MAN.

        De Natura Hominis,   ....    Fossius, Treat, i. p. 224.
        De Natura Hominis,   ....    Haller, i. p. 33.
        De la Nature de l'Homme, .    .   .    Gardeil, i. p. 113.

  The first portion of this book  is, by Mercurialis, regarded as a
genuine work  of Hippocrates, and  is  frequently quoted by  Galen
and the ancients.  Yet  Galen, who  comments  upon it, has some
doubts as  to the  latter part of it,  which  treats  of the origin  of the
four great vessels,—and  in this Haller seems to agree.   It is, says
Haller, a  congeries of things  the  most diversified.  It first notices
the four humours, and their  alternate predominance ;  and  which
by a  species  of affinity, are evacuated by medicines.  It then
adverts to the origin of  epidemic diseases, which is attributed to
the air, rather than  to the mode of living.  Correct as this may
be in some respects, it is not wholly so, since by a similar  diet of
salted provisions, scurvy  is  found to  arise in  climates  altogether
different.
  Among the various topics noticed is  to be found the statement of
four pair of vessels, which Haller  says, smacks strongly of  the Chi-
nese writings.   The  account, moreover, erroneous as it is,  differs
greatly  from the  doctrine of Hippocrates, as it is laid down in  his
treatise " De locis in  homine."  It is at this part that Galen  stops;
observing, however, that  in what  follows, excepting what relates to
the four great  vessels, the greater part is not unworthy of Hippo-
crates.  In speaking  of  fevers and of various diseases, they are
mostly ascribed to a diversity of the bile, either in quantity or qua-
lity ;—thus a quartan  is attributed to atra bilis, &c.
  Foesius, at p. 312, note 69,  on the origin of the vessels from the

  * This section consists of fourteen treatises in the order of arrangement by  Fcesius,
under the general head of ra. qiTua. **/ mri'.xoyiKx—i. e. physics and setiology—or
what has reference to natural causes. 
148               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

head, refers to Galen, lib. C, De Placitis ; also to  Hippocrates, cipi
ogreuv y,?.o?, and to Aristotle, Hist. Animal, lib. 3, cap. '.I—The views
of the blood-vessels are attributed to  Polybius, although this is not
the opinion of Galen.   And Gardeil,  in referring to the other trea-
tises, in which the vessels are spoken  of in nearly the same way as
in the present one, remarks, that in the one entitled " De Natura
Ossium," although the title would indicate a principal  attention to
the bones, yet it is devoted almost entirely to the blood-vessels; and
he adds, that although the whole is embarrassing,  it appears to him
infinitely more surprising to find so many angiological  details, dis-
covered without the aid of injections, than to meet with  so many
mistakes.—Ed.

   Whoever is accustomed to hear the nature of man spoken of by
persons who pretend  to be acquainted  with it, by any  means dis-
tinct from  medicine, will find nothing  satisfactory  to them in this
treatise.   I shall not tell them that man is altogether constituted of
air, or of fire, or  of  water, or  earth, nor  of  any  other individual
thing, since I am persuaded man is  not formed of one single ele-
ment; nevertheless, I leave such opinions willingly to those wrho main-
tain  them, although they appear to  me not clearly to  understand
what they profess to teach.  They all agree in one proposition, but
differ entirely in  the deductions they  derive  from it.  They first
advance the assertion that every thing existing  is  a unit, and that
this  unity is the  universal whole; but then  they disagree as to what
this  universal unit is.   One affirms  it  to be air,  another  that it is
fire, a third that it is  water, and a fourth that it is earth;  and each
one  grounds his assertion on reasoning and  testimony  of  no value.
Now, that they should agree at setting off, in one opinion, and then
differ in what they say, is an evidence of their  ignorance of the
whole subject.   This is soon discovered in their discourse.  If thev
address the same  audience, that audience will  readily perceive that
none of these philosophers is victorious thrice in succession.  Now,
it is  one, then another, subsequently  a  third one; and  he, the one
that  has  the greatest  volubility, and  is best exercised  in public
 speaking.   If we profess to  be fully  masters of our  subject, we
 ought undoubtedly to be  always victorious in debate; and if we
 know it in fact, we can conclusively prove it.   These  philosophers
 appear to  me to disagree,  merely from a misapprehension of terms. 
                    ON THE NATURE OF MAN.                 149

They become, like Melissus,a inconsistent; and this is all I shall say
upon the subject of these philosophical  reveries as  to the nature of
man.   In respect  to the opinions of physicians on this particular,
some maintain that man consists altogether of blood ;  some that he
is only bile; and others constitute him of pituita.  All reason in  the
same  manner: they say that  the  individual is a  unit by whatso-
ever name it may be termed,  and that  this unit changes its form
and power, according as it is compelled thereto, by cold  or heat;
that it is capable of becoming  sweet or bitter, white or black, or of
assuming any other quality;—now none of this do  I accredit. The
greater number advocate other principles of a similar description.
As to my own views, I affirm, that if man was constituted of only
one species of matter, he could never feel pain; for how could pain
be excited in him, if simple and uncompounded ! Admit even that he
did  feel pain, the remedy applied is equally supposed to be one; but
we know that  remedies are various and  distinct; and this because
many things are combined in  the body, from which, when becom-
ing, inter se, preternaturally heated or cooled, or dry or humid, diffe-
rent diseases ensue, and under different forms, requiring for their cure
an equal difference in treatment.   I therefore think, that whoever
says man is constituted of blood and nothing else, should be able to
prove that he is at all times the same, and  incapable of changing !
—or at least he should be  able to  assign some period of the year,
or of his life, in which blood only was to be found in him ; since,
in  order to be  assured of the  real foundation of his opinion, there
ought to be  at  least one period, in which should be alone seen, that
of which alone he is  constituted.  This  reasoning applies  equally
to those who maintain that man consists only of bile, or of pituita.
I shall however demonstrate,  that the things  which constitute the
composition of man remain always the same, from their very na-
ture, and the laws by which they are  governed;  and that  this is
the case  in youth and age, and under every variety of temperature
and season.  I will  likewise point out  the signs  by  which these
compounds are recognised, and the causes by  which they are indi-
vidually augmented or decreased in quantity.
  The incipient formation  or  generation of man, cannot possibly
arise from one thing only—for how can a single  simple substance

 * Melissus,  according to Galen, affirmed that  only one element existed, which,
nevertheless, he divided  into four others. 
150               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

engender  another without admixture with something else ?  Now,
if what is mingled  be not  the  product of different beings, of the
same nature and of similar faculties, no  generation can ensue of a
being of a like  character to them.*  Moreover, if heat and cold,
dry  and  humid,  do  not  appropriately  temper  each  other, or if
either predominates  unduly, generation  cannot  take place.  How
then can one thing alone engender, when a greater number cannot,
unless their natural  commixture is properly attempered 1  Since
then such is  the  nature of  generation, there  must  be,  both in
respect to man and of all other beings,  more than a  single thing,
each  of which is  alike essential to the  process, and  gives to  the
body  the  power of accomplishing it.   So also, when death takes
place, each thing separates and  passes off  in  conformity to its
nature:  the moist, joins itself to moisture; the  dry returns to  the
dry ;  hot passes to heat, and the cold to cold.   Such  is the nature
of animals, and of all other beings.  All proceed from their like;
all return to their like again, since they  are compounded  of  the
same things;  and each, after serving in the composition, returns
to those from which they wrere derived.  Now the body of man
contains blood, pituita, and two kinds of bile—yellow and black;
and his nature is such that it is through them that he enjoys health,
or suffers from disease.  He  enjoys the former when each is in
due proportion of quantity and force, but especially when  properly
commingled.  Disease  takes place if either  is  in excess or defi-
cient, or if not duly united.   For when  separate, not only the part
in which  there  is a  deficiency must be affected,  but the part to
which it  goes being surcharged, will  experience pain  and un-
easiness.   When more  than a mere superfluity  is discharged from
the system, the void occasioned thereby is  productive of pain ; but
if this void is caused  by the separation of the humours in one part,
and  being carried by metastasis to another,  the  pain is  twofold,
viz.: that  induced by the vacuity  of  the  part  it leaves,  and  the
repletion of that  to  which  it  is conveyed.  I have  stated  that I
would show, that those things of which man is composed remain
always  the same, both from  their nature, and their true intent.
Now I say that blood, pituita, and  yellow and black bile are inva-
riably the same and at all times  so  considered, since none  of those
  » The early credence of the necessity of an admixture of the seed of both sexes is*
here evinced—as also in the treatise on Generation,—without recurrence to  the absurd
doctrine of sympathy, &c. 
ON THE NATURE OF MAN.
151
terms are at all  equivocal, or  liable  to any obscurity; and more-
over, the things themselves are  in their nature entirely distinct—for
pituita in no respect resembles blood, nor does blood resemble bile,
nor bile pituita.    How then  can they  possibly be confounded,
whilst to the eye their colour is different, and also to the touch there
is  no similarity 1   In  warmth  and coldness,  in  tenuity and  con-
sistence, they alike  differ.  Distinct therefore  they must needs be,
for they are not one and the same thing; they are not constituted
alone of either fire, or  water; and  we  at once distinguish  that
they are not, individually,  one  and the same, unless we can  pro-
nounce  that fire and water  are one and the same; but each one has
its own  peculiar nature and powers.   If a medicine is administered
that acts on the pituita, that alone is evacuated; if it acts upon the
bile, bile is discharged;  or black bile, if  the remedy acts on the
atrabilis.  If  the  body is wounded in any part, blood flows from
the wound.   All  this is  the same, by day  or  night, in winter or
summer, so long as  man  continues  to respire;   and this  he can
accomplish so long  as he is not deprived  of one of these, his  con-
stituent  parts—for  such  they unequivocally must be; for they are
found within  him during the whole of his existence.  Besides, the
individual was generated by a being who possessed the same prin-
ciples ;  and he was nourished  by one who  also had them.  They
in fact evince their presence, without  the necessity of any reason-
ing on the subject.
   They who  affirm that man is constituted of only one principle,
seem to found their  opinion on reasons to this effect.  Persons  who
have taken purgatives, have been known to die  of super-purgation;
some of whom have vomited bile, others pituita.   Hence they  sup-
posed that man  consisted  of that humour which they saw  him
discharge in  death.  They who  say he consists  of blood  only,
reason in like  manner, from having  seen persons whose  throats
were cut, discharging blood alone, and they  employ proof of a like
character.  Yet no  one ever died from super-purgation,  by voiding
bile alone.  If a  medicine is taken that  acts  upon the bile,  that
humour is  first evacuated, and then pituita, which is followed by
atrabilis; and if death ensues,  blood is also discharged.  Such is
the case also,  when  remedies  which act on the pituita are too
largely  taken.  Pituita is first vomited, then  yellow bile, next black
bile, and lastly, before death, he  vomits blood. The medicine taken,
acts primarily on  the humour to which it is most allied in its nature, 
152               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

and then attacks and evacuates the others.   It is  precisely as with
plants, or seeds, which thrown upon  the  earth, attract  or draw
from  thence, that which is most accordant  to  their nature.  Now,
there  they find  an acid, bitter,  sweet, or saline.   Each attracts at
first that which is  most congenial, and then takes a portion of the
rest.   So remedies act on the body ;  such as drive  out  bile, first
purge off pure bile, and then a  mixed congeries.  If a man's throat
is  cut, the blood  first flows out very warm  and red, then mixed
with pituita, and lastly with much bile.
  Pituita abounds in man more largely in the winter, since it is the
humour that has naturally the  greatest analogy with that season;
for of all the  humours it is the  coldest, of which we can easily
satisfy ourselves.  If you successively touch pituita, bile, and blood,
the first will be found the  coldest; it is more viscid, and combines
with difficulty with atrabilis.  It may be said,  that every thing that
is viscid and yields with  difficulty, is, by  the force employed for
such  a purpose, rendered hotter, although this  is no  argument
against the  actual  frigidity of  pituita.   That it does augment in
winter is very clear, for we cough up and discharge it  largely at
that season ; besides which, it is  during this  season  that cedemas
and other pituitous  swellings chiefly make their appearance.   In
spring, although pituita is  still abundant, yet  the blood increases,
the cold recedes, and showers occur.  The  blood therefore ought to
increase, both from the augmented humidity and from the increasing
temperature, which are the natural concomitants of this season;  and
a proof of my position is, that men  are more  liable to  dysenteries
and epistaxis, and  are hotter and higher coloured at those seasons.
In the  summer, the blood  still  abounds,  but bile augments  and
extends into the autumn, the blood diminishing, since summer is
contrary to  its  nature.  The bile evinces  its existence in the sum-
mer and in autumn, both by its  spontaneous  vomition, and by its
copious discharge  through the means of purgatives.  It is equally
shown, by the character of autumnal fevers,  and by the colour of
the skin.  Pituita  in summer is greatly weakened, for that season
being hot and  dry, it is naturally opposed to its  presence.   The
blood is smallest in production in the autumn, for this is the dryest
season, and already is the system becoming colder.   And now the
atrabilis predominates, both in power and in  quantity.   As winter
approaches,the atrabilis is refrigerated, and is  less abundant; whilst
pituita resumes its  station and extent, in consequence of  abundant 
ON THE NATURE OF MAN.
153
rains, and the greater length of night. The human body has, there-
fore, constantly, all the above humours ; but they increase or dimi-
nish, each according to  the season, as  it may be conformable  or
otherwise to their nature respectively.   As, throughout the year,
there is always present both  heat and cold, dryness and moisture,
and as nothing  in  nature could for an instant  subsist without their
presence ; if one alone was wanting, universal destruction would  be
the result; for  the same law  that subserved  the  creation of  all
things, is equally required for their preservation.   It is the same
with man; if one  of  those things that are essential to his constitu-
tion, were destroyed, he could not possibly exist.  During the year,
winter, spring, summer, and autumn, alternately predominate.    In
man, it is the pituita, or blood, or bile, or atrabilis, that successively
hold the sway, as is evident from the operation of the same remedy
on the same individual in the four different seasons of the year.   In
winter the evacuations are most abundant  in pituita; in spring they
are more diluted;  bile predominates  in  them in summer, and atra-
bilis in the autumn.   Now, this being the case, the diseases which
increase  in winter, ought to end in summer, as those that arise  in
summer should  be  arrested by winter, unless checked by a certain
determinate periodicity.   This regularity in  their termination  is
elsewhere discussed.   In regard  to vernal diseases, we must await
their final termination in the autumn; as  those of autumn may  be
expected to  disappear  in spring.   Should  they extend  beyond the
season of their usual termination, they will be  continued through
the year.  The physician, therefore, in attending the sick,  ought  to
observe what is predominant in the system, as  it regards the body,
and also  the season of the year.
  Here, Galen  thinks the genuine character of the treatise ceases,
and that what follows is incorrectly added to it; and he here closes
his commentary on it.—Ed.
  The physician should likewise know what diseases are caused
by repletion, and which are cured by evacuations; as also such as
arise  from evacuations, and are removed by re-integration.  So
those  that spring from fatigue, yield to rest,  and if originating in
rest, they give way to exercise. In general, he should be acquainted 
154
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
 with the means of fortifying  the  body against  the  diseases that
 threaten it, whether depending  on temperament, season, or age.
 He should be able to strengthen what is relaxed, and to relax what
 is in a state of tension ;a—this is" the true means of  removing the
 evil, and to this principle, in  my opinion, the whole of medicine is
 reducible.
   Some diseases arise  from  the  diet or regimen employed; some
 from the air we  breathe.b  Whenever, in  the same place,  many
 persons are attacked with the same disease, at the  same time, we
 must attribute this  to some common cause.   Now  this is the air.
 It is  evident it cannot be the diet,  because the disease attacks  all,
 indiscriminately, men and women, great drinkers and  such as drink
 water only,  those who eat cakes alike with  such as live on bread,
 labourers and the idle.   Diet is therefore by no means the cause of
 the evil, since persons living in a way so opposite to  each other
 are equally attacked by the same disease.   But when, at the same
 time, diseases are altogether  different,  it is obvious that the diet of
 each  must be the  source of  the  disease of  each individual.  The
 cure must then be effected by opposing to each, the reverse of that
 which tended to excite  his disease,  as  I  have elsewhere explained.
 The mode of living must be changed.   It is  clear that the one pur-
 sued is bad, either wholly or in a great degree, in some particular.
 In order to know what  change to  make, we must have regard to
 the temperament and age of  the  patient, as well as  to the constitu-
 tion and season of  the year and the nature of  the disease; then fix
 upon the plan of treatment, either by addition  or  subtraction, as I
 have elsewhere stated; always paying attention to age, season, con-
 stitution, and  the  nature of  the  disease, before  prescribing either
 medicine or diet.
   When an  epidemic disease prevails, the cause of it assuredly is
 not in the food we take, but in the air respired, in which something
 noxious is  to  be found.  In  such  a state of things it is useless to
 change  the  mode of living (diet), since  it is not from  thence the
 evil originates.  Endeavour by all  means to  reduce  the vigour and
 embonpoint of the  body; retrench  slowly in the  usual  amount of
 food and drink, for if suddenly changed it is hazardous.  Your diet
 ought in general to  be such  as is altogether innoxious.   Exposure

  » This seems to be the origin of the doctrine of the "strictum et laxum," about two
centuries ago.
  «• TIM,**, spiritus, Hal—Souffle, Gard.-Something contained in it, in order to
sustain life. 
                    ON THE NATURE OF MAN.                 I55

to the air should be avoided as much as possible; or, if it  can be
done, remove from the place, or at least time live  as separate as
possible; for by such measures  the  least  injury will  be  sustained
from  the noxious quality of the air respired.  Diseases arising in
the  strongest parts of the body are much the most  dangerous.   If
they continue in their original situation,  the whole  system must
sympathize, inasmuch  as  it  is  the most  vigorous  part  that  is
affected.  If they leave that stronger part for one that is weaker,
it will with difficulty  be made to  quit  this latter situation; but if
they quit a weak for a stronger part, the cure is  much easier, the
strength of the part enabling it to repel the fluxion.
  1 am now to advert to the vessels of  the largest size.a  Of these
there are four pair  in the  body.   The first pair,  proceeding from
the head, pass down behind the neck, along the spine on both sides
exteriorly, and reach the ischium and thighs, proceeding to the legs
and external malleoli, and thence  to the feet.  In diseases of the
back and the ischia, venesection  should  be made at the  ham and
external ankle.  The second pair of vessels  arise  also  from the
head, near the ears; they pass down the neck, and are called jugu-
lars.  They proceed internally, along each side of the spine, to the
loins, the testes, and thighs, along the inner side of the ham, thence
along the tibiae to the internal malleoli and feet.  In  diseases of the
loins and testes, we should bleed from the vessels of  the inner ham
and ankles.  The third pair come from the temples,  pass along the
neck below the scapulas, and thence to the  lungs; that of the right
side going to the left side of the lungs,  that of the left to the right
side.   The right one passes  out  from the  lungs  under the breast,
and proceeds to the spleen and kidneys; the left, leaving  the right
lobe, passes to the  breast, to the liver, and the kidneys.  The two
vessels of this pair terminate in the rectum.  The fourth pair parts
from the forepart of the head and eyes, down the neck and under
the clavicles, thence to the upper part of the arm, and down to its
junction with the forearm,  from whence it passes along the  cubit to
the junction of the  carpus, and to  the fingers; returning  from the
fingers  along the upper part of the hand to the forearm, the elbow
and axilla  and the  superior ribs, a branch proceeds  to the spleen,
and another to  the  liver;  and both then, spreading over the belly,

  a  Venss crassissimse, Fas., Hal.;—9xt^. ir*%vt, Hipp.;—<j>m4-> vena animalis, item
aquarum et similium, Diet. 
156               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

terminate in the pudenda.   Such is  the route of the largest vessels.
Besides these, a great many different vessels arise from the stomach,
by which nourishment  is conveyed to  the  body; and  others arise
from the large vessels, both external and internal, and pass to every
part of the body, having mutual intercommunication with  each other
in every part.   And this should be recollected in our choice of a
part in which to bleed.  We  should remember also to bleed in a
part the most distant from that  in which pain occurs, or an  accu-
mulation of blood.  By  this means there  will be  less immediate
and sudden change;  and by  thus diverting the  blood from its
accustomed  course, we shall guard  against its accumulation  in the
part to which its tendency is too great.
  They  who expectorate much pus without any  fever, or whose
urine deposits a large quantity of purulent sediment  unaccompanied
with pain; such as  have  bloody stools, as in  dysentery, or long-
continued diarrhoea,  as young people of about thirty-five years of
age; all  such are  in a diseased condition, dependent on  the same
cause.   They must have laboured hard and worked much in early
life; and then, suddenly ceasing from their active exertions, eating
largely and  of a quality different from what they have  been used
to,  corpulence ensued, and a great change  of their system must
have resulted, so that no correspondence exists between their pre-
sent and their former  state.   When any disease attacks them, as
now constituted, they at  first resist it, but  they are slowly under-
mined.   The evil  penetrates the vessels,  and a sanious and  un-
healthy fluid is discharged wherever opportunity presents.  Should
it occur in the intestines, a diarrhoea is induced, of  a character, as
to the  discharges, nearly similar  to the  humour  existing in  the
body.   Finding a  ready  passage, it is  not  long  confined to the in-
testines.   Should  the  collection tend  to  the thorax,  suppuration
ensues, and if the purgation is impeded, the matter in the chest pu-
trefies, and is discharged as pus.  When thrown upon the bladder,
the heat of  the  part warms and blanches it,  a  separation  of its
parts takes place, the lighter parts  float above, and  the thicker pu-
rulent parts fall to  the bottom.  It is on this  account  that in children
we find the stone or  calculus forming in the bladder, to the heat of
which is superadded that of the whole body.  In man its formation
is less common, in  consequence of their greater coldness.   It is ne-
cessary that the heat of the body should be  greatest in the growing
state,  and we find it coldest as an advance of life takes  place, 
                    ON THE NATURE OF MAN.                 I57

when the body shrinks, and it is about to fall into ruin.   The  heat,
during our life, is  in exact correspondence with this progression;
the faster the growth, in early life, so  in proportion  is this heat in-
creased ; the more we diminish, as life declines, the colder does the
body become.
   Those affected  as  above*  generally  recover spontaneously in
forty-five days of the same season in  which they began to decline;
as to those who survive that period, they are usually restored spon-
taneously  in the course of the  year, unless some new disease assails
them.  If the disease is not of long standing, and its cause is well
known, a ready cure may be predicted.  It must  be commenced
by prescribing what is the direct opposite to its exciting cause, by
which means we destroy it, together with its  cause.  In cases where
sand or gravel is deposited in the urine, there must  have been ori-
ginally some tumour of the great vein,b which has ended in suppura-
tion.   Subsequently, since  an  abscess is not so immediately broken,
portions of the pus coalesce, and are discharged through  the vein,
and pass off with the urine from the bladder.  Whenever the urine
is bloody, there is some affection of the vein  [Query: ureter.—Ed].
When we see in a turbid urine small fleshy filaments resembling hair,
we must presume  that they are produced  in  the kidneys, and such
occur in  gouty cases.  If in  urine that is perfectly clear, we per-
ceive from time to time something on its surface  resembling  bran,
we may conclude that the inner coat of the bladder  is affected with
scabies,   (^lupia erosion.)
   Fevers most commonly proceed  from bile.  There are  four spe-
cies, independently of such as have their origin in pain, and  differ
from them.   These four species are denominated, synocha or con-
tinued, quotidian, tertian, and  quartan.   The first arises from  a
superabundance of unmixed bile, and its crisis is rapid ; inasmuch
as the body is not refreshed  by intervals of calm, but on the con-
trary, is heated by an excessive warmth, it  must necessarily soon
come to an end.  The quotidian also proceeds like the continued,
from too  much bile, though of  less amount  than in  it:  it ends in a
 shorter time than  the two last, but continues longer than the first,
because there is less bile, and also because during the intermission
 the body enjoys rest, which in the synocha it does not.  The tertian

   * Query : if something is not here lost; can this apply to persons affected as detail-
 ed above ?—Ed.
   b Query : the ureter, which is elsewhere so denominated, as likewise by Celsus.—Ed 
158               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

is longer than the quotidian, being produced from a smaller amount
of bile;  and inasmuch as the intermission is longer than in the quo-
tidian, so  is the disease  itself of longer duration.  It is the same
with the quartan,  which is longer  than the  tertian, owing to  its
having less bile, which causes  the heat; consequently the period of
repose is  longer, during  which the  body is cooled.   The quartan,
however, is  peculiar, in having an  excess of atrabilis, which ren-
ders its  cure difficult;  for atrabilis is  the most tenacious of all the
humours of  the body, and that which  is with  the greatest difficulty
evacuated.  Now  the proof that quartan fever proceeds from  or
partakes of  atrabilis, is, that it is chiefly produced in autumn, and
attacks  principally those  between twenty-five and forty-five years,
the  period of life in which atrabilis most abounds, and autumn is
the season of the year best adapted for its production.  If a quartan
attacks  at any other season and  time  of life,  you may rest  assured
that  it will  be  of  short  duration, unless some  accidental  circum-
stance should be conjoined with it. 
ON  GENERATION.
        De Genitura......Fcesius, Treat, ii. p. 231.
        De Genitura......Haller, ii. p. 50.
        Traite de la Generation,     .    .    Gardeil, ii. p. 386.

  Haller, in  his preface to this treatise, states it as maintaining the
intermixture of the seed of both parents;  that this seed is  derived
from every  part  of them, principally from  the head through the
spinal marrow to  the kidneys by the intermedium of the testes, and
thence to the pudenda, by channels distinct from those that  convey
the  urine.  The semen  is from both, both male and female, and
whichever predominates, gives rise  to a corresponding sex of the
foetus.   The parts of the  child  are like father  or mother,  propor-
tionately to the amount of semen derived from such parts in either.
Defective children are explained from pressure  experienced in the
uterus.  Although the hypothesis  is very coherent in all  its parts,
yet he esteems it too subtile for  Hippocrates."
  As  a general argument to  the treatise,  he tells us it consists of
such particulars as  have reference to venery and conception  ;—such
as venereal  pleasure, the  appearance of the seed, nocturnal pollu-

  a It has been, from time immemorial, a subject of dispute among medical men and
others, whether the female possessed or emitted a seminal fluid, as essential  to  the
propagation of the  foetus, or whether she acted only as a nidus, or location for  the
offspring of the male seed. To say nothing of the simitarity of features in the child
to the mother, which could scarcely ensue, unless in  part derived from her, indepen-
dently of mere nutrition subsequently to its procreation; Galen maintains that  the
female could have no venereal propensity, did she not possess the faculty of emitting
seed; and we are expressly told in the Scriptures,  that the seed (or issue) of  the
woman (Genesis)  should bruise the head of the serpent.  Now, as man had no part in
the procreation of Jesus Christ,  the  expression seems incorrect,  if she,  (the female,
Mary,) had no further concern than as  a nidus for the purpose, and which produc-
tion of hers could in no wise be appropriately called man, had man or woman no part
in the mysterious propagation !  It is in any other view, altogether of Divine origin;
and the " Man Christ" (Tim. ii. 5) seems anomalous!—Ed. 
 160              THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 tion, &c.;  of the non-emission of semen, and the  similitude or dis-
 similarity of children to their parents.  These subjects are embraced
 in six chapters.3—Ed.



   Chap. I.  Of the semen;  from what  and  whence derived.   From
 whence arises  the pleasure in venery.  The cause  of the spumes-
 cence or frothy appearance  of  the seed,  and why  secreted  most
 abundantly in coition.   Blood is occasionally discharged.   Two
 passages for the seed and  urine.   Of  the causes of  nocturnal pol-
 lution.
   Chap. II. Why eunuchs, boys, and  young girls, do not feel the
 venereal pruritus.   It would  seem that eunuchs were  constituted,
 either by total excision in castration, or by compressing and  twist-
 ing the parts.   Those persons  are affirmed to  become inapt  to
 generation, who have the veins behind the  ears incised.
   Chap. III. The female affords  seed in the process of  generation,
 but experiences less pleasure  than the male.   Celibacy  is injurious
 to health, and in females is a  source of many evils.
   Chap. IV.  By what means a woman may know whether she
 has conceived.   The power of the seed in both sexes varies greatly.
 Each seed  contains both male and female germs;  and the stronger
 necessarily predominates in the formation of a boy;  and of a  girl if
 the weaker excels.   A  proof  of both male and female germs exist-
 ing in the seed of both sexes, is deduced from the circumstance that
 many women who  had  borne  only girls, to  one man, have, in union
 with another, given birth  to  boys; and so in the case of a  man,
 who having only girls with one wife, has, with another, given origin
 to boys, or reversely.
   Chap. V. The reasons assigned why children resemble, or differ
in likeness from their parents; why some are small and weak, and
 others large and strong at  birth.   Among those reasons given, one
 is that the child  may have had some disease whilst  in  the womb;
 another is  dependent on the  size of the womb, which,  if too con-
tracted, may unduly press on its tender burden, and  prevent its
growth.  Curious analogical illustration.
* Vide treatise de aquis, aeribus et locis. 
ON GENERATION.
161
  Chap. VI.  Why and whence are constituted monsters, or muti-
lated offspring, even with healthy and sound parents ; whilst sound
and healthy children are often the offspring of mutilated parents.
  Gardeil,  in  reference to this treatise, says, that although very
concise, it yet affords many of the physiological ideas on the sub-
ject of generation, that are generally prevalent in our time, renewed,
and modified by different writers.—Ed.
11
1 
ON  THE  FCETAL  NATURE.
      De Natura Pueri......Fcssius, Treat, iii. p. 235.
      De Natura Pueri,.....Haller, ii. p. 60.
      Traite de la Nature de l'Enfant, .    .   Gardeil, ii. p. 396.

  This  treatise is by Gardeil regarded as merely a continuation of
the preceding—and, in fact, whoever the author of that may  be, at
its conclusion he states his intention of recurring to the subject.
  Haller says, that  although this was by the ancients ascribed to
Hippocrates, yet it  is  assuredly  spurious,  even in the opinion of
Mercurialis.  The system it sustains is very consistent, displays an
acute acquaintance with nature, and  was written   posterior  to
Theophrastus and Herophilus.   This is  deducible from the  great
anatomical knowledge it demands, as well  as  from the anatomical
experiments on  generation, and  the incubation of the egg.  We
find  herein the  account of a female musician, who, by the author's
direction, in violation  of the oath,  was  made  to  abort  by violent
jumping, of what greatly resembled  a human ovum ! A mechanical
explanation is afforded of sundry  phenomena, through the means of
breathing, and of attraction.
  The male and female seed commingled, become heated, says the
author,  and breathing is  excited,  by  which  the cooler  air is
attracted, and  that which  was  heated  escapes, and  thereby pro-
motes  the formation  of  an umbilicus.   At length  a  pellicle is
formed, and the articulations ensue in about six weeks, and aliment
is received by  means  of the umbilicus.   From the oozing of the
blood a  placenta is produced.  At  length, from want of adequate
nourishment, the foetus bestirs himself, breaks  his membranes, and
headforemost issues into daylight.   All this  is  illustrated by the
author  from the generation of  trees  and fowls, who  (remarks
Haller) may be the same that wrote the preceding book,__for we
find, in  both, the two varieties of seed spoken  of, from which, by
different proportions and location in. the  uterus, a  difference* of sex 
ON THE FGETAL NATURE.
163
ensues, or twins are produced.   Indeed, Mercurialis considers it as
a part of the former book.  We find in it the book " De Morbis
Muliebribus" quoted.
  As the general argument or heading of the book, Haller states it
to consist of an account of the procreation and principles of  the
foetus, and of every thing having reference to the foetal state of both
sexes.   Of the period of its formation ; its various movements ; of
the generation of the menses and milk: all of which are illustrated
by references to plants and to eggs.  It treats, moreover, of twins,
and  of the difference of sex.
  The heading of each chapter, from Haller, will sufficiently point
out the order of the above particulars.
  Chap. I.  The seed in the uterus attracts the air, and is nourished
by this alternation  of heat and cold. Becoming heated, it repels this
air, and attracts that which is cold.
  Chap. II. Of the seminal respiration, and formation and increase
of the foetal covering.   Menstruation  is  absent in  healthy  preg-
nancy.
  Chap. III. Why the menses, retained in the state of pregnancy,
are not so injurious as in the unimpregnated, from the importance
of it in the breathing and nutrition of the foetus.  When concep-
tion ensues; and what symptoms succeed the suppression of men-
struation.
  Chap. IV. Of the wonderful and  primary formation of the foetus
and the secundines, and  how  accomplished.
  Chap. V.  Of the time required in the formation of a boy,  and of
a girl; of necessary lochial purgation in females, and danger from
their suppression.
  Chap. VI. Of  the wonderful formation  of the foetal  parts; how
and when  effected.  Of the  formation of  bones, vessels, nerves,
nails,  hair,  and cuticle.
  Chap. VII.  Of the motion of the  foetus,  commencing in  the male
at three, and in the female at  four months; of the formation of milk,
and its conveyance to the uterus and to the breasts.
  Chap. VIII. The foetus in its  origin, nutrition, and  growth, is
compared to  the germination of plants, in their  roots,  branches,
leaves, fruit, seed,  as effectuated by external causes, such as  water,
air, season, temperature, and  vicissitudes of weather, &c. 
164                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
  Chap. IX. The  health of the foetus  is greatly dependent on that
of the mother.   Of  the situation of the foetus in utero, and of its
respiration  by the umbilicus,  with its  similitude to  the incubated
egg.   Of a ten-month birth and upwards, and of those below that
term ;—conception facilitated by menstrual purgation.
  Chap. X. Of the generation of birds in the egg; air transmitted
through  it ;3  the chick excluded at twenty days.  Analogy of birth
in birds, to that of man.   Of easy, difficult, and laborious births;
the umbilicus and  secundines  discharged last.
  Chap. XI. Of the  generation of twins, male and female, or of a
greater number.
  A transient expose of  Gardeil's  division  of this  treatise,  under
twenty-two paragraphs or sections, will further illustrate its cha-
racter.
  Sec I. Of  the primary formation of the foetus after coition; the
importance of the breath (souffle, spiritus, irvevpa) is strongly insisted
on, and explained.
  Sec. II. A  ventilation or fixation or breathing of  air is establish-
ed in the heated seed, and is followed  by the formation of a  mem-
brane around it, having passages left in it for the issue and entry
of the air.  Here-the author  recounts his examination of an abor-
tion of  six days, from  a  female  musician, induced by powerful
jumping  or leaping, by his direction, in absolute contradiction to
that part of the oath,  by which every means of inducing abortion
is prohibited.   A particular detail is given of this examination.
  Sec. III. The embryo  is nourished by the maternal  blood  that
goes to the uterus.
  Sec. IV. Of the formation of other membranes, attached to each
other, and all tending to the navel;  then of the flesh.  A digression

  * In my inaugural Thesis on Inflammation, 1794, I had occasion to  refer to some
experiments I had made on the subject of the air which is always found in the larger
end of the egg, and which I found to consist principally of oxygen in the early stage
of incubation, and, gradually deteriorating, containing more or less of carbonic acid
gas,  as the incubation  proceeded;—from which I was led to infer the analogy of
this process to respiration in the living subject.  If I do not mistake, views  of a like
nature had presented themselves to the writer of this treatise;  but the  importance of
vital air to the chick in ovo, cut off from all maternal connexion, must be admitted in
order to perfect sanguification and circulation, whilst enclosed in its calcareous enve-
lope, even if we cannot fully comprehend the process pursued by nature, to accomplish
the wonderful end she proposed to effect.—Ed. 
ON THE FOETAL NATURE.
165
on the purport and utility of the  menses in females;  the  danger
from  their obstruction, and  the symptoms  following; all which
the author will  enlarge upon, in  a  treatise  on the  diseases of
women.
   Sec V. Of the formation of the  foetal organs by the  conjunction
of similar parts, arising primarily from the parental organs; details
of each.
   Sec VI. Of the period of the formation respectively of boys or
girls.
   Sec VII. Of the discharges after parturition; their continuance;
variable  in time  and amount.  Their  character and appearance;
correspondence in various points with the male  or  female  respec-
tively.
   Sec VIII. This subject is  still  continued;  and  the continued
increase of the foetus.
   Sec IX. Of the formation of the bones, epiphyses, fingers,  nails,
vessels, &c.
   Sec X.  The hair  of the head, and of the body;  beard;  that of
the pubes, &c.;  why it occurs only at puberty; and in females is
altogether wanting on the chin, as likewise in the male, if castrated
in infancy.
   Sec XL  Of the period of commencing motion of the foetus, and
the formation of  milk.
   Sec XII.  The nourishment and growth of the foetus compared
with  the seed of plants, which develope themselves in order to give
origin to a new one.
   Sec XIII.  A digression relative  to the nutrition of vegetables.
On the interior state of the earth  in winter and  summer;  and on
the fructification  of trees.
   Sec XIV.  Subject continued.   The developements of  plants by
grafting explained.
   Sec XV.  Foetal nutrition  resumed.   Conclusion of all is, that
the nature of vegetation, and  that of the life of  man, are perfectly
analogous, from first  to last.
   Sec XVI.  Of  the  situation of the foetus in  utero, and its  mem-
branes arising from its navel.
   Sec  XVII. Analogy between the  foetal formation and  the pro-
duction of a bird from an egg.  Experiments  on eggs.  An  umbi-
licus  in the egg. 
166
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
   Sec XVIII. On parturition;  causes leading thereto;  time of,
fixed at ten months.
   Sec XIX.  Of the  sources  of deception which have led  to the
belief of pregnancy beyond ten months.
   Sec. XX. Some parts  recapitulated.  A comparison drawn of
the foetus and the chick.   Of the fixed limits of gestation in all
animals.
   Sec XXI.  Of labour and delivery;  progress of, and  results.
  Sec. XXII. Of twin formations ; causes of explained. 
           ON  THE  ORIGIN  OF  MAN.

Hippocratis De Carnibus, Liber.......   Fozsius, Treat, ir. p. 248.
Hippocratis De Carnibus, seu Principiis.....Haller, ii. p. 3.
Trait£ des Chairs, ou du Commencement de l'Homme,  .   Gardeil, ii. p. 427.

   Haller, in his preface to this treatise (which, by some, is consi-
dered as a treatise "De Principiis"), speaks of the author as a man
of genius (acuti ingenii; perhaps the term of a perverted imagina-
tion would better suit); and that, so far as he could judge,  the
system advocated is a combination of that of Heraclitus, with that
of the Peripatetics.   It sets off with an expose of first principles, of
which  innate heat  is regarded as  the chief, immortal, and omni-
scient.  A portion  of it escaping into the universal space, constituted
the ether of the  ancients;  whilst the residue combined with  the
three other elements.   That portion attached to the earth, by the
process of putrefaction,  formed small coverings, which served to
invest the various organs as they were respectively produced, viz.:
bones,  nerves, brain, heart, vessels, &c,  the  formation of which
are all  particularly  noticed.   Anatomical observations, of some im-
portance, lead Haller to suppose the treatise was composed in the
period  of Herophilus,  when the knowledge of anatomy had greatly
enlarged.  The  name of artery is  here  perhaps first given to  the
aorta;  and reference is  made  to the loss of voice in those whose
throats are cut.
   As to the general  argument  of the treatise, it  consists,  says
Haller, of  an account of the principles, generation, and formation
of each individual part.  Of the organs of sight, smell, and hearing.
Of the influence of the number seven in birth, in acute diseases, in
ulcers  and inflammations, and in the completion of dentition.
   Gardeil merely remarks of this treatise, that in some  manuscripts
it is distinguished by the title of the Beginning or Principles, which
is  most appropriate, since it embraces the doctrine  of the origin of
man ; a physical formation, he remarks in a note, which will  un- 
168               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

questionably be considered as very extraordinary,—the same nearly
as that which  appears  in  the first book of the treatise on diet or
regimen.   It is unnecessary to  give more than the mere outline of
its contents. Gardeil, in a note, says, " Devois-je me dispenser d'en
donner la traduction '?"
  Preliminary remarks as to the connexion of every thing in nature
with man and  animals, in relation to life, health, disease, and death.
Of the creation of the universe.  Of  heat or fire ; its immortality
and universality;—the ether of the ancients.  Other principles, cold
or earth, moisture or water, and dry or air, are merely secondary.
How, by a circular  movement, creation from  these promoted.
Formation  of  bone, ligaments, cartilage, nerve, membrane, vessels,
fluids, the various hollow organs, as intestines, bladder,  &c, and
the different humours; external covering.   Bone  more fully  eluci-
dated.   Brain, fat, spinal marrow,  heart, lungs,  liver, and  other
viscera.  In what  manner  the  air acts on the  living system.  Of
the foetal nutrition by suction ; proofs of.   Of the muscles.   Some
general  propositions as to  heat  and cold,  and on  the nature of  the
blood, &c.   Of the joints, the nails, the teeth, and of their nourish-
ment, and that of all parts of the body.  Of the dentes sapientise in
the fourth  septenary.  Of  the  hair of the head,  and other parts;
late  appearance of, on the chin, pubes,  &c,  explained.  Of  the
organs of  hearing, smell, sight;  of voice and speech.   Doctrine as
to the number  of months of pregnancy required to give  vitality to
the foetus;  how this knowledge was attained, from an examination
of abortions induced  by public women, and  from information  de-
rived from  them  (some  of which is  confirmed  to Gardeil,  "par
plusieurs meres d'un bon jugement;" and here Gardeil  in a note
remarks, that the mode of counting time by the author  may greatly
aid in  lightening  the  difficulties that  many have experienced, re-
specting the weeks of the celebrated  prophecy of Daniel.)    Some
observations on seven, eight, nine, and ten month births.  Of  the
numbers of critical days  and periods of diseases.   Remarks  conti-
nued on the number seven. 
      ON  THE  SEVEN-MONTH  BIRTH.

      De Septimestri Partu,       .      .    Fcesius, Treat, v. p. 255.
      De Septimestri Partu.....Haller, ii., p. 90.
      De la Grossesse de Sept Mois, .      .    Gardeil, ii., 443.

  Haller appears to think that in the time of Galen, the two books,
" De Septimestri  et Octimestri Partu," were  regarded as one; in
which he is supported by the authority of Fcesius.  This production
he contends, has given rise to the long  prevalent opinion, that the
foetus is stronger and more capable of  living when  born at the
seventh  than at the eighth month.  If not then brought forth,  it
languishes for forty days, and is  born after the ninth month.   If,
however, it is born during  that interval, it is weak and cannot sur-
vive.    Even  nine-month  children  are  scarcely  superior; those
often and eleven months are better.  The author divides gestation
into  periods  of forty days, in  the  first of which abortion is  most
frequent. A head presentation is the best, and the foetus before  birth
turns to that position.  Some have regarded this as a spurious pro-
duction.
  The argument  of the whole book consists in the consideration of
the number of days in which a seven-month birth is accomplished,
and why vital.   Of the power and pre-eminence of the septenary
number in  months  and days.   Some  observations  relating to an
eight, nine, and ten-month birth, and of  the period for perfecting a
male or female foetus.  The outline is as follows.
  Of the duration of pregnancy, especially that of seven months;
consideration of, in months and days, and reasons why many perish
at that  period.  Some of the facts  noticed that are advanced  by
females respecting their pregnancy; and  of the vitality  of births
at different periods.   Observations  to  be made respecting  certain
days and months in pregnancy.   Of the  difficult gestation of  an 
 170              THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 eight-month foetus; of the time of conception, and of the sex; what
 credence to be given to female statements on the subject.   Of cer-
 tain divisions or periods of forty days to be noticed  in pregnancy.
 Of the first of these, in which abortion is most prevalent.  .Of that
 coinciding with  the eighth month, and intermediate  periods; their
powers respectively.  Blind or  mutilated at eight months, and if
more difficult  than those in health.  Why children at nine and ten
months live,  and from whence  the growth of body.   Of critical
days and months in conception, abortion, and delivery; and of forty
days after parturition, &c.
   In  a note  connected with  the calculation of time, in  the  first
paragraph, Gardeil remarks,  that " it appears  therefrom, that  the
author counted the year as being about three hundred  and sixty-
four days, the month of twenty-nine  days nearly; and  that he
reckoned as months, during pregnancy, about one-half of  the first
and one-half of the last month.  It is readily seen by this, (adds he,)
that we should often be obliged  to add  a thirteenth  to the twelve
months of the year. Hence, in the time of Hippocrates, the Greeks
were necessitated, every two years, to intercalate a month, making
thereby a year of thirteen months.  Their calendar, in consequence
of lunar months, possessed many other imperfections." 
        OF  AN  EIGHT-MONTH  BIRTH.

       De Octimestri Partu.....Fojsius, Treat, vi. p. 25S
       De Octimestri Partu,    ....    Haller, ii. p. 99.
       Traite de la Grossesse de Huit Mois, .    Gardeil, ii. p. 452.

   Haller has no specific preface to this treatise, that of the pre-
 ceding being apparently intended to answer for both.  The argu-
 ment of its contents is as follows.
   Why an eight-month birth  is less likely  to survive than one of
 ten months.  In what manner  the foetus is  more  safely nourished.
 Some observations respecting the umbilicus  and the menstrual dis-
 charge ; also concerning an eleven-month birth.
   It is evident, says Gardeil, that the author of  this treatise is the
 same with that of the preceding.  The titles of this, and of the fol-
 lowing treatise (on Superfoetation)  scarcely correspond with  their
 contents.  They  refer chiefly to parturition,  and to  the  state of
 females  in relation  to  pregnancy and conception;  subjects more
 extensively treated of, and  nearly in the same way, in the treatise
 on female diseases.
   The general contents are the following.
   Why all eight-month children die, whilst those of  ten  months
 mostly live.  The most likely to survive are  those born after the
 full complement of nine months.   Of the numerous dangers of the
 fcetal state, at birth and subsequently.   The superiority of a head
 presentation.   Children often contract a disposition to disease in
 the uterus, from the navel-string being twisted around the neck,
 and  from other causes.  Dangers arising from changes  in food,
 situation, clothing, &c, so different after birth.  The navel the  only
 medium of communication between  the  mother and child.  Of the
 measures to be pursued to strengthen and invigorate children.   Of
 births  at ten and eleven  months.   Pregnancy may participate in
 eleven lunations, without exceeding  two  hundred and  eighty days.
 Three days the shortest period of menstruation; but for the most
part  it continues longer.   It is from  the termination of this,  that
 most females conceive; hence great variation in their statements, &c. 
ON STJPERFCETATION.
     De Superfcstatione......Fcssius, Treat, vii. p. 260.
     De Superfostatione,.....Haller, ii. p. 103.
     Traite de la Superfetation,    .    •   •    Gardeil, ii. p. 456.

  This treatise is considered  by  Haller  as  altogether spurious.  It
details several cases of difficult parturition, and speaks  of the im-
portance of the nail of the middle finger  in aiding delivery.  Of the
death of the foetus in  utero, its signs,  and ultimate putrefaction.
Some remarks relative to the signs of pregnancy, and of the situa-
tion  of the child, as  pointed out by an  enlarged breast.  Two
cornua admitted to be in the  uterus, by  which superfoetation is ex-
plained.   Many medical precepts are here repeated from the book
" De Muliebribus."
  The general tenor of the book is that of superfoetation, the motion
of the foetus, the signs, the  location and extraction of;  and of the
remedies aiding in conception, gestation, delivery, menstruation, the
secundines, lochia, &c.
  So far as mere conception is concerned, superfoetation may take
place, but  the chance of vitality is very trifling.   The  symptoms
and  causes of superfoetation.   Of easy and difficult parturition, and
of some circumstances that influence them.  Of the signs of feeble
life,  or death of the infant.  Of the difficult birth from the presenta-
tion of different parts of a  vigorous  child, and the measures to be
adopted.   Mode of delivery of the dead foetus, and the importance
of the nail in such cases.  Of the tardy  expulsion  of the afterbirth,
and of aiding it  by means  of  gravitation, by the foetal  weight.
Rupture of the  cord, or its premature division.   Signs  of a dead
foetus; its putrid state, &c.   Danger  of hemorrhage before delivery
and dilatation of the os  uteri.  Remarks on the state of  pregnancy
and difficult parturition.  If conception  occurs the same day,  they
are  both enveloped in one  membrane.   Venery during  pregnancy
tends to promote difficulty of  parturition.  At what time to divide
the  cord in difficult labour.   Of the signs of pregnancy, and  of those 
                      ON SUPERFCETATION.                   173

of the dead or disordered foetus, and of longing, and marking the
infant; of vitiated appetite; enlarged breasts, &c, leading to a know-
ledge of the situation of the child.  Signs of conception; causes pre-
venting it in great obesity, and state of the  os uteri.  Of the  care
to be taken at the cessation of child-bearing; bleeding for.  Cure
of the pains of pregnancy and of after-pains.   Of the means to pro-
cure conception, and of the evidences of its occurrence.  Causes
and prevention of abortion, at two and more  months.  Tumefaction
and ulceration of the uterus;  cure of.   Sterility, both in those who
have and have not borne children, arising from the  state or situa-
tion  of the os uteri, &c.; how to treat.   Spring  best  adapted for
conception.   Preparation to  insure conception in the parties  inte-
rested, and to attain either sex.   Remedies  applicable to different
conditions  of  the os uteri.   Pessaries, various; emollients, drastic
purgatives; specifics, for fluor albus, &c, &c.  Means of inducing
menstruation,  in the retention of,  in virgins.   Diet;  ptisans;  fumi-
gations.  Remedies at and after delivery, &c. 
ON  DENTITION.
      De Dentitione,......Fcesius, Treat, viii. p. 267.
      De Dentitione,......Haller, ii. p. 123.
      Traits de la Dentition.....Gardeil, ii. p. 476.  *

  Though this is of a spurious origin, it is  considered  as a good
practical  treatise, and much in character of the Hippocratic wri-
tings.  It speaks of numerous aphthous ulcerations,  the accompani-
ments of infancy.  It  may be  stated concisely, to  give a detail of
the state of children before, and at the period of dentition, and of
the crises and prognosis derived from such state, as shown by the
character of  nutrition, the excretions of  stool and  urine, vomiting
up of the milk, &c, dentition, and its  symptoms, and the .various
aphthae and ulceration of  the mouth and  fauces.  It occupies  but a
single chapter.—Ed. 
OF  THE  HEART.
      De Corde,.....          Fcesius, Treat, ix. p. 268.
      De Corde,.......Haller, ii. p. 35.
      Traite du Cceur,.....Gardeil, ii. p. 479.

  This  book, says Haller; is  altogether spurious, and  this is  ad-
mitted by  Mercurialis.  It appears not to have been acknowledged
in the time of Galen.  Haller says, Fcesius conjoins it with the book
" De Carnibus;"—this is not the case.   He  thinks it ought to be so,
and assigns his reasons;  but although placed in the same section,
no less  than four treatises intervene.  Haller considers this book,
of all the  Hippocratic collection, as presenting the greatest anato-
mical knowledge.  It describes the heart,  its  figure, pericardium,
ventricles, their situation and difference of size, its valves, and their
appropriate use.   A portion of the  fluids taken as  drink, is asserted
as passing by the trachea to the lungs. The maxims of Erasistratus
appear  to be sustained, for it teaches  the non-existence of blood in
the arteries.   In the account  of  the  ventilation  of  the  blood, by
means of  the  bellows-blowing power of the auricles, absurd as  it
may possibly be now regarded, we meet with  no contradictions;
but with a well-constructed edifice, not inferior for the period, than
any  that  has  more  recently been erected, on  a basis  considered
more firmly established, but which yet may well be doubted.   The
attentive  reader will unquestionably  wonder, at finding here  so
many anatomical details, especially as  to the  valves of  the heart,
with a precision not inferior to Harvey, who at least is not entitled
to the discovery of this part of the vascular  apparatus, nor to the
pulmonary circuit of the blood !—Ed. 
ON THE  GLANDS.
      De Glandulis Liber, .                  Fcesius, Treat, x. p. 270.
      De Glandulis Liber, ...           Haller, ii. p. 40.
      Traite des Glandes......Gardeil, ii. p. 485.

  According to Galen, says Haller, this treatise is wanting  in Hip-
pocratic simplicity, yet it is by no means inelegant, nor is it adverse
to his doctrines on catarrh, as given in the treatise " De locis in ho-
mine."  Gardeil, in  his translation of the book " De Articulis," refers
to this in a note, as presenting an interesting view on the subject of
humoral diseases, and he concludes, from a passage therein, that this
treatise  on glands is in fact the work of Hippocrates, notwithstand-
ing Galen's dissent  therefrom.
  Not much is said about the glands, but what there is, is pretty
correct.   Mention is made of the mesenteric, renal, and those of
joints, probably meaning  the  axillary and  inguinal.  The notice
taken of the hoarseness and pectoral  affections, following excision
of the mammae, is  deserving  of attention.  The following outline
will give sufficiently the character of the treatise.
  Of the nature, uses, diversity,  and diseases of the glands, their
structure, &c.   Tubercles; scrofula;  inflammation, situation, &c,
chiefly located in moist parts, and where hair is generated for the
most  part, if the  moisture  is not superabundant.   Of particular
glands,  as of the neck, ear, axilla, groin, and intestines, and of their
affections.  Glands  of the brain, which  is considered  as itself a
gland, from whence those fluxions and affections proceed, of greater
or less intensity, as apoplexy, mania, &c.   Of the various passages
for its abundant humours, producing externally, ophthalmia, itch-
ing, and discharges from the  nostrils, purulent discharge from the
ears,  &c, catarrh,  &c.; internally, phthisis,  both  pulmonary and
dorsal, diarrhoea, &c.  Of the mammae or  pectoral glands, affording
milk in females; reasons why confined to them ; diseases caused by
this secreted  fluid in the breasts;  and of such as follow their exci-
sion,  and which are frequently fatal.—Ed. 
      ON  THE  NATURE  OF  THE  BONES.

    De Ossium Natura......       .   Fcesius, Treat, xi. p. 274.
    De Ossium Natura,.......Haller, ii. p. 19.
    Traite de la Nature des Os,.....Gardeil, ii. p. 494.

   In his  preface to this  treatise, Haller says that it is regarded by
 Galen as the work of Hippocrates, and  that it was  known to the
 ancients  by the  title of " Mochlicus."3  The first part  agrees with
 its title; it is concise and not unworthy  of its  author, who, it  may
 be perceived, examined the recent  bones.   He was acquainted,
 moreover, with  the cubital nerve, which, when struck,  produces
 stupor of the  parts.  The latter portion, which speaks of several of
 the vessels,  appears  to  be  an incomprehensible jumble  (farrago
 ainigmatica).  In some  places a lucid description is  given of four
 vessels, that does not tally with that in some other of his works.
 The  epigastric  and  mammary  vessels  are  noticed  : likewise the
 vena cava, the vena sine  pari, and the  vessels of the  extremities.
 Correct accounts of the par vagum  and intercostal nerves, inter-
 mixed with errors.  The  distinction between arteries and  veins is
 pointed out, and the name of vein, as applied to the vessel carrying
 blood, seems  to indicate  the more minute anatomy of an age poste-
 rior to that of Herophilus, the  discoverer of the nerves.  The ver-
 sion  is abundantly  vague.  The cellular fabric of  the spleen is
 described, and  the  pulsation  of the vessels.   Mercurialis, adds
 Haller, considered the account of the four pair of vessels as spuri-
 ous, and as appertaining to the period of Aristotle; which caution
 is all that is necessary to the reader.
   Gardeil, speaking of this book, says, that " its title  might induce
 the belief, that it principally regarded  the bones, but that, in fact, it
 more particularly is devoted  to the blood-vessels."  We have  here

  1 We have a treatise by this name in the sixth section, hereafter noticed.  The term
 is derived from ^o^xw, i. e. ossis, aut ossium a loco qui prseter-naturam sit, ad  natu-
ralem reductio;—which word is itself derived from pottos, vectis, i. e. the apparatus
by which the reduction of a luxation was accomplished.—Ed.
                                12 
178               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

the detail of the doctrine on this subject, which  is summarily given
in the treatise " De locis in homine," a work generally held to be
legitimate; and also in that " De natura hominis," the conclusion of
which  is thought to  be spurious.   He thinks,  moreover, that the
account given of the vessels, is of three pair only; and that the de-
scription of the fourth pair has either been lost, or was never com-
pleted ; though, he ingenuously adds, that possibly he may have lost
the connexion, in this embarrassing angiological  detail.   He is,
however, more surprised to find so  many  facts, obtained without
any aid from injections, than to meet  with mistakes.   I give the
heads of his divisions.—Ed.
  Brief enumeration of the bones.  . Vesicula? seminales.  The chan-
nels  for drink; the liver;  pericardium; intestines; vena  cava, or
aorta, its divisions.  Nerves, their origin and division ;  division of
the vessels to the right  and left; secretion of  urine;  intercostal
vessels; aorta; vena  cava; decussation of vessels;  their distribu-
tion; four great pair.  Hepatic vein.  Intercostal and splenic nerves,
and  their distribution.  Of the general use of the different parts of
the body, and the origin of the four  great vessels;  first pair; se-
cond ;  with some physiological  details concerning respiration, and
on the formation of the seminal  fluid, and cause of venereal gratifi-
cation, &c.; third pair, distribution  of; and of the changes of the
colour of the skin and complexion, &c.

   It will be seen  from this outline, how truly Haller  has applied to
the treatise, the term mentioned  above.   Its"strongly confused state
is enough, assuredly, to demonstrate that Hippocrates had no hand
in its production.   It  seems to  be p. bundle of  shreds and patches,
from different sources, and put together at random, by some person
devoid of the organ of arrangement and order.__Ed." 
ON AIRS,  WATERS, AND  LOCALITIES.
   De Akre, Locis et Aquip,......Fcesius, Treat, xii. p. 280.
   De Akribus, Aauis et Locis,.....Haller, i. p. 1.
   Traite des Airs, des Eaux et des Lieux,   .    .   Gardeil, i. p. 133.

  This book, says Haller, has always been esteemed  as one  of the
genuine writings of Hippocrates.  It has  been commented on, and
illustrated by Galen, and  various writers  since  his time.  Its  lan-
guage becomes the Father of Medicine, and its  reasoning is  sound.
The book chiefly treats of as to what the  body suffers from  winds,
waters, seasons, climates, and localities.  It begins with a conside-
ration of the exposure of the Grecian cities to  various winds, and
of their influence and effects. Next it treats of waters derived from
different  sources; incidentally adverting to calculus, as arising from
their impurities, and as being less frequent in females, owing to the
shortness of their urethra.   It then proceeds to  notice the diseases
depending  on  different seasons of the year; and finally it treats of
climates, as connected with the temperaments, customs, and dis-
eases of their inhabitants.
   Should however this book be critically examined, it  will be  found,
continues Haller, to contain some things [many!—Ed.] that  do not
tally with present experience, such as the affirmed connexion be-
tween the diseases of a people and their habits and  winds.  Waters
from earthy sources are preferred to those of rocky origin; and
some subjects  are  singularly admitted, that are  altogether  unde-
serving of credit, yet  which are apparently fully  believed by the
writer;  particularly respecting  the effeminacy  and  impotency of
the Scythian nobles, together with the absurd treatment of the com-
plaint, by section of the veins behind the  ears !   It treats cursorily
also of the Amazons, and of the custom of burning off their right
breast, in infancy, together with some other curious facts  and spe-
culations.
  This book has  been often translated, and it is incessantly quoted
by medical men, when the qualities of the atmosphere are the sub- 
igO               T11E ^'ORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

ject  of investigation.   Dacier has translated it into  French, but  I
have never  seen it.   Clifton has given a  version of it in English,
about a century ago.—Ed.


  Whoever desires to understand medicine thoroughly, can by no
means neglect  the subjects I am about to consider.  The different
seasons of the year, and  what  each is  capable  of effecting, will
prove a source of reflection to  him.   They  differ  altogether from
each other.   Diversity exists  in  their respective constitutions, and
even in their individual variations.   We study  the winds both as to
heat and cold ; those that  are  common  to all  countries, and such
as are peculiar to certain regions.  We  ought  also to examine  the
properties of the waters ; since all are not alike in taste or gravity,
so neither  are  they in virtues.   Whoever, therefore, arrives at a
town, of which he is not  an inhabitant, should begin by regarding
its position in relation to the winds  and to the rising of the sun ; he
will  not consider it as a matter of indifference whether its exposure
is to the north, the south, the east, or the west;  on the contrary, he
must have a strict regard  to  its position, and  to  the nature of its
waters;  he must examine whether they are muddy, hard, or soft;
if they pass through  high  and stony places; if of a saline nature,
and  if they set  light on  the  stomach,  and are well  adapted  foy
cooking vegetables.  He should inspect the soil, and notice whether
it be naked  and arid, or covered and moist; if sunken  and sultry,
or high and airy.   He should investigate the mode of living of the
inhabitants, whether they are  sots and gluttons, if idle or laborious,
fond of exercise, moderate in eating and  drinking; all these parti-
culars are  deserving  of attention, and whoever makes  himself with
all  of them fully acquainted, or at least  of the greater part, will
learn, when  arriving at a town he has  not  frequented, the  nature,
both of  the endemic diseases and  of the general  affections that
should  there be prevalent.  He will  not be unprepared for their
treatment, nor will he  commit those errors to  which  all are liable,
who undertake to practise without  these preliminaries.   He  can
foretell what diseases ought to afflict the majoritv of the inhabitants
in different  seasons, in winter or  in  summer,  and  the  danger to
which they are exposed by a change of diet; for, if well acquainted
with what such changes  induce by the  succession of the seasons
and the rising  and setting  of the stars, he will be enabled to foresee
the  constitution of the entire  year.   Acquiring thus  a component 
                ON AIRS, WATERS, AND LOCALITIES.            18]

knowledge of these different  subjects,  he will  distinguish what is
essential for the  maintenance or re-establishment of health, and will
prove highly successful in the  practice of his profession.  Should it
be objected, that the information  I thus require, appertains to mete-
orology, I reply, that a knowledge of the situation of the heavenly
bodies is not one of the parts  least essential to form  the physician;
on the contrary, it is highly useful.   The succession of the seasons
is accompanied  with  remarkable changes in all the cavities of  the
human body.  I shall, therefore, state as clearly as I can, what re-
gard we should  have to all these  circumstances, and  what we may
deduce therefrom.
  A town exposed  to the  hot winds that blow between the rising
and setting sun of winter, viz., from the south, and which are com-
mon to it, whilst it is protected from those of the north ; such town
has abundance of water, slightly saline, and arising  necessarily in
elevated places; hence they are  warm  in summer,  and  cold  in
winter."  If the summer is dry, diseases are of short duration; but
if wet, they are of  longer  continuance.   From  the most trifling
causes, wounds degenerate into  eating  ulcers.  If the winter is
cold, the head abounds with moisture  and pituita, which fall upon
the bowels, and often induce gastric  affections.  The constitution
of the inhabitants is in general  relaxed.  They  are neither  great
eaters nor  hearty  drinkers, for  they  who have  weak heads can
never make stout topers, since wine readily overpowers them.  Now
the following  diseases  are there the most common.   Women  are
subject to catarrhs, and many are barren, rather from  disease than
from nature; abortions are frequent.  Children are subject to con-
vulsions  and suffocations, that are often confounded  with  epilepsy.
The men have  dysenteries, diarrhoea,  and epial fevers,b eruptions
like  flea-bites, chronic fevers of winter, and  hemorrhoids.  Few
pleurisies are there  seen, or peripneumonies,  ardent  fevers, and
other acute diseases; such cannot  be  frequent where  the bowels
are relaxed.   There  are moist ophthalmias, that  are neither dan-
gerous  nor  of long duration, unless a  change of  season  renders
them epidemic.   After fifty years of age, they  are exposed  to a
kind of  humour coming  from the brain, which, if arrested, brings

  * On the contrary, a town that has a good exposure to the sun and winds, has excel.
lent water that is less influenced by the seasons.  Where marshy and muddy waters
arc employed, and the exposure to the sun and winds is bad, then the change of sea-
sons is severely felt.—Gardeil.
  b A species of continual fever. 
182                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

on palsy, or affections from the rays of  the  sun, or colds in the
head.  Such are the usual diseases in the places I have described,
independent of epidemics caused by a change of season.
  Places situated in an exposure directly opposite, where the winds
are cold, and usually blow from between the east and west, that is,
from the north; and  which are free from  both  south  and all hot
winds,  have this in common.   The men  there are strong and not
very fat; with large breasts  and  small bellies; they abound  with
bile rather than with pituita;  their head is sound and dry, and they
are subject  to  hemorrhages.  The  following  diseases  are there
common.   Pleurisies, and all  diseases called acute, as must neces-
sarily be the case, the belly being  hard and constipated: internal
suppuration  is not uncommon, depending on  the distension of the
body and dryness of the belly; this  dryness co-operating with the
coldness  of  the  waters, occasions  ruptures of the vessels.  With
such constitutions, they ought to be great eaters and moderate
drinkers, for  it  is scarcely possible to combine both in  one person.
We also  find there, dry and violent ophthalmias, which  soon run to
suppuration;  hemorrhages from  the nose in  young  people, espe-
cially in summer;  a few  epilepsies, but of  a  violent  character.
The term of life is in  general longer than  elsewhere;  wounds  do
not inflame  nor take on a bad state: the manners are rather rude.
Such is the state of things, independently of diseases  induced  by
change of  seasons.  Women are there subject  to hard tumours,
owing  to the cold and  crude waters.  Their catamenia are irre-
gular, small in quantity, and painful.  Parturition is laborious, but
abortions rare.   After delivery,  the mothers can rarely nourish
their children;  their milk fails, owing to the  crudeness and hard-
ness of the waters;  and many,  after  delivery  fall  into  phthisis,
caused by convulsions, and rupture of vessels, the result of violence.
Children whilst young, are subject to hydrocele,  which  disappears
as they advance to maturity;  puberty is,  however, tardy.
  Thus far  I have  stated what  has reference to towns exposed to
hot winds, between the beginning and ending of winter, and those
of an opposite  direction, blowing  between the rise and  termination
of summer.  We are  now to speak of cities  located  towards  the
east.   Such ought necessarily to be more healthy than those hav-
ing a  north or south exposure, although  lying  between both;  for
the heat and cold are there less felt, and the waters, whose springs
are exposed  to the east, are  quite clear, soft, inodorous, and plea- 
ON AIRS, WATERS, AND LOCALITIES.
183
sant to drink:  the morning sun, by its rays, purifies them as it does
the air; hence the men have a good  colour, and much vigour, un-
less affected by  sickness; their voice is  clear, and  they are more
lively and intelligent than the inhabitants of a northern exposure.
The  productions of the  earth  moreover are superior.  In a town
thus  situated, in which the heat and cold preserve the temperature
of spring, diseases should be mild and few in  number.  They are
chiefly of the  same character with those in cities looking  towards
the warm winds.   The women are very fruitful, and have  easy
labours.  Such are the circumstances in such exposures.
   As to  places looking to the west, and which feel  no winds from
the east, but are  exposed to  those from  the north and south, their
position  beyond   all others is  most favourable  to  disease.  The
waters are not clear, because the morning air, usually surcharged
with moisture, prevents  their limpidity, the  sun  dissipating it only
after it has  advanced in  its  course.   During summer, the early
breezes cause an  abundant dew, whilst during the remainder of
the day, the heat  scorches and oppresses the  inhabitants.  Hence
their complexion is bad, and they have little vigour; they are liable
to every disease I have  mentioned, without  an exception ;  their
voice is  hoarse, owing  to  the  air,  infected with the  miasmata of
disease, and from  which it is not  purified by northern winds. Those
which blow,  are  charged with  moisture, for the  western winds
place the atmosphere in a state resembling that  of autumn; and a
town thus situated, therefore,  partakes of  all the  inconveniences
which the evenings and mornings bring with them.   Such are the
remarks  I have to  make as to good or bad exposures, so far as re-
lates to the winds.
   We pass to the consideration of the waters;  and to the examina-
tion  of such as are good or bad, as on this chiefly depends the state
of our health.  All  waters that are stagnant, muddy, marshy, are
necessarily heating.  They are always  thick, and  smell badly in
summer.  As  they have no current, and are maintained by the rain
alone, they must  naturally be of a  bad colour, heavy, and bilious.
Cold and frozen in winter, and  disturbed,  sometimes by snow or
ice,  they become a source of pituita and catarrh to  those  who em-
ploy  them; they  enlarge and  indurate the spleen; they heat and
constipate the belly; they cause  a shrinking  of the shoulders, the
neck, and the face; the flesh  seems to disappear in order to  aug-
 ment the spleen; hence men  become thin although great eaters and 
j 85               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

drinkers;  their belly is with difficulty discharged either upwards
or downwards,  so  that  they  require powerful  cathartics both in
winter and summer.  They are subject to  dropsies, which  are
mostly fatal;  and dysenteries,  diarrhoeas, and  obstinate quartans
are common in summer.   These diseases naturally lead to dropsies
terminating in death;—such then are the summer affections.   In
winter, young people are subject to  peripneumonies and to diseases
accompanied with delirium ; and old people to ardent fevers arising
from  costiveness; women, to oedema  and leucophlegmasia; they
are not readily rendered pregnant,  their  labours are difficult, and
their offspring gross and cedematous: they nourish them with diffi-
culty, for suckling  induces phthisis;  their lochial  discharges  are
imperfect; their children,  especially the  males, have hernia  and
varices of the legs.   It is easily seen, that with  such waters, long
life is not  to  be  expected, but a premature old age.  I add, more-
over, that  females often  think themselves pregnant  when not  so;
their bellies after parturition become flabby.  I esteem these waters,
then, as altogether bad.
  Let us now advert to waters proceeding from rocky mountains:
such are necessarily  hard, especially  if arising  in  places  where
there are warm springs,  with  metallic impregnations of iron, cop-
per, silver, gold,—or  of  sulphur, alum, bitumen, or nitre; for all
such are the products of a violent heat.  In such  situations  the
earth cannot yield pure water, but such only as are hard and sharp,
passing off by urine  with  difficulty,  and producing costiveness.
They are better if they flow from high and earthy elevations; such
are soft and  clear,  and  bear  to be mixed with wine.   They are
warm in winter, and  cool  in summer, as is the like case with deep
springs.  Those are  preferable that flow towards the east: they are
always clear, light,  and of a pleasant odour.
  Saline, hard, and  refractory waters, are absolutely bad for com-
mon drinking; yet there  are temperaments and diseases in which
they are useful, as I shall presently notice.  We  ought to regard as
the best of these  waters, those whose springs have an eastern ex-
posure; and next to  these, such as being between the east and west,
are nearer to the east;  and in the third set, such as rise in the
south : they are bad  in proportion as  they look to  the south, between
the setting  and rising sun of winter; those  to the  south are  bad,
but less so  than those to the north.
  The mode of using them is as follows: every strong and healthy 
ON AIRS, WATERS, AND LOCALITIES.
185
 man may dispense with a choice of waters, and be satisfied with
 such as  he  can procure; but when, from disease, the  most appro-
 priate drink  is requisite, the following plan is to be pursued.   If the
 patient is easily heated, and is costive, he must employ the  mildest,
 the lightest, and most limpid water.   If the bowels  are relaxed,
 moist, and mucose, then saline, hard, and refractory ones are use-
 ful.  It is natural  that  waters that  readily  boil, should evacuate,
 and, as it were, melt down the belly; whilst such as boil with diffi-
 culty, and are hard  and refractory, ought to bind  and dry it  up.
 Many deceive themselves  as  to the influence of salt waters, con-
 sidering them as being laxative, whilst they possess a directly oppo-
 site  power; their refractory nature and difficult  coction  render
 them much better fitted to dry than to moisten the belly.  All here
 mentioned is correct as to spring water.  Let us now consider that
 of rain and  melted snow.
   Rain water is light, sweet, thin, and  limpid ; the  sun carries off
 and raises the essence  or lightest part of such  waters, as we see
 demonstrated in making of  salt; the dense  and heavier parts re-
 main and form salt, the lighter parts are raised  by the sun, which
 deprives also,  not only  stagnant water, but also sea  water of its
 lighter parts, as well as every thing that is usually moist.  Now all
 bodies possess  moisture; even from man himself,  the sun carries off
 a slight dew, as we clearly perceive when he is walking or exposed
 to the sun ;  those parts of his body that are covered are moist with
 sweat, whilst the uncovered parts are dry, because the rays of  the
 sun carry off the sweat as it  forms, but suffer  it to collect on  the
 former, if protected  by covering or in  any other way :  the heat of
 the sun  forcibly abstracts the sweat, but the covering precludes
 evaporation.   If he goes into the shade his whole body is covered
 with sweat,  because the rays of the sun are prevented acting on it.
 Rain water  readily corrupts  and acquires a bad smell, owing to its
 being constituted of emanations from all sorts of bodies, whence a
 great disposition to  putrefaction results;  moreover, these vapours
 raised from  bodies are carried to the highest parts of the atmosphere
 in all directions,  and mix with  the  air; those that are  thick and
•darkest, separate as dense clouds, the lighter parts remain suspend-
 ed, and become attenuated and heated by the sun, and thereby ame-
 liorated,  diffused, and  carried into the atmosphere.   When thus
 collected  together,  they break  when  approximated  by opposite
 winds; for it is highly probable that this happens whenever clouds, 
18G               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

agitated and driven on by the  wind, suddenly meet with others im-
pelled  in an  opposite  direction.  They  intermingle  and  become
thicker by those succeeding ; as they thicken they grow  still darker,
and at length break, precipitate by their weight, and  fall down as
rain.   This rain water is very good, but requires boiling to divest
it of its tendency to putrefaction and to  a bad  odour,  and  makes
the voice of those who drink it thick and hoarse.
   Snow  and ice water  are always bad.   When  water has  been
frozen, it never  assumes its  first  nature.  Its limpidity, mildness,
and softness are separated and dispelled, its coarser and more fixed
parts remain.  To  be  convinced of this, place,  if you choose, in
winter, a certain  measure  of water to freeze ; melt it again the
next day in a sheltered situation, and measure it; it will be found
to be greatly diminished, and hence it results that the lightest and
most attenuated  parts are dissipated, for  it is  impossible it should
be the coarser and more ponderous.  We may  therefore conclude
such waters to be injurious, and here we leave them.
   Men are liable to the stone, to  nephritis, colic, and strangury, to
sciatic pains  and hernia,  when  they employ  as drink waters of
different nature, as of large  streams into which  rivers empty, or of
lakes which receive different rivulets;  and generally from drinking
water coming from a  distance, for it is  impossible that all waters
can be alike.  Some are soft, others saline,  some aluminous, and some
arise in  places  abounding  in warm  springs.   When  waters so
various are mingled together, they necessarily act on each  other;
the strongest prevails, but it is not  always the same one that is the
strongest, sometimes  the one,  sometimes  another.   Besides, the
winds then produce great changes; those from  the  north give a
greater power to the one; from the south to another, and thus of
the rest; they ought, consequently, from their intermixture, to depo-
sit sand in the  vessels of the bladder, and produce in  those  who
drink of them the disease I have mentioned.  Let us  see why all
are not thus affected.  Those whose bowels  are relaxed and moist,
whose bladder is but little irritable, and have a large  orifice, such
persons pass their urine  readily;  but those whose belly is very hot,
have the bladder necessarily  in a  like disposition, and when thus
heated, its  neck is equally so; hence the urine  cannot so readily
escape;  it is, as  it were, parboiled; the  lighter and purer parts es-
cape, the gross and thicker parts remain, consolidate, and  harden.
At first this is merely  a  small nucleus,  and  slowly increases.  By 
ON AIRS, WATERS, AND LOCALITIES.
187
motion in the bladder it attaches that which from time  to time is
deposited ;  thus it augments and forms a calculus.  When the per-
son makes water, the urine propels the stone to the orifice of the
bladder, which arrests its flow, and causes  severe pain.  It  is on
this account  that  children  with  calculus pull forward  the  penis,
striving thereby to displace the obstacle that prevents the urinary
discharge.  A proof that the stone is thus produced, is, that persons
thus attacked, pass  limpid urine like  whey, nowise earthy  nor
gravelly; the  thick  and bilious parts remain in -the bladder,  and
uniting, form at last a stone.   It occurs also in  infants,  from their
milk,  when that  is  unwholesome,  bilious, and  heated ;  it induces
heat of the bladder and intestines, and the urine  becomes scalding.
I affirm  that  it is better to give them wine well diluted, than such
milk,  for it dries the vessels less, and induces less heat.   It is  differ-
ent in women; in them the urethra is  shorter  and  larger,  hence
they make water more  readily; nor do they thus violently rub the
parts, as boys do, to enable it  to pass, and consequently  do not irri-
tate the  urethra  opening  in the  vagina.  Women  having  such a
ready passage, generally void more urine than men; and these are
probably very nearly the circumstances connected with  the forma-
tion of calculus.
   As to  the constitution of the year, we may by attention discover
which will be healthy or the reverse.  Whenever the signs or phe-
nomena  correspond with the setting or rising of  the stars, when the
autumn is rainy and winter moderate, neither too dry nor too cold,
when occasional  showers  fall in spring and summer, such  a year
ought naturally to be very healthy.
   If the  winter is dry and  constantly chilled by  the north wind, the
spring rainy, and  heated by the south winds, the  summer  will  neces-
sarily bring with it numerous  fevers and ophthalmias.   The  earth,
moistened  by the rains of spring, and  heated by the south winds;
the summer heat and the moisture from the heated  soil,  induce hu-
midity  of  the belly and brain.  It  is impossible that with  such a
spring,  the body should   not be  overloaded with  bad humours.
Hence  arise  acute epidemic  fevers,  more  common to  those who
abound in  pituita.  They will likewise have dysenteries, as well as
those of a moist  temperature.  If at the rising*  of the Dogstar  rain
should abound, and if the Etesian winds from the northeast fail not
* Exorlum, Hal., Foesius; sitting, Clifton. 
188               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

to come, it may be hoped that the diseases will terminate, and au-
tumn  prove healthy;  if otherwise,  there  will be great  mortality
amongst women and children, but not amongst old  people;  fevers
will degenerate into quartans, and terminate in dropsy.
  When the winter is moderate, accompanied with showers  and
south  winds; when spring is dry and cold, with north winds, preg-
nant women, who  expected parturition in  spring, miscarry, or  else
the offspring are weak and unhealthy, and soon die; or  should they
survive, they will be small, languishing, and  unhealthy.  Dysente-
ries and dry ophthalmias will occur, and catarrhs in the head,  fall-
ing  upon the lungs.  Men of humid temperaments and* females,  will
have  catarrhs,  resulting  from the pituita  flowing from the brain.
Bilious  persons will have dry ophthalmias, owing  to the heat  and
drvness of their flesh.  Old people  will  have catarrhs, dependent
on tumid and enlarged  vessels, so  that some will  be  carried off
rapidly  in  a state of  frenzy;  others fall  into palsies of the right
side;  for the winter being warm and rainy, neither the body nor the
vessels are strengthened.  The spring succeeding, with north winds,
drought and cold, the  brain, which at this  season ought  to be clear-
ed of those gross  humours  producing  stoppages  in  the  head  and
hoarseness, becomes stuffed up and swells, so that when  the summer
heats  arise,  great and  sudden changes ensue, with diseases ending
in dysentery and dropsy, because the belly cannot readily become
dry.
  When the summer is  rainy, accompanied with  south winds, and
autumn is the same, the winter of necessity must prove sickly; es-
pecially in pituitous persons, and those  above forty years  of  age.
Ardent fevers will prevail, and the bilious will suffer from pleurisies
and peripneumonies. If summer is dry, with north winds, and autumn
rainy, with south winds, we shall have in winter affections of the head,
paralysis, hoarsenesses, oppressive coughs, and some consumptions.
When summer is dry, with north winds, without rain at  the rising
of the Dogstar and Arcturus, at the  close of summer and  beginning
of autumn, it is favourable for people of moist temperament and for
women, but the reverse for such as  are bilious.  It  dries them  too
much, and gives  rise  to  ophthalmias and acute fevers, to  chronic
fevers and to atrabilious  complaints; for the  more watery parts of
the bile are dissipated, leaving only the thicker and more acrid parts.
It is  the same with the blood, and  hence the source of these dis-
eases.  Such a season is however favourable to pituitous persons; 
                ON AIRS, WATERS, AND LOCALITIES.            189

they lose their excess of humidity, and are thus in a good condition
at the arrival of winter.
  Whoever will consider all the above circumstances, and pay at-
tention to them,  may predict the greater part of the evils induced
by the change of seasons.  He  must be guarded at  the epoch of
such great changes, not to give purgatives  too  freely, nor apply
fire near any cavity, nor make incisions, until  at least ten days
after such  changes.   The two solstices  are dangerous, especially
that of summer;—the two equinoxes are  likewise to be feared, par-
ticularly that of winter.  The rising  of the constellations should also
be  noted, particularly the Dogstar, then  Bootes  ; and  Pleiades  at
their setting;  for on those days  many diseases terminate, fatally in
some, in others in health. Every thing  assumes another aspect, and
undergoes a change.  Thus much on this subject.

        PARALLEL BETWEEN THE ASIATICS AND EUROPEANS.

  I wish at present  to  notice wherein Asia and Europe vary, and
explain  why their respective inhabitants so widely differ.  I should
be too prolix were I to speak of every particular  diversity, and shall
therefore mention only those  principal points which appear most
deserving of attention.  I commence by observing, that Asia greatly
exceeds Europe in respect both to its vegetation and its inhabitants.
All is larger in Asia, and the  country is  milder,—the people are
less active and  more effeminate.  The cause of this is to be found
in the constitution of the seasons.  Asia is located between  the two
extremes of  winter and of summer, and therefore removed from
the extremes of heat and cold.  Every thing there increases  greatly,
and has a character of mildness, and of  a  just medium.  It is not
so,  however, in  every part of Asia; I speak only  of that  portion
located  intermediately between the two extremes above-mentioned.
It is, moreover, abundant in fine fruit  and beautiful trees; its sky
is serene;  there is  abundance  of  water,  both  of rain and from
springs, so that the  country  is  neither scorched, dried up, nor af-
fected  by severe cold.  It  is sufficiently warm, and moistened by
rain and snow ; the seeds of fruit are there developed, and by means
of culture and of grafting, man has ameliorated, and fitted them for
both his gratification and his wants.  The  cattle are numerous,
fruitful,  and well fed;—the men are large and of  good proportions,
and scarcely differ in  height or in  appearance.   Such a  country 
190               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

ought to  have, naturally, a good soil, and  an equable temperature
in each season; but courage, patience, steady application, and firm-
ness of mind, find no existence there, nor can the love of their own
species predominate.  Pleasure alone exerts an absolute control,
and gives origin  to the many monsters observable among brutes.
What I thus affirm of a part of Asia, applies equally to  Egypt and
to Lybia.
  With respect to those who dwell on the  right of  the rising of the
summer  sun, to the  Palus Masotis, which separates  Europe from
Asia, they differ more from each other than those I have spoken of,
both  in  regard to soil and  climate.   As  elsewhere, whenever the
seasons are more variable in degree or frequency, there the country
is more  wild and irregular.  There we  find  mountains,  forests,
heaths, and  meadows ;  and somewhat  similar is  seen in  man, if
closely observed.  The  nature  of some resembles  the  mountains,
forests, and rocks ; others are like plains in fertility, and partake of
the  humid nature of meadows  and marshes;  in others  again, we
recognise the character of a dry and arid country.  The  various
seasons  of the  year  affording diversity  of form, have, in their suc-
cession, many differences; and these variations are  productive of as
many peculiar and distinct constitutions.  I say  nothing of those
countries that differ little from each other; I speak of such only in
which nature and customs have established well-marked differences.
  We commence with the Macro-cephali.  No other people have
such elongated  heads..  It is  an ancient  custom  that gave rise to
this, and  nature concurred  in the practice.  A very long head  is
esteemed a mark of distinction : this opinion led them to compress
their children's  heads with their hands,  as soon as they were born,
and whilst the bones  were flexible; aiding  this elongation by  means
of bandages  and other  measures  adapted to  destroy a spheroidal
form.   Such practice was at first the  only measures  pursued to
produce  this form, and  time has  insensibly rendered it natural; so
that it is  no  longer requisite to use violence.  In the act of genera-
tion, portions of the  seed  come  from every member of the  bodv;
the humid members transmit moisture, those that are diseased send
particles  that are equally so; hence, bald fathers usually propagate
bald children;  those with blue eyes, get  children  with eyes  of a
similar colour; the lame  beget  lame children.  Why then  should
not those who have long heads beget macro-cephali ?   Although at
present, not  perhaps  for a like  reason, because all customs become 
ON AIRS, WATERS, AND LOCALITIES.
191
neglected and lose  their power.  This is my view as respects the
Macro-cephali.
  As to  those who inhabit Phasis,—this country is marshy,  hot,
humid, and woody; the rains are frequent and heavy at all seasons;
the men live in marshes, in dwellings formed of reeds on the water:
they are rarely seen in  towns and public places, but wander about
in boats formed of a single log (canoe), traversing the canals that
every where abound.   Their drink is the  warm stagnant water
of the falling  rains that the  sun has corrupted.   The  river Phasis
itself is one of the slowest, its flow being scarcely perceptible; the
fruits are unhealthy, soft, and imperfect, owing to the moisture, nor
do they  ever  come to maturity.   Thick  clouds perpetually arise
and fill the atmosphere; and these are the causes of the difference
of the Phasians from other people.  They are tall and very fat; no
joint or  vein  is  well  distinguished; their complexion  is sallow,
allied to jaundice; their voice is  hoarse from living in an impure,
humid, and thick atmosphere; and they are unable to bear fatigue.
The seasons differ but little as to heat or cold  ; the winds mostly
blow from the south, with one exception, appropriate to the country,
called Cenchron, which is sometimes very violent,  powerful, and
hot: the  north wind  is rare, and when it  blows, it is moderate and
scarcely perceptible.
   After what I have  said as to the difference  in the nature of the
 inhabitants of Asia and Europe, it follows that the former, possess-
 ing neither vigour nor courage, must be less fitted for war than the
 Europeans;  whilst their  manners are  at the  same  time  more
 amiable.   We must  attribute this to the  seasons, as being less
 variable and less liable to great changes from cold to heat, and the
 reverse; the  senses are less powerfully affected, and  the constitu-
 tion of their bodies is more enervated ; hence  anger and other pas-
 sions are less vehement than where the temperature of the seasons
 is very variable, for all changes  are  the causes which most excite
 the mind and prevent the tranquillity of  man.   I think, therefore,
 the defect of courage in the  Asiatics arises from these causes ;
 though another powerful one is to be found in their form of govern-
 ment.   They are almost entirely under regal authority.  When we
 are not our own masters, but receive laws from a despot instead of
 framing them ourselves, we  cannot feel much disposed for war, but
 prefer peace, for the  dangers are unequal.   On  the one hand, we
 must take the field, undergo fatigue, and  die  far from home, from 
192               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

wife, children, and friends, to satisfy the will of a master.   On the
other hand, any extraordinary action we  perform is  altogether for
the advantage and aggrandizement  of the sovereign.  He alone
receives the reward of danger and of death.  If then amongst such
people  one  should  grow up courageous and brave, his  courage
would become enervated  by the laws under which he would  have
to live; a proof of which is, that all the Greeks in Asia, as well as
those barbarians who are not subjected to a master, who make their
own laws, and labour for their own advantage solely, are  warlike,
inured  to hardship, and are very brave.  It  is for their own profit
that danger  is encountered, for they  know  that they  will enjoy the
fruit of their courage, and that they will  suffer from the effects of
cowardice.   In  Asia we find the people of  a character altogether
different, though  some are braver than others; and these  differences
depend chiefly on the seasons, as I have endeavoured to demonstrate.
   Among the nations of Europe we find the Scythians, living  near
the Lacus  Mceotis, and  differing entirely from all  the  others.
Amongst them are the Sarmatians, whose  females ride on horse-
back, draw  the  bow and shoot their arrows from  that situation;
and fighting their enemies whilst yet  virgins; nor do they lose their
virginity until they have killed  three of them, nor cohabit with a
husband before performing  certain prescribed ceremonies.  After
this, they dwell with their husbands, and are dispensed from riding,
except  when  necessity requires  the whole nation  to join in battle.
They are deficient in the right breast, which is  burned by their
mothers in infancy, by  means  of an appropriate  heated  copper
instrument, by which the nourishment and strength of the shoulder
and arm are greatly increased.   Although the  various Scythian
tribes resemble  one another, they differ greatly from all other
nations.  It  is the same with the Egyptians, who are, however,
oppressed by heat, but the Sarmatians by cold.
   What is called the Scythian desert is a vast plain, abounding in
meadows, very bare, and considerably  humid.  It has large rivers,
into which its waters are received.  In this, those Scythians called
Nomades, dwell, not in houses, but in chariots, covered with skins,
the smaller of which have four, the larger six wheels.  Some  have
but one apartment, others three, resembling in construction a house;
and they are well secured  against the rain, cold, and wind; and
are drawn by two  or three pair of  oxen, without  horns, which are 
ON AIRS, WATERS, AND LOCALITIES.
193
hindered from  growing  by the  cold.  The women live in these
cars; the  men  mount their horses and  camels,  and are followed
by their flocks, oxen, and horses.  So long as sufficient herbage is
found for their cattle, they remain in the same place, and when this
is exhausted they remove to another.   They feed on  baked flesh,
and  drink  mare's  milk,  of which they likewise make  a  sort of
cheese called Hippace.   Such is the mode of life of  this wandering
race, and it is greatly allied with the  nature of their  seasons.
  The Scythians have customs and a character peculiar to them-
selves, by  which  they  are distinguished  from  all  other  people,
in the  same way as the Egyptians.  Their women are  not fruit-
ful;  their wild  animals  are small and  few in number;  their loca-
tion  is under the Riphean Mountains, from whence  proceed  the
northern blasts; the region  being but slightly under  the solar influ-
ence, and  that chiefly during the summer solstice.  Southern gales
are rare and  faint, but those from the  north  are violent, with
snow, ice, and rain.   They rarely quit  their mountains,  which  are
habitable only to a south exposure.  Dense clouds arise during the
day, with  great humidity,  so that winter seems  almost  perpetual;
the  summer heat  is  moderate, and of short  continuance.  The
plains are elevated and  barren, and not protected by the  mountains,
having all a northern inclination.  The wild animals are all small,
and  easily  protect  themselves from the cold in  holes in the earth;
the frosts  and sterility of the country  checking their  increase; being
open and flat, they cannot readily conceal themselves.  The change
of seasons is not considerable, being nearly alike,—and hence there
is but little variety among the people;  they employ  the  same food
and clothing both in winter and summer; the air they breathe is damp
and  heavy; their drink is chiefly the water  from ice or snow, and
they exercise but little constancy in labour.   It is hence impossible
that either mind or body should be vigorous, and consequently the
inhabitants of  those  countries are  thick  and heavy, their limbs
flabby and relaxed, their belly loose; how indeed could it be other-
wise in such a country and  with such seasons ? With such  uni-
formity of surface, &c, the men and women  also must be greatly
alike.   There  being so little change  of  seasons, there can be but a
slight alteration or change in  the semen of  the parents, except  in-
duced by some accident or disease.  I  will  state  a  manifest proof
that moisture predominates, at least among the Nomadic Scythians.
The greater number of them exhibit marks of burning  on  the
                               13 
194               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

shoulders, arms, wrists, breasts, thighs, and flanks; they burn those
parts only to correct the humidity and softness of the flesh.  They
cannot, in their natural state, either draw the bow, or throw a dart,
on account of the weakness and atony of their limbs;  the applica-
tion  of fire  dries up the excess of moisture, and strengthens the
muscles; the body consequently is  better, and  the  joints become
stronger.  In Scythia the men are fat  and large,  because, as in
Egypt, they are not in infancy swaddled and bandaged ; moreover,
they are always on horseback or in cars, and  until  fit to  ride, the
boys live a  nearly sedentary  life, walking but little  even in their
journeys.
  The women are astonishingly fat and large, generally ruddy from
the cold, which gives that hue to their  fair skin.  Such a nation
cannot be prolific.   Men of a cold climate, delicate, and with re-
laxed bowels, can  have but few desires for  coition, independently
of the  enervation caused by constant equitation, which unfits them
for the act of generation.  So much for the male sex.  As for the
women, their fat and corpulency obstruct conception, their menses
flow but rarely and in small amount, the mouth of the uterus, closed
by fat, can neither attract nor retain the seed; want of exercise
renders their bodies  flabby and weak; the abdominal viscera are
cold and deficient in  tone;—all which causes insure a defect of fe-
cundity, as is manifest from  the opposite result in their servants,
who, from their active life and want of corpulency, are readily im-
pregnated.  I shall here remark that many of the Scythians become
impotent, and that then  they  perform the duties  of women; they
acquire their tone of  voice, and  are called effeminate.  The inhabit-
ants ascribe  this misfortune  to the  gods, and  honour those thus
affected, and fearing  that the  same may  happen to them.  For my
own part, I believe that this affection, like every other, comes from
God ; none are properly the work of man, but all spring from Him.
Every  disease has its own particular mode of production, in which
the above-mentioned  participates, from natural causes: thus we find
them always on horseback;  their  legs hanging  down, fluxions to
those parts  necessarily ensue, which cause lameness, and a drag-
ging of the  limb as the disease advances.   To cure this in the
commencement, they open  a  vein  behind each ear,  suffering the
blood to flow until much weakened, and  sleep ensues.  On awaken-
ing some are cured, others not.   Now I  apprehend,  they lose their
virility by this  treatment, for  we have veins near^he ears whose 
ON AIRS, WATERS, AND LOCALITIES.
195
section causes impotency, and I  suspect they cut these.   When,
therefore, they desire to approach  their wives, they find themselves
incapable.  At first this gives them little concern, but after three or
four attempts, finding  the evil to continue, they conclude  that they
have offended  God, and to this they attribute it.  Assuming now
the female dress, they thereby proclaim distinctly their impotency;
they live like the women,  and perform their  duties.   This occurs
among the rich  and  most considerable of the Scythians, such as
are always on  horseback, and possessed of large flocks, and not
among the poorer classes, with whom  it is  uncommon, for they
rarely ride.  Now if this evil proceeded  particularly from  God, it
ought to be common to  both classes, and  especially to the poor,
who are unable to sacrifice to the gods, if indeed they delight in sa-
crifices, and count the number of victims. The rich have the means
to offer numerously;  not so the poor, who even blame the gods for
the misery they endure, so that on this score the evil  should rather
fall upon them.  But it is with this as with all  other diseases, which
I have already remarked as beyond doubt coming from God, each
one according to  its peculiar nature.   The cause productive of that
of the Scythians, appears to me to be that I  have stated; it operates
equally on  others. It may be observed that  they who are perpe-
tually on horseback, are subject to fluxions in the thighs, pains in
the feet, and  that generally they  are little fitted for the battles of
Venus.  Such are the Scythians,  and of all men, they are the least
ardent and apt for the rites of marriage, for the reasons thus assign-
ed.  It  may be added, that passing  their lives thus on horseback,
and wearing drawers, they have less leisure and opportunity for
lascivious feelings; besides  which,  the cold and fatigue  prevent
those  desires for  women, so that at  length this loss of virility be-
comes almost a matter of indifference.  So much for the Scythians.
   In other European nations  men differ greatly  both in size  and
form, owing to the great and  frequent changes of the seasons, ex-
tremes of heat and cold,  great rains and extreme  droughts, with
winds from every quarter.  It is  natural that men should feel  this
influence, and that the semen should differ  in summer and  winter,
and in  wet and dry  weather.  Hence we do not  notice  among
Europeans the same similarity that is observed among the Asiatics.
A difference of size is frequently noticed even in adjoining  towns;
the seed is modified  in a  variety of ways  beyond what would be
the case if the seasons were  uniform, or approaching thereto.  It 
196               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

is the same as to manners.  A rough unpolished  state, with violent
passions, ought to prevail  where  changes of seasons  are  great.
Strong impressions induce  somewhat of a savage  character, and
dispel mildness and tranquillity. It is on this account, I apprehend,
that Europeans are more courageous than Asiatics.   Uniformity of
seasons induces indolence,  the reverse strengthens  both mind and
body.  Cowardice follows in the train of indolence, courage in that
of exercise and labour. The Europeans ought therefore to be better
calculated  for war; their laws likewise co-operate, which  do not,
as in Asia, emanate from a king,  for where kings have sway their
courage is restricted.  I have before said  that minds enslaved will
not naturally expose themselves to danger.  Those on the contrary
who  are their own lawgivers, and encounter  danger for their own
advantage  and not of others, do  this with pleasure, and support
labour readily, because  they partake of the benefit.  It is thus the
nature of the government tends to  promote courage, and we see in
this respect a vast difference between Europe and Asia.  I remark,
in addition, that generally  the European  nations differ from each
other in size and form for the same reasons, and  equally so do they
differ in respect to bravery.   We notice, for example, that  those
who  inhabit mountainous, barren, rough,  and arid  countries, with
very variable seasons, are naturally tall, laborious, and brave; their
character is wild and savage.  In valleys and meadow countries, in
close situations with warm  exposure, man  is neither so  tall nor well
proportioned.   They grow plump, and have  a darker  complexion,
are less pituitous than bilious,  and are less; but  they are  not defi-
cient in strength or courage.   Their nature is unequal,  being modi-
fied by circumstances of laws and customs. Being deficient in large
streams to convey away the  rain and water of their lakes, and
using stagnant water for drink, their  complexions  are inferior to
those under  opposite circumstances,  and their  spleen  is  affected.
Those who live in open upland situations, exposed to the winds and
moisture, are large and resemble each other;  they are well propor-
tioned and gentle  in disposition.   Such as reside in dry and open
countries, with great changes in the seasons,  have firm and robust
bodies, with  complexions fairer, manners  free, unbridled passions,
and   strongly self-opinionated;  for wherever  seasons are  very
changeable, there we  find great  variety  of figure, temperament,
manners, and customs.   The difference in the seasons may be set
down as the principal cause of difference in the nature of men; 
ON AIRS, WATERS, AND LOCALITIES.
197
next follows the  situation and nature of the soil, and the quality of
the waters.  Wherever  the  earth is  rich, loose, and moist, the
waters high, in  summer warm, and cold  in winter, with  equable
temperature of the seasons, you  may  be assured that the inhabit-
ants are lazy, weak, and commonly mischievous, unskilled in arts,
and not  bright  of  understanding.  Where, on the contrary, the
country is open,  rough, and difficult of access, oppressed by cold in
winter, and by the  heats of summer, there the men are vigorous,
lusty, hairy,  laborious,  hardy,  watchful, violent,  obstinate, harsh,
and well adapted for war.  In general every thing that grows  upon
the earth partakes of its quality ;—and here I terminate what  I de-
sire to say on the subject of the principal differences  in the forms
and characters of men.   It might be greatly extended,  without fall-
ing into error, keeping in view  the same  principles. 
OF  FLATUS.
      De Flatieus.......Fcesius, Treat, xiii. p. 295.
      De Flatibus,......Haller, iii. p. 433.
      Traite des Vents,.....Gardeil, ii. p. 512.


  Haller  considers this treatise to be  spurious, and as vastly be-
low the standard  of  Hippocratic genius.  He admits it, neverthe-
less, to  be admirably written  and  well  arranged,   (" bonique
ordinis liber.")—From one single principle, viz., flatus, the author
with much skill  has deduced  doctrines of great  consistency, and
explains the origin of all diseases, from an error loci  of this flatus.
Some of the opinions of Hippocrates are advocated, but others are
opposed, especially as to catarrh, as laid  down in the book, "De
locis."  The origin  of the Pneumatic  Sect is considered as here
being first  embodied.
  The argument of  the book is, that air penetrates and permeates
all bodies,  and that through its agency the causes of most disorders
is explicable.  Various  modes of the  generation of diseases are
herein pointed out.
  Whatever may have been the opinion of Haller as to the merits
of this  treatise, it has, however, been attributed  to Hippocrates by
Erotian, Galen, and other writers; some of whom have esteemed it
as one  of  the most  interesting  in the history of medical  systems,
and one that will be read with much pleasure.   If permitted to  ex-
press an opinion  respecting  it,  I  would say, that, by whomsoever
written, it  is one  of  the most ingenious  and well-arranged of all  the  '
treatises that have reached us, under the name of Hippocrates.   It
cannot be his, I think, since it ascribes to a  single principle, air,
(flatus, wind,) almost  every disease; whilst pituita, bile, &c, con-
stitute a more complex set of causes in the real Hippocratic writings.
Many remarks in this treatise, in  connexion with those to be else-
where found, concur in satisfying me, that, if the circulation of  the
blood was not, at that distant  period, understood, precisely as it is 
OF FLATUS.
199
now sustained and taught, yet, that such a  function was neverthe-
less admitted as a well-known and general proposition in medicine;
as an  anatomical and  physiological fact, which was fully  appre-
ciated, both pathologically and therapeutically, by the  medical men
of those days; and that the pulse was sedulously attended to, and
perhaps more correctly than at later periods.   Gardeil  terminates
his translation of the treatise with a remark, that " after reading it,
a person might  be led to think he  had been  perusing  some new
thesis,  composed and  maintained by some  systematic physician of
the present day."  This remark seems to me  to be perfectly correct ;
for it is obvious  that if  terms have any meaning, we here find, in a
few words, the doctrine of the unity of disease, as more fully laid
down and elaborated  by the late Professor Rush, and even convey-
ing, in the concise manner employed, the whole force of Dr. Rush's
more profound illustration of a doctrine he regarded  as altogether
his own, and as  such, taught it in the University of Pennsylvania.
   As in the preceding treatise,  I propose to give merely an outline
of the contents that may be looked for at large in the treatise itself.
—Ed.
   Preliminary remarks relating to the difficulties and disagreements
in medicine.  The art of medicine is one of the most laborious to
the practitioner, although beneficial to the community. The influence
of opinion on  it.  Attempt to reduce it to  one general principle.
Whatever is injurious is disease, and is to be removed  or  cured by
contraries.  Wherein medicine consists, and what constitutes the
best physician.   The essence of all  diseases is one and the same.*
Diseases differ merely in location, which alone causes the  diversity
of forms they assume.—Of the triple nutriment of animal life, viz.,
food, drink, and air.   Distinctive appellation of this last, according
to  its relative situation, viz.,  spirit, air, flatus, wind; and  of its
absolute necessity, both as the cause  of life  and of disease.   It is
one of the principal agents of the animal economy, and of nature
at large.   It is  essential to combustion, and to animal  life, even to
that of fish ; in short, there is nothing that does not feel its influence.

  * That is, all disease is a unit.  " Morborum autem  omnium cum idem modus sit,
locus tamen diversus est.   Morbi igitur ob  locorum varietatem  et dissimilitudinem,
nihil inter se  habere simile videntur."—Fcesius, p. 296; Haller, iii. p. 435.  The unity
of disease is here unquestionably sustained, or  I am altogether mistaken as to the
tenor of the entire passage, which is correctly rendered  from the Greek text—Ed. 
200               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

It is equally the cause  of disease,  as  of life ;  food and drink may
be deficient for days without injury, but death  is the almost imme-
diate result of the "absence  of air.  It  is the vehicle of miasmata;
and here the author applies his principle  thus laid down, to the
production  of fever,  which  is an accompaniment of most diseases,
especially of such as are conjoined  with inflammation.  Fever, it
is  remarked, is twofold,  common and  particular.    The  first  is
o-eneral, attacking all indiscriminately, and is therefore denominated
epidemic ; the latter attacks such as are inattentive to their diet and
mode of life.  Remarks on each of  these succeed, and an  inquiry
entered into, why all animals  are  not equally attacked.   Parti-
cular  fevers, originating from  faults  in diet, are then attended to;
and we are informed that from air, or flatus,  originate eructations,
chilliness, and  rigors; and an  explanation of many symptoms  is
given,  conformably to  this  doctrine of pneumatism,  such  as of the
uneasiness  and pains, chilliness,  headache, and  throbbing of the
temples, &c, that precede  or accompany fever.  The same princi-
ples are applied  to other diseases, as volvulus, colic, tormina,—all
which arise from flatus; as well as catarrh  in  all its various forms
of fluxion,  viz., ophthalmia, cough, hoarseness, hemorrhage from the
breast,  dropsies,  ruptures, apoplexy, epilepsy,  and many more.
The symptoms, causes, and cessation of epilepsy ; and much stress
is laid  on the  attention necessary in blood-letting; of its injurious
influence when the blood is unduly perturbed,  as seen  in drunken-
ness,  insomnia, &c.;  its influence in the operations of reason  is
pointed out, and its state of purity or otherwise is noticed  ; whilst
the inequality of  its circulation is at times productive of every irre-
gularity.  All this is attributed to flatus, and  is duly explained and
illustrated.   Ultimately it is added, that 'flatus appears, under nume-
rous aspects or modes, to be the cause of diseases; other causes
also may co-operate, or may act an intermediate part.
   If I should  extend these remarks to every case of disease men-
tioned, it would greatly enlarge, but would  not more fully demon-
strate  the truths advanced.—Ed. 
OF   EPILEPSY.
     De Morbo Sacro,......Fcssius, Treat, xiv. p. 301.
     De Morbo Sacro,......Haller, iii. p. 411.
     Traite de l'Epilepsie ou Maladie Sacree,    Gardeil, iii. p. 5.

   Haller considers this treatise as differing greatly from the genius
of Hippocrates, being chiefly speculative.   The  reader is fatigued
by the attempt to demonstrate that epilepsy does  not originate from
the anger of the gods, but from  humidity of the brain.  It might,
he thinks, be regarded of a later period, because in the comparison
drawn between the human brain and that of animals, a less degree
of anatomical  information is conspicuous; whilst the nature of the
disease is apparently deduced  from  experiments  of  incising  the
brains of sheep and  goats.  A  tolerable description of the veins is
given.  That system seems  to be adopted, which  derives  diseases
from  pituita and bile.  The position is  assumed, that air finds a pas-
sage  to the brain.  The diction is diffuse, and Asiatic.  The trea-
tise is incidentally noticed  by Ccelius and other ancient authors.
  This is an admirable treatise,  the remarks of  Haller, to the con-
trary, notwithstanding.  If, in every theory advanced, it be abso-
lutely  requisite that  the premises be  admitted on which  some
towering  superstructure is erected, we  may affirm, that admitting
those of  the present book, its superstructure  is  as admirably con-
structed  as that of any theory of  the present day, on  this or any
other subject.   The irony of the author is highly amusing, and his
respect for religion is not less exemplary.
  Pursuing the plan  of the preceding books, we give a  concise
outline of the various parts, premising  that the treatise  contains the
description of the epilepsy, or morbus sacer—its  name,  nature, sub-
jects, seat, causes, attack, symptoms, signs, treatment; and proposes
sundry problems respecting it.—Ed. 
 202               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

   Epilepsy is a natural disease, and has in it nothing more sacred
 or divine than  any other.   Its name originated as much from igno-
 rance and astonishment, as from the fictitious piety of philosophers,
 priests, quacks, and jugglers.  Here  follow  some sharp and sar-
 castic remarks, on the accredited  superstition of the times in rela-
 tion  to  the  disease.  Somnambulism, the  nightmare, and  other
 affections, are not less astonishing than epilepsy.  Ignorance clothed
 itself in  the  mantle of religion, which was chosen as a  mark  of
 separation from the general  community, and the people were de-
 luded by a host of knaves, who endeavoured to persuade them that
 they held communion  with heaven, and were better informed than
 mankind at large.  Unable to prescribe usefully for this complaint,
 they  asserted its sacred origin, and  made its  cure  to depend on
 purifications  and expiations, together with the interdiction of sundry
 kinds of food, both  animal  and vegetable.  The patient was clothed
 in black, the  colour of mourning ; and strict regulations were given
 even  for the manner and position in sleeping.  If the sick recovered,
 they claimed the credit, and lost none if he died.   If  the cure de-
 pends  on such observances,  the disease, says  Hippocrates, cannot
 be divine, nor does he  imagine it was really so regarded  by these
 quacks themselves, who seek only to  deceive,  by giving  out for
 truth, what they had no knowledge of;  and their  pretended piety
 was the  mere  mask of religion,  by  which  the  power of divinity
 was made subordinate to  the will  of man!   The deities to whom
 the disease was attributed, are  stated as Cybele, Neptune, Proser-
pine,  Apollo, Mars,  and  Hecate; and which  of  these  was the
 source, is pointed  out  by certain accompanying signs,—all which,
 and the treatment for, are  duly reprehended.   Quackery seems in-
deed  to have been equally successful in Greece, at the distant era
 of Hippocrates, as at any since he flourished !
  The origin or rise of epilepsy is  next considered, its natural ex-
planation  and its causes assigned,  without referring it to heaven.
 Its  causes  are  similar to  those of  other diseases.  Hereditary at
times, it is connected with pituita rather than bile, and is dependent
on a  peculiar constitution of  the  brain.  A general outline of that
 organ  is presented, its vascular distribution, and its torpor at times
 by the air or circulating flatus being impeded  in  its passage, and
producing undue pressure on  a part. Thedoctrine of the preceding
 treatise is consequently here advocated, and its influence in epilepsy
 is  fully explained.   Epilepsy, we are informed,  attacks the foetus 
OF EPILEPSY.
203
(in utero, both healthy and unhealthy), if its brain  be not properly
emulged, and which thus becomes choked up by pituita,  by which
the regular play of air is precluded, followed by retardation of the
blood, &c,—of all  which the symptoms are enumerated and ex-
plained, and also at a posterior period of infancy;  in all which the
air or  flatus is seen to bear a principal and energetic  part.  Its
effects  in infancy;  and why more common  and  fatal at that period.
If they survive, the effects  it leaves.   Its  effects  in  adolescence,
manhood, old  age, &c, severally explained.   It  is  said  not  to
attack after twenty years of age, unless in such as had it in infancy.
Some animals, as goats, subject to the disease.  Inveterate epilepsy
absolutely incurable.  An  attack  of epilepsy often  foreseen by the
patient.  Influence of certain winds in producing it.  The brain is
the  seat of all  mental affections. The functions of that organ  at
times sound, at others depraved.  Some remarks  on mania.  Ex-
ternal effects produced by the operation  of the mind in dreams.  Of
the vast empire of  the brain in man ; how it is operated  on by the
air.  The diaphragm is not  the seat of  sentiment or intelligence—
the  name is  therefore  inappropriate;—nor is  the  heart the seat.
The  vessels of all  the body go to the heart, and have a connexion
with it so remarkable,  that if any part suffers, that organ feels it.
Some  general remarks follow in conclusion, on the nature  of epi-
lepsy, and as showing that it has  no more a divine  origin, than any
other disease, but  is produced by similar  causes; and that  in its
treatment, attention is to be  paid  to circumstances, without any re-
ference to lustrations, purifications, or witchcraft.   The  following
expression, towards the conclusion,  may perhaps be  deemed the
prototype of Homoeopathic views, " Et plserique ab iisdem, a quibus
oriuntur, sanantur," and is respectfully  recommended to the con-
sideration of that sect, and of Hahnemann in particular. 
SECTION  IV.
             ON  A HEALTHY  DIET.

      De salubri Victus ratione,   .   .   .    Fcesius, Treat, i. p. 377.
      De salubri Victus ratione,   .   .   .    Haller, iv. p. 81.
      Traite de la Diete salubre,  .   .   .    Gardeil, iii. p. 27.

  The  ancients, says Haller, united  this with the treatise " De
Natura  Hominis."  To me, it appears more connected with the
third book of the treatise on diet, from which much is  transcribed
here and there, and other matter more extensively treated  of; as,
for  example, the reasons for dietetic vomition.
  The argument of the book  is the pointing out  the proper use of
food, as instituted from the various circumstances  of time, habit
of body, age, affections, sex, and custom.  It is divided into three
chapters by Haller.
  Chap. I.  Of the rules of diet in respect to different seasons of the
year and age of life.  Of exercise, and bathing, &c.
  Chap. IT.  Of  the measures to induce  corpulency  or leanness.
How and when  to administer  vomits.
  Chap. III. Of various exercises;  which, when, and for what rea-
sons, best.
  Gardeil considers the next treatise on regimen as a  continuation
of the present, although it is probable they are the production of
two different authors.  He divides this under fourteen paragraphs.
  Sec I. to IV.  Of the diet or regimen for winter, spring, summer,
and autumn.
  Sec V.  Of diet in respect to age and temperament.
  Sec VI.  General principles respecting diet. 
                     ON A HEALTHY DIET.                  205

  Sec VII. On the use of emetics, glysters, &c.; when to be em-
ployed.
  Sec VIII., IX. General principles of regimen for children;  for
women.
  Sec X. Of gymnastic exercises, and of a fit regimen therefor.
  Sec XI., XII., XIII. Regimen required in some particular cases.
  Sec XIV*. General maxim concerning dietetics. 
ON  REGIMEN.
                         IN THREE BOOKS.

                           BOOK I.

       De Victus ratione......Fcesius, Treat, ii. p. 340.
       De Sanorum Victus ratione,  .    .    .   Haller, iv. p. 1.
       Traite du Rkgi.mi:......Gardeil, iii. p. 34.

   Haller says, that Galen and  Mercurialis considered this  trea-
tise as unworthy of Hippocrates.  It is, adds he,  certainly of great
antiquity, for it  contains the  precepts of  Heraclitus.  It is wonder-
fully  concise, obscure,1 and  so  far Hippocratic.  All things are
made to consist of fire and water, and  these are deemed adequate
for every purpose.  The first giving motion,  the latter nourishment;
the life or soul (anima) is even produced by them.  Eight tempera-
ments are produced by the varied proportions and powers of each;
and the difference of  disposition is ascribed to  the  different  tern-
peries of these  elements,—to each of  which appropriate remedial
plans are adopted.   Thus in the  choleric, cold and  humid nourish-
ment  and baths are prescribed.   No mention is  made of bleeding.
A theory of temperaments is presented, very different from that
given in the treatise " De Carnibus."   A twofold semen is here ad-
vocated, as in the  tract " De Genitura," and  the dispositions are at-
tributed to the predominance of the one or the other.   The uterus
is stated as being double. Exercise and emetics  are important aids
in practice.  Between  this and the third book  there  is not much
difference.
  In the subsequent portions much obscurity exists, which the great
sagacity of Gesner has elucidated  in  the germs of animals and
plants;  which, if unputrefied, alternately become apparent, vegetate,
and grow, and then return to an  inconspicuous state.   Much is in-
terspersed, the sense and scope of which are not very readily per-
ceived.

          » " Idem mire brevis, obscurus, et hactenus Hippocraticus." 
ON REGIMEN.
207
  The argument of this first book is, that it points out the pre-requi-
sites for instituting a healthy regimen; treats of the constituents of
the  animal body;  of the connexion of art and nature; the union of
the  sexes in establishing the strength, increase, and  nutrition of the
body;  of the temperaments as influenced by sex and age;  and of
various affections of the mind.—Ed.
  Chap. I. The proemium of the whole, as founded on attention, do-
cility, and kindness. What previous information is necessary to the
dietetic physician.  Of the power or property of food and drink.
  Chap. II. Propositions  as to  diet, both  general  and particular.
As to  the knowledge of the  powers  of  food, drink, labour, the
heavens, and climates, &c. in its employment.
  Chap. III.  Continued;  discusses the  principles of nature; asserts
them to be two, viz., fire and water, which are endowed with  four
qualities,  viz., hot, and dry, and cold, and moist, &c.
  Chap. IV. Of the resulting compounds of the principles; nothing
perishes; but,  by their  modification,  alteration, increase and de-
crease ensue.
  Chap. V. Further progress in the view of natural objects;  and
its basis  laid down; treats generally  of life and death, and  of a
divine necessity in the various  changes.
  Chap. VI. Of the origin, growth, and food of man; and of the
wonderful harmony in the intermixture produced, &C.
  Chap. VII. Of the origin and increase of the foetus; demonstrated
and explained.
  Chap. VIII. A comparison of some  of the actions and affections
of human beings, whether derived  from nature or art; confirming
and illustrating the doctrine of birth and of growth.
  Chap. IX. The preceding theory of the general origin and growth
of man, illustrated and confirmed by induction.
  Chap. X. The difference of origin and of growth in the male and
female, pointed out.
  Chap. XI. The difference shown further, in the diversity of  num-
bers of foetuses, twins, sex, &c.
  Chap.  XII.  Further shown  in the different constitutions of the
human body, and the different diet  necessary for different periods
of life. 
208
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
  Chap. XIII.  The same further demonstrated in the powers of the
mind;  its difference in strength, intellectual and sensitive.
  Chap. XIV.  The subject continued; the passions, &c.—Haller.
   This treatise, says Gardeil, " consists  of three books, in  which
 we find prescribed, that  mode of living which is best calculated to
 avoid disease.   Although not unanimously regarded as  the work of
 Hippocrates, and although Haller has removed it from that class, it
 appears to me  in many respects worthy of the Father of Medicine,
 and I believe  it is really his work.   This opinion will  perhaps be
 thought  to  be  well-founded, by attending to  what is  said  at  No.
 iii. of this  book,  and No.  viii. of the third  book.  We are  oc-
 casionally dissatisfied by  finding the author strangely  deviating
 from his subject in the first book, and in a large part of the second.
 At the same time we are  gratified extremely, after perusing the
 third.  And we find, if I am not  mistaken, that the subject of re-
 gimen is admirably treated  in all the books united."


   Sec I.  Preamble, in regard  to preceding  writers on  regimen;
 praise and blame awarded; the writer's own views on the subject.
   Sec II. Of the preliminary information essentia] to the writer on
 regimen;  the subject of gymnastics and astronomy touched  upon.
   Sec III. Further .necessary considerations on the subject.
   Sec IV.  Of the nature  of man, as  cons'ituted of two opposite
 principles, viz.,  water and  fire; neither of which  predominate  ab-
 solutely, but differ  only as to the greater or less amount.
   Sec V. The preceding principle applicable  to all  things, animal
 or others; none of which are ever entirely destroyed; nothinc new
 is created, nor is any thing lost; life and death are merely mixtures
 and separations.
   Sec VI. Death, diminution, and separation are synonymous; all
 are under the operation of laws provided  by nature; and the con-
trol of a divine necessity, involving  the doctrine  of a  metempsy-
chosis, or  change  of matter as  to form, &c.   The animal  soul is
under  the same influence; that of man is a  mixture  of fire and
water, constituting a part of himself; sundry speculations and ana-
logies on this subject. 
ON REGIMEN.
209
  Sec VII. Of what takes  place in the early period of foetation;
the motions induced are owing to fire; in what manner bones, liga-
ments, vessels, &c, are  produced; of the mixture of the male and
female seed; three great hollow vessels,  the vena cava, vena porta,
and aorta, with their ramifications, &c.
  Sec VIII.  Medicine is but an imitation of nature, as are  likewise
all other arts.—(Here follows a long and curious digression, respect-
ing the greater part of the arts cultivated by man, in order to de-
monstrate that all are reducible to the principle  of plus and minus,
and continued in sections ix., x., xi., &c, to xxii., embracing divina-
tion, workers in  iron,  medical  gymnastics,  fulling,  shoemaking,
carpentry,  architecture, cookery, tanning,  sculpture,  music, gold-
smiths, potters, writing,  public schools, merchants, and actors.)
  Sec XXIII. The author  returns  to  the  formation of man, (in
whose nature all the arts participate,) in  being a mixture of fire and
water.  The  soul is expanded  throughout whilst life exists,  and
augments with the growth of the body.   Organization of the foetus ;
perfect in  some  at  forty-three  days, in others in  three  months;
the former are born at seven, the latter at nine  months, bringing
with them the temperament which continues through life.
  Sec XXIV. Of the  formation of males and females.   Twins.
Superfoetation.   The subject continued  to sec. xxviii.
  Sec XXVIII. Of temperaments.  What constitutes them.  Gene-
ral  views on regimen.  The first species  of temperament.   The
2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th species,  extending to sec. xxxiii.
  Sec XXXIV. Of the phenomena  proper to  the temperaments;
derived from—first, the  age, second, sex.
  Sec XXXV.  Of different constitutions in regard  to the soul;
with views as to the  regimen best adapted as the  medicina mentis.
Continued to the end, and embracing the diseases to which the mind
is subjected.
14 
ON REGIMEN.
                          BOOK II.

      De Victus ratione,.....Fcesius, Treat, ii. p. 353.
      De Sanorum ratione,.....Haller, iv. p. 31.
      Traitf. du Rkgime,.....Gardeil, iii. p. 68.

  This  book,  says Haller,  is  not  unworthy of  the Hippocratic
name by its good construction; in which those things, called non-
naturals by the  schools, are considered, together with their powers
in relation  to the human  body.  The author derives those powers
from  simple qualities,  viz., sweet,  acrid, watery, fat; from which
arise  those called attenuants, calefaciants, refrigerants, purgatives,
siccatives, astringents, emollients.  At the commencement he treats
of airs,  waters, and  situations,  pretty much as Hipprocrates does,
in  his treatise under that title.  He discourses largely of the food
employed in Greece, the various kinds of bread and grain; then of
animal  food, amongst  which  we find that of dogs and  horses.
Next  he mentions birds, and numerous fish which is there largely
employed.  To these succeed the drinks, pot-herbs, legumes, vege-
tables, apples, &c, which  are nearly all in use at present.  Of culi-
nary  preparations, and  their respective value;  and  he  terminates
with gymnastics, funerals, races, baths.  He adverts to the proper
employment of food in removing the lassitude of unaccustomed or
over-fatigue.   Extols  the use  of  vomits, and,  as in the former
book, he teaches that all things are constituted of  fire and  water.
  The consideration of diet follows the relation  of  the principles
and differences of the  human  body, whereby it is preserved in the
same condition,  or  changed  and  modified by their  quality  and
quantity.   Hence it treats of the nature and situation  of the winds
and climates; of the faculties and difference of food, derived from
animals and vegetables; of baths and external operations; and of
different kinds of exercise. 
ON REGIMEN.
211
  Chap. I.  Of the location and temperature of places.
  Chap. II. Of the air, and  of the  nature and properties  of the
winds, as to heat, cold, moisture, &c.
  Chap.  III.  Of food—in general,  in  special—cerealia—bread,
variety of,  and properties.
  Chap. IV. Of leguminous vegetables; of flesh and its juices.
  Chap. V. Of animal food ; quadrupeds, birds, fish.
  Chap.  VI.  Of drinks—water, wine,  vinegar, new wine, thin
wine.
  Chaps. VII., VIII. Of plants—potherbs.  Fruits,  various—mul-
berry, pear, apple, &c.
  Chap. IX. Of certain kinds of flesh—preservation of,  effects of,
age of, and preparation, &c.
  Chap. X. Of baths—anointing, sweat,  venery, vomition,  sleep,
labour, rest, eating,—and,  in  fine, of all such  things  that in any
way are admitted to the body.
  Chap. XI. Of exercise,  both general and particular.
  Chap. XII. Of some  inconveniences  from exercise,  and from
over-fatigue, &c.
   Gardeil  has no prefatory remarks; his paragraphs  are  to this
 effect:
   Sec I. to XI. General remarks relating to the soil and habitations,
 the winds,  of  food and drinks, viz., the cerealia and their prepara-
 tions, wheat, rye, barley,  &c.  Some  observations on  fresh meal,
 hot bread,  &c.
   Sec XII. Legumes, and other  vegetables, their juices, &c, to
 sec. xxvi.
   Sec XXVI. to XXXV. Animal food—beef,  pork,  &c.; dog,
 horse, fox,  &c.
   Sec XXXV., XXXVI. Of birds—they are drier in quality than
 quadrupeds, owing to their having no bladder, nor urine, nor saliva,
 and why.*
   Sec XXXVII. to XLVI. Fish—sea, river, lake, &c.; shell-fish,
 dried, salted, &c.
   Sec XLVI. to XLIX.  General  remarks on  the difference  of

  * Apparently these deficiencies should render them moister; however, Hippocrates
finds no difficulty in explaining this.—Ed. 
212               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

animals as to nourishment, owing to their modes of life, their pecu-
liar qualities, the parts used for food, &c.
  Sec XLIX. to LVII. Drinks—wines, new,  old,  sweet, white,
&c.;  vinegar, &c. ; honey, &c.
  Sec  LVII. to XCI.  Of  vegetables—pot-herbs, garden plants,
wild,  and  cultivated, &c.
  Sec  XCI. to CIX. Of fruits—summer  and  autumnal,  pulpy
fruits, &c.
  Sec  CIX. to CXVII.  Influence  of food  variously prepared;
general remarks on the effects of sweet, acid,  acrid, and other
articles, and of condiments.
  Sec CXVII. to CXXI.  Of baths—fresh, saline, hot, cold, &c.
Exercise—venery.  Emetics, &c.; and of their utility in  consti-
pation, and also in the opposite state.
  Sec CXXI., CXXII. Of sleep and waking.  Inactivity and repose.
  Sec CXXIII., CXXIV.  Influence of a single meal daily.  Drinks,
cold or warm, &c.
  Sec CXXV to CXLV. Exercise; gymnastics.  Exercise, natural
and ill-timed. Of the exercise of sight, hearing, thought, and voice,
in talking, reading, &c.  Walking  at different periods; before or
after eating, &c.  Running, riding, racing, leaping, wrestling, fric-
tions,  &c.  Playing at ball, holding the  breath,  &c.
  Sec CXLV. On the use of frictions,  with sand, oil, &c, before
and after gymnastics.
  Sec CXLVI. Fatigue,  from  want  of exercise;  from unaccus-
tomed or excessive exercise.  Its effects explained as arising there-
from—including remarks  indicating  ideas of  a  circulation,  &c,
to end. 
ON  REGIMEN.
                          BOOK III.

      De Victus ratione,.....Fcesius, Treat, ii. p. 366.
      De Sanorum Victus ratione,  .    .   .   Haller, iv. p. 60.
      Traite du Regime,.....Gardeil, iii. p. 104.

  This book, says Haller,  has nothing  in  common  with the two
preceding, nor is it from Hippocrates. Clerke supposes it the work
of Herodicus the Gymnast.  It treats of the commencement of dis-
eases, from  too much or too  little  exercise in early life, and  of
their appropriate remedies.   This chiefly depends  on regimen, ab-
stinence, vomition,  and  a  due regulation  of  exercise.   A  weak
stomach  is benefited  by  vomiting, excited by the flesh of whelps."
In every respect the ratio medendi differs from ours.   The  appro-
priate change of diet for the different seasons is pointed out.   The
constant exercise of  the Greeks,  both  in  summer and  winter, is
remarkable.  No  mention is made of their use  of fire.  Cold bath-
ing recommended.
  Argument.  The  author considers  himself  as first  properly insti-
tuting  the  method  of dietetics.   The  difficulty  of this  attempt
adverted to.  Of  the  appropriate regimen both  of rich and poor at
different  seasons of  the year.   Of the symptoms and cure of  reple-
tion  and of  lassitude.  Of diarrhoea,  crudities, bad complexion,
eructations,  stercoraceous vomiting, and other affections.
  Chap. I.  The consideration of human  diet proposed.  Diversity
of food.
  Chap. II.  A healthy regimen pointed out  generally for every
season of the year.
  Chap. III.  How to discover  the errors  of  diet in health  from
* Catulorum carnibus. 
oi4              THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

various kinds of repletion.  Of  the symptoms and cure of the first
species of repletion.
  Chap. IV. Signs of the second, third, and fourth species  of re-
pletion.
  Chap. V.  Signs of the fifth, sixth, and seventh species.
  Chap. VI. Signs of the eighth, ninth, and tenth species.
  Chap. VII. Signs of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth species.
  Chap. VIII. Of the signs and  cure of two species of inanition.

  Gardeil has no preliminary remarks.  He divides it into twenty-
three paragraphs, which are headed to the following effect.
  Sec. I.  Some previous and  general  observations  on  the im-
possibility of prescribing  generally the exercise and  diet fitted for
all men.
  Sec II. General rules of  regimen for labouring people  in the
four different seasons of the year.   Emetics thrice a month ;  when.
  Sec VIII.  Of the regimen for people in easy circumstances. He
exults in having first discovered the rules for this, and having thus
laid down a  body of doctrine.
  Sec IX. Observations  pointing out whereon the peculiar regimen
for each  individual  ought  to be established;  1st. On account of
repletion,  in  a state of health;  symptoms indicating such a  state.
2d. Excess of exercise; the means of obviating, &c.
  Sec XI. to XIV.  3d.  Of repletion, threatening peripneumony,
and how  to obviate.   4th. Of  repletion, the symptoms of  which
affect the  head chiefly.  5th.  Of that which principally determines
to the prima? viae.  6th. Of that arising  from a coldness of the sto-
mach, causing crudities.
  Sec XV.  Of  that induced by excess of exercise,  manifesting
itself by its  influence on digestion, as  indicated by acid vomitings,
&c, heat  of stomach, &c.
  Sec XVII.  Of that repletion which manifests  itself in lientery.
Another with crude and hardened  stools;  and again  with  putrid
stools, following great fatigue; and another accompanied with dry
and burnt-up stools, with  vomiting.  These are all described  as to
their respective symptoms, and  the means of cure pointed out.
  Sec XXII. Of excess in walking; its  symptoms and effects; and
in gymnastic exercises: the symptoms, cure, &c. 
ON  DREAMS.
      De Insomniis.......Fcssius, Treat, iii. p. 375.
      De Insomniis,......Haller, iv. p. 89.
     ■Trait^ des Songes......Gardeil, iii. p. 129.

  Haller, in his  preface  to this  treatise, says, one would suppose
this to be written by the author of the third book on  diet.   Such,
he adds, is the opinion of  Fcesius.  Similar precepts are here deli-
vered as to the increase or diminution of food, of exercise, and of
medicine.   It  is in other  respects an elegant and connected work,
wherein dreams  are  referred to their physical causes, heat, cold,
secretions, repletions.   Indications are  derived from dreams of
those measures by which those  diseases  may be  relieved  which
give origin  to the dreams.   Although occasionally recommending
propitiations to the  deity, it is obvious  he regarded  it as of little
importance.   In  this book  we find a manifest  expression  of  the
increased and diminished  circulation.
   Subject-matter.—Dreams  are  here explained, from which, in
eight chapters, may be obtained  some certain signs  of good or ill
health; and some things  which  the mind-imagines in the  state of
sleep.

   Chap. I.  Prefatory remarks of the importance and utility of indi-
cations from dreams.   Of the soul in wakefulness and sleep.  Sleep
is either natural or preternatural.
   Chap. II. Of dreams  depending on daily occurrences, of a healthy
or morbid character; curative measures.
   Chap. III. Of dreams connected with  the heavenly bodies, signi-
 ficative of health or disease; and of the  cure of disturbed repose.
  ' Chap.  IV.  Variations of the  heavens  and its  luminaries in
 dreams, indicative of  different affections; and  variety in  the  me-
 thodus medendi.
   Chap. V. Of dreams connected with corporeal and civil func- 
 21G               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 tions; and  of those relating to the earth; trees, rivers, fountains,
 and seas.
   Chap. VI. Of dreams relating to earthquakes, inundations, dark-
 ness, fires, swimming, &c.
   Chap. VII.  Of dreams of various forms of bodies, or their parts,
 and of the dead, clothing, &c.
   Chap. VIII. Of dreams  from eating,  drinking, seeing, fighting,
 crossing rivers; enemies and monsters.
   It is plain, says Gardeil, from the termination of this treatise, that
 it is a continuation  of the third  book on regimen.   Yet it is so full
 of superstition, that we are not disposed  to regard it  as a  produc-
 tion of the same writer to whom we are indebted  for the excellent
 treatises that  precede it; without, at least, rejecting a number of
 things that appear as unfortunate attendants on the weakness inse-
 parable from  the nature of the human  mind, and of the age  in
 which Hippocrates  lived.
   Sec I.  Preliminary remarks  on dreams.
   Sec. II.  Inductions to be  derived  from  natural  dreams, from
 which to attain a knowledge of the good or bad state of the body.
   Sec III. to XII. Of dreams  of the heavenly bodies.  1.  When
 serene, or troubled.  2. When  changes of the moon are observed.
 3. Or in the sun.   4. When they represent  the firmament in a state
 of drought.  5.  Or fires in the heavens.  6.  Or falling stars.  7.
 Or dews and vapours.   8.  Or when  good  gifts appear  to be sent
 from heaven.  9. Or when the  dreams are  of rains and storms.
   Sec XII. Of  prayers to the  deity under  these circumstances to
 avert misfortunes.
   Sec XIII. Considerations from dreams relating to different states
 of the earth and of travelling, trees, rivers, &c, indicating the state
 of the blood, &c, and of the regimen and  prayers required under
 such circumstances.
   Sec XIV. Indications from  dreams  relative to the  particular
 constitution of the  body; and  such  as  represent  strange objects,
the dead, monsters, &c.
   Sec XV. Of dreams of eating, drinking, &c.
   Sec XVI. Of dreams  of massacres,  battles, sieges, &c.  The
author terminates by assuring good  health to all who will attend
to his advice;  and says, he thinks, by the aid  of the gods, he has
discovered dietetic rules, as good as it is possible for any one to give. 
OF  ALIMENT.
     De Alimento,.......Fozsius, Treat, iv. p. 380.
     De Alimento,.......Haller, i. p. 102.
     Traite de l'Aliment,.....Gardeil, i. p. 169.

   This book, says  Haller, contains much of the brevity and  anti-
thesis of the treatise " De Humoribus."   It imitates the Hippocratic
brevity.  Mercurialis considers it as a genuine production of the
divine old  man, although he  places  it in his second class.  Galen
deems it genuine, and wrote four commentaries to illustrate it, and
frequently quotes passages from  it as  such.   Others have equally
deemed it genuine.  In this is to be found a passage, which, by too
free  an interpretation, has been applied  to the circulation of the
blood.  The clearest  parts are  those that refer to the perspiration,
and its importance to health.  Here also we find the liver regarded
as the root or source of the veins, and the heart of the arteries,  by
which the blood and spirit  flow to eve,ry part,—from which we
might imagine the  work not to be more ancient than Erasistratus,
since it contains his views.  It treats  of the time in which the foetus
is  formed,—and  gives a short and incorrect osteology.   Adverts
again to the  pulsation of the vessels,—and of the spirit which  is  its
aliment.  It contains nothing of a dietetic character.
  Subject.—Of food, its  varieties  and powers; to what parts con-
veyed ; which  most  easily,  or with greater  difficulty,  changed;
what are the principles of which it is formed;  which are,  and are
not, nutritive.—Ed.
  Chap. I. Of the varieties and forms of food.   Effect  and influ-
ence of.   Of the variety of juices,  hurtful,  or innoxious.   Of the
difference of diseases, and  their signs;—remarks, &c,  cognizant
of a circulation here, and in the next chapter.
  Chap. II.  Of perspiration and its importance;—aliment,—various,
—not equally fitted  in all cases,—differing  in different periods of
life.   Foetal formation, &c. 
218
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
  Chap. III. Of the  nutrition of bones—length of time in healing
when fractured, &c. Of the change of food and its conversion into
different parts.

  " This treatise," says Gardeil, " would be more correctly entitled
' On Nutrition'—both from  its Greek derivation, and from the sub-
jects it treats of.  It ought rather to rank in Fcesius' third section,
since it is more of a  physiological than of a dietetic character.  It
is pretty  abstract, and somewhat tiresome, not only in my own
translation, but in the original, and other translations, arising either
from the  generality of ideas, or from the extreme brevity in which
a number of objects are presented  at  the  same  time, in order  to
subject them to one single  principle, which in the present period is
denominated the vital principle.  Several of its parts appear to be
susceptible of  different construction  or explanation  by different
readers.   Galen wrote  four  commentaries on this treatise, a con-
siderable portion of which has  reached us  ; but I have not derived
much benefit from them."
  Sec I.  Aliment; what is to be understood by it; general prin-
ciples on.
  Sec II. Physiological principles as to nutrition.
  Sec III. Of the  natural excretions, and of unnatural growth,
&c, of parts.
  Sec IV. Continuation of the principles respecting aliment.
  Sec V. Numerous sources of derangement  which induce symp-
toms that accompany different diseases.
  Sec VI. Every thing is  but  relative in  the animal  economy-
nothing absolute.
  Sec VII.  Of the various channels for aliment—immense variety
observed,  as well relatively to good  and evil, as to  many other cir-
cumstances—amongst  others, the variation as  to the  period  of
pregnancy.
  Sec VIII. Of the variation as to the period of the callus pro-
duced  after the fracture of different bones;—other differences and
their causes.
  Sec VIII. (bis.) Of the  benefit of liquids in alimentation—and
also of motion.
  Sec IX. Of pus, and of the marrow. 
 THE RATIONALE  OF FOOD IN ACUTE DISEASES.

 De Ratione Victus in Morbis Acutis......Fresius, Treat, v. p. 383
 De Victus Ratione in Morbis Acutis......Haller, i. p. 228.
 Traite du Regime dans les Maladies aigues,  .    .   .   Gardeil, i. p. 178.

   Although Fcesius constitutes but a  single book alone of this
 treatise, Haller (why, is  not adequately explained) has  divided it
 into four,—the heads of which  are here successively  given,  to-
 gether with the preface and argument of each.


                           BOOK I.

  Preface.  The first three parts of this work  seem to be genuine;
the fourth, although very ancient,  even anterior  to  Erasistratus,
appears to Galen to be  spurious.   In  the first book, Hippocrates
writes upon his Ptisan, in opposition to the Gnidians,  who had en-
tirely neglected the rules of diet.   He next  attacks the physicians
of his own period, who, in the commencement  of an acute disease,
exhausted the patient by starvation, but allowed food  at  a period
more advanced.  In opposition to which, he contends, that in the
beginning of acute  diseases, the diet should be  of the lightest kind,
such  as mulsa," or  barley  water;  and that the physician might
gradually advance to more substantial food, as ptisan, &c.b
   Chap. I. The ancients wrote nothing worthy  of record on the
subject of diet, so far as we can judge from the Gnidian sentences.
The physician is best appreciated in  acute  diseases.  Great  dis-
crepancy of opinion among them in these.

  • Hydromel—sive potus  ex aqua et melle fermentando paratus.—Blanchard Med-
Lex.
  b A decoction of pearl barley, with mashed raisins, liquorice,  &c. 
220               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  Chap. II.  The  ptisan is  preferable in  acute diseases.   It should
be prepared  from the best barley, and thoroughly boiled.   It should
be very slippery (lubricissima)—and  is an excellent  corrector of
thirst.  It  is  sometimes useful, at  times  injurious.   What the an-
cients meant by siderati. Of the proper or improper time of giving
slops, or broths (sorbitiones).


                          BOOK II.

  Preface.  In this book is  contained Hippocrates' treatment of
pleurisy,  by  venesection,  fomentations,  mulsa,  oxymel;—in  low-
seated pain of the side, he prescribes venesection.
  Subject.—In case of pleurisy, the treatment is stated,  as consist-
ing of fomentations, venesection, glysters, purging, and  other eva-
cuations.  It then treats of barley  water, ptisan, maza, and bread;
of water, wine, aqua mulsa—vinegar and mulsa;  finally, an ample
detail is afforded of the varied and frequent changes of appropriate
measures in  five chapters.
  Chap. I.  Of attempts to  be made for removing the pain of pleu-
risy, by means of warm fomentations, or venesection, or loosening
the  bowels  by black hellebore, peplium,a or such like articles, and of
the  proper occasion of using them.
  Chap. II.  Accustomed food and drinks to be preferred;  a sudden
change of diet is injurious in health, but not in disease.
  Chap. III.  Hints as to the safe prescribing of diet to the sick.  In
the  commencement of disease, the patient should be fed with slops
and barley  water ; and during its violence the lightest possible diet
must be employed*.
  Chap. IV.  Symptoms of depraved diet, and indicating a fatal
issue, &c.  Of rest and exercise under like circumstances &c.   Of
what concerns the bowels.
  Chap. V.  A change from spare  to copious diet, or from con-
tinual rest to excessive labour, is very injurious:  it is  useful  to  be
aware of this.  Of the use of barley water; and of the symptoms
of watchfulness and of somnolency.
a A species of spurge. 
THE RATIONALE OF FOOD IN ACUTE DISEASES.
221
                          BOOK III.

  Preface.  Here Hippocrates states the efficacy of drinks in acute
diseases.  Of water  alone  he  speaks unfavourably; of mulsa; of
oxymel; of wine, in the  use of which he  is liberal.   Of baths, in
what cases most useful.
  Chap. I. Of wines, and their effects.
  Chap. II.  Of aqua mulsa (hydromel), when useful or the reverse.
  Chap. III. Of oxymel (acetum mulsum), when useful or otherwise.
  Chap. IV. Water  alone  of  little  benefit in  acute  diseases,  and
why so 1
  Chap. V.  Bathing, not  proper for  all persons, nor at all times.


                          BOOK IV.

  Preface.  To me, says Haller, this book appears undoubtedly
spurious, both from  its numerous prescriptions, and  various reme-
dies not mentioned in the legitimate  writings of Hippocrates. Com-
ments are interspersed on subjects totally different from his. Pretty
good  histories are given of various  diseases,  as  pleurisy,  angina,
cholera, dropsy, for which  last are  recommended  cantharides and
other acrids.  Then follow dietetic precepts  respecting flesh  and
vegetables, aphorisms on condiments, and conclusions of too general
a character, deduced from individual events: vomits are ordered
dietetically three or  four times a month, as in the books on  diet.
Some chirurgical observations also are given.
  Subject* treated of.—Treats of many acute and other diseases.
Of causos, angina, aphonia, inflamed praecordia, catarrh, ulcerated
trachea, [arteriae ulceratione,] heat  of the lungs,  different fevers,
pleurisy, peripneumony, dysentery, jaundice, tetanus, dropsy, hemor-
rhoids ; abscesses;  their  symptoms; pains of the side, eyes, loins,
and  other parts; of all  which the  diagnostics, prognostics,  and
therapeutics are given.
  Gardeil has  but  few remarks on  this treatise;  he includes the
four books, as given by Haller, in one, as Fcesius does.  He merely 
222               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

remarks that this is the fifth treatise in the fourth section of Foesius,
and that we find  in it the  same  attention in observation, and the
same  excellence of judgment, which have  rendered  Hippocrates
so admirable in all that has reached us of his writings in  more than
2000 years.
  The headings to 64  paragraphs are to the following effect:
  Sec I. The insufficiency of the doctrines contained in the Gnidian
Sentences.
  Sec II. Justice rendered to physicians as to certain remedies in
sundry diseases ; observations as to their bad classification.
  Sec III.  Of the objects  of medicine, and difference in their use
from the judgment of  practitioners.
  Sec IV. Regimen,  its previous and  complete neglect.   The ap-
propriate use of the ptisan as nourishment is  of the greatest import-
ance.
  Sec V., VI.  Chief  regulations  for the administration of ptisan.
  Sec VII. The ptisan, how  to be made, and its effects  according
as it is employed.  The  inconvenience  of insufficient  nourishment,
or of  one too strong, after great abstinence.
  Sec VIII.  General rule respecting  the  administration of the
ptisan, and as regards regimen.
  Sec. IX. Rule as to the proper time of giving food.
  Sec X. Utility of  different fomentations; of blood-letting  and
purging in a stitch of  the side, as it may differ in  situation; and of
the subsequent administration of the puree.*
   Sec XI. The question examined, if  it is best to keep the patient
at the beginning on a  strict abstinence, or to use the ptisan.
   Sec XII. Bad effects of eating more than usual; how to remedy
this.  The reverse of  this considered, and  its  remedy.  Great
changes hurtful.
   Sec XIII. XIV.  Some general remarks on regimen, on different
kinds of  bread, &c, and on the different species of wine.  Excep-
tions.
   Sec XV.  General rule—It is  better to  err at the commence-
ment, by defect  rather  than by excess.  Faults from  excess are
more readily repaired than those from  defect.   Cases  stated,  in
which an almost absolute abstinence may be pursued.
   Sec XV. (bis.)  Diversity of cases from which death mav ensue.
* Porridge, Fr. Diet. 
THE RATIONALE OF FOOD IN ACUTE DISEASES.
223
   Sec XVI. All sudden changes are injurious.
   Sec XVII.  Application of what has preceded, to nutrition.
   Sec XVIII. Brief conclusion concerning the changes of nourish-
ment in acute diseases.
   Sec XIX. to XXIII. Examination as to drinks.   Different kinds
of wine.
   Sec XXIII.  Of  hydromel.  It is more  nourishing  and more
strengthening  than  the small  white wines, and should be given
before, and not after the puree.
   Sec XXIV. Of oxymel—its variety, crude  and  prepared.  It  is
an excellent drink  in  acute diseases, as well  as hydromel, but  is
more purgative.
   Sec XXVI. Of water.  The author no friend to it in acute dis-
eases.
   Sec XXVII. Of medicinal ptisans.
   Sec XXVIII. Of baths; remarks on their  employment; hurtful
or beneficial according  as they are employed. In whom  useful,
&c.   In whom hurtful.
   Sec XXIX. Of different species of diseases.  Ardent fever and
its cure, &c.   Rules for bleeding in  acute diseases.
   Sec XXX.  Of orthopnoea, (probably what  we call dry asthma.)
The  inconveniences of purgatives given at its  commencement, and
generally in the beginning of every inflammatory state.  Important
rule  in their administration.
   Sec XXXI. This paragraph seems to relate to apoplexy, and its
treatment.
   Sec XXXII. Of  quinsy—its course, symptoms,  and cure.  [Qu.
croup f]
   Sec XXXIII. Fevers from intestinal plenitude, called improperly
in our days, putrid.
   Sec XXXIV. Ardent fever  with  inanition;  not  to  purge before
the fourth day; its treatment.  Coldness of the extremities in the in-
crease explained.
   Sec XXXV. Of  diarrhoea and some other dangerous symptoms
in ardent fevers.
   Sec XXXVI. Of fevers in general, &c.
   Sec. XXXVII.  Of the fever  called asodes.
   Sec XXXIX. Of fever with hiccup.    Probably a symptom
only, not a particular species.
   Sec XL. Of pleurisy and peripneumony, and their modes of cure. 
224
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES
  Sec XLI. Of dysentery.
  Sec XLII.  Of bilious fever and bilious colic.  General rule as
to the termination of diseases.
  Sec XLIII.  Rules for administering hellebore.
  Sec XLIV.  Distinction between symptoms arising from fatigue
and other causes.
  Sec XLV. Inconvenience of aqueous drinks; and those too strong.
  Sec XLVI.  Conduct necessary when  one repast only is  made,
if accustomed to two.
  Sec XLVII., &c. Effects of garlic, of cheese, of legumes, of
beef, goats' flesh, pork.
  Sec LII.  How to treat  cases of fulness of the  bowels, but not
of the stomach.
  Sec LI 11. Two kinds of dropsy, aqueous and flatulent.
  Sec LIV. Of discharges from  the  bowels, with great heat and
irritation.
  Sec LV.  General remarks for all diseases.
  Sec LVI. to end.  Some recipes and treatment of sundry dis-
eases.
  About fifteen  or  twenty lines  in  Fcesius and  Haller are here
omitted, as consisting of a  number of recipes, and which Gardeil
could not make out. 
   ON  THE  DIFFERENT PARTS  OF MAN.

      De Locis in Homine,.....Fcesius, Treat, vi. p. 407.
      De Locis in Homine,.....Haller, i. p. 51.
      Traite des Lieux dans l'Homme,  .   .   Gardeil, i. p. 241.

  This is one of those books admitted generally to be genuine, but
not perfected by Hippocrates :  so that Haller concludes the analysis
of it, in  his preface, by saying,—It  may be  the  work of Hippo-
crates, for  the  methodus  medendi  differs not from that of his
genuine writings.  Many- choice  things  are,  however, mixed  up
with foreign matters difficult of explanation.
  There is, adds he, in this book a mixture of argument, somewhat
of anatomy,  as  of the membranes  of the eye and  brain, of the
nares, a part of the angiology of the head, of the temporal  arteries;
which he denies to carry blood, yet in the same place admits of
two  opposing streams of blood.   Here  we  find an account, (al-
together different from that given in the treatise, De ossium natura),
of those  vessels from the  tendons  of the neck which go to the
testes, also of others, and of the vena cava; of those  going to the
malleoli,  which,  if divided, cause  impotency; of the vein of the
arm, which  is incised for  affections of  the  spleen;  and  notice is
taken of  the anastomosis  of the vessels.  Something is said of the
nerves, with which  he appears to  confound  the  tendons.  Some-
thing, also, as to a  history of the bones, the sutures, and a complete
skeleton.   The author seems acquainted with  the articular synovia.
He admits of fibres from the stomach to the bladder ;  of metastasis
of humours from one  part  to  another, and  the  channels of such
conveyance; of diseases arising from fluxion, and their remedies;
of diseases of the  eyes,  wherein no remedy is  to  be employed
immediately to them, but  an incision  to the bone  is recommended
on the  head, and the pulsating  veins [qu.?  temporal  arteries] be-
tween  the ear  and the temples, are to  be  cauterized.  He then
passes to the consideration of different species of  bile, to which he
imputes diseases of the breast, which  he cauterizes, when suppu-
                              15 
226               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

rated.   His cure for  pleurisy, of mulsum and vinegar (hydromel).
In dropsy he cauterizes the neck  in  three  places, and in sciatica
employs cups.  He uses  fire also in enlarged spleen.   The book
next considers the cause  of fever, as originating  in  a  stagnating
humour falling on a  weakened  part, and of the cure by mulsum
and  posca  (oxycrat).   Also  of  refrigerants, as  cucumbers,  in
fever;  of jaundice, and the use of elaterium in it  as  a  purgative;
after which he gave wine.   In true angina, he  bled  and  purged.
He then proceeds to fractures of the  head.   Diarrhoea removed by
vomiting.   His prudent counsel to  abstain from violent remedies in
unknown diseases.  He gave mandragore in melancholy and con-
vulsions.  Of cauterizing the veins in disease, and  which.  Of  the
difficulties  and  opposite indications in medicine, which  cannot be
reduced strictly to a certain art.   Something is said on the classes
of medicine.  He recommends the physician never to be cast down
by fortune.—Ed.

  Subject of the treatise in general.—Something is  here stated as to
parts of the human body, generally.   Of the external senses.   Of
the veins,  nerves, sutures,  joints, and  other  parts.  Of fluxions,
fevers, ulcers, and other diseases ;  together with the appropriate  use
of several remedies.
   Sec I.—Chap. I. The human body is a circle, of which each part
may be esteemed as both the beginning and the end.  Bodies  are
obnoxious  to disease, in  proportion to their  aridity.   A primary
affection of any part, induces  sympathetic and secondary diseases.
A stoppage of humours is a cause of fluxion and of disease.  The
principle of cure is deducible from  the primary  disease.  Of  the
knowledge of parts, their  sympathy and  communication.  By  the
affection of one part,  the whole body may become  affected.
   Chap. II. Of hearing, smell, and sight; their organs and vessels.
Of the three membranes  of the eye,  and the two of the brain.  Of
the distribution  of veins from  the  brain,  and their  inter-communi-
cation.  Of the  distribution of the vena cava.  Of the  causes of
impotence, loss, and disturbance of vision ; and of bloody urine.
   Chap. III. Of the nature of the nerves, their nutrition,  substance,
situation, colour, strength, and  diseases.   Of several sutures of  the
head.  Of the bones of the whole, and  of parts, of the body.  Of
their articulations; and of the diseases, pains, mucus, and lameness
of the joints. 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.
227
   Chap. IV.  The stomach a receptacle for food and drinks; the
bladder for serous fluids.  Fluxions are caused  by cold  applied to,
and contracting the body; by heat, rarefying the flesh, and attenua-
ting the fluids;  by repletion  which obstructs, and evacuation which
enlarges the passages.   The inferior parts  are drier than the upper,
owing to their less vascularity.
   Chap. V.  Seven different fluxions from the head.  Three of them
conspicuous from the ears, nose, and eyes.  Four are latent; in the
breast, producing  bile,  lassitude, empyema, tabes;  in  the spinal
marrow, productive of  dorsal phthisis ;  in the vertebras and mus-
cles, inducing dropsy ;  in the  joints, causing gout,  sciatica, and
oedema.
   Chap. VI.  Of the cure of those fluxions,  as manifested in  coryza.
Otalgia and fistula of the ears.   Ophthalmia, prurigo palpebrarum,
epiphora,  and albugo, &c, cure by chirurgical means, as  incision
and cautery; or pharmaceutic, by topics and cathartics.
   Chap. VII. Of a  bilious fluxion from  the head  upon the  thorax,
inducing peripneumony, pleurisy,  suppuration,  tabes, and  cough;
also inducing, when flowing  on the spine, icterus, and tabes dorsalis.
Of the rise, causes, signs, both  diagnostic and prognostic, of the
same.
   Sec II.—Chap. VIII. Of  the  cure  of pleurisy, peripneumonia,
empyema, consumption ; and of an eighth fluxion of the fauces, fall-
ing on the belly.
   Chap. IX. Of the cure of dropsy, sciatica, and tabes from fluxion
from the head to the hinder parts;  and of the enlarged spleen and
dropsy of boys.
   Chap. X. Of  a dry pleurisy, unaccompanied  by catarrh, and of
its cure.  Of the origin and cure of fever.
   Chap. XI. Of the  cure of icterus, malignant ulcers, and angina.
   Chap. XII. Of fractures and  fissures of  the skull, and  their cure
by the saw  or  terebra.   Of fatal purgations, wounds and ulcers.
Of the cure of  a person labouring under  purgation.   Eruption of
bile is with difficulty allayed; vomiting assuages the evacuation.
   Chap. XIII. Of the cure of unknown disease, of strong and weak
persons, of ulcers, fluxions, melancholies, and convulsions.
   Chap. XIV. Of cauterizing the veins,  and  mode of,  and  use.
Whatever stops the  blood arrests a fluxion  and cures headache.
   Chap. XV. Medicine  is an art of long and difficult attainment, 
228               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

on account of the variety of subjects, the different complaints, and
frequently contradictory effects of remedies.
  Chap. XVI. What a remedy is.   Of mild  and powerful remedies
in purging and binding, and of their employment.
  Chap. XVII.  The art of medicine  is certain and constant to him
who is acquainted with it, and  depends not on  chance.  With  or
without chance he will act correctly, and may expect success.
  Gardeil, without affording a reason for the omission, has left out
what constitutes nearly a column in Fcesius, and the first  chapter
in Haller.  A reference to the foregoing  will be sufficient however
to establish the  connexion, and to show the views of sympathy held
by Hippocrates.  In proceeding from that  point, Gardeil  gives a
brief enumeration of the parts of the body, thus—Ed.

  1. Of the  organ of  hearing.  2.  Of that of smell.   3. Of that of
vision.  4.  Of  the brain, and  of the origin  and distribution of the
blood-vessels; continued in 5 and 6 ; in which last, the communica-
tion or inosculation of the  vessels is particularly stated.   In 7 the
diseases  of  the fleshy parts, the nerves, membranes, and  tendons
are treated  of, and are regarded as being more difficult to cure
than of the  fluids.  8. Of  the sutures of the cranium.  9. Of the
bones of the trunk.  10. The superior extremities.  11.  The hand.
12.  The  pelvis  and  lower extremities.  14. Of the synovia and arti-
culations.  15.  The stomach  receives the  food and  drink taken;
and certain  vessels  convey liquids to the  bladder.  16. Hippocrates
here commences to treat  of diseases, and  first, of  fluxions, or ca-
tarrhs.   17. Explanation of the causes of fluxions, of which there
are seven, proceeding from the head; one  to the nose,  one to the
ears, and one to the eyes, all which are  conspicuous  to every one;
a fourth  goes to the breast, and causes  suppurations and  phthisis.
20. When the fluxion is to the spinal  medulla, dorsal  phthisis is the
result.  21.  If  it goes to the vertebras and  to  the  flesh, a peculiar
kind of dropsy  follows.  22. If the fluxion proceeds  slowly, sciatica
and rheumatism ensue.  23. The treatment of these  seven species
is given in  this and the succeeding numbers.  In 32 is  a  detailed
description of the fourth species, viz., that  on  the  breast  and tra-
chea, producing  suppuration and  phthisis,  and accompanied with
the views of Hippocrates, as to peripneumony and pleurisy.  33. Of
dorsal phthisis, from fluxion on the spine.  34. Treatment of pleu- 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.
229
risy.  35. Of the cure of empyema.   36.  Of fluxion on the belly
through the oesophagus.  37. Treatment of fluxions on the soft parts
near the vertebrae, inducing dropsy.  38.  And of  fluxions inducing
sciatica.  39. Treatment of enlarged spleen, with  wasting away of
the omentum.   40.  Of that of dropsy  in children.   41.  Of a dry
pleurisy without catarrh.   42. Of fever from repletion, and  its  op-
posite.  43.  Of jaundice.   44. Of malignant ulcers.  45. Of quinsy.
46. Of ulceration of the tongue.   47.  General rules for treating dis-
eases.   48. Wounds of the head.  49 to 57. Sundry aphorisms re-
lating to treatment.   58.  Of  treatment of  unknown diseases.   59.
Of tumours and ulcers.  60. Of the use  of mandragore in some dis-
eases.   63, 64.  Aphorisms.  65. On cauterizing  the vessels, and
precautions in, as to hemorrhage.  67.  Of  the difficulties attending
the learning of medicine.   68. Apparent contradictions in medicine,
and reasons assigned in 69 and 70.  71. Importance of seizing on
opportunity, or acting apropos.    Whatever induces a change in
the actual state of the system, is to be viewed as remedial.  The
subject continued in 72 and 73.  Repudiation of chance in medicine,
for medicine is founded  on solid  grounds, unmixed with chance;
and chance is, in all things, to be denied.    If a proper treatment is
pursued, the result  is beneficial; the reverse is the  result of igno-
rance.   (This  seems  to be  omitted  by  Haller, but  is found in
Fcesius.)  74. Of female diseases; all which  are ascribed  to  the
uterus, and its asserted movements.  The menses  in young persons
are affirmed to  be good blood; but in old,  mixed with mucosities.
   I have given  the outline of this treatise, as afforded both by Haller
and Gardeil; but inasmuch as it  is  considered as an important Hip-
pocratic work, I have added the  following full translation. Towards
the close  many aphoristic sentences seem  intermingled with  the
text.—Ed.
  It appears to me that  no particular part of the body  can be
regarded as its  beginning; each individual part may, in  fact, be so
considered, and equally so as to  its termination.  In describing a
circle, no beginning is found, and  so it would seem to be in respect
to the members of the body.*  The drier it is, so is it the more cal-
culated to originate and labour under disease; less so if moist, for
disease  in the dry body is fixed, and does not yield; but if in the
1 NoeevfjtATur, Hipp.;—Membrorum, Fees.;—Morborum, HaL 
230               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

moist, it circulates and occupies different parts, and by this change
induces rest, and  is  more  readily tranquillized, from  not  being
attached to any particular spot.  Changing  thus  from one part to
another, disease  shows itself accordingly;  as in a metastasis from
the belly to the head,  from the head to the  muscles  and abdomen,
and so of the rest for a similar reason; for  when the belly  does not
moderately discharge itself,  and food  is taken in, the  body is mois-
tened by the humours of  the food ; but that humour interrupted by
the belly, the passage to  the head is excited, but not being there
readily received by its vessels,  it flows where chance may direct,
and is carried into the circuit of the head and brain ; but should it
again be conveyed towards the belly, it there induces disease, or
in any other part on which it may fall.  Hence it is best to under-
take the cure of diseased parts through those which cause the dis-
ease, and therefore it is more readily cured  by taking it at its onset.
But  the body itself is similarly constituted, although all  its parts,
large and small, are  not  exactly alike, neither are the superior and
inferior parts; yet, if the smallest part be intercepted, it  becomes
affected, and that affection, whatever be its  nature, is soon felt by
the whole body, because its smallest part is constituted  alike with
the largest, and  that  smallest part, whatever may affect  it, affects
its congeners, each conformably to its nature, whether that be good
or bad ; and  since the  body, from  the  intimate connexion of its
smallest part, feels pain or the reverse, from  whatever reaches that
smallest part, such is  then carried to, and felt by all  that resemble
it, and thence it is, that every part is  threatened thereby.
   The nature of the body claims the first rank in teaching the art
of medicine.  1 begin then  by  observing that the body has several
openings, and first of that which serves for hearing.   The external
parts of the ear serve merely to increase and strengthen the sound;
that which reaches the  brain through the  membrane of the tym-
panum, is  clearly what causes  hearing;  there is  a passace  by
means of a  foramen that  conveys it to the brain, which is  sur-
rounded by meninges.
   As for the  nostrils, properly  speaking, there  is no  foramen; but
there  is an  apparatus  pierced  somewhat like  a sponge; hence
sounds are heard at a greater distance than we perceive odours;
the  odorant  particles separate and divide  in passing through the
organ of  smell.  In respect to  the eyes, there go to the  brain, in
order to induce vision, two  small vessels,  which traverse the  me- 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.            231
ninges that envelope it;  they produce vision by means of a very
pure humour  furnished by the brain, on which we  see  in  the eyes
a representation of objects.   If these vessels* dry up, vision is lost.
The eyes are enveloped  in  three  membranes for their  security;
the external one  is very thick,  the  middle  much  less so, and the
third, containing the vitreous  humour, is extremely  delicate. When
the external one is wounded,  it produces disease;  laceration of the
middle one is replete with danger, and when torn, we see a kind of
bladder protrude; the third presents still greater danger, because it
is that which  contains the humour on which vision depends.
  The brain  has two membranes; an external  one, very strong;
the other, immediately investing the brain, is very delicate, and does
not reunite if it is wounded.   There are vessels that adhere to the
bones after traversing the muscles.   Two descend  from the vertex
and  go towards  the eyebrows  and terminate in the angles of the
eyes.  One other  is carried to the nostrils ;  whilst two others pass
along the temples behind the ears, and go  to supply the eyes, and
have a constant pulsation.   These  are the only vessels  that divert
away the blood, instead of moistening the parts;  that  part that  is
thus turned back  does not harmonize with the progressing portion.
The former in its route meets the descending portion, and rebound-
ing against each other, a shock is  produced that  gives rise  to the
pulsation of the vessels.   I have stated that vision is maintained by
a very pure  humour  coming from  the brain; now if any thing
from  these vessels mixes with it, the humour becomes turbid, and
is no longer fitted to  represent objects.  We sometimes, then, see
as it were flies, nubiculae, or dark moving spots, at others, nothing
clearly marked.  There  are two other vessels located  between
those above-mentioned and the ears ; they go towards the ears, and
there dip down ;  two others,  arising near the junction of the tem-
poral bone, go to the ears;  two pass near the tendons of the neck,
towards  the vertebras, and terminate in  the  kidneys and testicles;
when  these are  affected, bloody urine is discharged.   Two more
go from  the head to the shoulders, and are  properly called humo-
ral.  Two more from the vertex, passing  near the ears on the fore-
part of the neck, go to the vena cava.   The vena  cava, elongated
like the oesophagus, is located between it and the trachea, and going
towards  the  diaphragm, enters  the heart; passing through the
* Doubtless the optic nerves are here intended.—Ed. 
232
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
 diaphragm  downwards, it  divides  and  goes to the groins  and
 thighs, branching off, and proceeding to the legs and ankles inside
 of  the tibia.   If this last is divided, impotency is induced.   It then
 proceeds, and is lost in the toes.  A ramification of  the vena cava
 goes to the left hand; another  passes under  the  spleen to the left
 flank, at the place where the  spleen lies under  the epiploon,  and
 which terminates at the lower part of the thorax: it arises near
 the diaphragm, and communicates  as  it  mounts up, with  the
 humoral, and goes under the elbow-joint, after  having divided  into
 two branches, one of which is divided  in affections of the spleen.
 There is another in the belly, which takes  a  similar course.   In
 other respects we find all the veins communicate and  empty  into
 one another; some unite amongst themselves; others, by the means
 of  small vessels that emanate  from them, give nourishment to the
 muscles at the place where their extremities communicate together.
 Now it  is more easy to cure diseases of  the vessels than  those of
 the nerves.*   In the first case, the disease is in perpetnal  motion;
 it is carried  by the fluid contained in the vessels, which is never at
 rest.  The nature of the veins is to contain the humours in  the
 flesh; the nerves, on  the contrary, are  dry, solid, and attached to
 bones; from whence they derive their ordinary  support.    They
 are also nourished  by the flesh; they are  moister and softer than
 the bones, but firmer than the flesh.  When  disease  attacks them,
 it becomes fixed there, and stronger, and it is difficult to remove it.
 Tetanus  then  ensues, with  spasms of  the limbs  and body.   The
 nerves (tendons) serve  to  strengthen  the articulations; they  are
 spread throughout the body, and give strength to the parts,  and we
 observe that they are always very strong in those parts of the body
 where the flesh is  in smallest amount.  The  body is  filled with
 nerves (tendons); there are  none in the  face  or head, but we there
 find vessels  similar to nerves,  between the  flesh and bone, very
 strong and small; they are, as it were, nerves with a cavity.
  We see in the head, sometimes three, sometimes four  sutures.
 When there are four, one is seen on each side, going towards the
ear, another  before, and another behind.   Such  is the case with
four sutures.   When there are three, one is in front, and the two
others on each  side going to the ear, as in the case of four, but the
hinder one is wanting.  Those who have more, enjoy better health.

    a Apparently, the term nerves here implies tendons, aponeuroses, &e.—Ed. 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.
233
 At the  eyebrows there is  a  bone that connects them;  two others
 are connected at the chin : those of the upper jaw are united with
 those of the head.
   The vertebras are more numerous in some subjects than in others:
 their smallest number is twenty-two; the upper are near the head, the
 lower lead toward  the anus.   The ribs are seven in number; they
 are articulated behind with the vertebras; in front of the chest they
 unite together.   The clavicles unite together in front of the breast
 near the trachea, where they join the sternum; they are covered
 behind by the shoulder-blade, which bends forward, and  is always
 fixed at the upper part of the back.  The shoulder-blade is attached
 to the bone of  the  arm  by a projection that joins to the humerus.
 This  bone  has, at its upper part, two eminences, one internal,  the
 coronoid, the other external, the  acromion, besides the  lower one
 that articulates  with the humerus, that is, the head of the shoulder-
 blade, in which is  the glenoid  cavity.  The  prominences  at  rhe
 elbow on  the lower part of the humerus, serve for the articulation
 of the radius; and  a little lower  on the inner side with the cubit.
 It is this, which with the radius forms the elbow-joint.   Four small
 prominences are there noticed, two superior and two inferior. The
 cubit presents two superior, that assist in the articulation, and form
 a  projection  at the  part where the  humerus terminates; the  two
 lower, which are also a little internal and very near each other,
 inside the elbow, belong to the articulation of the radius with  the
 other bone of the forearm.  At the lower part of these two bones,
 the carpus is articulated with the radius:  the tuberosities  of  the
 bone at this part being  movable in  every  direction, do not form
 separate and distinct articulations, except  at the upper  and lower
 parts.
   The hands have numerous  joints, for all  the bones articulate with
 those adjoining: the fingers likewise present many joints, each one
 having three, one of which is below the  nail, between  it and  the
 tuberosity; the second  between  the  first  and second  tuberosity,
 where one of the  flexions of the finger takes place; the third arti-
culation of the fingers is at the part where they are connected with
the hand.
  We observe  two cavities in the os ischium called cotyloid, with
which  the thigh-bones articulate.  At the upper part of the thigh-
bone two  eminences are noticed, one tending outwards, the other
inwards, neither of  which forms  the joint, but constitute a part of 
234
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
the bone itself.' The femur at one of its upper  portions enters the
cotyloid cavity; for its upper extremity has two terminations, one
of which, internal,  is round  and smooth, and forms the joint; the
other is exterior and smaller, and projecting.  Towards the bottom
of the buttocks we see a projection that  belongs to the ischium. At
its lower end, the thigh-bone has two condyles that have a hinge-
like articulation or ginglymus with the tibia, above which the rotula
adapts itself, and prevents the fluids from the soft parts entering the
joint when the leg is  bent.  We see at the upper part of the leg
two eminences, one internal; the external one does not form a part
of the knee-joint.  Another eminence at the inferior part assists in
its articulation with the foot.  In the foot are numerous articula-
tions  as in the  hands; for as many bones, so many articulations.
We reckon as many bones in the foot as in the hand.
  We find likewise in the body many small articulations, not all of
equal size, but  resembling those  I have described : there are also
many small  vessels besides those already mentioned, but they are
of not much importance.
  The synovia  (f^ga,  mucus) is natural  to all the articulations;
when it is pure, the bones are moistened by it, and by this lubrica-
tion their motion is  easy.   On the contrary, it is difficult and pain-
ful, when  the soft parts pour out a vitiated  humour.  The joint
stiffens whenever the humour supplied by the soft  parts is not unc-
tuous.  As the  synovia is  exhausted by  motion, if the soft parts are
not continually  moistened, the joints become dry; if it  is in  too
great quantity, the  joints being  unable  to  contain the  humour, it
spreads around, and  infarctions are the  consequence.   The nerves,
which serve to connect the bones, swell and relax.  We often see
lameness produced  by one or other of  these causes.   When  they
are powerful, the lameness is more considerable, but  less so when
weak.
  What we  eat and drink goes  to the stomach, from whence ves-
sels convey a part of the liquids to the bladder.
  Fluxions ensue from refrigeration and tumefaction of  the flesh.
Sometimes, when the cold acts upon the distended flesh and  vessels
of the head, they are  contracted, and  the humours  contained  in
them are expressed:  the soft parts are compelled to pour  them out
from their diminished bulk ; the contraction  of the skin by pressing
on the roots of  the hair causes its erection;  the fluids thus pressed
upon  spread  wherever a passage can  be  found.   Fluxions are 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.             235
caused by heat, because  the soft  parts are rarefied when heated;
the pores are thus enlarged, and the humours they contain are at-
tenuated, and yield  readily to every pressure.  The greater  the
rarefaction the greater is the flow, particularly when the  soft parts
are replete  with  humour; that portion  which  they cannot any
longer retain, is poured out from every part, and  a passage once
made, they issue through it, until the body drying, the passage con-
tracts.  As every part communicates, the moisture  taken up  is at-
tracted to the dry parts.  The body of man being permeable, it is
easy for those parts that have not augmented in volume or imbibed
any thing, to attract humours, especially if it is the lower parts that
are dry, and  the upper that are moist, as  in fact  is the case;  for in
the superior parts there are more  vessels, and the thinner soft parts
of the head  require less moisture;  the passage  is  thus  very easy
from  the over-moistened to the dry parts, especially as  every dry
part absorbs  moisture; nor can it be denied that the humours tend
naturally downwards, however light they may be, and by whatso-
ever power they are moved.
   There are  seven fluxions from the head, viz., one to the nose, one
to the ears, and one to the eyes; all which are visible to every one.
When the fluxion is to the breast, in consequence  of cold, bile exists.
Catarrh  caused by cold  readily falls  upon the breast, because  the
passage  by  the trachea  is very easy, and because the trachea is
exposed to the air, and is in constant  motion.  When then the soft
parts  are charged with moisture and with bile, as they never are at
rest,  but always agitated, they find themselves in pain and fatigued,
resembling that felt in the limbs by  the agitations  of a journey;
from  hence result suppuration and phthisis, when  the fluxion is to
the breast.  If the fluxion is to the spinal marrow, a dorsal, or blind
phthisis ensues.  Should the catarrh  go  to the  vertebras and soft
parts, a peculiar species of dropsy is the  result;  the  forepart  of the
head, the nose and eyes are not cedematous, but  the sight is affect-
ed, the eyes are dry, and assume a greenish hue  like the  rest  of the
body; the humours do not  flow out, although falling down largely
from  the head,  through the soft parts, posteriorly, leaving the fore-
parts dry, whilst those behind  are inundated ; the humours tend in-
ternally, and find little or no passage  externally by the nose.   The
body becomes firmer externally than within, the pores of the former
contract, mutually  approximate,  and oppose a  resistance to any
fluxion:  internally, on the contrary,  all  expands;  the solid  parts 
236               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

become attenuated, and the fluxion from above finds little opposition
from  them, $nd fills the soft parts with fluids.  That which is de-
rived  f$om food is corrupted by mixture with  the impure  humours
from the head, so that the body is  imperfectly nourished ; the soft
parts  therefore surcharged with humours, and receiving only aque-
ous matters, become engorged and tumid.
  If the fluxion is slowly effected, it produces sciatica and rheuma-
tism,  after which  it  stops  flowing;  the  humour coming insensibly,
is repelled by the stronger parts, by which  it is compelled to fall
upon the joints.  Sciatica and rheumatism are also produced at the
conclusion of some diseases, whenever that which has given rise to
them, having lost its noxious quality, still remains  to  be  expelled.
The humour, unable to escape externally, or to be internally retain-
ed,  causes swellings beneath the skin; or else, if it leaves  the part,
it is transported towards the joints, which  yield to it, and it there
excites either sciatica  or rheumatism.   If the fluxion is on  the nose,
it fills it with thick and pituitous humours, and requires to be atte-
nuated by fomentations or other means, so  as not  to be driven to
some  other part;  for should this  be  the  case, it will  induce disease
of a more dangerous nature.  Should the fluxion be upon  the ears,
it there first induces acute pain and  suffering, which continues until
a discharge ensues, from which time the  pain decreases.  Whilst
the  pain is  severe we must employ warm  applications, and drop
into the ear  some balsam, apply cups behind the right ear if the left
is affected, or reversely;—it is unnecessary to  scarify, it being suffi-
cient  that the cup should merely draw.  If after this the pain con-
tinues, we give cooling drinks and a  purgative, but by no means
an  emetic, for it  will  do no good;  the  refrigerants  must be conti-
nued, and those remedies changed  that are productive of no good.
Should any  produce a bad effect, their direct opposites must be em-
ployed; and if any benefit is perceived, the measures must be  pur-
sued without alteration.   So soon as the humour finds an issue, and
a bloody fetid  pus is  discharged,  we  must pursue the following
plan: fill a sponge with some desiccative  remedy, and  thrust it as
low as possible into the ear; let the patient snuff up some errhine,
in order to draw off by the nares the  humour falling  on  the ears,
and thereby prevent its return to the head.
  When the fluxion attacks the eyes,  they inflame and swell.  We
must  first apply drying remedies, and employ errhines, which  eva-
cuate the head through the nose, thereby determining the humours 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.
237
from the affected part.   If a sensation is felt like that of fine sand
rolling over the  eye, we use  applications  that  largely provoke  a
flow of  tears;  at the same time  moistening and relaxing the body
in order to  relieve the eyes,  by  di#solving and carrying off those
small concretions.  Should the fluxion only slowly attack the eyes,
exciting itching, mild liniments should  be employed, calculated to
dry up and diminish the discharge of tears, and errhines to promote
the discharge  from  the nose of about two ounces in twenty-four
hours, and  repeated every third  day.  We should  attract the hu-
mours by mild remedies from  the eyes, and thus dry them. Errhines
that purge the  head  powerfully, attract the humours from all parts,
but if mild and weak, from the eyes only and adjoining parts.   If
the fluxion attacks the  soft parts and  cellular  tissue between the
bones and  the muscles of the eye, we know it by the flow of hu-
mours which ooze out on pressure.  Ulcers ensue there, with head-
ache ; the eyes weep  much  without the eyelids  ulcerating; no
itching  is felt, and the  sight,  far from being obscured, is rendered
more acute.  The humour not coming from  the brain, is not saline
but  mucose.   The proper treatment is  as follows.  'The head  is
purged  by mild errhines;  the  amount of  humours lessened by
means of food and  remedies  of  a laxative nature  in order to dry
the whole  body slowly, and thus turn  aside  the moisture, in con-
junction with the errhines.  If the headache  is not dissipated, we
must make transverse incisions  on the head, even to the bone, that
the catarrh  may flow promptly by the various openings thus made
in the soft parts.  Such is the  treatment by which we may hope
for success;  should it prove abortive, and  the humours  not  be
thereby evacuated, and  the sight improved, the eyes become more
sparkling, and at length vision is destroyed. When bloody humours
apear in the eye, by which the purity of its natural fluids is  soiled,
the pupil appears bloodshot, and has an irregular appearance; the
part in which  the bloody humour is seen, is not transparent,  which
is also  another  reason  for the irregularity of  the  pupil; for this
humour like a moving opaque body  flits before it, and hence  no ob-
ject is  seen correctly.   In this case cauteries should be applied  to
the vessels which constantly pulsate between  the ears and the tem-
ples.  After which, moistening and  relaxing  remedies are applied
to the eyes; the tears should be abundantly excited, in order  to
divert the  humour carried  to them, in which the disease consists.
When any rupture of the eye takes place, emollient and astringent 
23S               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

applications are to be employed, in order to contract  the wound,
and form a cicatrix as small as possible.   If albugo appears in the
eyes, the tears must be excited.
  When the catarrh  falls on  \ke breast, and is accompanied with
bile, it is known by the pains felt, extending from the flancs to the
clavicle of that side;  there is fever, the tongue is of a palish green,
and viscid sputa are discharged.  The danger of this disease is on
the seventh or ninth  day.   If both sides are affected,  it is of the
same  character.  Sometimes  it  is an  inflammation of  the  lungs,
sometimes  a pleurisy.  These diseases are  induced, because  the
catarrh flowing from  the head by the throat and trachea, the  lungs,
whose substance is soft and  dry, attracts all the moisture it can,
and to whatever part it goes, the bulk  is augmented : if both sides
are filled, it produces peripneumony;  if one side  only, a  lateral
affection, or pleurisy,  ensues.  The former is by far the most dan-
gerous, the pains are greater  in the flancs and sides, the tongue is
much  paler, the throat suffers from  the  fluxion ; the labour and
oppression  in respiration are extreme on the seventh or eighth day.
If the  fever does  not diminish  on the seventh  day, death  ensues
from  suffocation or weakness, or from  both.   If the fever, after
diminishing for two days, returns on the ninth, death usually ensues,
or else an internal suppuration takes place.  If the fever returns on
the twelfth day, suppuration has ensued; but if the fever is delayed
to the fourteenth day, the patient is safe.   All those in whom sup-
puration takes place in the termination  of peripneumony or pleurisy
do not perish ; some escape. Suppuration happens when the fluxion
goes to the same place to which the flow of bile has been conveyed;
which  last being movable, it finds a passage, and checks the flow;
but if  excretion  is diminished, and the fluxion  has accumulated,
suppuration follows, because more humours flow to the  lungs than
those organs discharge, and this excess then is converted into pus;
this remaining  in the lungs and in the chest, ulceration and putre-
faction follow, and  when the ulcer is fully established, the  lungs
melt down, and  are coughed  up with the  sputa ; the couch,  by its
succussion, invites still more humours from the head ; the ulcers in
the lungs open in every part in consequence of this motion, so that,
if even the head  could not furnish any more humours, the ulcers of
the lungs would alone suffice  to continue  the disease.   The ulcers
sometimes induce empyema, which is more easily cured, especially
if exterior to the lungs, when it points outwardly, and occasionally 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.             239
forms an  opening where the flesh has been softened by it, and fre-
quently, on shaking the body, we can perceive a fluctuation, and
hear a  sound.*  Such  cases  are  cured  by fire.   If the fluxion, in-
stead of this general character,  is  carried  to a single  spot, and
enters  into the structure of the lungs,  phthisis  ensues; for  when
the humour reaches there  slowly, bringing  consequently but little
moisture into them,  it thickens, concretes, and  dries in the bronchi;
it  excites cough  by adhering to  and filling the  narrow cavities,
rendering thereby an  entrance to  the air more difficult;  from a
defect  of respiration, oppression  of the breast ensues; a pricking
sensation  is felt in  the lungs, which is  not experienced when  the
flow from the head  to that part is more copious.   If the fluxion be-
comes great, the whole body is surcharged, and the phthisis is
changed to an empyema;  and reversely, when the  body becomes
dry, the empyema passes from that  state to phthisis.   We know an
empyema by these  indications.  The patient at first feels a pain in
the side, pus collects, and the pain continues, with cough  and ex-
pectoration of pus,  and difficult respiration.   If, however, the pus
has not yet found an exit, concussion of the body renders it percep-
tible in its fluctuation, by a sound  similar to that of a fluid shaken
in a bottle.  When  these signs are absent, and yet empyema exists,
it  may be  suspected  from the great oppression and the  hoarse
voice; the feet  and knees swell, principally on  the  affected  side,
the  thorax curves,  lassitude  is  extreme, universal sweats,  alter-
nately cold and  hot, the nails becomes  crooked, a sense of heat in
the abdomen, all of which are so  many indications of an empyema.
   Should catarrh fall  upon the spine, a phthisis ensues, of which
the following are the signs.   Pain in the  loins, a  sense of vacuity
in the  forehead ; the bile that shows itself is of the worst character
if it gives a yellow tinge to the eyes.  The nails turn livid; if any
ulcers exist, their edges also assume a livid hue.  The sweats are
partial, and confined to some local spot;  fever  follows, with livid
sputa, or if not discharged,  what continues in the lungs  is equally
so.  What thus remains, causes the respiration to be sonorous, with
a  croaking noise; breathing  is difficult, hiccup and fever diminish,
whilst the sputa are retained ; and as the debility increases diarrhoea
comes on.  When  such symptoms occur in peripneumony or pleu-
risy, the greatest degree of danger  exists.
* Pectoriloquism!—Ed. 
                 t
 240               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

   The cure of pleurisy is as follows.   Do not endeavour to check
 the fever before the seventh day ; prescribe either oxymel or oxycrat
 for drink, and give it copiously, in order to facilitate expectoration
 by dilution; heating remedies are to be used  to calm the pains, and
 to favour a discharge from the lungs.  On the fourth day the patient
 must be  placed  in  the  bath ; on  the  fifth  and sixth  he is to be
 anointed with oil, and on the seventh  the  bath  is  to  be renewed,
 unless the fever is diminished,  and  thereby  excite  perspiration.
 From the fifth to the eighth day  the most active expectorants are
 to be employed, if  the disease progresses favourably.  Should the
 fever not decline on the seventh,  it ought  to  do so on the  ninth,
 unless some dangerous  symptoms  supervene.   When the fever
 terminates,  we  employ  the  weakest  broths;  if diarrhoea ensues,
 the system being still vigorous, we  omit the drink, and give barley
 water if the fever has ceased.  Peripneumony is  to  be treated in
 the same manner.  In case of empyema, mild errhines, to excite a
 discharge from the  nose, and thereby relieving the head, are  to  be
 employed, and such  food as will loosen the bowels; if the disease
 is thereby arrested,  and the humours diminish, we  are then to pro-
 mote expectoration,  both by medicine and  by appropriate food, by
 means of which coughing  is  excited.  In  order to effect this,  the
 food should be of a fatty and  saline quality, with wine  of a rough
 character.  Phthisical patients are  treated in the same  way, with
 the exception of giving less food at a time, and wine more diluted,
 so that the debilitated system  may  not be  too  greatly heated, and
 an afflux of humours thereby induced.
  When the fluxion falls down upon the bowels by the oesophagus,
 an accumulation takes place below, and sometimes  in  the superior
 parts.  From the commencement,  if pain of the  belly exists, we
 must purge by means of laxatives,  either of food,  or  mixed with
 the drink, and  employ  stronger  purgatives  as  the pain declines,
together with more substantial food.  This treatment is pursued for
some days after the disease has terminated.  If the  patient is  weak
 and cannot support  it, he  is  to  use the  ptisans,  and after being
thereby evacuated, astringents are to be given.   If the fluxion tends
to-the soft parts near the vertebras, inducing anasarcous swelling,
the following plan must be  adopted.  Fire  is  applied  to  the flesh
near the neck in three places, and when the eschars  fall off, approxi-
mate the edges, so as to make the cicatrices  as small  as possible.
After opposing this barrier  to the fluxion, we use errhines  to cause 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.
241
a determination to the nose, at the same time keeping the forehead
warm and the occiput cool.   The front being  thus heated, warm
food is given that does not relax the belly, in order that the fluxion
should direct itself to the front openings for  its  exit.  If, when thus
restrained, any portion of the fluxion shall  have  found a  passage
internally before taking the above direction, we proceed as  follows.
If it is intercutaneous, fumigations are employed; if abdominal,
and not anasarcous, we purge; if both anasarca  and ascites exist,
purging and fomentations are appropriate, being careful always to
evacuate by the channel nearest the collection, whether up or down.
When catarrh produces  sciatica, cups should be  applied to  draw
outwards, but without scarification ; and internally, heating  reme-
dies and purgatives, so  as to clear  the passages, externally by the
former, internally by the latter. It happens  that when a fluxion has
been confined, not knowing by what channel to escape, it fixes upon
the joints which yield to it, and thus produces sciatica or a dorsal
phthisis. In  this case  we must purge  the head by mild  errhines
until the humours are diverted, and employ  the same regimen as in
the former case.  Elaterium  is used to purge,  and the belly is kept
open by means of whey ;  and fomentations must not be neglected.
   When the spleen  becomes  enlarged, and  the body wastes away,
the fat of  the omentum melting down leaves the vessels empty,
towards which  a flux  of humours takes place; they swell up the
spleen which is  near the omentum, and when any disease attacks
the body, these  parts become one of the places of attack, in  which
if not remedied it fixes obstinately.   Even  if well attended to, this
state is highly dangerous.  We administer  hydragogue purgatives,
and very nourishing food.    If this proves inefficient,  we  burn
lightly and superficially  around the navel,  to allow an issue to the
humours.  We  likewise burn the  navel itself,  and  abstract the
humour daily.  This is  one of the most dangerous states,  and it is
therefore expedient  to risk something: if successful, the patient  is
cured; should  you  not succeed after the  burning, the danger of
death, which must  have ensued without them, is not thereby aug-
mented.
   Anasarca in  children  is cured  thus.  We open with a lancet the
tumid part by  several punctures.   This plan  is adapted  to every
part;  and  to the part thus  scarified fomentations are applied, and
the punctures anointed with some warm balsam.
   There  is  a  dry pleurisy  without catarrh,  occurring when the
                              16 
242               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

lungs,  naturally dry,  become  preternaturally so  from excessive
thirst;  the lung becomes thin and weak, and inclines to the side, so
as to come in contact with the pleura; the pleura  being  moist,
attaches it, and a pleurisy ensues, with pain in the side extending
to the clavicle; fever follows,  and whitish sputa are expectorated.
This disease is cured by copious drinking and using the bath ; ex-
pectorants are employed, and  remedies to relieve  the pain.   It is
cured in seven days, and is not dangerous, nor is  diet necessary.
   Fever takes place when the body, being replete with humours, the
soft parts swell; the bile and pituita continue stagnated, and from
want of movement are unrefreshed; nothing passes  out, nothing
enters to renew them.  As soon as  this repletion, fever, and con-
sequent lassitude appear, we should at once dilute  largely, employ
embrocations, and excite warmth,  in order to open the passages,
and remove the fever by sweating;  this  is continued  for three or
four  days, when, if the disease is not abated, we  purge with  cholo-
gogues, and endeavour to  arrest the  fever  before it changes to a
quartan.   Whilst the  swelling is  considerable, purging is  to  be
avoided, for the disease will not terminate whilst the  system is re-
plete with humours; in order to cure the fever, we omit purgatives
until the body begins to discharge  those  humours;  we enjoin absti-
nence,  even from  slops that are  laxative, but give abundantly of
water,  hydromel, and oxycrat.   Warm drinks thus taken in, soon
carry off a part of the disease, either by  urine or sweat; and every
evacuation thus produced is beneficial to the patient by exciting an
internal movement.   When fever attacks an emaciated body, it
assuredly cannot be from repletion;  and  if not quickly checked, we
must give nourishment to the system, which, if not speedily bene-
ficial, will aggravate the fever, and render purgation necessary, thus
attacking it in its stronghold, by emetics or cathartics,  according to
its upper or inferior location.  Without reference to debility, strong
remedies are required, though not of equal force  to all alike, but
proportioned to their vigour or weakness.  Scalding in passing the
urine is moderated by dilution and  broths, as in fever by refrigerants
and  the like.   If these cooling remedies produce nausea, calefacients
are employed, and we recur to the former if the  ardor urinas con-
tinues.
   Jaundice  is treated in the following manner.   Commence with
nourishing and fat substances, and  drinks, and  baths, for three or
four days.   After adequate moistening, purging is pursued, and the 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.
243
body is then dried by promptly suppressing all substantial food, and
striving at the same time to discharge the humours by every emunc-
tory.  To evacuate the head, errhines of a medium force should
be used.   Diuretics are likewise proper, administered with the view
of evacuating  humours thus  set in motion, and  checking in some
degree the nourishment afforded by food.   When the  body is
moderately reduced,  baths are employed, in which  slices of the
roots of the wild cucumber are infused.  Chologogues are abstained
from, lest  the  body should be too  much irritated; and  after it is
adequately dried, and the disease is lessened, good  food and  red
wine are directed, together with every other measure  adapted to
restore a  healthy aspect.   If, in  spite of  all these measures, a
yellow colour still continues, we again  reduce  the system without
drying it,  lest that colour should become permanent.
   Malignant ulcers take place on the body when the  surrounding
soft parts  inflame, and  the lips become thickened;  a  sanious  dis-
charge of abundant serosities,  and  ichorous  matters that dry up,
and appear to  close the ulcer; this putrid matter cannot  then es-
cape ; the flesh surcharged thereby inflames and swells.   Wherever
this ichor reaches, swelling and putrefaction are excited.   These
ulcers should  be treated  by  humectants and  balsamics, to permit
the escape of the humour, and prevent its spreading  among the soft
parts ; refrigerants are likewise employed to obviate the passage of
the humours to the ulcer.  We must endeavour to  strengthen the
flesh, and enable it to  resist the afflux when not already injured.
Generally speaking, humectants and refrigerants are employed in
the treatment of all ulcers.
   Angina  arises  from blood arrested in the vessels of  the neck.
We must  bleed in the arm and purge, to divert downward the
humours that cause the disease; and the  same treatment is pursued
in extensive ulcerations of the tongue.
   We should  attend to all diseases at their  commencement; and
wherever there is a tendency to a flow of humours, it should be at
once arrested, and any other cause that  may give rise  to disease,
must be obviated  at its  onset  by  appropriate  treatment.   Thus
when the fluxion is abundant, it should be diverted ;  if moderate, by
a fitting regimen.
   In fractures of the skull, if the bone is comminuted,  there is less
danger  than when it is a fissure, and that internal; in the first case,
 humectants only  are  required; but in the last, we must use the 
244               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

trepan to prevent  the  extravasated  blood  from corrupting  the
meninges; the blood thus extravasated, and having no exit, induces
great disorder and delirium.  By  means of the trepan, such a pas-
sage is procured  to the sanious matters, and appropriate remedies
are topically applied to abstract them, and deterge the wound.


          APHORISTICAL SENTENCES.

   Errhines should not be administered in fever for fear of inducing
delirium ; for such remedies heat  the head, and that, in  addition to
the febrile heat.   Wounds  are mortal  in  those, who  already, in
consequence, vomit atrabilis ; so also, if the discharge is great, and
great debility follows, if the wound contracts and dries up rapidly.
In fever, if the patient is greatly debilitated, it is a mortal symptom
if small livid ulcerations occur.  If a disease augments after admi-
nistering a remedy, and the patient is evacuated both upwards and
downwards, diluted wine should first  be given, then stronger;  this
allays the discharge; give neither purgatives nor  emetics.  Bile
discharged up or down of  its own accord, is restrained with diffi-
culty, for it arises from its internal acrimony; but when  it results
from a remedy given, such acrimony may not exist. The vomiting
of a drunken man should not be  checked.  Excessive purgation is
checked by emetics, which last,  may then be easily stopped; and
if, after vomiting, much debility  is exhibited, anodynes should be
recommended.  If blood  is the  source of  disease, pains  are  an
accompaniment, but a sense of weight, if it be pituita; at least such
commonly is the  case.  When unacquainted with  the disease, we
should give weak remedies, if  any.   If  the patient  is relieved, we
pursue the treatment, for  the  road is clear;  reversely, if  he feels
 worse.   When  great abstinence  is the cause, employ food of more
 nutritive character, frequently  changing it from one to  another.  If
 the patient is strong, and  the  disease of feeble description, should
 we be obliged  to change our plan in order  to discover the proper
 treatment, we  may with safety resort to more powerful remedies
 than the disease, because,  operating on healthy as well as diseased
 parts, no great danger  can be  apprehended ; but when the disease
 is strong, and the patient weak, milder  remedies should be chosen,
 such as are fitted to cure, without further debilitating the patient.
 Gymnastics differ greatly  from medicine;  the former do not induce 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.
245
changes in the system; which, though required in disease, is by no
means necessary in the healthy state.
  Diseases productive of  ulcers, or tumours externally, should be
treated by abstinence and appropriate  remedies.   When  humours
flow from the head, vomits must  be  used.   Chronic diseases  are
more difficult to cure than recent ones.  Callous ulcers require  a
renewal of their surface  by means of  suppurating  remedies, and
then to be cicatrized.   If the applications  produce tumefaction,
the body should  be extenuated  by purgatives.  To create cicatri-
zation too early, is to afford nutriment  to the morbific matter, and
increase the ulcer.  When the proper time has arrived for this, and
to fill it from the  bottom, the tumefaction is beneficial, even in ulcers
of the head ; the proud-flesh pushes up from the bottom the decayed
parts, notwithstanding their resistance.   When it is elevated to the
surface, the food is to be diminished.   In  case grief induces  dis-
ease and a disposition to suicide, we give mandragore root in  the
morning,  but in amount not calculated  to produce madness.   To
cure convulsions, we use the same remedy  in small doses; a small
chaffing-dish of  coals on each side of the bed serves to heat those
applications that should  be applied to  the  tendons on the nape of
the neck.  If fever occurs  after convulsions, it  ceases  either at
once, or in two  or three days.  When fever caused by  a rupture
takes place, it ensues in  three  or four days.  Care  must be taken,
however, for if  it  arises  from some  other cause, the treatment  is
different.   A person suffering from a violent strain of the hands or
feet, will be apt  to fall  into convulsions.  To cauterize the vessels,
the disease and  the state of the  patient should be  considered: in
case of hemorrhage, two precautions are required  for safety before
applying the cautery; 1st. Whether it  may  not be  proper to pre-
vent  reunion, and whether the discharge is not  itself  useful;  for,
after cauterization, the discharge will cease, the two extremities of
the vessel contract, and they dry up.  If any vessels  are left uncau-
terized, the bleeding will continue.  2d. To arrest the hemorrhage,
the vessel should be burned across.  When the burn is inadequate,
we make incisions  on either side above and below, by way of deri-
vation ; the applications will then be more effective, from the force
of the blood being diminished.
   In pains of the head, bleeding  must be  resorted to; should  this
not succeed, then we must cauterize the vessels, and the pain will
cease ; errhines tend to increase the complaint. 
246               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  It is impossible to acquire a knowledge of  medicine quickly, for
invariable principles cannot be established.  A person  acquiring a
knowledge of painting, by learning all  that is taught him, soon
attains all that others know, because the practice  is the same with
all, both now and to-morrow; it does not  vary; nor is  it necessary
for  him to seize on an especial occasion that will  never again
recur; but medicine requires  that some one  thing be done at one
moment, and its opposite  at another, for it has to reconcile contra-
dictory points frequently.   Thus it is with purgatives;  they do not
fulfil that indication always, but  sometimes are even promotive of
a contrary effect. In great constipation, the body  becomes charged
with pituita,  which, falling on  the  bowels,  produces  a purgative
effect; for the  collected  pituita acquires  thereby a  purgative  in-
fluence.   In like manner purgatives, by  drying up the belly,
induce costiveness.    If you do not give purgatives,  that which
produces  the disease  will moisten,  and thus  purifying, health will
be restored when the body has thus been washed  out.  Reme-
dies binding the body, prepare the way for the evacuants, as these
prepare the  way for the  former.   It is precisely the  same in
regard to the complexion: watery humours  dispel a  good com-
plexion, and  render it pale; tonics on  the  contrary restore it.
Every remedy has its opposite.   If any  one becomes tumid and
pallid, he wastes away if remedies are  not employed, which, by
dispelling  that  tumid  state, restore  a healthy complexion.  In this
case,  attenuants are useful and  dissipate  the pallor; but if it pro-
ceeds from inanition,  analeptics  are to be resorted to.  Pains are
also the result of cold or heat, either in excess or reversely*, those
whose surface  is rendered cold, experience pain when exposed to
heat, and  those greatly heated   suffer by  exposure to  cold.  Such
as have naturally a dry surface  suffer  from moisture,  whilst those
naturally  moist suffer from dryness.   All unnatural changes are
followed  by pain, and pains  are dispersed by what  is  opposite to
their  productive  causes,  independently of what  may  be  a  peculi-
arity  in  the  disease.   Persons  of  a  warm  constitution,  who are
made ill by cold, are relieved by warmth, and thus it is in other cases.
  There is another mode in the production of disease, viz.: from their
congeners [Homoeopathy! two thousand years before Hahnemann!];
for the same things that cause, also  cure  the complaint; ("alio
modo  per similia morbus oritur et per similia  oblata ex  morbis
sanantur!")  Thus we  find  strangury cured by the  very means 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.
247
that otherwise induces it;  and a cough, like dysury, is  caused and
cured by the same things,  although also by contraries.
  There also exists another mode, as in the fever of inflammation;
here the fever excited by inflammation is sometimes cured  by the
inflammation itself, and also  by its opposites.   Sometimes water,
warm, and copiously drank and used as a bath, will restore  health,
by dissipating a fever by such means as  are capable of promoting
inflammation.
  The effect of a purgative or emetic may be arrested  by irritants,
and augmented by calments.  In making  a person who is vomiting,
drink water copiously, he  often with the water discharges in vomit-
ing that which occasioned it; thus vomiting is cured by vomiting.
On other occasions we cure by calming  it, and  causing what pro-
duced it to pass downwards by stool; thus it is, that  health is re-
covered in similar cases by opposite means: were this the case in
every instance, we should at least have thisrule, that we must cure
either by contraries or by the  same, whatever be the disease or its
cause,* in such and such  cases.  But the debility of the body is  a
reason of the infinite  diversity that is seen.   The body is every
where equally nourished by food that is appropriate to  all its parts;
but when more or less than is required is  taken, or when changes
are made, the body is incommoded, and  the digestion  becomes im-
perfect.   If it is overpowered by nourishment, it induces repletion,
and from thence  an opposite tendency ensues.   Warm bathing in-
vigorates the system whilst  in a vigorous state, but  otherwise  it
tends to weaken it: the same results from good living.  So  long as
the body is strong, health  is afforded by food ; but the same  food in
a  debilitated  system  is  productive  of diarrhoea and other evils.
When the recipient is altered, that which is introduced into  it must
of necessity be likewise modified ; the  body then, altered and over-
powered  by  the  food, wastes away,  having many enemies to
struggle with.  It is  the  same with evacuants  or tonics; all may
bring destruction to  the  body; and the same is equally true with
every thing, even the most opposite.
   Opportunity, in the practice of medicine  is very brief, and he that
comprehends  this will duly  expect  it.   He distinguishes essential
from merely accidental symptoms, such  as are not necessarily con-

  * "Ac siquidem in omnibus hoc modo sehabeat, constitutum quidem sic fuerit, hsec
quidem contrariis curari qusecunque sint et quacunque ex causa fiant, ilia vero simi-
libus, quacunque tandem sint et  a quacunque causa fiant." 
248               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

nected with  the  existing  state; he knows that purgation is  not a
necessary result  of purgatives, and  that what are contrary to one
another are not  so  invariably.   In  giving  nourishment, the  fitting
time is when the system can  master it; if  seasonably given, such
food as is laxative will loosen  the  bowels, and  that which is sub-
stantial will  tend to invigorate it.   Whenever the state of the sys-
tem is superior to the food, its state being natural, the food produces
no unexpected  effects; and such is the opportune  occasion with
which the physician should be acquainted,  for if he does not take
advantage of it, the patient, so far from an easy digestion, will feel
it as a load on the  stomach, with heat and oppression.   The body
is nourished by that only which it is enabled to overpower.   If ali-
ment  is taken inopportunely, its effects differ  from what  had been
anticipated ; the  person falls away.  It  is  the same with every thing
that might tend to improve it; its action being relative to the powers
of the system, to its intrinsic nature  and existing circumstances.  If
those circumstances  are unattended  to, contrary effects will  ensue.
Every thing that effects an  alteration in the  actual state of the sys-
tem may be regarded as remedial;  the strongest overthrow it, and
hence  we  can  destroy  the  body  by remedies; we can induce
changes in it by means of aliment, and change is favourable in dis-
ease.   Should no  change  take place, the disease must  augment.
In diseases of an intermediate strength, powerful remedies are im-
proper, their action is to be feared; powerful remedies should be
reserved for such diseases as are powerful;  weak ones for those of
inferior force. Neither ought we to denaturalize remedies by ad-
mixture, but  as much  as possible administer them in their natural
state, employing the most powerful  in  robust  constitutions, and the
weaker in cases  of an opposite tendency.  Evacuations should be
made by those emunctories  that are nearest to the part affected, for
it is there an exit will be found for  them.   Such articles  as  loosen
the belly are lubricating, and are attended by heat; the belly being
hot, saline matters are  not readily discharged, but give rise to flatu-
lence.  What causes flatulence is for the  most part fixed, and gives
it off in drying, as all humours do.   Astringents are of  this nature,
and  every thing that  by heat is rendered consistent, dries and be-
comes friable.  Every thing that, internally  applied,  induces  a flow
of humours, causes  dryness  on the surface; such are  tonics and
stimulants.   Purgatives weaken and heat the body; acids also pro-
voke humours.   Refrigerants induce evacuation, and equally so if 
ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.
249
they are of a humid nature; but if they should not purge, they in-
duce heat.   Such  remedies as  are  heating, become  refrigerant  if
they induce  evacuation; otherwise they heat the system.  Those
are most heating that induce a large flow of humours; and such as
in large doses do not excite so great an afflux, are simply laxative.
   It appears to  me that medicine, at the present day, has made as
great a progress as could reasonably be anticipated.  It teaches us
to compare those circumstances  that spring up from  time and op-
portunity ; and  whoever attains  to this knowledge, will  ascribe no-
thing to chance.  Let chance favour him or not, he will pursue the
most appropriate measures in his treatment of disease; for medicine
is established on a firm foundation, that does not require the co-ope-
ration of chance.  Science effects the benefit, if we know appro-
priately how to employ it.  What need have we of chance?   If
remedies in  their very nature have a faculty fitted  to cure disease,
as to me seems  the fdct, chance can have nothing to do in the busi-
ness.  If chance is essential, it should follow, that that which is not
a remedy, would be fully as efficacious as the best remedies, curing
thus diseases by mere good luck.  If we were altogether to exclude
chance, not only in medicine,  but in every  case whatever, we
should, in my opinion, act correctly.  Let us avow then, that for-
tune, good  luck, or chance, is for those only who always act cor-
rectly.  It  appears to  me, that we  succeed or fail exactly  in the
proportion of our acting properly or the reverse.    To act properly
is to succeed, and  this  is the lot of the skilful  practitioner;  to act
badly is to fail, and such  is the lot of ignorance or presumption.
How can we possibly assert that ignorance is successful?  We
cannot make account of such success; nothing is certain from one
who does not conduct himself with  certainty, but is  determined to
act, without knowing whether what he does will or will not effect
his intentions.
   [The following is omitted by Haller.—Ed.]
   Those affections denominated female diseases, all arise from the
uterus;  whenever it  agitates itself, it  occasions disease, whether it
advances or retreats by change  of situation.  When its mouth does
not approach the labia pudendi so  as to be readily felt, the  evil is
not very considerable;  but when it advances  considerably, it  is
painful when it is touched, and the womb  finding  itself restrained
and closed, does not readily allow of the  menstrual discharge, and
consequently becomes  tumid and painful.  If in  descending  still 
250               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

lower it turns upwards  towards the groin, it produces a tumour
that  is extremely painful.   When  it mounts  upwards beyond its
limits,  its  body  becomes  rarefied,  causing  afflicting  complaints,
with headache and ischiatic pains; the womb continuing to swell,
the menses are  arrested, and its  bulk  thereby is augmented; the
pains extend to the thighs; the female often feels the motion of the
uterus to and fro, like a globe, sometimes to the right, sometimes to
the left, and sometimes over the whole abdomen.  This is accom-
panied by headache, and such  being the state of  things, the follow-
ing treatment is to be pursued.
  If it is  merely a descent of the womb,  we  should if possible
anoint it with some fetid substance of any kind, such as oil of cedar,
or the pulp of garlic or onions, or even something more unpleasant.
We  also employ fumigations,  taking  care not  to burn the  parts.
During this time we avoid drinks and diuretics, as also washing
with warm water.  When  the womb ascends and there is no longer
any obstruction, we use aromatic fumigations of an agreeable odour,
such as myrrh,  balsam, or any other heating article of the same
nature ; we bathe with hot wine and employ diuretics.  We know
when the womb  ascends that there is  no obstruction, from the flow
of the menses;  if it is obstructed they are suppressed.  We must
then begin with fumigations as follows.   After boiling figs in wine,
we put the decoction into  the half of a gourd, divided in two parts,
one-half of which serves  as a cover, in which  is a hole to direct
the steam  towards the womb, by means of this  small aperture.
Hot water is added, as necessary; after which, the  hot remedies
mentioned  are to  be employed, together with the dung and gall of
an  ox, alum, galbanum, and such like.   We purge frequently with
elaterium, which also vomits  in delicate  temperaments, by which
superpurgation is prevented.  If  strong pessaries are required, take
honey boiled one-half away, and incorporate it with the heating
remedies above mentioned :  after  the mixture is made, pessaries are
formed from  it,  long and slender like  suppositories.  Place the
woman on  her  back, her feet elevated and  separated, in order to
introduce the pessary, and maintain it in its place by cloths or other
material, warmed, so as to promote relaxation, and gradual melt-
ing of the  pessary.  If less active ones are required, they may be
enveloped  in  fine linen.  When  the  womb  is over-moistened by
humours,  which swell its  mouth,  and  prevent the  menstrual flow,
we must apply to it  perfumes, &c, similar to those mentioned in a 
               ON THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF MAN.            251

previous  case, when speaking of the descent of the womb  as ob-
structing the expected catamenial discharge.  When this discharge
is too abundant, we  must avoid heating  by means of warmth or
other calefacients, nor must we use diuretic drinks or laxative diet;
the patient should  sleep in a bed elevated at the feet, to obviate the
flow of blood towards the womb, and astringents should at the same
time be  prescribed.   Menstruation, when regular, shows its appro-
priate sanguine character; but when it  is irregular, it becomes
somewhat purulent.   Young persons discharge good  blood,  but in
aged persons, it is  mixed with much  mucosity. 
    OF  THE EMPLOYMENT  OF  LIQUIDS.

   De Liquidorum usu........Fodsius, Treat, vii. p. 424.
   De Liquidorum usu........Haller, iv. p. 230.
   Traite de l'Usage des LiauiDEs.....Gardeil, iii. p. 143.

  Haller, in  his preface to this treatise, tells  us it  contains  ten
aphorisms from the tenth book (No. xvi. to xxvi).  Something is said
of wines and vinegar.  It was read by the ancients, who occasion-
ally  extracted  from it,  though without  quoting the title.  It is
amongst the shortest of the tracts, and nearer than many to  the
original tracts of Hippocrates.
  Subjects considered.—Of the effects and powers, &c,  of warm
and  cold waters, wine,  vinegar, &c.   Of the effects produced by
warm rather than cold water, and on what parts.

  Chap. I. Of the powers and uses of warm and  cold water em-
ployed as drinks.
  Chap. II.  Of the use of hot and cold water; what parts arc bene-
fited or injured by  either of them; what affections they induce or
cure.
  Chap. III. Of sea-water, wine, vinegar; their powers; what parts
they benefit, or what diseases they cure or induce, &c.
  Chap. IV. Of the different powers of cold and  hot waters; what
parts are benefited or hurt  by them;  and what  diseases  cured or
induced by them.
  Gardeil says, that from  the title of this treatise, it might be sup-
posed that liquids  in general were here considered.   It, however,
chiefly has respect to water, the liquid " par eminence."
  Sec I. Of the advantages of water, and its different  effects.  Af-
fusion  of cold and hot water  on the skin.  Vapour-baths, general
and  local; highly  extolled on  many occasions; injurious, from  in-
attention.  Frozen feet, separated by immersion in hot water.
  Sec. II. Bad effects of cold and  hot  water; what  parts  of  the 
ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF LIQUIDS.
253
body each is best adapted to, and continued in Nos. iii., iv., v., vi.
Skin, its connexion with  every part of the body, by means  of the
nerves  and blood-vessels  that compose  the fleshy pannicle; the
effects of heat and cold on the vessels, and some remarks tending
to strengthen a credence of the circulation.
   Sec VII. Sea-water as a bath; fumigations  useful in phagedenic
ulcers ; salt, nitre, pickle, &c, their uses  as stimulant applications.
   Sec VIII. Vinegar, lotions of, fumigations, &c, of great utility.
   Sec IX. Sea-salt, use of, in solution.
   Sec X. Wines, various, sweet, rougn,  white, &c.
   Sec XI. Cases wherein cold water is good; others in which hot
water is preferable;  both are  good in diseases of the  joints, gout,
convulsions; greater care required in the use of cold than of warm
water; constipation cured by;—warm in affections of the eye;—
when cold water  is preferable.  Of  cold water  in tetanus;  nume-
rous other cases.

   It would appear from this treatise, that water, cold and hot, sea
and other waters, were among the most frequent  medicamental re-
sources of Hippocrates,  by  bathing, drinking, aspersion,  spong-
ing, &c. 
SECTION  Y.
                   ON  DISEASES.

       De Morbis, .       .....Fo;sius, Treat, i. p. 446.
       De Morbis........Haller, iii. p. 1.
       Traite des Maladies,   ....   Gardeil, iii. p. 153.

   In his preface to this treatise, Haller says, " its author is uncer-
tain ; nor is it  perfectly agreed, that  these  four  books  are those
which, under  the  same  title,  the ancients largely  quote  from, for
much of them is  wanting here.   Galen refers them to Thessalus,
to the younger Hippocrates, or to Polybius."   But why (Haller
adds)  may  they not be the production of some  physician of the
Gnidian  school, as is conjectured  by Fcesius?  for the ancients
found fault with the physicians of that school, that from the slightest
difference, they established new species  of diseases, so  that  they
made  seven or eight species  of  pleurisy; and  this fault  is to be
found  here.  The remedies are  repeated from  the treatise " De
victus  ratione," or they consist  of the most powerful purgatives,
very frequently prescribed in  another place.  The first book  con-
tains the theory that refers diseases to pituita and bile as their causes.
We find  also the pathology  of  diseases of the breast,  of fevers,
phrenitis, &c.   There is much suspicion  as to this book being known
to the ancients.  Saving the theory, it would appear  to be  not un-
worthy of Hippocrates.
  Subjects treated of.—What  is  necessary  to  be inquired  into by
the physician,  is here considered, and  replied to.  Of the  internal
and external causes of diseases.  Of the appropriate and improper
times for prescribing.  Of proper  and improper doings and sayings.
Of good and evil,  arising either spontaneously, by  chance,  or from
error.   What  divided  parts do  not coalesce.   Of  the  times for
prescribing.  Of manual  dexterity.  Of suppuration of the lungs,
thorax, and  stomach.  Of erysipelas of the lungs, and tubercles°of 
ON DISEASES.
255
the lungs and side.   Of fever, horror, rigor, sweat.  Of pleurisy,
peripneumony, ardent fever,  phrenitis, melancholia.  Of partially
bloody and livid sputa.
                          BOOK I.

  This book is divided by Haller into  two  sections, containing
thirteen chapters, the contents of which are as follow.
  Sec I.—Chap. I.  What is to be observed by the physician when
about to prescribe, that he may correctly interrogate the patient
and the attendants, and reply to them, or  oppose their questions.
  Chap. II.  Of the  causes of diseases, external and  internal.  Of
fatal diseases, of doubtful, variable, chronic, or acute; of converti-
ble diseases, and of such as necessarily supervene.
  Chap. III.  The opportunities of prescribing are numerous, varied,
fleeting, and  sometimes inappropriate; of what  may be  properly
or improperly done or said, both in medicine and  surgery.
  Chap. IV. Of things beneficial or hurtful  in disease, as well
spontaneous as from the fortunate  or  unlucky lot  of the physician ;
and of evils arising from the physician, and not necessarily imputa-
ble to the  disease.
  Chap. V.  What parts,  if divided,  do  not coalesce; no general
principle  of practice, either  in  theory or treatment, will  apply to
every case.   In what manual dexterity consists.
  Chap. VI. Of pulmonary suppuration  from peripneumony; of a
defluxion of pituita  from the head; of rupture of the small vessels;
of the contraction of varicose  vessels; of the  cure,  and  of death
from suppuration of  the lungs.
  Chap. VII. Of empyema of the thorax arising from a  defluxion
of pituita  from the  head,  from pleurisy,  from  pituita impacted in
the side, from labour, and from rupture of the vessels; of suppura-
tion  in the  lower belly, and its causes;  of a collection of pituita
and bile between the skin  and muscles, and of convulsions.

  Sec II. Some  preliminary remarks are  here  made, as to the
influence of abdominal suppuration, and  its effects on the system;
and of defluxion from the head; the  influence  from age and other
causes thereon, in hastening or checking  the issue, &c. 
256                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  Chap. VIII. Of the origin, causes, signs, and cure, of erysipelas
of the lungs;  of tubercle  of  the lungs and  sides;  of rupture and
evulsion of the flesh and vessels.
  Chap. IX. Of the  cure, restoration, and death from suppuration,
arising from wounded flesh or vessels; and  in  the cure, what is to
be attended to, as respects sex, age,  season, period, affection, and
other circumstances.
  Chap. X.  Of the origin and causes of fever, rigor, horror, and
cold and hot sweats.
  Chap. XI.  Of  the origin,  causes,  parts affected,  and cure,  of
pleurisy and peripneumony, with and without expectoration; which
of the affected  perish, which recover, or escape, if suppuration has
taken place.
  Chap. XII. Of those most  obnoxious to ardent fever; its origin,
attack, causes,  symptoms; its passage into  peripneumony, and its
danger.  Of phrenitis  and melancholia;  of the influence  of the
blood and bile in these cases.
  Chap. XIII.   Whence arise the half bloody and livid sputa  in
pleurisy and peripneumony;  and who perish, and wherefore, from
these diseases, as well as from ardent  fever and phrenitis.
  Gardeil, who makes thirty-one divisions of this book, says: Physi-
cians who are desirous of knowing the mode of acting and of think-
ing, in the time of Hippocrates, of those who attended to external dis-
eases, will have reason to be content, I think, with what they have
already thus far seen.  The present treatise, divided into four books,
will  satisfy them in many respects, as to what concerns internal
affections.  It will not always  be  easy to arrange what is said  in
them, as to the order,  nomenclature, and classification of many in-
ternal diseases treated of by modern authors, either generally,  or
particularly.   For the rest, I am  persuaded in reading what has
been thus far   accomplished, much will have been  found to be very
abstruse; especially in the Prognostics,  Humours,  Predictions, on
the  Nature of Man, Aliments, the Parts of Man,  &c.  Yet I am
persuaded, also, that they  will give  rise, some day, to excellent
comments, by able  men, who will  develope  them  by explaining
them in  their schools.   Many of the remainder,  I am far from
thinking deserving of such attention, but that, on the contrary, they
would be improved by  being compressed. 
                          ON DISEASES.                      257

   I. Preliminaries.   As to the necessary previous knowledge of the
origin of diseases, and why some are chronic, others rapid or acute
in character, and mortal or otherwise; destructive  to certain parts,
or  not so; their  good or injurious tendency, their issue and other
particulars; and as to the knowledge requisite properly to prescribe
for them.
   II. Of the causes of diseases, external and internal; their prin-
cipal differences in respect to danger, duration, &c.
   III. Of opportunity, or  the proper occasion for  action, the most
important part of medicine.
   IV. Of incorrect judgment as to the time of action.
   V. Of errors in judgment as to the nature of the disease, or of
the appropriate treatment.  Continued in VI. and VII.
   VIII., IX., X. Of spontaneous circumstances, either good or bad,
dependent on nature, or on the physician.
   XI. No general principle of treatment fitted for  all cases ; hopes
to be excited at times, promptitude of action at others ; cautions to
be attended to in our manipulations.
   XII. Of internal suppuration  of different parts.
   XIII. Three  cases of pulmonary suppuration;  from  peripneu-
mony, from pituita falling on the lungs, and from rupture of ves-
sels, or their  varicose state.
   XIV. Of suppuration  in the cavity of the pleura, from which the
patient usually recovers, if a discharge by incision or cautery is not
too long delayed.   The causes of empyema are various.  Of the
influence of age, season, temperament, &c, on these cases.
   XV.  Abdominal  suppurations,  from  bile, pituita, spasm,  &c.
Encysted  tumours are difficult to know, when deep-seated.
  XVI. Erysipelas of  the lungs;  its great danger, and metas-
tasis of.
  XVII. Of  tubercles of the  lungs; their suppuration;  occasional
cure; great danger of, and accompanying diarrhoea.
  XVIII.  Tubercles  of  the pleura.  [Qu. ? if not  here connected
with aneurism of vessels.—Ed.]
  XIX.  Pleurisy from  inflammation of the intercostal muscles.
Continued in XX.  [This  seems somewhat connected with hepatic
inflammation.—Ed.]
  XXI. Internal suppuration  from external causes,  as wounds, &c.
  XXII. Conclusions on the preceding statements; on  sex, age,
strength, seasons, &c.
                               17 
258               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  XXIII. Of fever:  its formation, causes ;  coldness, chilliness, why
they precede fever.
  XXIV. Sweats, explanation of; hot and cold  sweats, difference
of, &c.
  XXV., XXVI.  In  what  manner pleurisy  and  peripneumony
are formed, &c.
  XXVII. Of pleurisy and peripneumony, unaccompanied by ex-
pectoration ;  treatment of.
  XXVIII.  Of ardent fever; who attacked by  it; internal heat,
and  cold  externally; danger frequently induces pleurisy and peri-
pneumony.
  XXIX. Of phrenitis, how produced.  The blood by some persons
supposed to be the principle of the understanding.8
  XXX. Causes of the difference of expectoration, in pleurisy and
peripneumony.
  XXXI. Why death takes place in pleurisy, peripneumony, ardent
fever, and phrenitis.

  1 " Sanguis,  qui inest homini,  plurimum  ad prudentiam confert; quidam vero
dicunt, totum."—Haller. 
ON  DISEASES.
                          BOOK  II.

     De Morbis.......-   .    Fotsius, Treat, i. p. 461.
     De Morbis.........Haller, iii. p. 35.
     Traite des Maladies......Gardeil, iii. p. 189.

   Haller, in his preface  to this  second book, says  that " What
was said of the first book, is applicable to the second  and third, for
they are full of the names  of diseases, derived from some peculiar
symptom; the remedies  are almost every where the same: rest,
vomits, purging, ptisans, and preparations  with  honey and vinegar,
&c.   In the second book, however, dietetic co-operation is more
insisted on;  whilst in the third book, medicines are  predominant,
and those of the most powerful description.  The history of diseases
is  better,  such as of  pleurisy,  peripneumony,  empyema,  whose
description was  given  in  the preceding book.  It may be referred
to  the Gnidian physicians, from  the praises of powerful remedies,
as  well as of the use of verdigris, arum, hellebore, thapsia, and
peplium, to promote expectoration.   Galen  designates these  books
as  the large and small."
   Contents.—Many species of diseases are here enumerated, both
general and local; as  of the head, brain, nose, ears, eyes, mouth,
fauces,  heart, lungs, trachea,  breast, back, belly, liver, spleen, and
limbs; with their causes, signs, and cure.

   Sec.  I.—Chap. I.  Of an  overheated temperature  of the head,
with pituita and bile;  as  such or such parts are inflamed by the
fluxion  to  them, various symptoms follow;  such as copious urine,
strangury,  loss of sight or hearing, &c.  Several other affections
of the head are enumerated, and their accompanying symptoms. 
260               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  Chap. II.  Of diseases of the head ;  sideratio ; caries of the bones;
sphacelus, &c.; their causes, symptoms, and prognosis.
  Chap.  III. Of angina;  uva; inflammation, &c, of  the  tonsils,
and surrounding parts.
  Chap. IV. Of diseases arising from fulness of the head, attended
with torpor; incontinence of urine, strangury; and of their dietetic,
pharmaceutic, and surgical treatment.
  Chap. V. Of  ulcers of the  head and legs,  and swelled legs; of
headache, with  bilious vomiting and  dysury, and of their cure.
  Chap. VI.  Of hydrocephalus;1 of coldness, pain  and fever in
the head; excitement of vascular action  in  and  about the  brain;
their causes, signs, and cure.
  Chap. VII. Of the rise, causes, symptoms, signs, prognosis, and
treatment of those affected with bile, &c, or from drunkenness.
   Sec II.—Chap. VIII.  Of  sideratio  cerebri  (qu.?  dcpaxsXos, svxe-
<p«Xs); caries of the  bones, &c.; causes, symptoms, signs; dietetic,
pharmaceutical, and  surgical treatment.
   Chap. IX.  Of the causes  and cure  of three  kinds  of angina.
 Inhalation for, well described.
   Chap. X. Of uva ; in which the excision of the lower part of the
 uvida is ordered ;b of tonsillitis; of  tubercle of the tongue ; of in-
 flammation of the palate; and of the treatment.
   Chap. XI. Of five kinds of polypus;  the pendulous,  oblong, soft,
 fleshy, and callous, which occupy the  nostrils ; and their treatment
 by excision, cautery, &c.
   Chap. XII. Of jaundice, with, and without fever; and their treat-
 ment.
   Chap. XIII.  Of the  treatment of three kinds of fever  arising
 from bile.
   Chap. XIV.  Of the treatment of  quartan fever.
   Chap. XV. Of the signs and treatment of three kinds of pleurisy.
   Chap. XVI.   Of peripneumony ; its origin, symptoms, and cure;
 of suppuration  from peripneumony, and of incision therefor, and
 evacuation of the pus.  Auscultation"- is  here clearly adverted to,
 and incision ordered for the removal of the pus.

   a In which, as an ultimate resort, the skull is perforated.  " Demum inciso juxta
 sinciput capite; ad cerebrum usque, perforato, et velut sectionem per terebram curato."
 —Haller, iii. p. 48.
   b " Extrema parte preecidito."—Haller, iii. 57.
   c " Tu vero agitato humero, quonam in latere (affectio) strepitum edat, auscultato,"
 &c—Haller, iii. p. 69. 
ON DISEASES.
261
  Chap. XVII. Of consumption  from pulmonary affections;  signs
of, and  dangerous symptoms;  falling  off  of the  hair, with fetid
expectoration, &c.;  its treatment.
  Sec III.—Chap. XVIII. Of consumption of the lungs ; of ulcera-
tion of the trachea ; their diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment.
  Chap. XIX. Of dorsal phthisis; its rise, causes, signs, and cure;
of a disease of the lungs, somewhat differing from common phthisis.
  Chap. XX. Of wounded  trachea,  and pulmonary lesion ;  con-
vulsive twitching of the fibres of the lungs; their signs, prognosis,
and remedies.
  Chap. XXI. Of erysipelas  of the  lungs, its  causes, signs,  and
treatment.
  Chap. XXII. Of the signs  and treatment of a dorsal  affection,
and tubercle of the lungs.
  Chap. XXIII. Of engorgement of the  lungs, and  their lateral
gravitation;  their signs and cure.
  Chap. XXIV. Of tubercle in the side; dropsy of the lungs;  rup-
ture of the breast or back ;  their signs and treatment.   Incision be-
tween the ribs in dropsy of the lungs is here recommended.
  Chap. XXV. Of ardent fever; of fever with singultus; their signs
and cure.
  Chap. XXVI. Of lethargy;  marasmus; of  a variety  of fever,
(called qpovuSvjs, mortifera;) their signs and  cure.
  Chap. XXVII.  Of  the livid  disease; and  of one accompanied
with eructation.
  Chap. XXVUI. Of a pituitous disease affecting chiefly women;
of leuco-phlegmasia ;  their  signs and cure.
  Chap. XXIX. Of melancholy; and of three varieties of (MsXaiva
vatfoff) black disease; their signs and treatment.
  Gardeil, in seventy-two paragraphs, gives the following outline
of this second book.
  I.  From  excessive heat  of the  head, the pituita is  melted, and
conveyed to  all parts.  This paragraph, and up to x. inclusive,  is
taken up with  concise  notices of some  diseases of the head, the
treatment of which follows, from xi. to xxxiv.*
  XI. to XIII.  Of diseases which arise from the head.   Here, says

  • In No. vii., we  have the caries of the bones of the cranium, which has some ana-
logy with  that arising from syphilis.—Ed. 
  262               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  Gardeil, (up to No. xix.,) the author  appears to return to the dis-
  eases already mentioned, for the purpose of giving their  treatment.
  At the same time, he adds, the order of the matters, in all the four
  books, is very difficult to  attain, if, in fact, any order has  been pur-
  sued.  It may be remarked,  that the use of the cautery is very fre-
  quent.
    XIV.  Refers to hydrocephalus, or water on the brain; the stra-
  bismus is noticed; and in the last resource  an opening of the cra-
  nium is recommended, as in trepanning, in order to discharge the
  fluid.a
    XV.  Seems  to  refer to No. v.  The pulsation of the vessels is
  here noticed.  Some part omitted by Gardeil.
    XVI. A  singular treatment here recommended, for some vertigi-
 nous affection, by incision of the forehead near the hair, and sprink-
 ling salt in  it, and closing the wound, &c.
    XVII. to XX. All referring to some of the previous numbers.
    XXL, XXII. Refer  to  sphacelus and  caries of the bones of the
 head, &c,  in which  scraping the bone to  the diploe is recom-
 mended.11
   XXIV. Quinsy, and its treatment, is  here noticed, and continued
 in  No. xxv.  and  xxvi.   Inhalation is here recommended and de-
 scribed.
   XXVII.  Tumid  uvula, (sratpuX/], uva.)   Its excision recommended.
 Long prior  to  some assumed modern  discoverers, passing down
 through the whole train of medical writers from  Hippocrates to the
 present period;  although apparently unknown to a  late professor,
 or  to some  contemporaries, who  ascribe the  discovery of this ope-
 ration to him.
   XXVIII.  Swelled tonsils; ranula;  inflamed, swelled,  and suppu-
 rated palate.
   XXIX to XXXIII.  Polypi of the nares, five  species, and  their
 treatment.
   XXXIV.  The chain  is here broken.   Icterus is treated of in this
 and the next paragraph.
  XXXVI.  Bilious fever.
  XXXVII., XXXVIII. A variety of fever, approximating to  yel-
low fever.

  » "On ouvre le crane a l'endroit de la fontenelle jusqu'au cerveau, et Pou soigne
comme dans Poperation du trepan," iii. 202.
  b It is not clear to me, that this affection is not allied to some syphilitic taint.—Ed. 
ON DISEASES.
263
  XXXIX.  Quartan fever, treatment;  sorbets, large doses of helle-
bore.
  XL., XLI., XLII. Pleurisy, varieties of, and treatment.
  XLIII. to XLVI. Peripneumony; empyema; something like aus-
cultation noticed ;  fumigating;  opening the cavity of the thorax to
discharge the pus;  the process  described.
  XLVII., XLVIII. Phthisis;  affection of the trachea, leading to
phthisis.
  L.  Tabes dorsalis, common to young married  people, and liber-
tines.  This is rather a seminal weakness.
  LI., LII. An affection of the lungs, in which fumigation is com-
mended.   Ulcerated trachea.
  LIII. Twitchings or convulsion of the fibres of the lungs, com-
monly fatal.
  LIV. Erysipelas of the lungs, chiefly excited by excess in eating
and drinking.  It seems to be of a chronic character, and requires a
chronic treatment.
  LV.  A  dorsal  affection,  with bloody urine, on  the third  or
fourth day; mostly fatal.
  LVI. Tumours  or tubercles of the  lungs, to  be treated as em-
pyema.
  LVIT. Engorged lungs [Qu.?  peripneumonia notha.—Ed.] very
fatal.
  LVIII.  The lungs falling on the pleura, [Qu. ?]  It arises some-
times from a wound, or from the operation for empyema; singular
treatment for, by introducing air into the cavity.
  LIX. Tumour of the pleura; incision recommended,  or cautery,
and introduce after the tenth day a mixture of warm wine and oil,
retaining,  and renewing it, &c.
  LX. Of dropsy of the chest, hydrothorax, slower than empyema
in progress.3  Rupture of the breast or back.
  LXI., LXII. Of burning fever (xauCws), often ending in peripneu-
mony; fever, with hiccup.
  LXIII.  Of lethargy.   [Not that now so denominated.  It seems to
be rather coma, in the  latter stage of some disease.—Ed.]
  LXIV.  A disease called auavr*], Gr.,  resiccatorius,  Foes.,  of a

  * " Quod si infusum, aut fomentum, aut suffitum adhibeas, pus non sequitur, indeque
cognoscas, non pus, sed aquam intus esse."—Foes. Qu. ? If this implies a prior inci-
sion, and injection, as in empyema?  Paracentesis is, at all events, recommended. 
264               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

chronic character.  [I should think it connected with dyspepsia or
marasmus.—Ed.]
  LXV. Fever,  (tpovuSns, mortifera,) deadly.
  LXVI.  Morbus lividus.  Qu. ?
  LXVII. Disease with much flatulence upwards.
  LXVIII. Pituitous disease.   Qu.? Asthma.
  LXIX.  Leuco-phlegmasia, or anasarca.
  LXX. Melancholy.
  LXXL,  LXXII. The morbus niger. Qu. ? Of two kinds (MsXaiva
vxtos).  The gangrenous disease. 
                    ON DISEASES.

                          BOOK III.              .   ' ../  ,"

      De Morbis,  .......Fcesius, Treat, i. p. 487.
      De Morbis........Haller, iii. p. 94.
      Traitk des Maladies,    ....   Gardeil, iii. p. 257.

  The following diseases, says Haller, are noticed in  this book,
viz.: tumour of the brain, and its painful  repletion, apoplexy (Qu.
^Xriroi, Hipp.; sydere icti, Foes.3), lethargy, ardent fever, tumour
of the lungs, headache, phrenitis, angina, jaundice, tetanus, opistho-
tonos, convolvulus, peripneumonia, pleurisy.   Also of the drinks,
&c, to be used in ardent fever.
  Chap.  I.  Of tumour of the brain from inflammation; diagnosis,
prognosis, and cure.
  Chap.  II.  Of  intense  headache, from fulness  of the  brain ; its
symptoms and cure.
  Chap.  III.  Of (Qu. apoplexy ?) attoniti, Hal., vel sidere icti; its
signs and cure.  In the next chapter, the sideratio cerebri  (e<paxs\Kffj.os
svxe<peXs, Hipp.,) is considered.
  Chap.  V.  Of the signs and cure of lethargy, and of suppuration
from.  It seems different from ours.
  Chap.  VI.  Of ardent fever;  diagnosis, prognosis, and  cure.
  Chap.  VII. Of the lungs  enlarging from heat; diagnosis, prog-
nosis, and cure.
  Chap.  VIII. Acute headache, with aphonia; diagnosis, &c.
  Chap.  IX.  Diagnosis and cure of phrenitis.
  Chap. X.  Angina,  twofold,  cynanche,  and  paracynanche; the
signs and cure of each.
  Chap.  XL  Of icterus;  its signs and treatment.
  Chap.  XII. Tetanus, opisthotonos;  diagnosis, prognosis, and cure
of each.   In the latter, cold affusions  recommended.
* Ictus, attonitus, apoplecticus, Gr. Lex. 
266               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES

  Chap. XIII. Volvulus;  diagnosis  and cure.   Blowing  up  the
intestines with a bellows is here recommended.3
  Chap. XIV. Peripneumony; diagnosis, &c.
  Chap. XV. Pleurisy; humid, bilious, bloody,  dry, dorsal; their
diagnostics, prognostics, pharmaceutic,  dietetic,  and  chirurgical
treatment, largely laid down.  Something like auscultation  alluded
to ; and paracentesis of the thorax to discharge the pus when formed.
  Chap. XVI. Of a  variety of cooling drinks  in ardent fever.
  Gardeil divides this book into forty-six paragraphs ;  from No. 26
of which, to the end, is a large variety of different  kinds of drinks
for  sick  people, especially in fevers, and  which he calls " appro-
priate ptisans."
  1. Hippocrates tells us, that having heretofore treated of fevers,
he now proceeds to other diseases.
  2. Turgescence of the brain, with headache ;  here, in  the treat-
ment, after  shaving the head, cooling  applications, confined in  a
bladder, are recommended.
  3. Headache  from  plenitude of  the brain, accompanied  with
delirium.
  4. Les Frappes,  Gard.; sydere icti, Fees.; /3Xvj<roi,  Hipp.;  [Qu.
what is this ?  Gardeil refers us to sentence xxxi.,  chap, xvi., book
ii., Coacas,  where it has connexion with peripneumony.]
  5. Sphacelus of the brain—cerebri sideratio, Foesius, p. 488.
  6. Lethargy.  [Certainly not that  now so called,  since  it is
closely connected with peripneumony.   It seems to me  merely a
comatose symptom  in peripneumonia notha.—Ed.]
  7. Of  ardent fever.   This is said  oftentimes to  degenerate into
peripneumony.  Hot ablutions frequently employed, except to the
head, are recommended.
  8. Tumour of the lungs,  from  heat.  This appears to be also
peripneumonic.
  9. Headache.  Refers chiefly to that arising from drunkenness.
  10. Phrenitis.  Gardeil  thinks this refers to inflammation of the
diaphragm or paraphrenitis;  and  ihe symptoms warrant this opi-
nion.—Ed.
  11, 12. Of quinsy or angina, true and  false.  In the  treatment
  * "Folle fabrili indito, in ventrem  flatus immittendus, ut turn ventrem, turn intes-
tinum contractum distendas."—Hal. iii. p. 105. 
ON DISEASES.                       267
of the latter it is recommended to introduce a tube, to assist respi-
ration.
  13. Of icterus (morbus regius, Fees.)   It  is said to be an acute
disease,  which kills  in  a short time.  Doubtful if  our common
jaundice.
  14. Of tetanus.
  15. Of opisthotonos.  Cold water dashed on the patient is among
the recommendations for this.
  16. Of volvulus, or the iliac passion.  Here, among other recom-
mendations, is that of forcing up wind into the intestines by means
of a bellows.
  17. Of peripneumony.   About the eighteenth day, if the expecto-
ration is sweetish, the lungs are said to be in a state of suppuration,
and may continue for a  long time.
  18,19,20. Of pleurisy.  Of dry pleurisy.  Of dorsal pleurisy.
  21, 22. Of the examination of the  tongue in  pleurisy.   Pain of
pleurisy worse at night.
  23. Treatment of pleurisy.   [Bleeding  seems but little attended
to,  and probably hence, apparently,  the frequency of empyema;
purging is more commended.—Ed.]
  24. Suppuration being established, and having passed into the
thorax, at a proper period, incision  or  cautery is recommended;
and auscultation is  obviously spoken of, to determine the presence
and situation of the pus, which is  slowly evacuated for  several
successive days.
  25. The  same  treatment is  recommended in suppuration from
wounds.1
  26 to the end, taken  up with an  enumeration of formula? for
ptisans  and  drinks.

  * The reader, remarks Gardeil, cannot fail of observing, when reading the works of
Hippocrates, how frequently the operation for empyema was performed, doubtless with
more facility and success than now, in the treatment of suppuration in the thorax from
internal causes.—It appears to me (Ed.) that the principal cause of this arose from the
dread of bleeding in the early stage of disease, lest concoction of the humours should
be thereby prevented. 
                     ON  DISEASES.


                          BOOK IV.

   De Morbis,........Foesius, Treat, i. p. 498.
   De Morbis,........Haller, iii. p. 118.
   Traite des Maladies.......Gardeil, iii. p. 285.

  This book, says Haller, is very different from the preceding ones,
and  is replete with acute and  ingenious reasoning.  The origin of
disease is deduced from  four  humours,  bile, blood,  pituita,  and
water, arising  from  the aliment  taken  in.  If received beyond a
just  amount, on the third day,  the body is disturbed, and if the  ex-
cess is not removed, disease ensues. Of the judgment as to diseases.
This  should  be made on  the  uneven days, in which the humour
should pass out.  Other matters are minutely treated of.   Towards
the close, something is said respecting worms, which are  discovered
even in the foetus; of calculus, from  hardened  pituitous milk; of
dropsy of the belly, uterus, and the whole body ; its origin.   Here
too we find  refuted, the descent of drink into the lungs, which in
other books, Hippocrates maintains.  The author cites the book he
had written on  female diseases.  (De morbis muliebribus.)
  The argument of this book, (divided into two sections and nine-
teen chapters, by Haller,) is, that there are four species of humours,
bile, pituita, blood, and water; their origin, generation,  causes, re-
ceptacles, sources, and effects; of food and drinks; of  excretions,
and  their ducts.   Fever is  considered ;  the principles of diseases,
and their causes; of pains, worms, calculi, and dropsy.

  Sec I. Chap.  I. Of the origin of man.   The seminal fluid of both
parents is essential to generation, and is  derived from every part. 
                          ON DISEASES.                      269

There are four humours in the body, bile, blood, pituita, and water,
or atrabilis, which are formed from  the food and  drinks taken in.
Their sources are fivefold, viz., the  stomach, the  head, the heart,
spleen, and gall-bladder.   Analogy of plants and births (partium).
Every part attracts its congenerous humour  to itself.
  Chap. II.  Excess or deficiency of assimilating humour, induces
disease  both in plants and in man.   Plants spring up and grow,
only where they can obtain an appropriate nourishment.  All plants
will not indiscriminately  grow and flourish in all places.   Cultiva-
tion has caused these difficulties to cease.
  Chap. III.  Pituita  (<pXsyu,a),  originating  from pituitous  food and
drinks, is attracted to the  head, and if in excess, it induces head-
ache ; and if conveyed away by the stomach and bladder, benefit
ensues.
  Chap. IV. Bile is more copiously produced from bilious food and
drinks.  It is drawn to  the liver from the  gall-bladder,  and there
retarded, proves the cause of pain.  Food  and  drinks of different
kinds often prove remedial.                        '
  Chap. V.  Of the more copious  flow of water, its causes, seats,
affections;  from whence  pains of the spleen and of the lower parts
of the body  arise.
  Chap. VI.  Of blood, its origin, causes, affections.   The  heart is
not affected with pain from its increased presence;  although from
it many diseases of the body arise.
  Chap. VII.  Four streams are continually supplying the body, as
its parts are  emptied by a mutual co-operation: numerous vessels
exist in the body;—from whence  arise the savour or disagreeable-
ness of food and drinks;  appetite and its cessation explained.
  Chap. VIII. Bile is secreted from food and drinks, in the gall-
bladder ; and  there induces cardiogmus (cordis  morsum), but does
not produce  disease of the heart.   The head and spleen are more
liable to disease.  When, and  how, humours noxious  to man, be-
come reduced.  Four places  from whence  the  system is  purged,
viz., the mouth, nose, rectum, and urethra.
  Chap. IX.  How man preserves his health, by proper attention to
diet; this  appropriately digested, distributed, and excreted; other-
wise sickness ensues, followed by emaciation  and weakness, together
with repletion, heat, pain, and fever.
  Chap. X.  When discharges exceed what  is received, men  grow
thin.  Of the  operation of indolence, and  activity, on appetite and 
270               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

health; the importance of good habits;  of fever from repletion, and
of the termination of diseases on certain days.
  Chap. XL Why fever terminates;  and why fevers and  diseases
remit, terminate, or diminish on uneven days; vitiated humours are
disturbed and evacuated,  horror ensues, and crises follow.
  Chap. XII. Why death ensues  on uneven days; the humours are
disturbed, pains ensue ; medicine improperly given, often injurious;
ulcers become more inflamed; why swelling of the glands  arises
from ulcers; heat and pain of ulcers, and their influence in the sub-
sequent uneven days, &c.
  Sec II. Chap. XIII.  Why  men sicken; necessity of purgation;
fever from repletion; watery humour is most  opposed to fever, but
a bilious humour is its pabulum.  Why water exhales more readily
than oil;  what, and how  many, are the principles of disease,—and
of their grade of violence.
  Chap. XIV. Of the effects of violence, wounds, ulcers, contusion,
tumour, pain, fever, disturbed  humours.  Comparison between milk
and blood, and their parts.  What effects arise from a disturbance,
excess, and evacuation of humours; of the aliment of man, and the
causes of putrefaction and death.
  Chap. XV. How diseases arise from the air; by the solution,
concretion, secretion, mixture, agitation, and situation of a  single
humour,  various diseases  may  arise, such  as  disturbed bowels,
griping, rigor, chill, inflammation, and fever.
  Chap. XVI.  Of worms; lumbricus  latus,  and teres; the latter
procreate, the former  do not, but  break into pieces  resembling
gourd-seeds; of their origin, species,  diagnosis, and prognosis. The
existence of worms in children, even  in utero, is here asserted.
  Chap. XVII.  Of calculus; its origin from  milk;  its causes; five
signs of;  its symptoms ;  its mode of increase and location.
  Chap. XVIII.  Drink is conveyed  into the stomach, and not into
the lungs; and from the stomach it is conveyed to every part, as
shown by eight arguments.
  Chap. XIX. Of  three species of disease  from dropsy or watery
effusion;  their origin, locality, causes, signs, symptoms, and prog-
nostics.
  Gardeil divides this book into twenty-five paragraphs, to the fol-
lowing effect.
  1. Of the principles of  the composition of  the body,  and the 
                          ON DISEASES.                      271

 sources of  diseases, from four humours,—pituita, blood, bile, and
 water.
   2.  Physiological explanation of the origin of the four humours,
 with  a digression, in a parallel between the nutrition of  vegetables
 and animals ; and that from an improper soil, plants  cannot always
 be naturalized;  reference is  even made to the difference of conti-
 guous soils, in the culture of the vine.
   3, 4, 5, 6. The above four humours considered ;  their sources,
 &c.;  defect of, and superabundance.
   7.  The general theory of diseases, founded on the four humours,
 being in  excess  or defect.  The  intercommunication  of vessels
 throughout  the body.   Four fountains in the body, supplied through
 the agency  of the stomach.   Importance and utility of the doctrine
 to dietetics.
   8.  Some  principles  as  to  the  secretions and excretions.   Four
 passages  by which the above-mentioned  humours are principally
 evacuated,—the mouth, nose, anus, and urethra.
   9, 10.  Wherein health  consists;  regularity, progress of the ali-
 ment, &c.;  excess or defect in  diet, &c.; humours  evacuated the
 third  day; faecal matters  on the second.
   11.  Theory of the  diseased  state arising  from  the  excess  or
 defect mentioned.
   12.  The cessation of fever explained; on the third, fifth, seventh,
 or ninth day.
   13. Why fever finishes  on uneven days, and of the disturbance
 of the humours on such  days, #)y .improper  treatment.  Ancient
 physicians are here adverted  to.
   14. Recapitulation.
   15. Theory of diseases, from  superabundance of humours,  or
 from defect  of excretions; seven signs of.
   16. Two  other sources of disease; external, and  violence done
 to the body.
   17.  The effects of external  things, acting violently; tumours,
 contusions, fatigues.
   18.  The effects of atmospheric agency; how the  humours are
affected ;  death from disorganization.  Health, in what it consists.
Engorgement  of vessels, &c, illustrated.
   19,20.  Coldness in disease, explained ; brief recapitulation.
   21.  Of  worms.  Taenia; formed even  in the foetal  state;  their
great  length ;  curious account of their generation, &c.; symptoms;
the cucurbitinae illustrated. 
272               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  22. Of calculus of the bladder; of its origin from  impure milk
sucked in early life (see treatise on Nature of Man), explained ; five
signs of calculus.
  23. An article respecting  the passage  of drinks to  the  lungs,
which  is here denied, though elsewhere  insisted on,  and  seven
arguments against it.   Of the voice and its formation, &c.;  the
epiglottis, its use.
  24. Of the origin of dropsy.  Varieties of ascites.
  25. Of dropsies  in general; of the womb, belly, legs, &c.; danger
of, when acute disease attacks, &c.
• 
ON  AFFECTIONS.3
       De Affectionibus......Foesius, Treat, ii. p. 516.
       De Affectionibus......Haller, ii. p. 366.
       Traite des Affections,  ....   Gardeil, iii. p. 328.

   L\ his preface to this treatise, Haller speaks favourably of it, as
 having in it little reasoning, but much  good observation.  It  is, he
 adds, commonly ascribed to Polybius,  but this is mere  conjecture.
 The arguments are of a  mixed  character, a fault, by the by, com-
 mon to the Hippocratic authors.  It begins with some histories of
 diseases,  which  differ from  those in the  books  "De Morbis."
 Scarcely does  the  author notice any  remedies, but he refers to a
 book now lost, ire pi  cpapu-axwv.  The conclusion relates to  things  ap-
pertaining to diet;  and what is here given  differs from that which
 appears  in the books " De Dieta," and seems to me  very useful,
especially in  what  relates to the qualities  and powers of aliment.
Some short  and by no means  absurd  things  are stated  as to  the
reason of causes. Man is stated to consist of four humours,—blood,
pituita, bile, and melancholy or black bile.
   The argument of this book, divided into two sections and sixteen
chapters, is, that it consists of many diseases of different  parts ;
fevers, ulcers; their causes, signs, and treatment; of food, both for
the sick  and convalescent;  and an explanation of the powers and
differences of several kinds of aliment.

   Sec I. Chap. I. Of what is requisite to be  known in  consulting

  1 This treatise seems a kind of brief of the preceding, and of the nature of a treatise
on Domestic Medicine for general use.—Ed.
                                18 
 274               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 for the treatment of diseases.   The beginning  and source of all
 diseases are bile and pituita ; elucidation  of.
   Chap. II. Of diseases arising from pituita of the  head; pains of
 head and ears; inflammation of the  fauces and uvula; toothache,
 polypus, and the cure of these.
   Chap. III. Of acute diseases  of the belly; most violent in  winter.
 Of pleurisy, peripneumony, ardent fever, phrenitis, with others of a
 lighter description, but becoming  acute in  winter;  their  changes,
 causes, signs, and cure.
   Chap. IV. Of summer complaints ; pains, fevers, ardent  fevers,
 tertian, quartan; their symptoms,  causes, signs, crises, and cure.
   Chap. V.  Of white pituita,  with  large, hard, and  suppurated
 spleen; their causes, conversion to dropsy, symptoms, and cure.
   Chap. VI.  Of volvulus, dropsy ; their causes, prognosis, and cure;
 surgical treatment of dropsy; inflating the intestines in volvulus."
   Chap. VII.  Of dysentery, lientery, diarrhoea,  tenesmus, cholera;
 their causes, signs, and treatment.
   Sec II.  Chap. VIII. Of  strangury, sciatica,  arthritis, podagra;
 causes, signs, and cure; flax.b
   Chap. IX. Of icterus and tubercles  (©ufjwra);  their causes and
 cure ;  of some  unsightly affections;  lepra,  prurigo, itch, impetigo,
 vitiligo, alopecia, favo, panis, furunculus, and carbuncle.
   Chap. X. Of what  the physician must inquire, when visiting his
 patient; and of the proper remedies in wounds, both  dietetic and
 pharmaceutic.
   Chap. XL  The food proper in  health, is  to be changed in sick-
 ness ; drinks are chiefly to be employed, (sorbitiones, ptisana, &c.)
 What  food and drinks loosen or  bind  the  belly, and  renew  the
 strength;  what kinds  are  proper when purgatives are given; in
 fever, which foods moisten, or dry the body.
   Chap. XII.  Treatment of convalescents.    In  disease,  attention
 requisite as to what dries or moistens.   Articles  desired by the sick
 to be allowed if not injurious ;  food  is to be slowly added  or  ab-
 stracted ;  more solid  food to be given as convalescence advances,
 and  liquids to  be diminished.  Aliments  and medicines,  that  are

  * " Quod si clysterem non admittat, fistula propendulo utriculi petiolo alligata et in-
flata, multus flatus immittendus ; quumque intestinum et venter a flatu elevata fuerint,
exempta fistula, statim clyster injiciendus."—Haller, ii. p. 379.
  b Used as moxa.  " Ustio autem per linum crudum fiat."__Haller ii. 385 
ON AFFECTIONS.
275
employed in practice, should  be well understood; and which are
appropriate in debility.
  Chap. XIII. How  to  appreciate the, powers of different  food;
which are light, which heavy.  What food and drinks most con-
ducive to health, and strength of body; which  cause  acid eructa-
tions, tormina, and flatulence; which promote evacuation by stool
or urine.
  Chap. XIV. Of the proper  and improper use of food and drinks;
of such as are drying, moistening,  strengthening,  &c.; of weak
and strong, light  and heavy  food; and  of the  diversity of bread,
flesh, and fish.
  Chap. XV.  Of baths; of some pot-herbs, as to  their hot, cold,
moist, and dry powers ;  and exciting the urine,  stools,  and menses;
of astringent,  stomachic, drying, and attenuating herbs.
  Chap.  XVI. Of the  various  grains  and wines ;  of strong  and
weak food; the bread most proper in disease;  vomition from food
or drink; apples and nuts after food ; what wine is useful in obviat-
ing the ill effects of food and  drinks; why the  belly is disordered,
bound, or loosened; what  food  is weakening;  when food is  to be
given to  febrile patients;  when wine and  honey are  most appro-
priate ; food adapted to  health is more powerful in sickness.
   This treatise, says  Gardeil, is  merely  an  abridged  domestic
medicine, the conclusion of which is particularly devoted to regi-
men,  both in  health and sickness.   As it  treats only of diseases
generally known, practitioners will there find the means  of recog-
nising those that are elsewhere spoken  of under numerous different
denominations.   He divides it into sixty-four paragraphs.

   I.  Of the importance of domestic medicine, and  the  means of
attaining a knowledge of it.
   II. to XIII. Of diseases of the head, ear, throat,  gums,  palate,
teeth;  of nasal  polypi; of  diseases of the  trunk of the body;
pleurisy, peripneumony, phrenitis, ardent fever;  (in x. is defined the
meaning of judicatus, as applied to diseases, and in xi. a treatise on
pharmacy is referred to, which seems  to be lost;) change of the
two last to peripneumony. 
276               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  XIV. These four diseases are called acute; great care required
in acute diseases; the slightest fault is hazardous; febrile diseases
of winter, their treatment.
  XV. Of fevers in the summer.
  XVI. General remarks on fever and their treatment.
  XVIL, XVIIL  Evidence of presence  of  bile.   Of pains in the
belly, and  erratic throughout.
  XIX. General remarks on summer diseases.
  XX., XXI. Of tertians and quartans.
  XXL bis. Leucophlegmasia.
  XXII. Enlarged spleen.
  XXIII.  Iliac passion.
  XXIV.  CEdematous  affections.
  XXV. Dysentery.
  XXVI. Lientery.
  XXVII. Chronic diarrhoea.
  XXVIII.  Tenesmus.
   XXIX. Cholera morbus.
   XXX.  Strangury.
   XXXI. Sciatica.  Flax used as moxa.
   XXXII. Gout.
   XXXIII.  Icterus.
   XXXIV.  Of regimen in the preceding diseases.  Cautions as to
 remedies.
   XXXV. Of tumours.
   XXXVI. Cutaneous affections, &c.
   XXXVII. Purgatives, not  indifferent  remedies ;  opiates.
   XXXVIII. Precepts for conduct, previous to prescribing for the
 sick.
   XXXIX. How to act in case of wounds.
   XL. Of the nourishment of the sick.
   XLI.  Substitution of oil and wine as  frictions, for baths.
   XLII.  Regimen in certain cases.
   XLII.  bis. Of the means of attaining a  knowledge  of the most
 expedient remedies.
   XLIIL Of the preparation and quality  of food.  Of good and
 bad digestion.
   XLIV. Of drinks, &c.
   XLV. Of a drying  regimen.
   XLVI. Effects of bread and cakes. 
ON AFFECTIONS.
277
  XLVII. to LV. Of wines and various foods, &c.
  LVI.  Influence of soils on, &c.
  LVII.  General observations on regimen continued, and use of
vomits in its improper employment.
  LXII. Rules for diet in intermittents.
  LXIII. Of wine and honey.
  LXIV. Of the necessary modification of regimen on account of
the state of disease. 
          OF  INTERNAL  AFFECTIONS.

      De Internis Affectionibus,   .       .    Fcesius, Treat, iii. p. 531.
      De Internis Adfectionibus,   .    .   .    Haller, ii. p. 401.
      Traite des Affections Internes,  .   .    Gardeil, iii. p. 365.

  This  treatise, says Haller, is among the most confused, mani-
festly consisting of the Gnidian sentences; for diseases are here
subdivided ad infinitum, and species  constituted from a  solitary
case.  Thus  a nomenclature of diseases sprung  up, distinguished
by no connexion of characteristic  symptoms; such as the  great
varieties of morbus crassus, of typhus, nephritis, hepatitis, and sple-
nitis.  In scarcely any of these,  are the diseases to be distinguished
by the accompanying symptoms;  what credit can be given to one
of the varieties of the morbus crassus  (4th pachysmus, Hal.), in
which the patients were injured  by the  smell arising  from rain fall-
ing on the earth ?   The extreme violence of the Gnidian remedies
is offensive, such  as the grana gnidia, succus  hypophaes, and lapis
magnesias.  The  hellebore here mentioned, purges  up  and down.
Many symptoms of diseases  differ from  those mentioned in other
Hippocratic books, with the exception  of tetanus, whose  descrip-
tion  and treatment agree with  the  third  book, " De Morbis."
Drinks,  moreover, are here stated  to pass into the lungs.
  The argument of this book is stated  by Haller as pointing out
the internal diseases of different parts, as of the windpipe, the ves-
sels, heart, lungs, back, breast, side, spinal marrow, kidneys, of the
vessels of the right and left side, of the  abdomen, intestines, joints,
skin, and of the whole body, together with their causes, signs, and
cure.

  Sec I.  Chap. I.  Of ulcerated or wounded windpipe, or of any
of the vessels of the lungs, their  causes, signs, prediction, cure, and
precautions in convalescence. 
OF INTERNAL AFFECTIONS.                279
  Chap. II. Of rupture of the pulmonary arteries or veins; symp-
toms, signs, and cure.
  Chap. III. Of suppuration of the chest, and ruptured lungs.
  Chap. IV.  Of the causes,  signs,  and treatment,  of pneumonic
affection.
  Chap. V. Of varix of the lungs, its causes, signs, and treatment.
  Chap. VI. Of sanguineous or bilious repletion of the lungs.
  Chap. VII. Of the causes, signs, and treatment, of inflammation
of the lungs.
  Chap. VIII. Of erysipelas of the lungs, its signs, and treatment.
  Chap. IX. Of rupture of the breast and  back, its  causes,  signs,
and  treatment.
  Chap. X. Of tubercle of the side, its signs, and cure.
  Chap. XL,  XII., XIIL, XIV. Of  four  species of  consumption;
from a defluxion of pituita from the head, upon the lungs; from
spitting of blood;  from a  ruptured vessel from labour; and from a
defluxion on the spinal marrow; their signs and cure.  The fourth,
from dryness of the spinal marrow, owing to  an obstruction of the
vessels going to the spine, or  of the passage  from the brain  to the
spine, or from venery; its signs, and treatment.
  Chap. XV., XVI.,  XVIL, XVIIL  Of four affections of the kid-
neys, viz.:—1.  Calculus of those glands.   2.  Of diseases arising
from violent labour,  inducing  rupture of the  vessels  and suppura-
tion, in which  an incision at  the lumbar  region is recommended;
which, if unsuccessful, the complaint terminates in tabes renalis.  3.
Of ulcer of the kidneys.   4.  Arises from obstruction,  and from
venery, ending  in suppuration;  some singular advice  as to exercise
in this complaint; origin, signs, cure, &c.
  Chap. XIX. Of a  violent disease  of the venae cavae, succeeding
nephritis;  its  causes, signs, and cure.
  Chap. XX. Of another of a like nature.

  Sec II.  Chap. XXL, XXII.  Of several species of pituita, viz.:
common  or  recent, of  the  white,  chronic,  or leucophlegmatic
pituita.
  Chap. XXIII. Of dropsy from cacochymia, or a thin pituita.
  Chap. XXIV. Of dropsy of the lungs  or thorax  from  drinking
copiously of water, or from a rupture of tubercles; operation for;
auscultation apparently adverted to. 
280               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  Chap.  XXV. Of dropsy, subsequent to an cedematous phlegmon
of the liver; signs, &c.; surgical treatment.
  Chap.  XXVI. Of dropsy, arising from watery effusion from the
liver into the belly; its treatment.
  Chap.  XXVII.  Of inflammation  of the  spleen, and subsequent
dropsy;  its causes, signs, and treatment.
  Chap.  XXVIII.  Of universal dropsy, arising from  drinking stag-
nant water in long journeys, &c.
  Chap.  XXIX.  Of  hepatitis, and scirrhous  inflammation of the
liver; its causes, signs, and treatment.
  Chap.  XXX. Of hepatic erysipelas, or erysipelatous phlegmon;
causes, &c.
  Chap.  XXXI. Of hepatic affection, with  metastasis to  the brain;
causes, &c.
  Chap.  XXXII. to XXXVI., inclusive.   Of various affections of
the  spleen,—phlegmonous,  erysipelatous, scirrhous,  plethoric, and  '
pituitous; their symptoms, signs, and  treatment.
  Chap.  XXXVII. to XL., inclusive. Of jaundice, from bile in sum-
mer ; and in winter, from drink and cold, as  well as bile; of epidemic
jaundice, from obstruction induced by over-eating and drinking; and
of jaundice from pituita;  their origin, signs, and  treatment.

  Sec III.  Chap. XLI. to XLV., inclusive.—Of five different sorts
of typhus; from bile; superfluous moisture; putrid bile mixed  with
the blood, and falling on the joints;  from superfluous moisture from
the use of fruit and cakes, and from a putrid moisture of the body
generated from black bile;  their causes, signs, and cure.
  Chap.  XLVI., XLVII., XLVIII. Of three varieties of ileus;  their
causes, various signs, distinction, and  cure.
  Chap.  XLIX to LIL,  inclusive.   (De pachysmo, Hal.; Morbi
crassi, Foes.; Grossissement, Gardeil.; irayyz, Hipp.)  Of enlarge-
ments  of the belly, legs, &c, from  a defluxion  or collection of
pituita and bile. [Qu. 1 If these are not connected with rickets, &c,
as mention is made of incurvation of  the spine.   It is in  Chap. Iii.,
that the influence of the odour of the  earth from rain is mentioned.
Some of  the  symptoms resemble those of chlorosis ; it would be  diffi-
cult to say what they are.—Ed.]
  Chap.  LIII. Of sciatica, four kinds of;  ankylosis from, &c.
  Chap.  LIV., LV.,  LVI.  Tetanus, opisthotonos,  from wounds,
cold, or other causes; wine copiously recommended in the first. 
OF INTERNAL AFFECTIONS.
281
  The preceding treatise (4th De Morbis), says Gardeil, is a choice
piece of hygiene.   The present one, which is similar  in many
things to the three  last books of the treatise on diseases, gives us a
pathology and therapeusis of various diseases, in which more pre-
cision is desirable.   Many details of curative proceedings  are to be
found, which might be usefully employed at the present  time.
  Gardeil divides this treatise under the following paragraphs.—Ed.

  I. Of affections of the breast caused by violence.
  II. Of rupture or lesions in the chest;  milk diet.
  III. Of consumption (pulmonic), tubercles, suppuration.
  IV. Varices of lungs.
  V. Of black bile in the lungs.
  VI.  Of inflammation of the lungs, from excess in drink, &c.;
vomiting in ; its chronic state, &c.
  VII. Of erysipelas of the lungs from congestion.
  VIII. Of (dechirures, Gardeil; pectus et dorsum dirupta, Foesius,)
irritation of the  back  or breast from great fatigue; cure of, and
danger of relapse.
  IX. to XIII. Of  tumours and suppuration of the pleura; of four3
species  of phthisis; the first, from pituita, its  treatment  and rare
recovery from;  the second, caused by great fatigue, is less hazard-
ous, but very fatal.  The third,  from the spinal marrow becoming
filled with blood;  exercise in, at a certain period, from one to  six
leagues a-day; receipt for a  drink  of various  roots and flowers;
fumigations.  The fourth, or dorsal  phthisis, from a  drying of the
spinal  marrow,  chiefly  caused by   excess  of  venery.   Immense
quantity of asses' milk  employed in, mixed with honey, nine pounds;
or fourteen  pounds of cow or goat  milk,  (tres  semicongios,) con-
tinued daily  for forty-five days.
  XIV. to XVIL Of  four affections  of the kidneys.   In  the  first,
sand sometimes is  seen, leading the physician to imagine a stone in
the  bladder, when  it is in the  kidneys.   A laxative of two  gallons
of weak  broth; nephrotomy  recommended in  certain cases.  In
the  second variety, from excessive fatigue, followed  by rupture of
the  small veins  going to the  kidneys, causing blood to be passed
with the urine, and subsequently pus, in  which case  nephrotomy is
also recommended.   Hippocrates  remarks that  many considered
* Hippocrates says three species. 
282               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

this last  stage  as  nephritic  phthisis.  The third species, produced
from black  bile passing to the kidneys, and remaining, it lacerates
the small vessels and  substance of the gland;  it is rarely cured,
but becomes chronic.   The fourth is the product of pituita and bile,
and also arises  from  venery.   Here  again, if suppuration ensues,
the pus is to be discharged by incision on the most prominent part;
its treatment by regimen and exercise.
   XVIIL, XIX. Of a great disease of the venae cavae?  Whatever
may be intended by this, Gardeil is inclined to consider it a disease
no longer known.  In its treatment the actual cautery is freely ad-
vised, viz., three near the joint of the  femur and pelvis;  two below
the trochanter; two at the middle of the thigh; one below the knee,
and one above the ankle, besides four on the right shoulder.   The
same treatment is recommended, when the left vein is affected.
   XX.  Some speculations as to pituita and bile, with the treatment
of the  symptoms arising from those humours, and the mode of in-
ducing vomiting in cases of  an excess of recent pituita.
   XXI.  Of leucophlegmasia ; cupping on the lumbar region; open-
ing the scrotal  veins.
   XXII. Of anasarca following the above.
   XXIII. Of hydrothorax, from drinking water  profusely in sum-
mer;  from  tubercles.  Tubercles very common in oxen, dogs, and
sheep,  as evinced by dissection; still more so in man; treatment
by paracentesis above the third false rib, by incision, and  trocar,
draining off the water for  twelve days.
   XXIV., XXV. Of dropsy of the liver, and of the spleen ; this last
is ascribed to eating too freely of fresh figs or apples,  &c.
   XXVI. Dropsy (anasarca) from the use of bad water in long
journeys; among  other remedies, the same water is  prescribed in
the treatment.   A very free use of  nitre  (Qu. ?) as a  glyster, is
ordered, viz., 3x., with other articles.
   XXVIL, XXVIIL, XXIX. Of hepatitis,  three  varieties noticed;
in one, glysters of asses' milk to four and a half pounds, or of mare's
milk; all these varieties  said to be very dangerous, most of the
patients dying on the fourth  day.
   XXX. to  XXXIV.  Of five species of affections of the spleen, all
very similar, both in  causes, symptoms,  and treatment.   Sawing
wood for thirty days is one  of the remedial  means.   One of these
(second) varieties, Gardeil thinks very analogous to scurvy.
   XXXV. to XXXVIII.  Of four species of jaundice.  Little  variety 
OF INTERNAL AFFECTIONS.
283
is  here  found;  cantharides used  internally, infused in wine.   One
variety  of jaundice is called  epidemic (siriS-r^Mos, quod omni tempore
prehendat, Foesius).
   XXXIX. to XLIIL Of typhus; five kinds noticed, which Gardeil
thinks we would rather call inflammatory fever. It is surprising what
quantity of drink is ordered.  In one of these, the prescription is ten
pounds  of goat's milk  whey  with salt in  one  vessel,  and ten with
honey, in another,  which is to be  all drank by glassfuls, alternately,
apparently in one  day.  A number of remarkable symptoms men-
tioned in  a species of typhus; among them is that of a particular
inclination to the odour of extinguished lamps, &c.
   XLIV. to XLVI.  Of three varieties of iliac  passion.
   XLVII. to L.  Of  enlargements;  (Qu. 1  Grossissement,  &c.)
What these are is  problematical; four kinds are mentioned ; in one,
the smell of the earth when it rains, is said to induce syncope.
   LI. to LVI.  Of sciatica;  four  varieties; frequent moving to pre-
vent ankylosis.
   LVII. to the end.  Of three species of tetanus, in which epilepsy
and hysteria  seem  implicated. 
         OF  DISEASES  OF  VIRGINS.


      De his au^s ad Virgines spectant, .   .    Fozsius, Treat, iv. p. 462.
      De Virginum Morbis.....Haller, iii. p. 409.
      Des Affections des Filles,   .    .   .    Gardeil, iv. p. 5.

  This treatise, says Haller,  is a short one.   It ascribes menstrua-
tion  to  plethora, which is to  be  treated  by  venesection, or by
coition.   This book is quoted by the author of the books on female
diseases, and he would seem  to be the author of this also.
  After contending for the difficulty of knowing the nature of dis-
eases, without certain preliminary attainments, and  mentioning
several, as epilepsy, apoplexy, &c, and their not unfrequent ascrip-
tion  to  demons,  the  author proceeds to state the  sufferings  of
females approximating to maturity,  and who  had not previously
been affected, as  arising  from the arrestation of the  menstrual flow.
The symptoms attending  this state of things  are detailed, and the
hysteric feelings  thence  arising, together with  the  inadequate and
deceptive  recommendations of the priests.   It  is added, that vene-
section is to be employed, if not  contra-indicated, and that mar-
riage as early as  possible is to be adopted, for if pregnancy ensues,
health follows.   Barren women are most afflicted with these com-
plaints.
  Gardeil thinks it probable, that what  we  possess  of  this short
treatise, is merely  a  fragment, for the author, of the treatise  on
female complaints quotes this, as having therein already mentioned
things, which we do  not here find.   The doctrine of this treatise,
and of those of the nature of woman, and of the diseases of women, 
OF DISEASES OF VIRGINS.                 285
he adds, is found abridged in the Predictions, and  in the treatise,
" Des Lieux dans l'Homme."

  I.  General remarks on the difficulty of knowing diseases, espe-
cially of some that are more peculiar to women than men.
  II.  An explanation of the derangements of health which females
experience at the age of puberty;  hysteria, melancholia, mania,
&c.;  the cure consists principally in sexual intercourse. 
        OF  THE  NATURE  OF  WOMAN.


      Df. Natura Miliebri,    ....   Fcesius, Treat, v. p. 563.
      De Natura Muliebri,    ....   Haller, iii. p. 331.
      De la Nature de la Fe.m.me,  .    .    .   Gardeil, iv. p. 9.

  Haller  says this  treatise  is nearly the  same  with  the books
entitled " De Morbis Muliebribus."   Numerous diseases  are stated
in the Gnidian manner.  A detail of an infinite number of cases of
change of  situation  of the  os uteri, its obliquity  and induration,
&c.;  as in the second of the books  referred to.    The farrago of
remedies, from the three kingdoms of nature,  is not at all  dimi-
nished.
  It is divided into three sections by Haller, but not into chapters.
  In reading  this treatise, it will be seen, says Gardeil, that it
might  be  remodelled with great advantage, and  reduced at least
one-third.    Had its author revised  it, undoubtedly he would have
erased the many  repetitions of  the  same  cases, that are spread
throughout.   He would likewise  have located it  after the treatise
of the  diseases of females, of which it is a  mere abridgment, aug-
mented with some formula?, of remedies, of little importance.   Gar-
deil makes no  less than one hundred and seventy-five paragraphs.

  I.  Some general remarks as to what constitutes that disposition
in females which renders them liable to certain complaints that  are
peculiarly their own.
  Here the  author commences, by stating,  that, as to what apper-
tains to the nature of women and their diseases, he thinks,  in  the
first  place, that  all human affairs are in  the  hands  of the Deity ;
and,  secondly, that such and such circumstances contribute to their
particular ills; and, therefore, that in discussing this subject, it is
essential, primarily, to look up to heaven,  and then to study  the 
OF THE NATURE OF WOMAN.
287
subordinate causes, such  as the temperaments  and  the  ages  of
women, the seasons, and the places in which they reside.
  II.  Treats of the moisture  of females, and of its  influence on
menstruation,  in  diminishing or suppressing the  discharge.   The
symptoms  ensuing are noticed, and  the treatment pointed  out;
among the remedies  is a  pessary of  cantharides, or into which it
enters.
  III. Here, and in several following paragraphs, are noticed the
cases in which the uterus is presumed to move its situation.
  1.  Where it  rises  towards  the liver; a  state said to be  more
common in virgins in advanced  life, or in  young widows.   The
treatment is given, and a recommendation of marriage for virgins.
2. When the uterus descends,  and appears externally, which  is not
uncommon after  delivery, if  the  sexual  intercourse  is too  much
permitted.   In the cure, this, therefore, as well as bathing, is strictly
prohibited.  3. In  case of complete external descent or prolapsus,
which is said  to  occur  from  coition  after lying-in, and  during the
discharge  of  the  lochias;  various measures are mentioned for its
reduction and retention.    If unsuccessful in replacing  it, it  is re-
commended to  employ " la sapade de  1'echelle  la tete  en  bas," p.
14.a   A large (dry) cupping-glass  (tfixu?]v) to  the  upper part of the
thigh is also commended.
  VI. In case of adhesions between the uterus and other parts, in-
durations,  suppuration of the  womb, and  ulcers, sometimes  arise,
or discharges  which prove fatal if not attended to; fomentations of
urine are among the  measures recommended.   The usual effect of
this state is said to be sterility.
  VII. In  case of the mouth  of  the  uterus  doubling  or being  in-
verted on  itself, the menses are impeded;  here, we find fomenta-
tions  of the urine of  a  man commended.   This is also  stated as a
cause of sterility.
  VIII.  When  the uterus falls upon  the ischium, menstruation is
impeded;  here  we have  a drink  recommended,  formed with dif-

  ■ " Et si quidem sic intro redierint, satis est, sin minus, summis  uteris derasis et
calefactis, ablutis et illitis, alligataque ad scalam muliere, scalam ad caput concutito,
et manu uteros intro trudito, postea ejus cruribus  alternatim simul colligatis, sic per
diem et noctem sinito, et paucum ptisanre suecum frigidum, nihilque aliud  exhibeto."
See, also, treatises "De Articulis," " De  Morbis  Mulierum," and "De l'Extrait du
Fcetus Mort." 
288               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES!.

ferent articles, among them are four cantharides, from which the
feet, the wings, and the head are removed.
  IX. If the lochia do not flow after delivery, after other measures,
tar-water  is  ordered  as  a drink,  (forestalling Bishop  Berkeley,)
and copious unction of the mouth of the uterus.
  X.  When fluor albus occurs (menses albi pituitosi), the treatment
varies, as there is, or  is not, accompanying sharpness and excoria-
tion;  in the latter case the fluxion is from the head, in the former
from the stomach.
  XL Inflammation of the womb; its symptoms, sometimes  simi-
lating pregnancy, and followed by dropsy.
  XII. Erysipelas of the  uterus, its symptoms, &c.; these resemble
in a great degree those accompanying the milk-leg.  When occur-
ring in pregnancy, it is said to be fatal, and at all times difficult of
cure.
  XIII. Too great dilatation of  the os uteri, its symptoms, &c.; it
is said to be fatal.
  XIV. The womb retiring towards  the middle of the loins;  here,
syncope is mentioned among the  symptoms, in which state it is
directed to introduce into the uterus a tube, through which to inflate
it.  Sterility and lameness are said to result.
  XV. Fluor albus; resembling the  urine of an ass;  among  other
means, the use of asses' milk for forty days  is ordered, with  some
singular directions in its employment.
  XVI., XVIL  Of cases  in which the female is subject to abortion;
means of obviating.
  XVIIL  Of difficult  menstruation,  symptoms  and  treatment;
among which the pessary containing cantharides is employed, and
also the drink with cantharides.
  XIX. Of abortion at the end  of the first or second  month; one
case of which is said to depend on  the  pressure of an enlarged
omentum on the  womb.
  XX. Induration of the  orifice of the uterus, and its displacement.
  XXI. Incapacity to conception; singular  process  previous  to
purging, in  order  to  ascertain whether  the  patient  is bilious  or
pituitous.
  XXII. Total  suppression;  a too humid  state of the os uteri, and
treatment  of.
  XXIII.  Falling of the uterus  on the ischium (see  viii.); a dif-
ferent treatment. 
OF THE NATURE OF WOMAN.
289
  XXIV.  Pressure or suffocation (^viyutfiv) of the womb; probably
hysteria, as fetids are profusely ordered.
  XXV. to XXX. inclusive.  Of apprehended inflammation of the
womb at delivery; of debility of the uterus; of apprehended cancer,
&c.   In one of the  cases (resembling viii.  and xxiii.),  we are
directed to employ a large suppository of sulphur,  bitumen, and
honey;  a  pessary of the same is  also ordered.
  Here follow,  from XXXI. to LXX1IL, a vast assortment of pes-
saries and other remedies, appropriate to  female complaints.  A
drink, having in its composition five cantharides;  a pessary of can-
tharides and elder juice;  an infusion  of the root of the crotoh;
pessaries to excite a discharge of blood, formed of five cantharides
and other articles;  others with large amount of elaterium ; sections
of the squill, &c.  In  short, pessaries of every presumed character,
emollient, astringent, &c.
   LXXIV. to LXXXV.  are taken up with  the statement of lotions,
fumigations,  and fomentations of various kinds,  including  some
ointments for various intentions.
  LXXXVI. to CI. Here the author returns to the consideration of
cases already  noticed,  and gives others of analogous  character.
Dropsy of the uterus, its causes  and treatment, in  which the intro-
duction of a  tin sound (specillum stanneum, speculum uteri?)  is
mentioned.  Induration  of the  womb, its neck  and  orifice; dis-
placement of the uterus;—a milk  diet largely used for forty  days.
Entire closure  of the os  uteri, in which again the  sound is  recom-
mended;  obliquity  of the os uteri; inflated uterus;  grumous and
clotted  blood in the womb, for  which, among other means, some-
thing to scrape out the  clots is  recommended: frequent change of
its situation;—a pomegranate filled with pitch softened with  wine,
is here employed as  a   pessary;  a too great enlargement of the
os uteri;  a softened  state of the  womb;  its tending  towards the
belly, or  the head, or when it acts upon the legs and feet, or from
pain, induces loss of appetite, &c.: in all these cases irregular men-
struation  exists, and inability to conception.
   CIL, CIII. The author here adverts to several evils subsequent
to delivery,—as diarrhoea, vomiting  of blood ;  in this last, asses'
milk  for  five days, and to be succeeded by that of a black  cow,
fasting, for forty days.
   CIV. Retardation of the menses;—of purgation of the uterus.
   CVI. Constipation from the  uterus tending towards  the anus;
                               19 
290               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

inflammation or ulceration of its  mouth; retention  of the after-
birth; inflamed uterus, &c;  the catamenia  not appearing  at their
regular  period; excoriation  of the pudenda; difficulty of  making
water; choking or difficulty of breathing; chills subsequent to de-
livery or  abortion; flatulence; fetor, and  carnosities  of the pu-
denda, ulcers and pruritus;—all  these, and more, are noticed, and
remedies pointed out for them.
  CXIX.  Inaptitude  to conception,  from not menstruating  natu-
rally ; either from the obstruction of a membrane, [supposed to be a
modern  discovery!] or other cause, discoverable  by the finger.
  CXX. to CXLV. Abridgment in a great measure of the prece-
ding numbers, at least as to the measures prescribed.
  CXLVI. Various  recommendations when the woman loses her
milk.
  CXLVII. Directions as to the measures to promote conception.
  CXL1X. A medicine employed as a pessary, to ascertain if con-
ception will ensue. Various other  means are scattered through this
book, as to this and other particulars relating to conception, and
perhaps equal to those now in vogue among nurses and other old
women  of both sexes.  Fomentations, cataplasms, fumigations, &c,
all  connected with the female and her uterine affections, follow in
rapid succession,—some of a character of  great violence, and  re-
quiring much courage or  hardihood in their prescription; thus, thirty
grains of the cucumis agrestis, with  other active ingredients, made
up  and applied to the os uteri five times daily, as a pessary; that
formed  with cantharides, is repeatedly mentioned  as an emmena-
gogue pessary;—some are singular enough, such  as fumigations
with two pounds of bull's urine,  with other articles.  It would seem
that almost every substance employed as a medicine, internally, is
also here to be found in some or other form of pessary. 
OF  FEMALE  DISEASES.
                              BOOK I.

         De Mulierum Morbis......Frcsius, Treat, vi. p. 588.
         De Mulierum Morbis......Haller, iii. p. 161.
         Des Maladies des Femmes,.....Gardeil, iv. p. 79.

     This book, says Haller, is the production of an unknown author,
/   not of Hippocrates, although he transiently quotes from the treatise
   " De Natura  Pueri," in  which this book is in like manner referred
   to.  It contains an infinitely too great a farrago of remedies, and
   they of too compound a character.  The very face of the book seems
   to stamp it as of a date  less ancient.  It is plentifully stocked with
   female diseases, even more so than any  of later date.  They are
   on the subject of suppressed, diminished, or  vitiated catamenia; of
   moles, abortion, difficult parturition, suppressed lochia,  inflamma-
   tion of the womb,  and  barrenness.  The  most acrid  remedies are
   usually prescribed, such as drastic purges, suppositories and pessa-
   ries ;  and numerous vegetable and fossil  remedies  mentioned in
   the  other writings  of Hippocrates, to which virtues  are ascribed,
   often  differing from those that are commonly attributed to  them.
   He  mentions  the irap&evia, or matricaria.   Some things  are  added,
   which appear to be of the same author,  referring  chiefly to the dis-
   eases  of infants, and of the eyes, and enemata.  This is  one of the
   most  extensive  of the  Hippocratic books.  Haller divides it into
   four sections.
  " The author of this book, (says Gardeil,) is certainly the same
with that of the treatise we possess, under the title of ' The Nature
of the Child,'  to which it  refers more than once.  Besides other
faults to be found herein, and which are similar in doctrine to those
in the treatise  ' Of the Nature of Woman,' we find here many tire-
some repetitions  and endless distinctions of the  different diseased
states of the uterus and  its neck.   This multiplication  of diseases
fundamentally the same, has  led  to the opinion that this work, as 
292               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

well as that On  the Nature of  Woman, were productions of the
Gnidian school.   I think, nevertheless, that we here find many very
interesting passages; and that both this and the preceding treatise
may be advantageously  read, by noticing that  the  ancient physi-
cians, in the cure of most of those diseases here  referred to, de-
pended  on the use of external remedies, which are now no longer
distinguished.  I can, however, affirm, that I have seen effects  from
them that appeared almost miraculous."   He  divides it under two
hundred and three numbers, the outline of which is here given.

  I.  The  author  set soft' with  his  opinion, that  with respect  to
female diseases, if they  have never been pregnant, the deranged
state of menstruation is more common  and more dangerous  than
when they have  borne children.   His reasons for this, if not satis-
factory, are at least as much so as any of present notoriety. Here,
he adds, that he had explained all  this, in the treatise  ( De Natura
Pueri," (ffspi (putfij tfai&ou).   It consists chiefly in the general enlarge-
ment of the vessels of all the body, but especially of  those of the
uterus, during gestation,  &c,  which  renders the menstrual dis-
charge a more ready exit, after delivery, and which is  not the case
with those who have never borne children.  The catamenia conse-
quently are more  readily intercepted.  This is illustrated by some
curious analogies,—and an explanation is given, why the same ple-
nitude of the vessels is not found in the male sex, although a monthly
purgation  does not occur.
  II. The author  next proceeds to mention the inconveniences and
diseases most common to females, who not being pregnant arc de-
prived of menstruation, from the closure of the os uteri, or its being
in any way displaced from its natural  position, or from  any dis-
placement of the  parts of generation; which state of things he at-
tempts to elucidate.  If after three  months the menses  appear, and
thus  relieve the plethora, the symptoms  are mitigated  ; but if not,
very soon ensue fever, shivering, lumbar pains, &c, all which  aug-
ment, if they do  not still appear, and  especially at the period  at
which they might be expected: although, after  that  period,  they
(the symptoms) sometimes diminish. Other symptoms  follow  after
the fourth  month  of non-appearance.  If properly treated, health
follows.  If the menses still are absent, the evil augments, and  after
the sixth  month the  cure is very difficult.  All the symptoms in-
crease, and others supervene.
  III. From  these more general symptoms, the author passes to 
OF FEMALE DISEASES—BOOK I.               293
 the different affections of the  uterus, arising from defective men-
 struation.  The elevation  of the womb towards the  stomach, and
 its agitation in  the abdomen, is accompanied by numerous distress-
 ing symptoms, and death sometimes ensues.  A suppression of even
 two months  causes sometimes  a  determination to the lungs,  and
 induces a fatal phthisis.   Suppurations are sometimes the result of
 two or three months'  retention of  the menses, which, if care be
 not taken, may terminate  in ulceration of a bad character and of
 difficult removal, and  discharging by the  groin a  fetid pus;  death
 generally follows; at all events perpetual barrenness.  Sometimes
 the  catamenia flow by  such  an  inguinal suppuration, but  the
 danger is not diminished.
   VI. Sometimes the menses are vicariously discharged by vomiting
 or stool; more commonly is this the case with virgins than  with
 married women, as he  had stated in the treatise " De Morbis Vir-
 ginum."
  VII.  Of the suppression of the menses in general and of its treat-
 ment, by vomiting and purging, and by remedies at intervals to eva-
 cuate the uterus.  Should these not succeed, there may be reason to
 suspect pregnancy, from the symptoms if present, which are enume-
 rated.  The menses sometimes suddenly appear abundantly at the end
 of three months, in clots of black blood, resembling flesh ; sometimes
 ulcers of the  uterus ensue, requiring  much attention.  Other circum-
 stances are  mentioned also; should the menses be  suspended for
 six months, the  symptoms  are in due degree ; and if neglected to
 the eighth month,  death is often the result.   Sometimes the menses
 are for a long  time  pituitous,  and  small  in amount; but if  well
 attended to, the patient  may recover perfect health.   The diminu-
 tion of the discharge is  next considered, arising from a deflexion of
 the os uteri from its proper position, or from its bending on itself,
 preventing the full discharge; the  symptoms are narrated, and its
 dangers stated; being less in those who have borne children.
  X.  Of menstruation,  when too abundant or too frequent, and
 why? relaxation of uterus; too frequent  coitus; high living;—the
 influence of  these on the  female.   If disease attacks under  these
circumstances, it readily falls on the  weakened part;  the symptoms
succeeding thereto, and ultimate danger.
  XI. The menstrual  blood is thicker,  redder, and flows  more
copiously about the middle period of the discharge  than either at
its commencement  or   termination.  Its  amount  in health, about 
294               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

twenty ounces in two or three days (duarum atticarum heminarum
mensuram, Foes.), the usual period ;  although great diversity exists
in this respect, depending on the constitution of the individual. The
blood which is discharged, is red like that of victims (ispeis),  and  it
coagulates promptly, if the woman is in health, &c.
  XII. When sudden  suffocations  affect  the female, which more
especially occur from  non-cohabitation, and at a more advanced
age, (Qu. hysteric paroxysms?) from the uterine vessels being defi-
cient in  their contents; and  after uncommon fatigue, the  uterus
being too dry, tends towards the  liver, the  consequences of  which
are detailed by the author.
  XIII.  When in a diseased state, the menses are of a bilious cha-
racter; they have a black and  shining appearance, in small amount,
and  coagulate freely;  and are accompanied with an erratic fever,
with  chills, nausea, «nd heartburn.*   These symptoms  are readily
removed by proper attention;  otherwise they are  much augmented,
and  others supervene, which  are  benefited by bilious vomiting or
stool, or  by the  discharge of bilious catamenia, provided none of
these are too abundant, which would be dangerous.
  XV. If the menses  are pituitous, they are of  a whitish appear-
ance, and exhibit a  membranous or web-like character.  This state
of things is  enlarged  upon by the  author, and  their  pernicious
effects, if not attended to.  The  discharge is said to become at
length of so acrid a nature as to act on the earth like vinegar.
  XVI.  The author here  treats of the different  causes of  a defect
of conception,  and of the mode  of distinguishing  the  species of
vitiation  of the  menstrual discharge, some of which are very sin-
gular.  He then mentions the  mode of cure of pituitous menstrua-
tion,  by  which  sterility is removed ;  viz., by  means of general
fumigations, frequent vomits, and other measures, such as pessaries,
as preparatory to  coition.  A hollow leaden tube  introduced  into
the os uteri, is a means recommended to convey the fumigation to
the uterus, just anterior to receiving the embraces of her husband;
and much detail is given of the subsequent attention of the  female
to insure success.   The measures for a like intent, when sterility
arises from a dryness of the womb, is next adverted to, such as
emollient injections, both per anum et vaginam.   In  both the cases,
coitus, pendente menstruatione is advised.

  1  These  uterine discharges appear to have been closely examined by the physician,
equally as those by the other emunctories! and why should this not be the case ?—Ed. 
OF FEMALE DISEASES—BOOK I.
295
  XIX. The author  next  considers sterility, as arising from debi-
lity of the female, either from deficient nutriment, or from an abuse
of the numerous remedies and fumigations employed, or from a bad
situation of the  orifice  or neck of the uterus, &c, all which are
particularly treated of.  In the case of the  os uteri being strongly
closed,  bougjes and leaden sounds are recommended  to  open it;
and when the direction of  the uterus is wrong, after redressing it by
the finger, and using  aromatic fumigations, it is to be maintained in
its place by the bougies and sound above-mentioned.  Pessaries of
various kinds are recommended in those cases of inaptitude to con-
ceive, which arise from the orifice of the uterus being very fat and
thick.   And the case of sterility arising from the  semen remaining
and putrefying in the uterus, with  the means of obviating it, are
then considered, together  with the causes productive of this  state.
In this place, the author states conception* to be more certain, when
the semen of both  the man and woman reach the womb at the same
time, the non-occurrence of which he considers as a frequent cause
of failure.
   XXI. He here treats of non-conception, although still at a proper
age and having previously borne children.   The menses being sup-
pressed, a  pessary is ordered every three or four days, of alum in
powder, mixed  with ointment, which is  incorporated with  wool,
and is to be retained for three days, when it is replaced by one of
ox-gall and oil, on wool as above, and also retained for three days,
previous to  coition.  Sometimes, when conception does not occur,
although  menstruation  is regular, the author states  it as arising
from  a membrane, whose extension from the uterus may  be disco-
vered  by the  finger; when a  pessary of Jlores cupri (avSos xa*-xs)
incorporated with honey,  is ordered to be introduced as far as pos-
sible, or, if possible, to remove the whole by incision.  He indicates
certain cases of abortion, either  from  the  inner coat of the uterus
being  too  smooth, either  naturally or from  ulceration, causing the
placenta  to adhere  less strongly.  In this case an examination is
recommended, which, he adds, should be done  by a woman,  as
being more decent than by the physician.   Other cases of abortion
are also adverted  to, from too much eating or drinking, &c.
   XXV.  The author now adverts to the diseases accompanying
pregnancy  and delivery:  the sudden occurrence of menstruation at
the period of two or three months, and recurring every month ;  its
danger to the mother and child;  and he adds, that in certain cases, 
296              THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

much care and precaution are required to conduct pregnancy to a
happy termination.
  XXVI.  The author, then, in reference to the foetus, considers it
as unquestionable, that  it participates in  the  ill  or good  state of
health  of  the  mother, and  that its  constitution  is  in  conformity
thereto.  The  state also of the lochial  discharges depends  thereon,
and are less abundant and unhealthy.  When  they are  suppressed,
he says death  commonly ensues on the thirty-first day.   When the
breasts  and belly of the pregnant female, about  the  seventh  or
eighth  month,  suddenly subside: the former  shrinking and  the milk
not appearing, the embryo is either dead, or in a  state of great de-
bility.   The appearance of the menses  during  pregnancy, is  a
source of  apprehension  of abortion; should they be abundant, and
of an ill odour, the child is certainly sick.   This is  followed by ob-
servations on pituitous and aqueous lochia ; the characteristic  symp-
toms are  detailed, and  their results, together  with the  treatment;
and further remarks are made respecting the hysteric  paroxysms
at times occurring during pregnancy.
  XXXVI. At the time of parturition, and  labour pains come on,
continuing long, without delivery;  this arises,  we are told,  from an
unnatural  position, in which  the feet presentation is  included, and
its explanation is a  most singular one.   It is, says our author, as
if an olive had fallen into a narrow-necked bottle, &c.  The case
is dangerous, and both  mother and child  have frequently lost their
lives.   In  speaking of the various inconveniences of pregnancv, an
explanation is  attempted of the extraordinary  diseased  appetites
that often  occur in it, and of the frequent respiration, especially at
the latter  period of gestation; notice is taken  of  the  ailments after
delivery, as flatus (which is stated  as filling  the womb), lumbar
pain, and  oppression, &c.  Some of the  dangerous results of deli-
very are also  mentioned, such as excessive flooding, injury done to
the uterus, bladder, or rectum, so  that the urine  and fasces cannot
be retained; and some trivial recommendations follow for the same,
and also for aiding delivery.   A reference is next made  to tumours,
during or  after  delivery, of the uterus or  the  pudenda, in which,
says the author, we must not employ astringents, like many medical
men, but  rather use internal  remedies, a  host of which are men-
tioned.  In excoriation  of the pudenda, a  very good ointment  of
well-triturated almonds  and  marrow  is recommended.
  XLVI.  He  goes on now  to  consider the discharges  and results 
OF FEMALE DISEASES—BOOK I.
297
from delivery ;  the  causes, symptoms,  and treatment, under their
total arrestation;  or if too  small, or too abundant in amount;  and
of their character and the danger respectively.  Some of the symp-
toms enumerated seem to  be in a degree allied to the milk-leg,
and  puerperal fever, arising from an insufficient lochial  discharge.
The treatment  consists at first of light nutriment and of purgative
drinks, under some circumstances of irritation ; of chologogues if
bile predominates, or  phlegmagogues should pituita  prevail.  This
is all well enough ; but we are then told to fumigate  the uterus with
aromatics, and employ fomentations, and  if the uterus continues
hard, then to use, in addition, lotions, and introduce  a sound (fistula
plumbea)  of lead, and afterwards a pessary of salt and myrrh with
pitch, on wool,  of the  size  of a  gall-nut! to be left  for twenty-four
hours ; after three days, other varieties of pessary are employed, of
a powerful nature, such as  grains of Gnidos and pepper, of cucumis
sylvestris, &c.   A  digression  then follows as to cases  of  difficult
menstruation,  in  which pessaries  are abundantly  used, and tar-
water is to be largely drank.  Ulceration and inflammation of the
womb  succeed,  and their  danger  is  pointed  out;  and if by  the
measures  adopted, the lochia do  not flow, death soon follows, unless
bleeding  is  promptly recurred to.   The treatment of  suppressed
lochia  from a  union  of the parts  by injury sustained in delivery,
is next considered; and in a case which  the  author himself saw;
by an  appropriate attention, health was  restored, and the  woman
subsequently bore children.  Unless great care is  bestowed, there
is danger  of the ulceration  becoming cancerous.
  LVII.  A metastasis of the lochia to the head, the breast, and lungs
is noticed, and its danger,  should a diversion  not take place,  by  a
discharge from the  mouth  or nose;—a long duration of  the disease
sometimes produces delirium, passing even to  mania. Some other
cases are adverted to,—as vomiting of blood, &c, ascribed  to  a
rupture of an hepatic vessel, and regarded as dangerous.   Asses'
milk is ordered for five or seven  days, succeeded by that of a black
cow, and  the interdiction of solid food for forty days.
  LX. In case of  losing  the  milk, in  order  to restore  it,  various
measures  are directed;—and the author proceeds to state the mea-
sures to  be adopted  for   discharging the afterbirth, if retained;
which, if successful,  the woman is saved.  It frequently putrefies
and  is  discharged on the seventh or eighth  day, or later; a variety
of articles is enumerated to promote it,—and an attempt is made to 
298               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

explain the cause of its retention;—a slight notice is  also given of
the foetus dying in utero, at an early period of gestation.
  LXV.  The  repeated recurrence  to circumstances  already no-
ticed, renders  the whole  of this treatise  extremely  tiresome, al-
though something of interest is to be found in the mass of  rubbish.
Again, he refers to injury sustained  in delivery, by the womb or its
orifice;  of its  inflammation  subsequently, and of afterpains;  of pi-
tuita oppressing the  uterus,  and  giving rise to fluor albus, and de-
rangement of menstruation, sometimes recurring three times' in  a
month.   Under  circumstances of excoriation of the  parts, among
other prescriptions, we find an  ointment made with fiores argenti
[Qu. ? apyupsw  avSoj],
   LXXII.  When the cotyledons (xorvXrjSoveg, Hipp.; acetabula uteri,
Fees., Hal.; les  cornes de la matrice, Gard.), are  surcharged with
pituita, the menses are diminished,  and if pregnancy  should ensue,
the foetus will not live, even if vigorous at first.  The signs  and
treatment of this are then  stated;  as are  likewise those of dropsy
of the uterus.   This disease is sometimes of long continuance, and
if pregnancy  take place, abortion will ensue, with a  discharge of
water.  Various baths, fomentations, and pessaries, are here direct-
ed; cantharides among them, and the metallic sound, &c.  Dropsy,
from a moist and  enlarged spleen, is next considered  and an expla-
nation attempted; the fluids are carried  to that  viscus, and from
thence by the vessels to the omentum and  other viscera, &c.   The
menses are at times  copious, at others  in small  amount, and irre-
gular, resembling the washings of flesh, sometimes  thicker, and not
coagulating.  A suspicion of pregnancy, and even  a presumed mo-
tion of the foetus, is at times credited.  It is troublesome, dangerous,
and of long duration, and more common with  those who  have not
borne children, and at an advanced life, when menstruation is about
to terminate.   The misapprehension of the female is highly inju-
rious, since the physician is not informed in time of the state  of
things.   Modesty sometimes, or a want  of confidence, prevents his
being informed, even when  known  to the female.  The physician is
sometimes deceived also, from not  being fully informed of the state
of affairs,  in consequence  of the female being  herself ignorant
of the cause, but ascribing it to other sources; and he, not fully in-
 vestigating the  disease, frequently  loses the patient, as the  author
 says he  had often  seen.   It is  absolutely necessary,  therefore, 
OF FEMALE DISEASES—BOOK I.
299
promptly and  fully to  question the patient, in order to attain the
necessary information.
  LXXV.  The author renews the subject of suppuration of the
womb; states the symptoms and  treatment; its  occurrence  from
abortion, and  from acrid and  bilious menstruation; fumigations,
purging, milk diet, followed by a tonic regimen  of animal  food,
&c, with  particular restrictions.  Some  physicians, it  is stated,
order milk when  the  headache is severe, with a view  to its re-
moval ; but he thinks water  is better in this case, and milk in that
of acrimony.  Lotions to the womb  are  now directed, of different
kinds, and  ointments ;  among which  is again mentioned that form-
ed of flowers of silver (argenti flores), and a variety of other ingre-
dients.  A vast number  of  remedies  follow;  but it is a  fatal and
slow disease, from which few escape.  Wounds of the uterus, and
ulcers  from any cause, are then adverted to, and  with  much parti-
cularity and repetition of what had been previously given.   Wounds
arising from  abortion,  or from acrid  pessaries, or from a bad pre-
sentation, are  specified; and the management to be pursued, when
delivery is  prevented by  the enlarged state of  the foetus, or from a
cross presentation, the  treatment is very minutely  laid down.  Ster-
nutatories are ordered;  and in order to  render their  effects  more
powerful, the  nostrils and mouth  are  closed,—the woman is to be .
well shaken,  and the  very extraordinary process  is detailed, re-
sembling greatly  that  described in the treatise on the joints and
elsewhere:—The  woman is  to be fixed on a solid firm bed, on her
back, by a  bandage across the breast, under the arms, and attached
to the  bed ; the  arms  are also secured ;  and  the legs, separated,
are tied at  the ankles.  The bed is then to be raised vertically, and
apparently  to  be  shaken  against  the floor, or rather, against two
large pieces of wood that are placed below the legs of the bedstead,
and thus support it in its  upright position.  The bedstead, with the
woman attached,  is then  raised from  these pieces  by two men, one
on each side, and  allowed to fall upon them equably when the  pains
come on;—this is  done at intervals,  until  the child is born.   Such
is the mode, says  the author, of inducing the birth of the child, in a
natural presentation, the  parts being  previously well anointed, and
bathed  with decoction  of mallows or  fcenugrec, and frequently re-
newing them during labour.   Nothing more is to be  done, except
that it seems the accoucheur was  busy in gently enlarging the pas-
sages with  emollients, and attending to the navel-string.  When the 
300               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

presentation is crosswise, whether alive or dead, the  infant is to be
pushed back, to endeavour to turn  it, and  give it a  natural head
presentation.   In order to accomplish this, the woman is placed so
as to raise her thighs above the head, by which the intention is faci-
litated, when the woman  is replaced  as before, and delivery is pur-
sued in the  usual way.   It would appear that  a foot presentation
was regarded as very unfavourable, and placed on a footing with
that of the arm.  When, says the author, the feet or  arms present,
they should  be immediately returned, and  the  presentation of the
head should  be facilitated by turning  the foetus;—so  likewise in
other cases  of unnatural  presentation, previously placing  the wo-
man over a  bath of hot water, in order to  relax the  parts.   If the
foetus be  already dead, and a  foot or arm presents, a similar turning
should be adopted.  If this is not to be effected, and the female parts
become tumefied, the head is to be opened by a bistoury, and crush-
ed, the bones brought away, and the delivery completed by the  for-
ceps or hook; the application of all which is described.   When the
delivery has advanced to the shoulders and  there arrested, the arms
are to be detached at  the shoulder joints.   If the trunk  is impeded,
the thorax is opened and the ribs  crushed, carefully avoiding  the
belly, to  prevent the  intestines and  their contents from escaping;
which  yet, if however too enlarged,  may be slightly opened, allow-
ing any flatus to escape,  and no further difficulty will ensue.—The
author now  proceeds to  consider  the  cause of the formation of
moles, and their signs. In this state the woman will continue some-
times for two  or three years,—and it  occasionally induces death
from its magnitude, or from an excessive hemorrhage.   The mag-
nitude of the  belly  and want of motion are means of recognition,
for a male fcetus moves at three months, and a female at four; after
which period, should  the  woman feel no motion, and the  milk not
appear, the  case is plain, and it  requires great  care and attention;
this consists in fumigations, glysters, lotions to the uterus, pessaries
of the most  powerful character, various vinous drinks, cups applied
to the loins, and letting them bleed copiously.   In fine, says our au-
thor, we must act carefully according to circumstances.
   LXXXV. A brief recapitulation respecting the state  of preg-
nancy, and  its accompanying diseases,  not  devoid  of interest,
ensues, and may be said  to terminate the  treatise; for the residue
consists  almost entirely  of  a long enumeration of  the remedies
employed in the treatment of female diseases, and the formula  of 
OF FEMALE DISEASES—BOOK I.
301
the prescriptions, &c.;  thus they are such as are intended to induce
or  restrain  menstruation, as  pessaries,  purgatives, &c, and  are
chiefly repetitions of those before given.  Among the articles  are
cantharides and the rubigo or rust of wheat." Others for promoting
conception.   Among these are fumigation, with at least ten pints of
stale urine, into which, when heated, scoria of  iron heated red  hot
are thrown, and after the fumigation, the head is to be bathed with
it, and then  washed ; this is repeated for seven  days;—fumigations
likewise of the hair of a white ass, and the dung of a wolf.  Uterine
injections  of the milk of a female the nurse of a boy, mixed with
the juice of pomegranate,  and the calcined powder of the perineum
of the sea-tortoise.  A pessary formed of  the  chorion, and of the
heads of worms that breed in flesh, with Egyptian alum, all bruised
together with goose-grease.   Others, as drinks, to accelerate deli-
very; to prevent conception ;  and pessaries to enlarge the os uteri.
Among the  means  to promote the lochia, we find the recent liver
of the sea-tortoise, triturated with the milk of a woman, and oil of
iris and wine, to be injected  into the  uterus.  Remedies to expel
the afterbirth, containing cantharides.   To  ascertain if pregnancy
has taken place, a boiled clove of garlic is  placed in the vagina for
an hour, and the breath is then  examined to ascertain if the odour
is perceived in the mouth.   iErugo  or verdigris is also  recom-
mended, with honey and liquor of Smyrna1 [qu. ?] as a drink to dis-
charge the foetus and the uterine immundities.   For a similar  pur-
pose  a  pessary of fine flax  is employed,  sprinkled with copper-
dust (aeris limatum  scobem).  Among the  injections ordered,  it  is
mentioned that they should be eighteen ounces  at most, and that  is
the extent of quantity in all  injections.  Many other singular  pre-
scriptions and directions are given, which it would  be loss of  time
to  repeat.   The  above  samples  may suffice;  but it  must be
mentioned, that at  the close of this first book, are  given an addi-
tional variety of prescriptions (called by Fcesius notha qucedam),  of
about an equal description, and  of which I shall notice only two or
three.  They are  supposed by some to  be  of  great  antiquity, and
evince the  use  of emetics in the coughs of children.  The inner
part of an onion triturated with  honey is recommended as a good

          * Qu. If this can have any reference to our secale cornutum ?
         b Syrmoea, Hal. et Foes. 
302
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
suppository to open the bowels of children.   Others are noticed for
a like intention, in one of which cinnabar forms  a part.   Various
escharotics are given, containing scoriae of copper or brass cal-
cined,  of different strength; remedies  for  burns  and  for  ophthal-
mia ; various plasters; depilatories, &c. When it is wished merely
to promote the discharge of faeces, it is  useless to  take internal pur-
gatives ; other means  should be pursued ; different forms of glysters
are given for dysentery. 
OF  FEMALE  DISEASES.
                           BOOK II.

      De Mulierum Morbis.....Fcesius, Treat, vi. p. 637.
      De Mulierum Morbis,    ....   Haller, iii. p. 252.
      Des Maladies des Femmes,    .    .   .   Gardeil, iv. p. 201.

  This treatise, according to Haller, may be ascribed to  the writer
of the preceding, for it is of the  same  character  throughout, with
much repetition, and in  many places with scarcely any alteration.
In conformity with the Gnidian doctrines, we find a great variety
of fluor albus, of white  and ropy discharges, uterine flatus, ulcers,
callosities, cancer, hysteric affections, prolapsus  uteri, and a closure
of its orifice, inducing  sterility.   It treats  of the diseases  of the
breasts and  of the vagina, of freckles, toothache, and of several not
peculiar to  females.  Many extraordinary cures are here  men-
tioned, very different from our present views.   The uterus is re-
garded as  connected  with  almost every viscus; and a bridle or
columella is described as  growing in  the uterus, which  is ordered
to be cut off.
  Persons of advanced life are more subject than the young, to the
fluor albus ;  in both, the discharge is usually yellowish, but redder
with the last.   The causes and  symptoms  are  enumerated, some
of which are singular, and some cases  are said to terminate in
death.   In the treatment, among a variety of means, both pharma-
ceutic  and dietetic, it  is directed  to  bandage the hands and fore-
arm to above the elbows, and  the legs  to above  the  knees; cups*
are then applied to the elevated breasts  alternately, but not to draw

  * 1in.v*t, Hipp,;  cucurbitula,Fees., Hal.—It is remarkable that Gardeil, here,p. 203,
translates this word, by sangsues, leeches, which  were not employed in the days of
Hippocrates; yet every where else, where the word is used, he properly has translated
it Ventouses or cups. Aliquando dormitat. 
304               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

blood.  Emetics in some cases are directed; and  in all,it is directed
to attend  carefully to the temperament of the  female,  her com-
plexion and age, to the season of  the year, the  situation  in which
she lives, and the direction of the wind,  on which much depends in
the cure.
   In fioodings, grumous clots usually accompany.  The symptoms
of pain in  the back and hips, fever, and tenderness of hypogastric
region, &c, are noticed, and the vessels are  said to  beat strongly.
Pessaries are almost invariably ordered, differing according to cir-
cumstances ; and cold applications to the belly, guard ing against chills.
In the copious flooding after delivery, from something retained, which
irritates and putrefies, the  continual application of cloths with  cold
water is directed, the elevation of the feet above  the head, and  such
medicines as are appropriate to female diseases,  are  given, in form
of drink ;  other means are pursued, as milk diet, &c.  The danger
of death is great, however, and few recover.
   A species of flooding is  ascribed to  the efforts in  delivery, or to
any severe work, by which injury is sustained in  the uterine attach-
ments; and is distinguished from a  menstrual discharge or rather
menorrhage, as  so considered by  some physicians,  and  the  dif-
ference pointed out.   To notice  the  variety of the discharges men-
tioned, so far exceeding what are now looked for, would  be super-
fluous, particularly since the whole  book appears to consist chiefly
of the same materials  as are to be found in the  preceding, and dif-
fering  therefrom only as we might expect  from two individuals
epitomising one  common  treatise.   All  these variously  described
discharges are,  however,  noticed  as  different  diseases, and  as
requiring  different treatment.  We  have a  yellow  discharge, of
fetid odour, abundant, and resembling rotten eggs; another, which
resembles the  urine of a female ass, or sheep, &c, wherein cows'
milk is given  warm from  the animal for forty days, to  aid  conva-
lescence, in amount of nearly two quarts per  day.   In one of the
discharges, reference is made to  feeling  the pulse at the wrist.  The
causticity   of  some  of them is  assimilated  to brine, explaining
thereby the erosion of the  soft parts adjoining.   The varied attacks
of hysteric paroxysms  are described  as different affections,  and
attributed  to the  displacement of the uterus.  Fumigations, baths,
and pessaries,  seem the chief means  of cure; and the best pessary
in some cases, is said to be that  made with cantharides.  A sound
or bougie of lead is employed to  enlarge the os uteri,  sometimes as 
                  OF FEMALE DISEASES—BOOK II.               305

preparing the female  for more ready conception; for pregnancy is
considered in many cases as  advantageous, and hence virgins are
to be recommended  to  marry.   The peripatetic character of the
uterus  is constantly insisted on.   It seems, like  the  owners of that
organ, to have been  always gadding!   No wonder it was  conti-
nually out of sorts!   Its diseases are, however, ascribed at  times
to affections of the general system, and remedies to purify the  blood
are recommended; among these the long-continued use of  cows'
milk is greatly urged.   This  displacement of the uterus or its ori-
fice, is stated as an obstacle to menstruation, followed by sterility;
the appropriate  treatment in  each case respectively, is laid down
with precision, especially that of the  manipulations, by pessaries,
sounds, and fumigations. Tar-water,a fasting, and again on coming
out of the bath, with many  particulars directed as to eating and
drinking.   The  chief remedy for all these diseases, seems  to be,
however, considered that of pregnancy.  Cantharides  infused in
wine, as  a drink, or  used in pessaries, &c, are frequent prescrip-
tions.  Dry cupping, long continued, to different parts, the thighs,
below  the breasts, in the groin, &c.  Falling down of the  womb,
and  its full  procidentia, are noticed, and their  treatment detailed.
Its  inflammation, scirrhosity, induration, and  vitiated orifice are
also  mentioned, and how to meet the different symptoms.  Erysi-
pelas, dropsy, and some other complaints of the organ,  are finally
noticed, and a  profusion of prescriptions for pessaries,  &c, close
the treatise.

  a Tar-water, or some infusion of the pine, seems to have been no uncommon drink,
thus forestalling the Bishop of Cloyne.
20 
ON  BARRENNESS.
    De Sterilibus,.......Fresius, Treat, vii. p. 675
    De Sterilibus........Haller, iii. p. 383.
    Traite des Femmes Steriles,    .    .   .    Gardeil, iv. p. 295.

  Much of this treatise on sterility seems to be transcribed verbatim
from  the  books " De Morbis Muliebribus."  Some few novelties
and singularities are introduced, and some  unimportant experiments
relating to the certainty of conception.
  The treatise consists of an  attempt to  explain  why sterility is
sometimes absolute; and  occasionally is removed  by the power of
medicine.   Five different causes  are  assigned.   The  os uteri
wrongly  situated, and  firmly  closed; the lubricity of the uterus
preventing the retention of the seed;  ulceration of the body of the
uterus, consequent  to some  of the  diseases that have  been men-
tioned ;  retention of the menses partially,  productive of effects  op-
posed to  conception ;  and too  great laxity of  the  orifice of  the
uterus, precluding  the retention of  the seed.   All these causes are
considered  and explained ;  and the writer then proceeds  to state,
that when menstruation is  altogether defective, or not sufficiently
abundant, conception cannot  ensue.  That superabundant men-
struation  is equally unpropitious; as is  a  prolapsus of  the uterus;
and a metastasis of the menses to the hemorrhoidal vessels.  Until
the causes  producing these  effects are remedied, conception is im-
possible, and as they are so  numerous, the sterile state of so many
females is by no means surprising.
   To these succeed an account  of the means by  which  may be
ascertained, whether a female will become pregnant.  Means of
ascertaining the state of actual  pregnancy, and of what sex is the
embryo.  Approved  means  for  procuring conception,  and of the
remedies to be used in the  cases of sterility noticed in the begin-
ning. Circumstances favourable to conception and the preservation
of the germ.  Among the means prescribed for remedying  sterility,
one consists  of  fumigating  (after  some  previous  measures)  the 
ON" BARRENNESS.
307
uterus for two days, with putrid female urine mixed with nitre, and
substituting that of the  cow on the third  day; after some further
measures, the os uteri is to be  opened  by  means of  five leaden
sounds, of eight fingers' breadth long, and each successively larger
than the preceding, to be introduced after  bathing, beginning with
the smallest,  each  being retained one day.   After the mouth of
the uterus is  hereby enlarged, a pessary is passed up to cleanse it,
made of five  cantharides, powdered, and mixed  with other ingre-
dients,  and incorporated by means of honey, with wool!   In one
case the cause is affirmed to be a membrane that occasionally forms
at the mouth of the uterus.   Its treatment by a pessary containing
rust of copper is mentioned.   In a form of  the disease stated, we
are told that if we  think proper, we can use  in fumigation, the rust
of wheat,  and the tar-water  daily; and towards  the  conclusion,
when speaking of the complete protrusion of  the uterus, when other
mentioned means  have  failed,  the bottom of the  uterus is to be
incised, to disgorge its vessels;  and after bathing it with decoction
of the pine, the woman is to be  suspended,  head downwards, and to
be shaken, whilst the uterus is pushed  back! 
ON  VISION.
      De Visu,.......Fassius, Treat, ii. p. 688.
      De Visu,.......Haller, iii. p. 447.
      Traite de la Vue......Gardeil, iv. p. 327.

  Haller tells us that this treatise has  been altogether rejected by
Mercurialis, and thrown  into  his fourth class or division.  It is,-
however, considered  as by no means an ill-written one.   Gardeil
even affirms that  it ought  to  be attentively read  by every oculist
who feels an attachment to his profession.   It is very concise, and
recommends many acrid and  severe applications in diseases of the
eyes.  Of these, cauterization constitutes the chief means.
  Cataract  is first  noticed;—neither extraction, nor depression of
the  lens,  seem  to have been  then practised.  Early  attention to eva-
cuate the head, and cauterize the vessels, is said to arrest and check
the  progress of the disease.  Near-sighted people are mentioned ;—
this  state would appear to have been considered  as morbid, and
cauterization,  &c, are recommended;  bleeding is said  to  be inju-
rious in it, and in  some other affections.   The treatment  seems to
have been deferred until full growth was attained, when cauterizing
in different places was freely pursued, and scarification  of  the lids.
The principal  object, in most cases, seems to have been to evacuate
or purge the head; and, in some instances, some of the flesh of the
lids appears to have been cut away, and then slightly cauterizing,—
carefully guarding  the cartilage and the roots of  the eyelashes.
Itching of  the lids, nyctalopia, gutta serena, and  ophthalmia,  are
all  mentioned, and some singular   treatment  recommended, that
may possibly  have been found  beneficial.   Thus  in gutta serena,
we  are told to trepan  near the fontanelle, to remove water that is
below it, &c.  Some useful remarks in ophthalmic  cases are given. 
                    SECTION  VI.a


 ON THE  SHOP OR  OFFICE OF THE  PHYSICIAN.

    De Officina Medici, seu de Officio Medici, .   .    Foisius, Treat, i. p. 740.
    De Officina Chirurgi,......Haller, i. p. 449.
    Traite do Laboratoire du Chirurgien,  .   .   .    Gardeil, i. p. 284.

   Fcesius has a sufficiently interesting preface to the  section now
 to be considered; but it is not adapted to my plan, independently of
 its extent.   Of the ten treatises  here noticed  in the arrangement of
 Foesius, five are esteemed to be genuine by Haller.   Other com-
 mentators and translators  have thought differently, and have sepa-
 rated them  in conformity to their views, and arranged them else-
 where.  The subject is briefly adverted to, in a preliminary address
 to the reader, by a  friend of Haller, in the first  volume of  his trans-
 lation.  Be they or not the offspring of Hippocrates, there is not one
 from which  we cannot gain information, and at the same time en-
joy both the " utile and the dulce."—Ed.
  Although, says Haller, Galen doubted if this were of the genuine
writings of Hippocrates;  yet  that it is so, is easily detected by its
raciness (ex ipso sapore).   Brief, profound,  and even  in  the  less
important parts, not  less informed  attention is bestowed on the
minutest concerns, and precepts  given as  to the best situation for
the  surgeon or physician, and mode of  standing or  sitting  in his
operations, &c.   The  subject of bandages is by no means unin-
teresting, and  is pretty copiously treated of.   Gardeil, speaking of
the title of this treatise, says  it has undergone alterations among the
ancients, and been the object of dispute to the learned.   I have,

  » This section, entitled by Fcesius ^ufavfytv(*»it, or that part of medicine called
Chirurgia or Surgery, consists often treatises. 
310               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

adds he, given in  French, the name that seemed to me to be best
adapted to the matters treated of, as well as to the Latin transla-
tions, by which it is quoted, de Officina Chirurgi.   His title is "Du
Laboratoire du Chirurgien."   Le Clerc thinks that the term is in-
appropriate, inasmuch as  surgery did  not then constitute a distinct
branch of medicine, and that the term Iijt^siov implies " La Boutique
du Medecin," and not " du Chirurgien;" the title of surgery ap-
pearing no where in the writings of Hippocrates, although the art
constituted a large part of his medical practice.
  The* treatise sets off by stating that the  means of instruction in
every case, are dependent on the senses,  by which we  are enabled
to form comparisons,  and from them deduce our judgments.  In
relation to the objects of the physician in his shop, they are enun-
ciated  under the heads of the patient, the  operator, assistants, situa-
tion for the operation,  instruments, light, as best adapted to perform
it, and  other  necessary appurtenances; all which are briefly  con-
sidered, as well as some particulars respecting the hands, nails, and
the regular  placing  of the  instruments as  they may be called*for,
the silence and attention  requisite, and other circumstances.  This
is followed by the subject of  bandages, the making, form, and ap-
plication; compresses, &c, and their various intentions explained;
the natural situation of injured parts by extension, flexion, &c.; the
attention constantly required  to keep up the  full advantages that
proper bandaging affords, and  obviate the injury that negligence
brings with it; with many hints and suggestions of a useful nature,
not irrelevant even at the present time. 
ON  FRACTURES.
     Hippocratis de Fractis Liber,       .    .   Fcssius, Treat, ii. p. 750.
     Hippocratis Liber de Fracturis,  .   .   .   Haller, i. p. 282.
     Traite des Fractures,   ,.....Gardeil, i. p. 298.

  An admirable production of a wise and experienced man, (says
Haller,)  and worthy of Hippocrates.  He correctly explains the
fractures of the  humerus, femur, tibia, and forearm, and the luxa-
tions of  the  tibia,  and forearm.  He  teaches  lucidly  their  chi-
rurgical  administration,  together with  the  statement  of  the  due
precautions, apparatus, and  precepts.   He properly directs the ex-
tension of fractured and luxated bones, to be performed on the first
or second day, and not to be delayed to the third.  Throughout he
appeals to his own experience.
  This  book, although entitled " De  Fracturis," is at  least equally
taken up with the  subject  of luxations, as the  succeeding one on
luxations embraces much on the subject of fractures.   So much is
this  the  case, that  Haller considers it as merely a continuation of
the present.   The  author begins this with some general  precepts
on the subject of both these  accidents, and  then follows  more  in
detail, on  the fracture of  the bones of the  hand, in which he
severely animadverts on the ignorance of some reputed able prac-
titioners ;—on that of the  forearm, wherein  much stress is laid on
the proper application of bandages,  &c, and  which is highly de-
serving of attention.  Fracture of the humerus succeeds, then luxa-
tion of the bones of the feet; of the leg at the ankle joint; fractures
of the bones of the leg, and  the difference  of  treatment  in these,
from the fractures  of the  upper  extremities; of fractured femur.
Fracture with wounds, considered, as well as luxations; spiculse of
fractured bones;—all these minutely described, and the treatment, 
312               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
both by others and  himself.   Extension, if not  previously made, is
to be sedulously  avoided  the third and fourth day;  and  reasons
assigned.  Luxation of the knee and elbow;  reduction of; fracture
of radius, of cubitus, &c.
  This  treatise could  scarcely be  read  without benefit, even by
surgeons of the present day.  It would  at  least convince them,
that their science  was, practically, not less perfectly comprehended
than it now is !—Ed. 
ON  THE  JOINTS.
      De Articulis Liber.....Fcesius, Treat, iii. p. 780.
      De Articulis Liber,    ....   Haller, i. p. 326.
      Traitk des Articles,   ....   Gardeil, i. p. 353.

   This treatise,  considered by most commentators and translators,
as being a manifest continuation of the preceding one, " De Frac-
turis," embraces those fractures and  luxations  that are not therein
mentioned, such as fracture of the ribs, scapula, clavicle, nose, ear,
&c, and luxation of the vertebrae, maxilla, femur, &c.  It is of equal
value as  the  preceding,  and equally  deserves  attention.   Four
various luxations of the femur are accurately detailed by Hippo-
crates, together  with  the  appropriate manipulation and treatment
of each in the reduction; and which can scarcely fail, in the perusal,
to throw light upon the subject, even  at this more  advanced period.
  Luxation of the head of the humerus begins the treatise, of which
the author says,  he had seen but  one mode, and  that downwards,
in the axilla;  and he gives  his reasons for believing  that some of
the varieties mentioned by physicians, were not as stated, but that
error existed on  their  part. He points out and explains no less than
six modes of reducing this luxation, and affords some  reflections on
the causes of the facility  or difficulty  in the operation;  mentions
the diagnostics of the injury, and  states the mode of applying  the
actual cautery in some cases, and  to what parts, together with  the
results of  such luxations.   Luxation  of the  humeral  extremity of
the clavicle, fracture of the clavicle, and treatment of each.  Luxa-
tion  of  the elbow, complete and  imperfect,  and their respective
treatment.  Of the fingers, hand, the lower jaw, and fracture of the
latter.  Fracture of the nose, crash, or fracture of the  external ear;
treatment of all these, with some general maxims of importance in
many diseases, tending to illustrate the propriety of not doing  too
much.   Luxation of the spine or its processes ;  deformity from ; ob-
servation  on, relative to situation, causes, and treatment.   Of  the
structure of the  spine and luxation of  the vertebras;  curvature of 
314
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
the spine and  treatment; danger from;  incurable if it is inward.
Fracture of the ribs, and  treatment;  luxation of the  head  of the
femur in four ways, each particularly considered in their symptoms
and treatment, accompanied with many judicious remarks as to the
atrophy and deformity of parts  caused thereby.  Luxation  of the
femur at the knee joint, with accompanying observations on the
symptoms, &c.  General remarks on luxations, and on bandy legs;
treatment of, in children, and of club-foot.  Luxations with lacera-
tion, and projection of the bone ; danger from, and  treatment of
various cases of; gangrene from.  Of the reduction of the different
kinds of luxation of the femur, and the machinery described for
extension, &c, and for that of other luxations. 
ON  THE REDUCTION  OF  FRACTURES  AND
                      LUXATIONS.

        Mochlicus, seu Vectiarius,   .   .    Fcesius, Treat, iv. p. 841.
        Mochlicus.......Haller, i. p. 408.
        Le Mochlique......Gardeil, ii. p. 5.

   Haller calls this a brief, yet not inelegant compound of the two
preceding books; or, as Gardeil states it, a  recapitulation of those
treatises, of a summary character, for  such as would not  charge
their memory with all that they contain.   Such being the case, a
few outlines will suffice.
   Mo^Xia, is defined to be " ossis aut ossium  a loco qui praster-natu-
ram sit, ad naturalem reductio."  It is derived from f^o^Xog, vectis;
or the apparatus, &c, by which the reduction was effected.
   It begins with a brief description of most of the bones.   This is
followed by the statement of  the fractures and luxations of the dif-
ferent bones, nearly in the order as we find them in the preceding
books;  terminating with some general remarks on reduction,  on
some of the machinery employed, and on  some  incidental  particu-
lars, in a greater or less degree connected with the subject. 
ON  ULCERS.
         Liber De Ulceribus,  .   .    .   Fcesius, Treat, iv. p. 869.
         De Ulceribis Liber,  .   .    .   Haller, iv. p. 101.
         Traite des Plaies,   .   .    .   Gardeil, iv. p. 332.

  From the number and variety of remedies herein mentioned, this
would  appear not to be one of the genuine productions of Hippo-
crates.  It does not add the doses, as in the  books De Muliebribus.
Sundry admonitions are given against the abuse of oleaginous and
relaxing applications  about  the  ulcerated  parts.  The  remedies
themselves are  sufficiently adapted to the nature of things.  Arsenic,
black hellebore, and cantharides are  amongst them.  Some  plants
are briefly described.—This  book, according to Gardeil, is often
quoted in  surgical  books.
  Some general remarks commence this book, which are of  much
importance as  to  certain applications,  rest, &c.  A  principal
intention  is  to  prevent  inflammation,  and  promote suppuration;
to permit  fresh  wounds to  bleed freely, and  avoid greasy applica-
tions, except in certain  particular cases.   Purging;  bandaging,
when proper; seasons, which are  best for ulcers; of measures for
promoting cicatrization; treatment of round and  deep ulcers, and
of  ulcers accompanied by erysipelas.   Signs of suppuration, and
of difficult cicatrization.  Some recommendations to accelerate  it.
  A variety  of formulae, simple  and  compound, follows,  for reme-
dial applications, as cataplasms, &c.   In one of these, we find the
juice of the  stramonium,  or solanum,  where  erysipelas  is  appre-
hended.  iErugo, mixed with various  ingredients, as sweet wine,
honey, resin, myrrh, and nitre (virpov), made into a kind of ointment,
for dressing  ulcers when they  do not discharge  adequately,—and
spoken of as especially useful in those of the prepuce,  head, and
ears;—if correctly made, I think  it must be an excellent  ointment, 
                          ON ULCERS.                       317

and well adapted for cleansing or deterging wounds and ulcers: it
is stated as equally good in recent and in inveterate ulcers.  Many
other active ointments  are  mentioned, in some of which are to be
found lead,  tutty,  alum,  copper, arsenic, cantharides, &c.;  some
used in form of a lotion.  Some observations are made on swell-
ings of the feet, on varicose veins, &c.; their treatment, and a few
remarks on the use of cups. 
ON  FISTULA.
       De Fistulis,    .              .   .    Fcesius, Treat, vi. p. 883.
       De Fistulis,......Haller, iv. p. 115.
       Traite des Fistules.....Gardeil, iv. p. 350.

   F(esius regards this as a genuine work of Hippocrates,—to which
Haller does not subscribe.—Description  of fistula  in  ano,  and its
cure ;—one mode consists of a twisted ligature, composed of fine
flax entwined  around horse hair' (certainly an animal ligature), and
employed as  at present.   Another mode is that  of incision.  As-
tringents are  praised in  cases  of prolapsus ani.   It is  remarked,
that in going to stool, the prolapsus is infinitely less, if the legs are
extended.* Its cause is referred to pituita and bile, as stated also in
the book " De Mulierum Morbis."  An abundant  display of reme-
dies follows.   The  book on  Llemorrhoids  seems  closely connect-
ed with  this.—Haller.
   How  fistula  in  ano is produced; of its treatment by various
pharmaceutic preparations according  to the nature  of the case;
ligature  of  flax, twisted around  horse  hair!  incising the  fistula;
injections; attentions requisite;  prolapsus, how to be treated ; pre-
cautions in going to stool;  various remedies noticed.—Gardeil.

  a Pilum equinum.
  b " Dum autem ventrem exonerat, crura extendat:  sic enim minime sedes exci-
derit.—Hal. iv. 120. 
ON  THE  HEMORRHOIDS  OR  PILES.
        De Hemorrhoidibus,* ....   Fcesius, Treat, vii. p. 891.
        De Hemorrhoidibus.....Haller, iv. p. 122.
        Traite des Hemorroides, .    .   .   Gardeil, iv. p. 358.

  Although, says Haller, this is a spurious book, it is by no means
a bad one.  It  cannot be a writing from the author of the Apho-
risms, since there, one of the tumours is  directed to be  kept open;
whilst here, the whole are cured.  Pituita and bile are the founda-
tion of the author's theory.   Various means of cure recommended ;
acrid applications, and even the cautery.
  Of the  formation  of  hemorrhoids,b and of  their treatment by
incision, ligature, cautery;  how to distinguish hemorrhoidal tu-
mours.  A styptic composed of urine, mixed with calcined copper-
filings in a copper vessel, and exposed to  the sun, frequently stirrinc
it, until  dry, then powder it  finely, and sprinkle  slightly on each in-
cision.  Mulberry tubercles,  external and internal; treatment; specu-
lum  ani (xaroirrripos) ;—here, reference  is  made (in order to explain
why so  little discharge of blood follows the  falling off of the tu-
mours)  to amputation of the legs or arms at the joints, when com-
pared with  the operation  either above  or below ; the particular
analogy would be difficult to apprehend, even with the accompany-
ing explanation!   Cauterization seems  to  have  been employed
internally, through  the medium of a  canula of some  kind intro-
duced.   The tumours, when burning or  cutting were  deemed im-
proper,  were sometimes  made to extrude, and were .then sprinkled
with a mixture of myrrh, galls, and alum, calcined.   Some  other
analogous preparations are  given.

  * " Hoc est, de Venis in ano sanguinem fundere solitis."—Fcesius.
  b See different meanings among the ancients, of this term ; it was used often to
imply hemorrhagies of different kinds.                                  * 
ON  WOUNDS  OF  THE  HEAD.
      De Capitis Vulneribus.....Fcesius, Treat, viii. p. 895.
      De Capitis Vulneribus,  ....    Haller, i. p. 430.
      Traite des Plaies de la Tete,   .   .    Gardeil, ii. p. 38.

  This, says Haller, is one of the genuine writings of Hippocrates,
and, with his other surgical works, amongst his best.  His treatises
on  practice  and on semeiotics,  have many parts that require ex-
planation and restriction.  Here,  all are clear and true; you per-
ceive  at once that the author is conscious  of this  being  the case.
Some anatomical  observations precede, and also somewhat para-
doxical in relation to the sutures.  In one part we find him noticing
his  having been deceived  by them,  and  taking them for  fissures;
thus having a manifest  connexion with the case of  Autonomus in
the  fifth Epidemics.—Affections of the head  induce bad symptoms
on the opposite side.  The trepan noticed, and  directions for.

  This treatise commences  with general remarks on  the  sutures
and on the bones of the cranium.  The  danger of wounds of the
head  depends very greatly  on the bones  concerned therein.   Of
the  various ways in which the bones of the head  are  affected  by
wounds.   Contusion with fissure.  Simple  contusion.   Depression,
&c.  Contre-coup.   Cases in which  perforation is required.   Re-
gard to be  had in the treatment to the  mode  in  which the blow has
been given, as also  to the nature of the body  inflicting it.  Diffi-
culties arising from the sutures, in the diagnostics of the real state
of the wound, and of its treatment.   Lotions  and bandages pro-
hibited in wounds of the head.  Advantages of incising the scalp,
especially when  the bone is denuded.  Certain  reservations as to
this, and remarks.   Of  the time for perforating the bone, and cau-
tions thereon.  Indications to be derived from the  state  of the  sur-
rounding flesh.   Requisites for a good  exfoliation  in  certain cases.
Cautions as to the diagnosis and prognosis.   Prognosis in desperate
cases.  Necessity  of hastening  the  operation in  certain  cases.
Mode of trepanning; hazard of wounding the  meninges; precau-
tions  in and during the operation. 
  ON THE EXTRACTION  OF  THE  DEAD FG3TUS.

       De Fcetus in utero mortui exsectione,  .   Fcesius, Treat, ix. p. 914.
       Liber de exsectione Fcetus,   .   .    .   Haller, iv. p. 245.
       Traitk de l'extractiOiN du Fcetus mort,   Gardeil, iv. p. 363.

   This short treatise, says  Haller, instructs us  how  to bring away
 the foetus  by piecemeal,  and  how to crush  the  head.  It details
 moreover,  a most extraordinary  concussion of the  parturient fe-
 male, in order  that the foetus may obtain more room  for  its exit.
 Some directions are given in relation to  the replacing of  the pro-
 lapsed uterus.
   Gardeil properly warns us against attributing to Hippocrates all
 of the doctrine in this  short tract; which will, says  he, shock the
 accoucheurs of our time in more parts than one,—and which we
 cannot accredit to him, after having perused the treatises already
 given.
   I am about to notice  the case, (says  the author, whoever he may
 be,) in which the woman cannot be delivered naturally, and which
 requires the fcetus  to be extracted  by piecemeal;—beginning  by
 veiling from her the sight of such a frightful  operation, &c.   The
 operation is then pretty amply  detailed; and other cases of difficult
 delivery are mentioned.  Then succeeds the plan adverted  to, of
 shaking the female, at least  ten times,—and if not successful,  she is
 to be  turned  head  downwards, her feet in the  air, and to be well
 shaken by  the  shoulders, so as to afford the chance of the  fcetus
 obtaining a more  favourable position  for his exit !a—Of side pre-

  * As this is a singular obstetrical operation of the olden times, we give it in detail
 from Gardeil, vol. iv. p. 365.   It will be a bonne bouche for the accoucheurs of the pre-
 sent age.
  " Voici comment on donne les secousses.  On met un drap de lit sous la femme, qui
s'y etend dessus. On on met un autre sur les cuisses, pour couvrir ses parties.  On
roule ces draps autour des cuisses et des bras. Puis deux femmes vigoureuses prendront
celle qui est en travail, une de chaque c&te par les bras, et deux autres par les cuisses.
Elles la saccadent ainsi, (to jerk or shake,) dix  fois au  moins, en la tenant  fortement.
                                21 
322
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
sentation; of the cord around the neck; the head locked, and hand
projecting, are adverted to;  and the  subject of prolapsed uterus is
then noticed.  If the subject is old, it is best to do nothing; if young,
the skin of the orifice and neck of the uterus  is to be slightly in-
cised, and that in both  directions, rubbing it with  a soft towel  to
excite inflammation  and empty the  vessels.  Some  unctions are
next  applied,  or  astringent  lotions; after its  reduction,  tents  of
sponge with wine are introduced into the vagina, and a recumbent
position, with  the legs crossed, is maintained.

Ensuite, si cela ri'a pas suffi, elles la mettent la lite en baa et les jambes en haut, la
tenant par les cuisses, ct la secouant vers les epaules, cherchant a. faire passer ainsi le
fcetus dans une place vide, pour qu'il prenne une situation plus favorable a. sa sortie,
Quand on ne voudra point avoir recours a ce moyen, on donnera du castor cuit dans
du vin de Chio." 
ON  DISSECTIONS.
      Liber de Corporum Resectione,   .    .   Fcesius, Treat, x. p. 915.
      Liber de Corporum Resectione,   .    .   Haller, ii. p. 1.
      Traite de la Dissection des Corps, .       Gardeil, iv.  p. 366.

  A concise treatise, says Haller, giving some account of the lungs,
heart, liver, and other abdominal viscera; correct, and derived from
human dissection; [which I much doubt.—Ed.]  It  can be looked
upon, says  Gardeil, merely  as a slight  sketch of the anatomical
knowledge of the  period; and it speaks only of the most essential
organs of the trunk of the body.  Somewhat is said as to the names
and  etymology of the oesophagus, &c.  This terminates the  sixth
section. 
SECTION   VII.
  THE  EPIDEMICS  OF  HIPPOCRATES.

        De Morsis Vulgaribus,.....Fcesius, p. 938.
        De Morbis Popularibus,.....Haller, i. p. 110,
        Des Epidemies........Gardeil, ii. p. 57.

  The prefatory remarks of Fcesius to the seven books of Epide-
mics are deserving of attention, as explanatory of the genuine and
other books  under this general title.
  " There are," says  he, " seven books of Epidemics, in the collec-
tion we possess under the name of the Works of Hippocrates; but
they are not generally believed to be  all derived from  the  same
source.   The first and third books  are alone regarded as incontes-
tably his.  The remainder  are  greatly inferior to them,  even the
fifth  and the seventh,  though all are valuable.   The order that cha-
racterizes the first and third, (which last is manifestly a continuation
of the first,)  is not apparent in any  of the other five, yet each con-
tains much excellent matter.  In the fifth and seventh are numerous
surgical observations."
  I had prepared an outline of the whole of these books, but as they
are considered among the principal of the  writings of Hippocrates,
I judged that the medical public would be better pleased to see them
in extenso;  and as Clifton has given a  translation of the whole, I
have concluded to make use of it.  That  gentleman published  the
first  edition of the work in 1734.  A second  edition appeared  in
1752, which is the one here chosen; whether improved,or modified
from the former, I know not.  I cannot say his  translation conforms
in every part to the ideas I formed, from perusing the Latin transla-
tions of Foesius and Haller, although it affords generally a sufficient-

  a This Section consists of the seven books of Epidemics, and the Book of Aphorisms,
and is entitled by Foesius ret tmpiicnt—hoc est, permixtam omnium medicina? partium
tractationem. 
THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
325
ly accurate view of the work.  He has not divided his translation into
regular books, but gives it as one continuous text, under the gene-
ral head of " Hippocrates on  Epidemical Diseases."   In order to
enable the reader to refer to each respective book, either in Fcesius
or Haller, I have therefore  kept up that division, though otherwise
of no importance; and have also to each book given the short pre-
fatory remarks of Haller, and  sometimes/ of Gardeil, as they gene-
rally afford a concise view of the purport of the treatise. I may add
that I have omitted a number of notes that are added by Clifton,
which would too  much swell these  pages, although many are in-
structive, and aid in understanding the text itself.—Ed.
       THE  FIRST BOOK  OF EPIDEMICS.

  This book, says Haller, is one of  the principal works of Hippo-
crates, and is  by all, attributed to him.  It is a production worthy
of him, although consisting chiefly of a  history of diseases, un-
mixed  with medicine.   Its value consists in his description of them,
and his notice of crises.   It contains, under three sections, the state-
ment of the seasons for  three years, as occurring at Thasus, fol-
lowed  by the  rise of an epidemic  state of disease of two years'
continuance; in  one of these  recurrent fevers predominated, and
ardent  fevers in the other.  To these last belong a large proportion
of fourteen patients here recorded, and with mostly a fatal termina-
tion.  One case  is particularly interesting, of a  parturient female
who recovered after a very prolonged disease.—Haller.
                   SECTION I.  YEAR I.

  In  Thasus in the autumn,  about the equinox, and  under the
Pleiades, the rains were great,  continual, and soft, as when the
wind  is southerly.  The winter mild,  with southerly  winds, and
very little northerly.  With these were greater droughts than ordi-
nary,  so that the whole winter  was,  in effect, like the spring.  The
spring was  also affected with southerly winds, but yet was cold,
and a little  wet.   The summer was for the most part cloudy and
dry.   The Etesiae  blew but little, faintly, and irregularly. 
326
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
   The  whole year being thus affected with southerly winds, and
 greater droughts than ordinary, early in the spring (from the former
 year's being different, and affected with northerly winds) some few
 were attacked with burning fevers of  a kind good sort, and a few
 others with hemorrhages, neither of which proved mortal.  Swell-
 ings appeared behind the ears, in many on one  side, in  most on
 both, without a fever or  any confinement, but in some with a little
 fever.   In  all they disappeared  without either inconvenience or
 suppuration, contrary to the custom  of  such tumours  from other
 causes.  At this  particular time they were naturally  soft, large,
 diffused, without  inflammation  or pain,  and went off  universally
 without  any  visible signs.  Children, young persons, adults, espe-
 cially those who frequented  the  public  places of exercise, were
 most subject to them.  A  few women were also affected.  The
 greatest part  had dry  coughs, which were  soon  succeeded  by
 hoarsenesses.  Some  again after  a  while had painful  phlegmons
 upon the testicles, sometimes upon one, sometimes upon both. Some
 had fevers, others none;  most of them trouble and fatigue enough:
 but with respect to the chirurgical part they did very well.
   Early in the summer, and  from that time  till the winter, many
 of those who had  been  for a long while somewhat  consumptive,
 were laid up with consumptions; and others, who were doubtful,
 were then  fatally convinced.  Others  again, where nature tended
 that  way, dated the beginning of it from that time.  A great num-
 ber of such patients dropped  off; and I do not remember that any
 of those who were laid up held out even  a moderate time, but died
 much sooner than is usual in such cases, after having suffered other
complaints, and those for a  long time, in their fevers, without either
fatigue  or dying.   Of these we shall now treat: for the only, and
the greatest of the diseases then reigning, and that proved  fatal to
many, was the consumption.
  The manner in which  most of them  were affected is as follows.
They were seized with  continual, acute  fevers,  attended  with a
chilliness, but no intermission ; of the semitertian kind; the fit being
one day moderate, the next vehement,  and so increasing to great
 vehemence.  They sweated continually, but not all over.  The ex-
tremities were very cold, and grew warm again with difficulty.
The  belly was disturbed  with bilious,  small,  simple, thin,  griping
stools, and that frequently.  The urine  thin, without colour, crude,
and little in quantity; or else  thick, with a small sediment, that did 
THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
327
not subside  well, but appeared  crude and  unseasonable.  They
coughed a little and often, and the matter  expectorated was indeed
digested, but  brought away by little and  little, and with difficulty.
Where the case was very violent, no digestion happened, but what
they spit was continually crude.   The throats of most of them were
from the beginning  and all along painful,  red, and inflamed.   The
rheum that came from them little, thin, and sharp.  A consumption
and  general  disorder  soon followed.  An aversion  to  all kind of
food was  continually  upon them, but without thirst;  and .many,
before they  died, became delirious.  Thus the  case stood among
the consumptive.
   In  the summer and  the autumn many fevers came on,  of the
continual  kind, though not violent; and  that to such as had  been
long ill, but in other respects not worn out.   Disorders of the belly
likewise happened to  many, but such as were  very tolerable, and
without any remarkable  injury.   The urine was  generally  well
coloured and clear, but thin, and  after a while, about the crisis,
digested.  Coughs were  moderate, and  expectoration easy;  nor
were they so averse to food, but  very willing  to take what  was
given them.  In a word, these consumptive  patients were affected
in a manner  different  from such a state, sweating a little in  their
chilly fevers; while others were seized with  paroxysms in a vague
and uncertain manner, never leaving them  entirely, but  returning
as a  semitertian.  The crisis happened  upon the twentieth day at
the shortest, in  most upon the fortieth, and in many upon the eigh-
tieth.  In  some again  it never  happened, but the fever went off in
an erratic or wandering manner.  Here indeed it returned again for
the most part, after a short intermission;  and after the return came
to its crisis in the same periods as before.  Many of them held out
so long, as to be ill  in the winter; but of all here described  none
but the consumptive  died.  The  rest bore  their fevers and other
complaints very well and escaped.


                   SECTION II.   YEAR  II.

   In Thasus, early in the autumn, the weather was unseasonable,
and on a sudden grew  wet with much  northerly and  southerly
wind, that lasted the whole time of the Pleiades, and even to  their
setting.  The winter was  affected with northerly winds;  the  rains 
 328              THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 were great and heavy, attended with snow, and for the most  part
 a mixture of fair weather.  Thus the whole affair stood;  and,  with
 respect to the cold,  what happened was not very unseasonable.
 But after the winter  solstice, and when the  west wind  begins to
 blow, there was very severe winter weather,  with much  northerly
 wind and snow,  and abundance of rain without ceasing.  Over
 head it looked stormy  and  cloudy.   This state lasted without re-
 mission to the equinox.  The spring was cold, northerly, watery,
 and cloudy; the summer not very scorching.  The  Etesiae blew
 continually;  and, about the rising of Arcturus, a great deal of rain
 fell  again on a  sudden, with northerly  winds.   The  whole year
 being  thus  damp and  cold, affected  with northerly  winds,  they
 passed the winter well  for the most part, but in the  beginning of
 the spring many persons (not to say a great many) were  taken ill.
  First of all appeared  humid ophthalmies (or inflammations of the
 eyes),  with  weepings,  pain,  and  indigestion.   Little concreted
 matter broke out with  difficulty on the eyes of many persons, re-
 turned again in most, and went  away at last about 'autumn.  In
 the summer and the autumn, dysenteries, tenesmuses, and  lienteries,
 were complained of; so were bilious purgings,  of a  thin, crude,
 griping nature, and much in quantity.  Others again were watery;
 and many complained  of painful  fluxes  that were  also bilious,
 watery, ragged, purulent, and strangurious; not from  any fault in
 the  kidneys,  but from  one  humour or  complaint coming  upon
 another.   They likewise vomited bile, and phlegm, and indigested
 food.  They  sweated  too  in general, the humidity  being great
 every where.  To many these things happened without a fever or
 confinement,  to  others  with  a fever,  as we  shall see hereafter.
 Where all that  is here mentioned  happened, they became con-
 sumptive,  not without pain.
  In the autumn and the winter, continual  fevers turned out, besides
 a few  that were  ardent, diurnal,  nocturnal, semitertians, perfect
tertians, quartans, and erratics; every  one of which  happened to
many, but ardent fevers to very few, and were the least trouble-
some :  for they were neither taken with bleedings, unless in a very
small quantity, and that but seldom, nor  with deliriums.   In all
other respects they bore it well.  The crisis happened  to most  in a
 very regular  manner  (intermissions  included) in  seventeen days
generally,  without any body's dying or becoming phrenitic.  Ter- 
THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
329
 tians were more frequent than ardents, and more troublesome.   In
 all the progress was very  regular from  the  first paroxysm to the
 fourth, and the seventh proved a perfect crisis, without any relapse.
 Quartans attacked many at first as a quartan  should, and many
 were  seized with it  as  the crisis  of other fevers  and  diseases.
 These were of long standing, and indeed longer than usual.  Quo-
 tidians, nocturnals, and erratics were likewise frequent, and lasted
 long, both among those who were confined at home, and those who
 walked about.   The  major part  could not get  rid of their fevers
 during the  Pleiades,  nor even  till winter.  Convulsions were  also
 frequent,  especially  among children, from the  beginning, but  not
 without a fever.   They came upon fevers  likewise, and lasted  a
 long time in general, but without any harm, except where  other
 circumstances  had  made  the  case desperate.  The other fevers
 were altogether of the continual kind,  without any intermission,
 and the paroxysms in all  like the semitertians,  one day better,
 another day worse;  and, of  all the fevers that then  reigned, these
 were the  most vehement, the most  tedious, and  the  most painful;
 beginning very mildly, but  increasing always, and growing worse
 and worse  upon the critical days.  After a little  abatement they
 soon grew bad again, had  stronger fits upon  the critical days, and
 were for  the most part  worse.   Shiverings were  universally irre-
 gular and uncertain, seldom and very little in  these, but in other
 fevers more.  Sweats were common, but here least of all, and so
 far from easing the patient, that on the contrary they did him harm.
 The extremities were very cold, and could  scarce grow warm
 again. . Nor were they altogether watchful, especially in this case,
 but fell again into comas.   The belly in all was  disturbed, and in a
 bad manner, but worst of  all by much in these.  The urine was
 for the most part thin, crude, without»colour, and after a while ap-
 peared a little digested as though  critical; or  had some consistence
 in it, but  yet was  turbid without  any sediment  or concoction; at
 least the sediment was but little, and that bad and  crude.   In  fine
 all these things  were bad.   The fevers were likewise  attended with
 coughs, but I cannot say that I perceived  either good  or harm from
 them.   Most of these complaints were tedious  and  difficult, very
irregular and inconstant, and that  without coming to a crisis, either
in those whose case was desperate, or in those whose case was
not so.  For, if it intermitted a little at any time, it soon  returned
again; and in the few that had the  benefit of a  crisis, it happened 
330               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

not at the soonest before  the eightieth day, and to some of these  it
returned,  so  that  many  of them were ill in the winter.   In the
greatest part it went off without a crisis; and  these things hap-
pened alike to those who did well, and to  those who did not.
   As there was a  great want of the critical variety that is usual in
diseases, the  greatest and worst symptom attended many of them
to the last, viz.:  a general dislike  to food, especially where other
fatal circumstances appeared.   They were not indeed very thirsty
out of season, but  after a long time, a great deal of pain, and a bad
decay, abscesses  formed themselves, sometimes too great for the
patient's strength to bear, at other times too little to be of any ser-
vice; so  that a relapse presently  followed, and the patient grew
worse and worse.  Dysenteries, tenesmuses, lienteries, and fluxes
were likewise added; and some fell into dropsies.  Nauseas and
great uneasiness happened with and  without these.  Whatever was
very vehement, either despatched  the patient soon, or was of no
benefit to him at all.   Little eruptions appeared, not equal to the
vehemence of the disease, and soon after  disappeared  again; or
swellings behind   the ears, that were by no means  critical,  and so
 signified  nothing.  Others were affected  in their  joints,  especially
the hip,  where it proved critical to a few, but  it soon after got the
 better and returned to its former state.
   It  proved fatal to persons of every age, but chiefly to  children
just weaned, and  to those of eight or ten  years  old, and those under
 the age of puberty.   These were thus affected, not without the first
 circumstances here mentioned, but the first happened to many with-
 out these.  The only beneficial thing, and the  greatest of the signs
 then existing, and what  saved  many in the greatest extremity, was
 the strangury.  For this way the disease spent itself; and it was a
 frequent complaint, especially among those tender  patients, as well
 as among those who were  not obliged  to  lie by their illness, and
 those who were.  This proved a speedy and great change through-
 out  For, if the belly was affected with  ill-conditioned fluxes, they
 stopped; food in  general became agreeable to them ;  and the fever
 grew  mild after  this crisis.   But the strangury  complaints were
 lasting and painful;  and the urine  copious, thick, various, red, and
partly purulent, not without pain.   All  these recovered  to a man,
 as far as I know.
   Where  no danger is suspected, we are to consider the digestions
 of what passes off, whether  they are all  every where considerable 
THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
331
or seasonable, good and critical.   Digestions imply a quick crisis,
and a sure recovery;  but crudities, indigestions, and bad abscesses,
imply no crisis at all,  or else pains, or duration, or death, or returns
of the same complaints.  But which of these is most likely to hap-
pen, must be considered from other things; the duty of a physician
being to  relate what is past, to understand what is present, and to
foretell what is to come.   He is  also  to take special care of two
things, viz., to do good in his office, or at least no harm.
   The art consists in  three particulars, viz., the disease, the patient,
and the  physician, who is  the servant or assistant  of the art, and
the patient is to  concur with the  physician  in opposing the power
of the disease.
   Pains and heavinesses about the head and  neck, with or without
a fever, in phrenitic cases denote convulsions; and seruginous vomit-
ings succeed.  Some  of these die  presently.   But in burning fevers
and others, a pain of the  neck, a heaviness of the temples, a dim-
ness of the sight, or a painful distension of the hypochondre, denote
a hemorrhage from the nose.  Where the whole head is  heavy,  at-
tended with heartburns and nauseas, bilious and phlegmatic vomit-
ings succeed.  Children  are generally attacked  thus* and  mostly
affected with convulsions in these cases.  Women are also attack-
ed, and with pains in their private parts.  But old persons, and those
whose heat is got the  better of, are attacked with palsies, madnesses,
or blindness.

                  SECTION III.   YEAR  III.

   In Thasus, a little before the rising of Arcturus, and  during  its
continuance, there fell many great showers with northerly  winds ;
but about the equinox, and to the  rising of the Pleiades, little south-
erly showers.  The winter was northerly, and drier than ordinary.
The winds cold, and the snows deep.  About the equinox the cold
was sharpest.  The spring was northerly and drier than ordinary;
but yet the weather was a  little wet  and  cold.  About the summer
solstice a  little rain with a great deal of cold, to the  rising of  the
Dog-star; from which time to the rising of Arcturus the  summer
was hot, and the heals were great and scorching, not gradually or
at intervals, but continually.  The droughts were also great, and
the Etesian blew.   About  the rising of  Arcturus southerly gentle
show?ers 'fell to the equinox. 
332               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  During this state of the weather, in the winter, paraplegias began
and  attacked many, some of whom died in a short time: for the
disease  was very epidemical.  In other respects they were well.
But  in the very beginning of the spring burning  fevers came on,
and  continued to the equinox, and even to the  summer.   Most of
those escaped who were seized presently after the  beginning of the
spring and summer, and some few died: but when the autumn and
wet weather set in, they proved mortal to many. These fevers were
of such a nature, that where any one bled freely and  plentifully at
the nose, he  was saved by it more than  by any thing else; and not
one of those who were taken thus died this season,  so far as I know.
For  Philiscus, and Epaminon, and Silenus, bled but  a few drops at
the  nose the fourth  and fifth day, and  died.   Most  of them were
seized with shiverings about the crisis, especially  where there had
been no hemorrhage, and with the shivering came  on a sweat about
the head and shoulders.   Others again were attacked with a jaun-
dice  the sixth day, and  these were relieved either  by a discharge
by urine or stool, or a  plentiful hemorrhage,  as  Heraclides was,
who lived with Aristocydes.  Not but he bled at the nose, and had
the  benefit of  the other  evacuations too;  and so  was freed the
twentieth.  It fared otherwise with the servant of  Phanagoras; for,
as none of these things  happened to him, he died.   Hemorrhages
were very frequent,  especially among young persons and adults;
and, where  nothing  of  this  kind happened, it very often proved
fatal. Those who were more advanced in years had the  jaundice,
or a  disorder in their belly, or a dysentery, as Bion,  who lived with
Silenus.  In the summer, dysenteries were epidemical; and, even
where hemorrhages  had happened, some were  at last seized with
dysenteries,  as Eraton's boy, for  instance,  and Myllus;  for they,
after  a  great hemorrhage, fell into  a  dysentery, and recovered.
This  humour was particularly redundant in many.  For,  where
there was no hemorrhage at the crisis, the tumours behind the ears
disappeared, and upon this a weight was felt in the  left side of the
belly, and at the extremity  of the hip.   Pain coming on after the
crisis, and thin urine  passing off', they began to bleed a little. Thus
Antiphon, the son of  Critobulus, had the twenty-fourth day a sepa-
ration of humours by bleeding;  his disorder  ceased, and about the
fortieth he got quite rid of it.  Many women were  taken ill, but less
than the men, and died less.   Many of them  had hard labours, and
after the birth were  taken ill  again, and for the most  part died, as 
                  THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.              333

 Telebolus's daughter, who died the sixth day after her delivery.
 A great many had their menses come down  in their fevers;  others
 bled at the nose, and many young girls had the first appearance of
 their menses then.  Others again bled at the nose, and had their
 menses too, as Daetharsis's daughter, for instance, a maid, who had
 them then for  the first time, and also bled plentifully at the nose.
 Nor do I  remember  any died, where  any one of these happened
 well.  All of my acquaintance miscarried that chanced to be with
 child.   The urine  was in general well coloured but thin, and with
 a small sediment.  The stools were thin and  bilious.  And in  many,
 where there was a crisis  in other respects, it  terminated in a dysen-
 tery, as in Xenophanes and Critias.  The urine was watery,  much,
 clear, and thin; and even after the  crisis, where there was a good
 sediment, and in other respects a laudable crisis, a dysentery came
 upon some, as particularly upon Bion who lived with  Silenus, Cri-
 tias with Xenophanes, Areton's boy, and Mnesistratus's wife, who
 were all  afterwards seized  with  a  dysentery.  Query?  Whether
 it was owing to the watery urine 1
   About the rising  of Arcturus a crisis happened  to many the
 eleventh day, nor did the fever return again in the natural and usual
 way of returns; but  they were comatose  at this time, especially
 children, of whom  fewer  died than any.  But about the equinox, to
 the rising of the Pleiades, and even in the  winter, burning  fevers
 continued.   About the same time too a great many became phre-
 nitic, and went  off; and  a  few in  the summer.   These  burning
 fevers pointed out the prognostics from  the beginning, where the
 case was desperate.  For immediately an  acute  fever  came on
 from the first, with gentle shiverings, watchings, ramblings,  thirst,
 nauseas, and  anxiety.  They sweated  a  little about the forehead
 and collar-bone, but nobody all over.   Great deliriums attended,
 with fears and dejectedness; the extremities  were  coldish, the toes
 and fingers especially.  The paroxysms were upon equal days, and
 in many the  greatest pains upon the fourth.  The  sweats were
 generally somewhat cold.   The extremities  did not recover their
 warmth, but were livid and  cold; nor did  they then complain of
thirst.   The urine was black, little, and thin; the body bound.  No
hemorrhage from the nose, where this  was the case, but only  a few
drop;;  nor did  any of these relapse,  but died the sixth  day in a
sweat.   As to the phrenitics, all the  circumstances here mentioned
did not happen to them, but the crisis came on generally the eleventh 
334               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

day, and in some the twentieth.  Where  the  frenzy did not im-
mediately appear from the beginning about the third or fourth day,
but things went on moderately at first, there the fever raged most
upon the seventh.
  The number of diseases was now very great, and  those who
died of them were chiefly children, young persons, adults, and such
as had  smooth bodies, white skins, straight  hair, black hair, and
black eyes.  The lazy and  indolent died likewise, and so did those
whose voice was either high, small, or rough, and where there was
any impediment in the speech, or a choleric temper. Many women
of this kind died too.  But, during this situation, some were pre-
served by the  four following particulars,  viz.,  by bleeding  plenti-
fully at  the nose; by making a great deal of water with  a large
and good sediment; by considerable bilious stools; or by  falling
into  a dysentery.  These  proved critical  to a  great  many, not
singly indeed, but jointly, though not without much trouble.  How-
ever all  such  escaped whose case was thus.   Women,  too,  and
maids were subject to every one  of these symptoms;  and  where
any of them happened well, or where the menses came down plen-
tifully, it proved a salutary  crisis, and none of them died.   For, as
to Philon's daughter, who bled freely  at  the  nose, she  died the
seventh  day, after having eat a very improper and unseasonable
supper.
  In acute fevers, and especially burning  fevers, involuntary tears
are a sign of a hemorrhage from  the nose, if other circumstances
denote not  death.   In this case, they are a sign of death and not a
hemorrhage.
  In  a fever painful  swellings  behind the  ears sometimes neither
fall nor  suppurate, though the fever goes off entirely.   In  this case
a bilious looseness, or a dysentery, or thick urine with a sediment,
is salutary, as  in the case of Hermippus of Clazomense.
  Critical circumstances, by which we distinguish, are either alike
or unlike, as in the case of  the two brothers, who lived by Epi-
genes's Theatre, and were taken ill the same hour.  The eldest had
his  crisis the sixth day; the youngest,  the seventh; both of them
relapsed the same hour.  It intermitted  five days, and after the re-
turn both were entirely freed the seventeenth.   Many  had a crisis
the fifth, an intermission seven days, and  another crisis  the fifth.
Others again  had their crisis  upon the seventh, an intermission
seven days, and the last crisis the third day after the return.  Some 
                  THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.              335

 had a crisis the seventh, an intermission three days, and another
 crisis  the  seventh.  Others again had a  crisis the sixth, and an in-
 termission six  days: after this  an  attack for three days ; then, an
 intermission one day, and  the  next a return and crisis the same
 day; as Etiagon  the son of Daitharsus.  To  some  it came to  a
 crisis  the  sixth, intermitted  seven, and was determined the fourth
 day after the return, as in Aglaidas's daughter.  The greatest num-
 ber of those who were taken ill this season were thus  affected; and
 I know of none that escaped  without a relapse, according to  the
 natural course of relapses.   Neither do I know of any that  mis-
 carried, where the relapses happened in this manner; nor of any,
 thus affected, who had  returns again.   But many died the sixth
 day, among  whom were Epaminondas, Silenus, and  Philiscus, the
 son of Antagoras.
   Where  any tumours happened behind the ears, the crisis came
 on the twentieth; the tumours subsided  universally where no  sup-
 puration followed, and were turned  upon the bladder.   But in Cra-
 tistonax's  case,  who lived  by Hercules' Temple, and in that  of
 Scymnus, the fuller's  maid-servant, where a suppuration happened,
 they died.  In some the  crisis happened  the seventh, the  intermis-
 sion nine days, and another crisis the fourth day after the  return.
 In others the crisis happened the seventh, the intermission six days,
 and the  other crisis seven days after the return; as it did to Pha-
 nocritus, who lived by Gnathon, the painter.  But in the winter,
 about  the  winter  solstice, and  even to  the equinox, the burning
 fevers and  phrensies remained, and were very  mortal.  The crisis
 happened  to  many the fifth  day from the beginning,  and  after an
 intermission of four days the fever  returned again, and five days
 after this  the other crisis came  on, in all fourteen days.  Thus it
 happened to most  children, and  to those of a more advanced age.
 Sometimes the crisis came on  the eleventh, the return the four-
 teenth, and the perfect  crisis  the  twentieth.  But,  if any were
 seized  with shiverings upon the  twentieth, it was then protracted
 to the  fortieth.   The greatest part shivered upon the first  crisis;
 and those  who shivered  at  the  beginning shivered  again  at the
crisis,  and the  relapses  after  the crisis.   But  shiverings happen
least in the spring, more in the  summer, more  still in the autumn,
and most of all in the winter.  The hemorrhages also  ceased.
  The knowledge of diseases is to  be learnt  from   the common
nature of all things, and from the nature of every  individual; from 
336
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
 the disease, the patient, the things that  are  administered, and the
 person that administers them ; for the case becomes easier or more
 difficult accordingly.   We  are  to consider  likewise the whole
 season in  general, and the  particular state of  the weather, and of
 every country; the customs, the  diet, the employments, the  ages
 of every one, the  conversations, the manners,  the  taciturnity, the
 imaginations, the sleeps, the watchings, and  the dreams;  and  how
 far vellications, itchings, and tears are  concerned; and  what the
 paroxysms are; and what  the evacuations  by stool,  or  urine, or
 spitting, or vomiting may be; and what changes may happen from
 one disease to another, and the separations  that end  in  death or
 life.  Sweat,  cold, shiverings, coughs, sneezings, sighings, breath-
 ings, belchings, flatuses (secret  and audible), hemorrhages,  and
 hemorrhoids, are also  to be considered, together with their respec-
 tive consequences.
   Of fevers, some are continual, others  affect  us in the  day,  and
 intermit at night;  or  continue in the night, and  leave us in  the
 day.   There are likewise semitertians, tertians, quartans,  quintans,
 septans, and nonans; but the acutest, the strongest, the most dan-
 gerous, and  the most  fatal, are  the continual. The  safest,  the
 easiest, and the longest of  any is the quartan; for it is  thus  not
 only in its  own nature, but also frees us  from other great diseases.
 The semitertian is  attended with acute disorders, and is more fatal
 than any of the rest.   Add  to this, that  consumptive persons, and
 those who  have been long ill of other distempers, are most subject
 to  it.   The nocturnal  is  not very dangerous,  but tedious.  The
 diurnal longer, and sometimes tends to a consumption.  The septan
 is long, but not dangerous; the nonan longer, but not dangerous.
 A true tertian comes  to its crisis soon without danger;  but a
 quintan is the worst of  all;  for coming before or upon  a consump-
 tion, it is death.  In every one of these fevers, as well continual as
 intermitting, there   are  forms, conditions, and   paroxysms  to  be
 considered.  For instance,  a continual,  sometimes flowers  as it
 were, at the beginning, becomes very vehement, and grows worse
 and worse; but about  the  crisis,  and  at the time of the  crisis,
becomes weaker.  Sometimes again it  begins mildly and  secretly,
 increases and  grows worse  every  day,  but  about the crisis,  and
during that time,  breaks  out vehemently.   At another  time it
begins mildly, increases more and more, and,  coming to its  full
strength by a certain time, remits  again  at the  crisis,  and during 
                   THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.              337

  all that  time.   These  things  happen  in  every fever and every
  disease.
    The diet should likewise be regulated  by these  considerations.
  And there are many other considerable signs of the like nature with
  these, some of which we have treated of already, and the rest shall
  be considered hereafter.  But  whoever undertakes this  province
  in good earnest should try and  inquire which of them is acute and
  mortal, and which  recoverable;  where food is proper, and where
  it is not;  without omitting the  time, the quantity, and the quality.
    Where the paroxysms are upon  equal  days, there  the  crisis  is
  upon equal days;  and where they are upon unequal, there the crisis
  is so too.
    The first critical day  of  the periods that  terminate upon equal
  days  is the fourth, then  the sixth, the eighth, the tenth, the four-
  teenth, the twenty-eighth, the thirtieth, the  forty-eighth, the sixtieth,
  the eightieth, and the hundredth.  The first of"those that terminate
  upon unequal days is  the third,  then the fifth,  the seventh, the ninth,
  the eleventh, the seventeenth, the twenty-first,  the twenty-seventh]
 and the thirty-first.   And if a crisis happens  otherwise,'or out of
 these mentioned days, a relapse is to be feared, and even death.  It
 is also  to  be considered,  that the crises that shall happen at these
 times will be salutary or  fatal, or there will be  a turn for the better
 or the worse.  As to erratic  fevers, quartans,  quintans, septans, and
 nonans, their critical periods are  also to be considered.
   Philiscus, who dwelt by the  wall, took to  his bed the first day.
 An acute fever, a sweat, and an uneasy night followed.   The next
 day he was worse in all respects; but in the  evening had  a good
 discharge from a glyster, and afterwards a  quiet night.  The third
 day betimes, and till noon, his fever  seemed to have left him, but in
 the evening it returned with vehemence, attended with a sweat, a
 thirst,  a dry tongue, black urine, an  uneasy night,  no  sleep, and
 much  delirium.  The fourth day, worse in  all  respects.   Black
 urine; but an easier night, and the urine well-coloured.   The fifth,
 about noon, a few drops of pure blood from the nose.  The  urine
 very various, with round seed-like particles floating up and down,
 without any sediment.  A suppository brought  away a little wind!
 A restless night.  Little sleeps, with  rambling discourse.  The ex-
 tremites cold all over, without any return of warmth.  Black urine.
A little  sleep.  In  the day lose of speech, a cold sweat, and the
extremities livid.  Died about the middle of the sixth  day.
                              22 
338                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  His  breath  was  all along drawn  back,  as it were,  deep,  and
seldom.  Upon  the  spleen was a  round swelling.  Cold  sweats
continually.  The paroxysms upon equal days.
  Silenus, «vho lived upon  the  sea-shore, near to Eualcides's, was
seized with a violent fever after labour, and  drinking, and unsea-
sonable exercise. It began with pain in the  loins, a  heaviness in
the head, and a stiffness in  the neck.  His stools the first day were
bilious, simple, frothy, deep-coloured,  and many.  His urine black,
with a black sediment.  A thirst came on, with a dry tongue,  and
no sleep  in the  night.  The  second  day, an acute  fever.   More
stools, thinner, and frothy.  Black urine. An  uneasy night.  Ram-
bled  a little.   The   third, worse in all respects.  A  distension of
both the flanks, reaching to the navel, but softish withal.  His stools
thin and blackish.  The urine turbid and blackish.  No sleep in the
night.   He talked   much, laughed, sung,  and could not  contain
himself.  The fourth, no  alteration.    The  fifth, his stools were
simple, bilious, smooth,  and greasy.  His urine thin  and transpa-
rent.   His understanding recovered  itself  a little.   The  sixth, a
little sweat about the head, the extreme parts cold and livid. Much
tumbling and tossing.  No evacuation by stool or urine.  The fever
acute.   The  seventh, loss of speech.    No warmth in the extremi-
ties.   No  urine.  The  eighth,  a cold  sweat  all  over,  with little,
red, round eruptions, like pimples in the face, that remained without
coming to suppuration.   From a gentle stimulus of the  belly a
great discharge of thin, and as  it were undigested faeces, with pain;
and what came  away by  urine was acrid and painful.   The extre-
mities  a little warmer.   Light sleeps, with  a comatose disorder.
Loss of speech.   Thin transparent urine. The ninth, no alteration.
The tenth, drank nothing.  A coma,  with light sleeps.  From the
belly, the  same  discharge  as before.   A great deal of thick urine,
that came away gushing, and afterwards let fall a white sediment,
like ground barley; the extremities cold again.   The eleventh, he
died.
  His breath was all along, from the  beginning, deep and seldom;
his flanks continually palpitating;  and his age about  twenty.
   Herophon was seized with an acute  fever, and had a small dis-
charge downwards, with  a  tenesmus at the beginning, but after-
wards his stools were thin, bilious, and frequent.  No sleep.  Black,
thin urine.  The fifth, betimes in Hie morning, he grew deaf, and
was worse in all respects.  His spleen swelled, and his flanks were 
THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
339
distended.  His stools were small and black; and his head rambled.
The sixth, he was delirious, sweated at night, was cold, and deli-
rious still.  The seventh, was cold outwardly, thirsty, and delirious;
at night came to himself, and slept.  The eighth, was feverish,  but
not  so swelled in  his spleen;  and came  perfectly to himself.   A
swelling appeared  in the groin for the first time, on the same side
with the spleen;  after which a  pain seized him  in both  his legs.
He  rested  pretty  well; his urine was  well-coloured,  and  had a
small sediment.  The ninth, he sweated, and was cured.  The fifth,
it returned again,  and  immediately his spleen  swelled.   The fever
was acute, and his deafness returned.   Three days after this,  the
spleen and deafness grew better; his legs were uneasy, and a sweat
came on in the night.  The crisis happened the seventeenth, with-
out his being delirious after the return.
   In Thasus, Philinus's wife was seized  with a fever and shivering,
the fourteenth day after her delivery of a daughter, her affairs going
on very well, without any reason  for complaint in other respects.
The upper  part of the stomach, the right hypochondre, and her pri-
vate parts  grew painful from the first.  Her  cleansings stopped.
However, by help  of a pessary  she  grew easier; but  the pain in
her head, neck, and loins remained.  She  could get no sleep; was
cold in her extremes; and  a thirst succeeded.   Her belly was in a
manner burnt up,  and  discharged very  little.  Her urine was thin,
and  without colour at  first. The sixth, she was  very  delirious  at
night, and then came to herself again.   The seventh, was thirsty;
and  her  stools were bilious  and  deep-coloured.   The  eighth, a
shivering came on, with an acute fever,  and many convulsions fol-
lowed, with pain.   She also talked much out of the way; got up to
receive a suppository;  had a great discharge downwards of  bilious
matter; but no sleep.  The ninth, was convulsed.  The tenth, came
a  little to herself.   The eleventh, slept, remembered every  thing,
but in a little  time  grew lightheaded.   After the convulsions  made
a great deal of water in a little while (the  servants, or  those about
her,  seldom reminding  her), of a thick  and white kind, like what
appears upon shaking water that  has subsided after standing  a long
time, but  had no  sediment; in  colour  and consistence like that
which is made by a beast  of burden, so far as I  saw.   About  the
fourteenth she trembled all  over, talked  much, and came a little to
herself; but soon  became  lightheaded  again.   About  the  seven-
teenth, lost  her speech; and the twentieth,  died. 
34o               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  Epicrates's wife, who lived by Archigetes's, just  before her  la-
bour, was taken with a violent shivering, and could not grow  warm
again, as I  was informed.   The next day, she was much the  same.
The third, she was delivered of  a daughter, and every thing went
on well.  The second day after the birth an acute fever seized her,
with pains in the pit of her stomach and private parts, which were
mitigated by a pessary; but a  pain  in the  head, neck, and loins
continued, without any sleep.  Her stools were  small, bilious, thin,
and simple.   Her urine thin and  blackish.   The sixth day after she
had  been taken, at night she grew delirious.  The seventh, was
worse in all respects; watchful,  delirious, thirsty; and had bilious,
deep-coloured stools.  The eighth, shivered, and  slept much.   The
ninth, no alteration.   The  tenth, a pain in  her  legs and the pit of
her stomach again,  with a heaviness  in  her head, but without a
delirium.   She slept  more, but  had  no stool.  The eleventh, the
urine was better coloured, and the sediment large.  She felt herself
lighter.   The fourteenth shivered  again, and  was very feverish.
The fifteenth, vomited bilious yellow matter, pretty often; sweated,
and missed her fever; but at night it returned violently. Her water
was thick, and with a white sediment.  The sixteenth, worse  again,
rested badly, got no sleep, and was lightheaded.  The eighteenth,
was thirsty, and the tongue burnt up.  No-sleep; much lighthead-
edness ; pain in the legs.  About  the twentieth, betimes in the  morn-
ing, shivered a little, and was comatose or stupified; slept quietly;
vomited a  little bilious black matter; and grew deaf in the night.
About the  twenty-first, a pleuritic pain came on quite through the
left side, with a gentle cough. The urine was thick, turbid, reddish,
and did not subside after standing. In other respects she was  easier,
but not without her fever.   Her  throat was  inflamed  and  painful
immediately from the  first; the  uvula was contracted;  and the
rheum  remained sharp, biting,  and  salt continually.  About the
twenty-seventh,  the  fever  left her;  the urine broke, but the side
was painful.   About the thirty-first, the fever came on again; her
stools were bilious and  stimulating.   The  fortieth, she vomited a
little bile, and was entirely freed from her fever the eightieth.
   Cleonactis, who lived above the Temple of Hercules, was taken
ill with  a violent  fever of the erratic  kind.   He had  a pain  of  the
head and the left side  from the beginning, and in ihe other parts
of his body  pains like  those  that proceed from  weariness. The
paroxysms of the fever were very irregular, sometimes with, some- 
THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
341
 times without, a sweat; but for the most part they appeared upon
 the critical days more than upon others.  About the twenty-fourth,
 he was cold at his fingers' ends;  vomited bilious yellow stuff pretty
 often, and soon after aeruginous; and was better in every respect.
 About the thirtieth, he bled from  both nostrils, irregularly, a little at
 a time,  to the crisis.   He had neither  an aversion to  food, nor a
 thirst all the time, nor want of sleep; and his urine was thin,though
 not without colour. About the fortieth, it appeared reddish, and had
 a large sediment, very red, that relieved him.  After this it changed
 several ways, and sometimes had a sediment, at other  times none.
 The  sixtieth, there was a great, white, smooth sediment; all  the
 complaints abated ; his fever intermitted; and  his  urine was  thin
 again, but well-coloured.  The seventieth, he had  no fever, and it
 intermitted ten days.   The eightieth, a shivering came on, and an
 acute fever.  A great  sweat fallowed  ; the sediment in  his urine
 was red and smooth; and he obtained a perfect crisis.
   Meton was taken ill  of  a very acute fever, with  a heaviness and
 pain in his loins.  The  second day, he had a good discharge down-
 wards, from drinking a pretty large quantity of water.  The third,
 a  heaviness  in  his head, with thin, bilious,  reddish stools.  The
 fourth, worse in all respects.  A little  blood from  the left nostril
 twice. A restless night.  Stools, as before.   Blackish urine, with a
 blackish  cloud floating  up and down, without any  sediment.  The
 fifth, a great deal of pure  blood from the left nostril; a sweat, and
 a crisis;  but after the  crisis, want  of  sleep,  lightheadedness,  and
 thin blackish urine.  After bathing the head he slept, and came to
 himself;  had no relapse afterwards, but frequent hemorrhages, even
 after the  crisis.
  Erasinus, who lived  by  the Torrent of Bootes, grew  very fever-
 ish  after  supper, and  had a very  bad night.   The first day he was
 easy, but  in pain  in the night.  The second,  worse in all respects,
 and at night lightheaded.   The third, uneasy, and very  delirious.
 The fourth, exceeding ill, and had no  sleep at night, but dreamed
 and talked, and was afterwards remarkably worse, frightened, and
 impatient.  The fifth,  betimes in  the morning, was  composed and
came perfectly to himself, but before noon was so raving mad, that
he could  not contain himself.  His  extreme  parts were cold, and
somewhat livid ; his urine stopped ;  and about sunset he died.
  This patient's  fever was  continually upon  him, with  sweats; his
flanks were tumefied, distended, and painful;  his urine black, with 
342               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

round clouds that subsided not; his belly not bound; his thirst per-
petual, but not great; and  before he died, he was convulsed much
and sweated.
  Criton, in Thasus, was seized, as he was walking, with a violent
pain of his foot from  the great toe,  and obliged  to go to bed the
same day.  A chilliness  ensued, with nauseas, a  gentle heat, and
at night a delirium.  The second day, the whole foot was  swelled,
and  a  redness appeared  about the ankle with  the skin stretched.
Little black spots (or pimples) appeared likewise.  An  acute fever
came on,  with  violent  ravings.  His  stools were unmixed, bilious,
and very frequent.  The  second day of his illness he died.
  The Clazomenian, who lived by  Phrynichides's well, was seized
with a violent fever, attended from  the beginning with a pain of the
head, neck, and loins;  and immediately  after with a deafness.   No
sleep;  the  fever  acute; the  flanks  tumefied, but without any great
distension; and the tongue dry.  The fourth day, he was delirious
at night.   The fifth, was  uneasy, and worse  in every  respect.
About  the  eleventh, a  little  remission.  His stools from  the begin-
ning to  the fourteenth,  were  thin,  large, and  watery,  without
fatiguing him.  After this they stopped.  The urine all along was
thin  indeed, but of a good colour,  and had many clouds here and
there, without subsiding.   But  about  the sixteenth day, his urine
was  a little thicker, with  a small sediment.   He was somewhat
relieved, and came more to himself.   The seventeenth it was thin
again.   Swellings arise behind both  the ears,  attended with pain.
He got no  sleep, but was delirious, and had a pain in his legs.  The
twentieth, the fever left him.  The crisis came on  without a sweat,
and he recovered himself perfectly.  About  the twenty-seventh, a
violent, but short, pain of his right hip seized him.  The swellings
behind the ears neither subsided nor  suppurated, but were painful.
The  thirty-first, many watery stools, with pain  and difficulty, as in
a dysentery.  The  urine thick; the swellings  went  away.  But,
about the fortieth, a pain of the right eye  came on with a dulness
of sight, that went oft' again.
  Dromeadas's wife, the second day after she had been brought to
bed of a daughter, and  had no reason  to complain of her other
affairs, was seized with a  shivering and an acute fever.   The hypo-
chondres began  to  be  painful the  first  day.  A  nausea came on,
with horrors and tossings, nor could she  afterwards  sleep.  She
fetched her breath deep and seldom, and immediately drew  it back 
THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
343
again.   The  second day after the shivering she had a very good
stool; her urine was  thick, white, and turbid, as when it is shook
after standing a long time, but had no sediment.  No sleep in the
night.   The third day about noon she shivered again, and was very
feverish.  The urine, as before;  the flanks painful, with nauseas;
an uneasy night, and no sleep.  She was also in a coldish sweat all
over, but presently grew  warm again.   The fourth,  the  hypo-
chondres were a little easier, but the head heavy and painful, with
somewhat of a stupidness.  A few drops  from the  nose;  a  dry
tongue, and thirsty ; the urine thin and oily ; and with these a little
sleep.   The fifth, she was thirsty and qualmish.  The urine  as be-
fore, and the body bound.  About noon was very lightheaded, and
presently after came to herself again.  Upon getting up was some-
what stupid, and a little cold ; slept in the night,  and was light-
headed.  The sixth day betimes in the morning she shivered  again,
and  presently grew warm; sweated all over, but the extremities
were cold;   grew  lightheaded,  and breathed  deep  and seldom.
Soon after convulsions came on from  the  head, and she went off
presently.
  A man who was  a little feverish got his supper and drank plenti-
fully, but in the night brought up all again.   An  acute fever fol-
lowed, with  a pain of the  right  hypochondre, and a gentle softish
inflammation tending outwards.   He rested badly;  his urine at first
was thick, red, and had no sediment after standing; his tongue dry,
but not  very thirsty.   The fourth, an acute fever, with pain all over.
The fifth, smooth, oily urine in great quantity.   A raging fever.
The sixth, in the evening, he was very lightheaded, and had no
sleep in the  night.  The seventh, was worse  in all  respects.  The
urine, as before.  He talked much, and could  not  contain himself.
The belly, being stimulated,  discharged  watery turbid stuff with
worms.  An uneasy night.   Betimes in the  morning a shivering,
and acute fever;  a  hot sweat followed, and the fever seemed to go
off.  He slept but little, and upon waking was cold, spit much, and
in the evening was very delirious.  Soon after he vomited black
stuff, a  little  bilious.  The  ninth, was  cold again, very delirious,
and got no sleep.  The tenth, had a pain in his legs, and was in all
respects worse and delirious.  The eleventh, died.
  A woman that lived upon the  shore, three  months  gone with
child, was taken with a violent fever, and  immediately complained
of pain in  her loins.   The third day she  had a pain in her neck, 
344               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

head, collar-bone, and right hand;  and in a short time lost  her
speech.   Her  right hand was  convulsed,  and became  paralytic.
She  grew very  delirious, had an uneasy night, and  got no sleep,
but discharged  a little  bilious  unmixed  matter downwards.  The
fourth, she recovered  her speech, but the convulsions remained as
before, with pains all over.  About the hypochondre a painful swell-
ing appeared.    She could get  no sleep;  grew lightheaded; dis-
charged downwards;  and her urine was thin, but not well-coloured.
The  fifth, a violent fever; a pain in the  hypochondre; great light-
headedness ; bilious stools; a sweat  at  night, and no fever.  The
sixth, she  came  to  herself, and  was  better every  way;  but about
the left  collar-bone the  pain remained.   A  thirst came on;  the
urine was thin, and she got no sleep.   The  seventh, tremblings fol-
lowed, with something of stupidness.  She was also a little delirious,
and the pain about the collar-bone and left arm remained. In other
respects she was better, and came to herself perfectly.  The inter-
mission  lasted three days without any fever.  The eleventh, it re-
turned, with shivering and great vehemence.  About the fourteenth,
she vomited  bilious yellow matter pretty often; fell  into  a  sweat,
and was cured.
  Melidia, who lived by  the Temple  of Juno, complained of a vio-
lent pain in her head,  neck, and breast; and presently after an acute
fever came on.   Her menses came  down a little, with a continual
pain  in  all those parts.   The sixth  she  was  comatose,  qualmish,
chilly, and red about the  cheek, with  something of a delirium. The
seventh, sweated; the fever intermitted ; the pains remained; the
fever returned again; and she  slept  a little.   Her urine was con-
stantly thin, but  well-coloured;  her stools thin, bilious, acrid, very
small, black and fetid; the sediment in the urine white and smooth.
She fell into a  sweat, and had a perfect crisis the eleventh. 
      THE  THIRD  BOOK  OF   EPIDEMICS.

            Fo-.sius, p. 1059.   Haller, i. p. 138.   Gardeil, ii. p. 92.

   This  book, says Haller, is alike in value and  in manner with the
 preceding, of which  it appears  to  be a continuation ;a the  first
 twelve cases manifestly belong to it.   The latter portion has refer-
 ence to a pestilential constitution: not that a true plague accompa-
 nied with carbuncles and buboes is here described ;  but because all
 diseases then occurring were of the highest malignity.   Not one of
 the sixteen cases  mentioned  in this part had symptoms of the  true
 plague, although gangrene was not unfrequent in conjunction with
 the fever, so that entire limbs fell  off.
   Gardeil, in  a  short note, says,  " that the  lovers of  ancient  lore
 will  find at the  end of each case (the first twelve),  certain  hiero-
 glyphics constituted of five or six letters each, that may be regarded
 as algebraic signs, to designate briefly the practical  result of each
 observation, and relating more particularly to prognostic."
   These characters, Fcesius informs  us, are found in  several manu-
 scripts, but are wanting in others; and that  we are  ignorant whe-
 ther they are from Hippocrates, or from  his school; or if they are
 not of a  later origin.  They are anterior  to Galen, for he mentions
 them.  Foesius  introduces them.   As a mere matter of curiosity, I
 thought of giving  them a place  here;  but their want of utility led
 me to forego  my first intention.—Ed.

  * This leads Clifton in his preface, to complain of the miserable arrangement of the
 writings of Hippocrates, by which many books  that  should precede others, are  made
 to follow them, whilst a knowledge of these last is essential to the comprehension of
 the others.   Such he asserts is the case in the editions of Mercurialis and of Fcesius.
 Again, he affirms, " other parts have been divided to the ruin of the main design,"
 &c, and mentions the first and third books  of Epidemics  to have been thus " very in.
judiciously split into two," &c, in all which remarks  I think him correct; but having
 to select an arrangement from among the various editions, I fixed upon that of Foesius,
 and that principally from his coming first into my possession.—Ed. 
34G               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  Pythion, who lived by the Temp'le of the Earth, was taken with
a trembling in his hands, which  was  succeeded the same day by
an acute fever and delirium.  The second, worse in all respects.
The  third, no alteration.  The fourth, a little, simple, bilious dis-
charge downwards.  The fifth, worse in all respects.  Little sleeps;
no stool.  The sixth, a variety of spitting, with something upon the
red.  The seventh, his mouth was drawn aside.  The eighth, worse
in all respects.  The tremblings  remained.  The urine from the
beginning to the  eighth day thin and  without colour, with a little
suspended cloud in it.  The tenth, he  sweated, spit  matter a little
digested, and had a crisis.   The urine  was whitish about this time,
and,  forty days after, an abscess  appeared  by the anus, which was
succeeded by the strangury.
  Hermocrates, who lived  by the new wall, was  seized with a
very acute fever,  and began to have a pain  in his head and loins,
with a moderate  distension of the hypochondre.  The tongue was
burnt up from the beginning.   Presently after, he grew deaf; and
could get no  sleep.   His  thirst was moderate, and  his urine thick
and red, without a sediment after standing.  His stools were large
and burnt.  The fifth, thin urine,  with a cloud that did  not fall.  At
night he  was lightheaded.  The sixth,  a  jaundice;  worse in all
respects,  and lightheaded  still.  The  seventh,  great  restlessness.
The  urine thin, and like the former.   The  succeeding days, very
little alteration.   About the eleventh every thing'seemed to abate.
A coma began.  The urine was thick, reddish, thin  towards the
bottom, and  subsided not.   He came to himself by little and little.
The fourteenth, he was neither feverish, nor sweated, but slept, and
came perfectly to himself.   The  urine much the same. About the
seventeenth, he relapsed, grew hot, and the  days following had an
acute fever, with thin  urine.  About the twentieth  another crisis.
The fever went  off, but without sweating.   An aversion to food
lasted all the time.   He came  to  himself, but could not speak.  His
tongue  was dry, but  without thirst.   He laid  comatose.  About the
twenty-fourth grew  hot again, and  discharged much thin matter
downwards.   The  days following an  acute fever, with  a burnt
tongue.  The twenty-seventh,  he  died.
   This patient was deaf all along; his  urine thick and red without
a sediment, or thin and colourless, with a little cloud  ; and he could
taste nothing.
   He that lived in Dealces's Garden, felt a heaviness in his head, 
THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
347
and a pain of the right temple a long time;  and, upon an occasion
given, was seized with  a  violent  fever, and carried to bed.  The
second day a little pure  blood from the left nostril, and a good stool.
The urine thin and various, with a cloud suspended, almost like
ground  barley and  seed.  The third, an acute fever.   Black, thin,
frothy stools, with a livid  sediment in them.  He was also  a little
soporose,  and bore  rising up with  difficulty.  The sediment of the
urine turned livid,  and somewhat glutinous.   The  fourth, bilious
yellow vomitings in a small quantity, and after a little resting seru-
ginous or violet.  A little pure blood from the left  nostril.  The
stools and urine  as before.  A sweat  about the head  and collar-
bone.  The spleen tumefied.   A pain of the same thigh.   A softish
distension of the right  hypochondre.   No sleep in  the night.   A
little  rambling.  The fifth,  more  stools, black  and  frothy, with  a
black sediment.  No sleep in the night;  ramblings.  The sixth,
black, fat, glutinous, fetid stools.   Slept, and came more to him-
self.  The seventh,  a dry tongue, and  thirsty.  No sleep, but ram-
blings.  The urine thin, and not well-coloured.   The eighth, black,
small, compacted stools; slept, and came to himself; and was  not
very  thirsty.  The   ninth,  shivered, burned,  sweated, was cold,
delirious,  and convulsed (or distorted) in his right eye; with a dry
tongue,  thirst, and watching.  The tenth, very little alteration. The
eleventh, came  to himself perfectly, lost his fever, and slept.  The
urine was thin  about the crisis.   The  fever intermitted two days,
and returned again  the fourteenth.  No sleep that  night, but strong
deliriums.    The  fifteenth,  turbid  urine, as when it is shook after
standing.   A raging fever, with strong deliriums, and no sleep.   A
pain in  the knees and legs.  Black  stools, by means of a supposi-
tory.  The sixteenth, thin urine,  with  a suspended  cloud.  Was
lightheaded.  The  seventeenth, early in the morning, was cold in
the extreme  parts,  and  covered  up.  The  fever  raged; a sweat
came on all over, that relieved him ; he came more tcf himself upon
it, but was not free  from his fever or  his thirst.   He also vomited
bilious yellow stuff in a small quantity,  and had a stool;  soon after
which, black thin stuff came away in a small quantity.   The urine
was thin  and not well-coloured.   The eighteenth, he did  not come
to himself, but was comatose.   The nineteenth, no alteration.  The
urine thin. The twentieth, slept, came to himself perfectly, sweated,
lost his fever and thirst;  but the urine was thin.   The twenty-first,
rambled a little, and was a little dry.  A pain attacked him in  the 
348
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
flanks, and a  continual palpitation about the navel.   The twenty-
fourth, a sediment in  the  urine; and he came  perfectly to himself.
The twenty-seventh, a pain in the right hip.   Thin  urine, with  a
sediment;  and in other respects  very easy.   About the twenty-
ninth, a pain in the right eye.  The urine thin.  The fortieth, stools
of a phlegmy white nature, and pretty often.   A great sweat all
over, and a perfect crisis.
  Philistes, in Thasus, had a pain  of  his head  a  long time, and at
last, being somewhat stupid, was forced to  lie down;  but  continual
fevers  coming on from drinking-bouts, the pain grew worse, and
in the night his last fever first seized him. The next day he vomited
bilious yellow matter,  at first  in a small quantity, and  afierwards
aeruginous in  a larger.  His body was open, but he could  get no
rest in the night.   The second, he grew deaf,  his fever raged ; his
right flank was distended and  turned inwards.   The urine thin and
transparent, with a seed-like cloud suspended.   About noon he was
a little mad.   The  third very  uneasy.   The fourth convulsed, and
in all respects worse.   The fifth betimes in the morning he died.
  Chserion, who lived near Demaenetus, was  seized  with a violent
fever from a drinking-bout, and  immediately complained of a hea-
viness  and pain in his head.   No sleep.  Thin  stools, somewhat
bilious.   The third day, a violent fever.  The  head trembled, espe-
cially the lower lip, and soon after he shivered, was convulsed, and
very lightheaded.   An uneasy night.   The fourth, was easy, and
slept a little, but rambled.   The  fifth, was  in pain, worse in all re-
spects, and delirious.   A  bad  night  again, and no sleep.   The
sixth, no  alteration.  The seventh, shivered,  burned, sweated all
over, and had  a crisis.
  This patient had all along  bilious, small, unmixed stools; and
thin  well-coloured  urine,  with  a  cloud suspended.   About the
eighth, the colour was better, and it had  a white but  little  sedi-
ment.  Pie came to himself.   The fever intermitted, and returned
the  ninth.  About  the fourteenth, he  was very feverish again,
and  sweated.   The sixteenth, vomited a pretty deal  of bilious
yellow matter.  The  seventeenth, shivered again, was very hot,
sweated, lost his fever, and had  another  crisis.   The urine was
better-coloured after the relapse and the crisis, and had a sediment;
nor was he delirious in his relapse.   The eighteenth, he was a little
hot, and a little dry.   His  urine  thin,  with a suspended cloud ; and
he rambled a  little.  The  nineteenth, was  free from  the fever, but 
THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.             349
had  a pain in  his neck.  A sediment  in the urine, and  a perfect
crisis the twentieth.
   Euryanax's daughter, a maid, was seized with  a  violent fever.
She had no  thirst all along, nor eat any  thing;  but  had a little
discharge downwards.   The urine was  thin, small, and  not well-
coloured.  At the  beginning of  the fever a pain came about the
anus.  The sixth  day, neither fever, nor sweat, and yet a  crisis;
the complaint about the anus suppurating a  little, and breaking at
this time.  The seventh, after the crisis she shivered, was a little
hot, and sweated.   The eighth  day after  the crisis she shivered
again, but not much;  and afterwards her extremities were  always
cold.  About the tenth,  after the sweat that then  was upon her, she
grew lightheaded, but  recovered  herself again presently;  occa-
sioned, as  they said, by her tasting a bunch of  grapes.   It inter-
mitted the twelfth day,  and again she was very delirious.  Her
stools were bilious, small, unmixed,  thin, and acrid.   She got  up
often.  The seventh day after the last delirium she  died.
   This patient complained at the beginning of a pain in her throat,
which was inflamed all along, with  the uvula drawn up; and of a
great rheum, that was withal a little  sharp.  She coughed too, but
brought  nothing away  digested.   She had  an aversion  to every
thing, and not the  least desire to any thing, all along; had no thirst,
and drank nothing worth speaking of; was silent, and said nothing.
Her mind was  much dejected, and in a despairing way, and her
constitution seemed inclinable to a consumption.
   The woman  with the  quinsy, that was by Aristion's,  who first
complained of her  tongue, lost her speech, and her tongue was both
red and dry.  The first  day a chilliness came on, with heat after-
wards. The third,  a shivering, a  burning, and a reddish hard swell-
ing upon the  neck  and  breast on both sides.   Her extremities cold
and  livid.   Her  breathing  difficult, with  great elevation  of the
breast.  The drink  came through her nose, and she could  not swal-
low. Her evacuations by stool and urine were stopped.  The fourth,
was worse in every respect.   The fifth, she died  of her quinsy.
   The young man, who lived upon the Lyars Market, was taken
with a violent fever, after weariness, labour, and running more than
usual.  The first day he had many thin, bilious stools.  His urine
was thin and blackish.   No sleep,  and considerable  thirst.  The
second, worse  in  all respects.  More stools, unseasonably.  No
sleep.  Rambled a little, and  sweated a little.  The third, was un- 
350               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

easy, dry, qualmish, with great anxiety, tossings, and  rambling?.
The extremities livid and cold.  The soft part of his belly gently
distended on  both sides.  The fourth, no sleep;  was worse.  The
seventh, he died, in about the twentieth year of his age.
  The woman  by Tisamenus, who was seized with  the iliac pas-
sion, was extremely uneasy, vomited much, could not contain what
she drank, was in pain about the flanks, and the lower parts of her
belly, and in  continual torment.  She  had no thirst, but yet grew
hot.   Her  extremities were continually  cold.   A  loathing,  and
watchfulness  came  on;  her urine was thin and little; and  her
stools crude,  thin, and small.  Nothing being able to relieve  her,
she died.
  A woman, who miscarried of a child, among  those  that were
about Pantimis, was seized the same day  with  a  violent fever.
Her tongue was dry and thirsty, nor could she get any sleep.  Her
stools were thin, many, and crude.  The second, she shivered,  was
very feverish, had many stools, and no sleep.  The third, her pains
increased.  The fourth,  she was  lightheaded.  The seventh, she
died.
  Her belly was all along lax; her stools many, thin, and  crude;
and  her urine but little and thin.
  Another, that miscarried  about the fifth  month,  had a  violent
fever too, which at the beginning was attended with a  coma, and
again a  watchfulness; together with  a pain of the loins, and a
heaviness of the head.   The second day, a few, thin,  and  at first
unmixed, stools.  The  third, more  and worse.   No sleep in the
night.   The  fourth,  was lightheaded, frightened,  dejected, had the
right eye drawn on one side, and a little cold sweat about the head.
The extremities were also cold; the fever exasperated, and a vio-
lent delirium  succeeded, but went off again presently.   She had no
thirst,  but was watchful,  and had  many unseasonable stools all
along.  Her  urine  was  little,  thin,  and blackish; her  extremities
cold, and somewhat livid.   The sixth,  no  alteration.   The seventh,
she died in a frenzy.
   The woman  that lived  upon the Lyars  Market,  after  she had
been delivered, with a great deal of pain, of her first child (a son),
was seized with a  violent fever, and immediately from the begin-
ning was thirsty, qualmish, and in great pain about the pit of her
stomach.  Her tongue was  dry;  her  stools thin and few;  and no 
                 THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.              35 j

sleep.  The second day she shivered a  little, burned, and had a
little cold sweat  about the head.  The  third, was  uneasy.   Her
stools crude, thin, and  many.   The fourth,  shivered  again;  was
worse in all respects;  and could get no  sleep.  The fifth, uneasy.
The sixth, no  alteration,  but  many liquid stools.   The seventh,
shivered  again, burned, was very thirsty, and extremely restless.
About the evening sweated all  over, but  it was  cold.  The extre-
mities were cold too, and  could not get warm  again.  Shivered
once more at night.  The extremities remained cold.   No sleep.  A
little delirious,  but came to herself again presently.  The eighth
about noon, grew hot, dry, comatose, qualmish, and vomited bilious
matter with a little yellow  in it.  A restless night, and no sleep.  A
great deal of urine in a gushing manner, and without her know-
ledge.   The ninth, every thing remitted, but  the coma did not go
off.  In the evening she shivered a little again, and vomited a little
bilious matter.   The  tenth, another  shivering, an acute  fever, and
no  sleep.   In the morning early made a deal of water, that sub-
sided.   The extremities were warm again.  The eleventh, vomited
aeruginous bilious matter, and  not long after  shivered again.   The
extremities  grew cold again.   In the evening  sweated, shivered,
vomited  much, and  had an uneasy night.   The twelfth,  vomited
much black, fetid matter; hiccuped often;  was dry,  and uneasy.
The thirteenth, vomited much black, fetid matter again; shivered,
and about noon lost her speech.   The fourteenth, bled at the nose,
and died.
  This  patient  was all  along loose in her body, and  chilly.  Her
age, about seventeen.
  At this part, Fcesius begins with the account of the " Status Pes-
tilens," the xa7asa<*iZ Xoi/xuoV, of Hippocrates.   Haller calls it " Con-
stitutio Temporis Pestilens," and Clifton,  " The Malignant State."
As this pestilential constitution has by many  been  considered as a
description of the plague at Athens, as given  by Thucydides, Clif-
ton has shown, I think conclusively, that Hippocrates has no refer-
ence to it, in this detail.  It  may be  interesting to many to  read
Thucydides' account, with  the  objections of Clifton,  in connexion
with this part of the Third Epidemics.—Ed. 
352               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  The year was southerly, showery, and  perpetually calm:  but,
greater droughts than ordinary happening some time before, much
rain  fell  about  the rising  of Arcturus with the  southerly winds.
The  autumn  was  gloomy,  cloudy, and  very wet.   The winter
southerly, wet, and mild;  but a  considerable while after the sols-
tice,  near the  equinox, the  weather was very severe;  and,  even
about the equinox,  northerly winds set in, and snow that lasted not
long.  The spring was again southerly and calm.  A  great deal
of rain fell continually  to the rising of the Dog-star.  The summer
was  serene and hot, attended with great  suffocating heats.  The
Etesiae blew faintly and by intervals.  About the rising of Arcturus
much rain fell  again, with  the wind northerly.  The year being thus
southerly, damp, and  mild, the winter proved healthy to all  but con-
sumptive people, as we shall see  by and by.
  Early  in the spring, with the cold weather that then set in, came
a great  many erysipelases, some from evident  causes, others unac-
countably ; of a bad sort, and fatal to many.  Many complained of
pain  in their throats, and impediments in their speech; of burning
fevers, with frenzies,  aphthas in the mouth, tubercles upon the pri-
vate  parts, inflammations  of the eyes, carbuncles, disorders of the
belly, aversions  to food, with thirst in  some, in  others not; turbid
urine, in  abundance,  and of a bad  sort; comas  for the  most  part,
and again watchings; crises not at all  in many,  or with difficulty;
dropsies, and consumptions not a few.  These  were the epidemical
diseases, of which there were  some ill of every  kind,  and  many
never recovered it.   The manner of their illness  was as  follows.
  Many had erysipelases  (that  came  from evident causes), upon
very slight and trifling wounds, all over the body, especially about
the head in those  who were near sixty,  if they  were but a little
neglected.  Many  again, while under  cure, had great  phlegmons
formed, round  which the  erysipelas spread considerably, and in a
short time.  In most  of them the matter that was separated turned
to suppuration, and great fallings  off of flesh, tendons,  and bones
ensued.   The  humour  that  was collected there was  not like  pus,
but a certain kind of  putrefaction, with a copious running  of "reat
variety.  Now, wherever  any of these happened  about the head,
the hair of the whole head and chin came off, and the bones were
laid  bare,  and fell off, attended  with great  discharges.  These
things  happened sometimes with, sometimes without,  a  fever, and
were more terrible than dangerous.  For, wherever  any of  these
disorders were  digested and turned to suppuration, there  most  of 
THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
353
them  did  well; but where the phlegmon and  erysipelas went off
without any such  abscess, there many of them died.   The like cir-
cumstances happened, whatever part of the body it fell  upon in its
way.   In  many a flux happened  upon the arm and whole elbow.
Where it fell upon the ribs, it affected them either before or behind.
Some had the whole  thigh, or the leg, or the foot, laid bare: but
the most dangerous of these was, when they fell upon the pubes or
private parts.  This  was  the nature of their attack, when either
ulcers, or  any  other  cause, occasioned  the erysipelas.   Many of
them  had  it  in fevers, before fevers, and upon  fevers.  To these,
where any of them went off by suppuration, or by a considerable
purging, or a discharge of laudable urine, it proved critical; but
where none of these  happened, and they disappeared without any
signs, it proved fatal.   Thus the case stood among many with re-
spect  to the erysipelas  in the spring, which continued also through
the summer,  and  during the autumn.  The  tubercles in the throat
were  very  troublesome too to some persons, and so were the in-
flammations  of the tongue, and the abscesses  of the teeth.   The
voice, when it was  vitiated and obstructed, was likewise  another
sign to many, especially to those who began  to be  consumptive,
and to those who  had burning fevers and phrensies.
  These fevers and phrensies began early in the  spring after the cold
weather that  then happened, and a great number were laid  up with
them  at that time.  They also proved very acute and mortal.   The
state of the fevers was thus.  At the beginning they were troubled
with comas, nauseas, horrors, acute  fevers, but  little thirst, and no
delirium.  They also bled  a little at the  nose,  and the  paroxysms
for  the most  part were upon equal  days.   About the time of the
paroxysms came on loss of memory, great languidness, and loss of
speech.  The fingers and toes were always cold, but much more so
about  the  paroxysms, and  the warmth returned again  slowly and
imperfectly.  They came to themselves again, and spoke; but
either  a continual  coma, without  sleep, was upon them, or painful
watchings.   A great  many were troubled with crude  thin stools in
abundance.   The urine was plentiful and thin, without any thing
critical or beneficial in it;  nor did  any thing else of a critical kind
happen to  those who were thus affected ; for  they had neither a
good  hemorrhage, nor any critical separation of what  is  usual to
pass off; but  every one died, (as  fate would have it,) in a vague
and uncertain manner, about the  time  of the  crisis for the most
                             23 
354               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

part;  some held out a longer time, but died  at last, without speak-
ing, and  many sweating.   Thus  the  case was among those  who
were mortally ill; and there was but little difference in the phrensies.
For  they were entirely without  thirst  or  madness,  as in  other
phrensies, but  were taken with a kind  of stupid delirium, and died
with the  heaviness upon them.   There were also other fevers, of
which  we shall take notice.  Aphthas,  and ulcers in  the mouth,
were frequent; and great  fluxes upon the private parts, with ulce-
rations, tubercles, outwardly and inwardly;  swellings in the groin;
inflammations of the eyes  that were  humid, of  long duration, and
painful; besides little tumours upon the eyelids, outwardly and in-
wardly, called 2uxa, that destroyed the sight  in many persons.  The
like happened  upon other ulcers, and upon the private parts.  There
were also many carbuncles in the summer, and other large pustules
of the putrid kind, called s*)-^ ; many  large herpes's or  tetters, and
many complaints in  the belly too, that did  a great  deal of harm.
In the first place  many  were seized with painful tenesmus's, espe-
cially children, and those who were under the age of puberty, most
of whom died.  Many also  had lienteries, and dysenteries, but these
without much pain.  The  discharges were of the bilious, fat, thin,
and watery kind;  and in many the distemper took this  turn, some-
times with, sometimes without, a  fever.  There were likewise cruel
gripings  and twistings  of  the guts, with intolerable pain.  Many
things that were in the body and suppressed were let out, but these
discharges did not carry oft" the pains.   What was  administered
met with  great difficulty;  for purges were  very injurious to most.
Of these that were thus affected many died in a short time, and
many again held out longer.  In a word, all that were  ill, whether
of acute or chronical  complaints, died chiefly of disorders of the
belly;  for the belly was the general receiver of all.  There was, as
far as I could  observe, an aversion to  food in every body, in all the
forementioned diseases.  In many, especially of this  sort, and the
like; and among others of  those who  were mortally ill, some were
thirsty, others not.  Of those who had fevers and other disorders
no one drank intemperately, but with  respect to this regulated
themselves as the physician would  have  them.  The  urine was
much, and that not in proportion to the  drink taken in, but vastly
more; and that which  came away  was very bad in  its quality;
having neither thickness, nor digestion, nor was the  body well
cleansed by it.  Whereas  in many cases cleansings by the urine 
THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
355
that are good are very beneficial.   To the greatest part they now
implied corruption or colliquation, disorder, pains, and the want of
a crisis. Comas likewise happened, particularly in the phrensies and
the burning fevers; not but they happened too  in all the other ca-
pital diseases, where a fever attended; but in many, a heavy coma
followed, or little and gentle sleeps,  all the time.
   Many other kind of fevers were also epidemical, such as tertians,
quartans, nocturnals, continuals, chronicals, erratics,  inconstants,
and such as were attended with nauseas and inquietude.   All these
brought with them  great  uneasiness:  for the  belly was in most
cases much disturbed, horrors came  on, and sweats that were not
critical.  As to the urine, that was as  we have  already described
it.  A great many of them were likewise  tedious;  the abscesses,
that  happened here, not proving critical  as at mother times.  Add
to this, the crises were universally  very  difficult, and sometimes
not at all;  or  proved very tedious, especially to  these.   A  few of
them  were determined  in about eighty days;  but to  the greatest
part they went off at  random.  A few of these  died of a dropsy,
without being  confined to their beds.  Many  were afflicted with
tumours that came upon other diseases,  and above all those who
were  consumptive.  For the greatest, most difficult, and most fatal
was the consumption.  Many  of  these,  beginning  in  the  winter,
obliged a  great  number to keep their beds, while  .some of them
bore it standing.  Early in the spring most of those who  were laid
up died, and none of the rest got rid  of their coughs.  They abated
indeed  in  the  summer, but in the autumn they were  all laid up,
many died, and  most of them  were  ill a  long time.   The greatest
number of  these began to be extremely ill presently after  these
complaints, and  had frequent horrors,  continual acute  fevers very
often, and  unseasonable sweats.  Many were cold continually: the
cold was great too, and they could  hardly get warm  again.   The
belly  was bound  many ways, and  presently again became  humid;
all that oppressed the  lungs passing  downwards.  A great deal of
urine was  made, but not good;  bad colliquations appeared; coughs
were frequent all along, and much  came  away digested and moist,
and with tolerable ease.  But if they were a little in pain,  the dis-
charge from the lungs was then very gentle in  all. The throat was
not much  affected with acrid, nor did  salt humours do any harm.
What came from the  head was viscid, white,  moist, and frothy.
But the greatest evil of all, in these and other cases, was, what we 
356
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
have taken notice of before, a dislike to food: for they had no plea-
sure in eating and drinking, but  passed  the time  very  free from
thirst.   There  was also a heaviness in the body, and a coma.
A great many swelled, and  fell into  dropsies, were troubled with
horrors, and before they died grew delirious.
   Those who fell into  consumptions were the smooth, the whitish,
the lentil-coloured, the reddish, the gray-eyed, the leucophlegmatic,
and those whose shoulders stuck up  behind.  Nor did  women of
these  kinds escape. The melancholic, and the sanguine suffered
too. These were affected with burning fevers, phrensies, and dysen-
teries; the young men, with  tenesmuses;  the phlegmatic, with long
diarrhoeas; and  the bilious, with  sharp and fat  purgings.  To all
the above-mentioned the most troublesome  time was  the  spring,
which proved fatal to great numbers; the summer was the easiest,
and fewest died; but  in the autumn, and  during  the  Pleiades, a
great  many died of quartans.
   The summer  happening as it ought, is, in my opinion, of great
service:  for summer diseases cease upon  the coming in of winter,
and winter diseases upon the coming  in of  summer.  Though  the
summer that then was, was  not well-conditioned, but on a  sudden
hot and southerly and  calm; yet  changing  to another constitution
or season was of service.  And indeed I look upon it to  be a great
part of the art to  be able to consider properly what has been al-
ready wrote.  For he who  knows, and makes use  of, these things,
does not seem to  me capable of any great mistakes in his profession.
But then he ought to be well  acquainted with the condition of every
season, and also  with the disease;  the good  that is common to the
season or the disease,  and  which disease will  be  lone and fatal,
long and safe, acute and fatal, acute and safe; and likewise  the
order of the critical days.  These things he ought  to consider and
predict from; because  they are able  to supply him.  And he who
is acquainted with these  things will know whom,  when, and how
to diet, or manage the rest.



    THUCYDIDES UPON  THE PLAGUE  AT ATHENS.

   In the very beginning of summer, the  Peloponnesians, with two-
thirds of their allies, invaded  Attica, as they  had done the first year 
THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
357
of the war, under the  conduct of Archidamus the son of Zeuxida-
mus  king of Sparta; and, after encamping, wasted the country
about them.  They had not been many days in Attica, before the
plague first  broke out  among the Athenians, after having before
that  visited,  as the report  went, Lemnos and many other places:
but so great a plague and  mortality was never yet known, in the
memory of man.   The physicians were so far from being able to
cure it at first, for want of knowing the  nature of it, that they them-
selves died faster than others, as being most familiar with the  sick;
nor could any other art of man  make head against it.   All suppli-
cations to the  gods, and inquiries of oracles, and the like, signified
nothing;  so  that, at last,  overcome with the distemper, they left
them all off.  It began, by report, first in that part of Ethiopia that
lies above Egypt, and so came down into Egypt and Lybia, and a
great part of the  King of Persia's  dominions.  Athens was seized
with it on a  sudden, but first in Pirteus;  which occasioned a report
that  the Peloponnesians had  thrown  poison  into the wells; for at
that  time they had  no  springs or fountains there.   Afterwards  it
came up into the high city, and proved much more mortal than
before.  Now  let every man, physician or private person, say, ac-
cording to his knowledge, what the origin of this distemper might
be, or  what causes might  be  sufficient to  produce so great an
alteration.   For my own part, having been ill of it myself, and seen
others that were so too, I shall now declare what the manner of it
was, that, if ever it should  happen again, nobody who reflects upon
it, may be at a loss through ignorance.
  The year was  universally allowed to be the healthiest  and  freest
from other diseases of any; and, if any  one was sick before, all his
illness was converted to this. Others, who were in perfect health,
were taken  suddenly, without any  apparent cause,  with violent
heats in their  heads, and with redness  and inflammations in their
eyes. Their tongues and throats  within  became  immediately
bloody; their breath in great disorder  and  offensive.  A sneezing
and a hoarseness ensued; and, in a short time, the  pain descended
into  the breast, attended with a violent cough.  When  it was once
settled about the mouth of the stomach,  a retching, and vomiting of
bilious stuff, in as great a variety as ever was known among phy-
sicians, succeeded, but  not without the greatest anxiety imaginable.
Many  were seized with a hiccup, that brought up nothing, but
occasioned a violent convulsion, which  in some went off presently, 
358               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

but in  others continued much longer.   The body outwardly was
neither very hot to the touch, nor pale,  but reddish, livid, and flow-
ered (as it were)  all over with  little pimply eruptions, and ulcers;
but inwardly the  heat was so exceedingly  great, that  they could
not endure the slightest  covering, or the finest linen, or any thing
short of absolute nakedness.  It was  also  an infinite  pleasure to
them to plunge into cold  water; and many  of those who were not
well attended did  so, running to the wells, to quench their insatiable
thirst: not  that it signified whether they drank much or little;  a
great uneasiness  and restlessness attending them, together with  a
continual watching.  While  the distemper  was  advancing to the
height, the  body did not fall  away, but  resisted the vehemence of it
beyond expectation ;  so  that many of  them died the ninth and the
seventh day of the inward burning, some  strength yet  remaining;
or, if they  held out longer, many of them afterwards died of weak-
ness; the distemper descending into the belly, and there producing
violent ulcerations, and fluxes of the simple  or unmixed  kind.  For
the disease went through the  whole  body, beginning  first in the
head ;  and, if any escaped, where the case was very desperate, this
was denoted  by  the extremities being affected : for it  broke out
upon the private parts, the  fingers and toes ; and  many came off
with the loss of those parts.  Some, again, lost their eyes; others
were seized, immediately upon  their getting  up, with an absolute
forgetfulness of every thing,  not  knowing themselves, or those that
were most familiar; the appearance, or the  nature, of the distemper
being  greater than words can  possibly express, and harder to be
borne than human nature is  accustomed to.  Nor indeed was it any
of those diseases that are bred  among us, as appeared very plain
from this  circumstance.  For the birds  and beasts that feed on
human flesh, though many  carcasses  laid  abroad  unburied, either
came not to them, or tasting  died.  The manifest defect or scarcity
of such fowl was a proof of this;  for they were neither seen any
where else, nor  about  any of the  carcasses: but the  dogs, being
brought up among us, made the case yet more evident.  The dis-
ease therefore (to pass over many strange particulars that happened
differently  in different persons)  was in general  such as I have de-
 scribed it; and as to other  usual  distempers, none of them were
 then troublesome;  or, if any appeared, they all centered  in this.
 Some of them died for  want of attendance, and some  again with
 all  the care  imaginable.  Nor  was  there any (to say)  certain 
THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
359
remedy, which, upon application, must have helped them: for, if it
did good to one, it did  harm to another.   Nor was there any dif-
ference  in bodies,  as to strength or weakness, to enable them  to
resist it; but it swept all  away, what care or method soever was
taken.   The terriblest circumstance of all was  the dejection of mind
in those that found  themselves beginning to be ill  (for, growing im-
mediately desperate, they gave themselves over  much more, with-
out making any resistance); and their dying like sheep, infected
by their care and  concern for others, increased their despair; the
greatest mortality proceeding this way.  For, if they were unwil-
ling to visit  others  through fear, they died by themselves without
assistance (by  which means  many families became desolate, for
want of somebody to take care of them); or, if they visited, they
likewise died, especially those who had  virtue or humanity enough
to do any friendly  offices: for such out of shame would not spare
themselves, but went in to their friends, especially after it came to
that pass that even the domestics, wearied with the lamentations of
those that died, fell ill  themselves, overcome  with the greatness of
the calamity.   But those  that were  recovered had much compas-
sion on  those that were dying, and on those that lay sick, as having
known the misery themselves, and now were in  a secure and safe
situation: for it never seized the same person twice,  so as  to be
mortal.   Others, therefore, esteemed  them happy,  and they them-
selves, through excess of  present joy, conceived a kind of small
hope never to die of any future sickness.
   The bringing provisions from the country to the city was an ad-
ditional grievance, and equally affected those who came with them
into the city.  For, having no houses,  but dwelling, at that time of
the year, in stifling booths or huts, the mortality was now without
any form or order; dead  men, and those that were just expiring,
lying upon  one another in the  streets, while men half dead lay
about every well, desiring a little water.  The temples, also, where
they dwelt in tents, were also full of the  dead that died there: for,
oppressed to the last degree by the  violence of  the distemper, and
not  knowing what course to take, men grew equally careless both
of holy and  profane things.  All the laws relating to  funerals, that
had been  observed before, were now violated and  confounded;
every one  burying where he  could find room.  Many, for want of
necessaries, after so many deaths before, were become even impu-
dent in  the article  of funerals.  For, when one had made a funeral- 
360               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

pile,  another, getting 'before him, would throw on his dead, and set
fire to it: and, while  one was burning, another would come, and
throwing him upon it that he had brought along with him, would
go away again.
  The great licentiousness, which was also used here in  other re-
spects, began at first  from  this disease.  For what  a man would
before dissemble, and not acknowledge to be done for the sake of
pleasure, he  now  durst freely own,  seeing  before  his eyes  such
quick revolutions of things, rich men dying suddenly, and succeeded
by others not worth a groat;  so that they thought it better to  have
a speedy enjoyment of their estates and pleasures, as men that held
their lives and fortunes alike  by the day.  As to  laborious works,
no man was forward to undertake any  thing  noble  or laudable;
not knowing  whether he should live to finish it; but what any man
knew to  be  delightful, and every way conducing  to  pleasure, that
was  made both profitable and honourable;  neither the fear of the
Gods, nor the laws of men, restraining any.   For, with respect to
the one,  they concluded, from what they saw, that it was all the
same whether they worshipped, or not worshipped; all men dying
without distinction; and, with respect to the other, no man expected
his life would last until  the  law could punish  him for his misbe-
haviour.   But they thought there was now, over their heads, some
greater judgment  decreed  against them, before which fell, it was
but fit they should enjoy some little part of life.    Such was the
calamity  that  came  upon  the Athenians, and  oppressed   them
greatly;  their  men dying of the disease within,  and the enemy
wasting the country without.
       CONCLUSION OF THE HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE AT ATHENS.
  Clifton having in his preface attempted to overthrow the opinion
of this Plague, being the same as Hippocrates has described under
his  Pestilential Constitution, his reasons are  placed here, for the
consideration of the reader.—Ed.

  "To correct a mistake that several learned men have run  into, I
have added (by way of comparison), at the end of  the malignant
or pestilential year, the account of the plague of Athens by Thucy- 
THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
361
dides, by which the reader will plainly see, that Hippocrates never
intended a description of that plague, or of  any other properly so
called, but only of the raging ill-conditioned fevers, and other severe
complaints, that then went about.  There are indeed some circum-
stances concurring with Thucydides, such as the inflammations of
the eyes, with sometimes  a total loss of the sight;  the disorders of
the belly, and the private parts, &c.; but then  no notice is taken
of  the violent heats  in the  head, the bloodiness of the  throat, the
sneezings and  the hoarseness,  the vomitings and the hiccups, the
plungings into cold  water  and despondencies,  (to  pass  by many
other particulars,) mentioned by Thucydides; circumstances, that
it was not possible for so curious an observer as  Hippocrates to
forget or overlook.   Add to this, that the  description here given
contains nothing uncommon for such a country,  or inconsistent
with such a  sultry wet season, and is supported by cases not at
all  from Athens, but from places far remote, and  more upon the
Thracian coast than any  where else, such as Thasus  and Abdera;
places that Hippocrates chiefly resided at.   Whereas, if the plague
of Athens had been here intended,  the cases would  have been all
related from  the very place itself, and  in a  manner quite different
from the present.   I therefore  conclude, that our learned country-
man, Prideaux,* and  all others of his opinion, are very much mis-
taken, when  they look upon this section in Hippocrates, as  a de-
scription of that terrible plague.  But to consider the point a  little
farther.   Thucydides observes, that the distemper broke out first
in Lemnos, and many other places, before it  came to Athens, be-
ginning (by report)  in that part of Ethiopia that lies above Egypt,
and so came down into Egypt and Libya, and  a great part of the
King of Persia's  dominions.   Nor  did it leave the Greek islands
till  some considerable  time after.   Accordingly we find a letter
from Artaxerxes to  Hystanes,  the Persian governor of the Helles-
pont, complaining of the plague being got among his  army, and
desiring at any rate the  assistance of Hippocrates.   Now  this
seems  to be the same plague  described by Thucydides; and  yet,

  * See his Connexion, vol. ii. p. 569, the ninth edition, in 1725, where  are these ex.
press words, viz.: " Lucretius has also given us a poetical description of it (meaning
the  plague), and Hippocrates has written of it as a physician.  For that great master
of the art of physic lived in those times, and was at Athens all the while this distemper
raged there." 
   3f>-2              THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

   in  the  life of Hippocrates  wrote by Soranus, we find another
•   account very different; for the plague there mentioned, that gained
   him so much honour, is said to have begun among the Illyrians and
   Poeonians, and so came down into several parts of  Greece.   Now
   the Illyrians were a  people that  inhabited that part  of  the country
   which we  call Servia, and  Albania, bordering upon Dalmatia,
   Dardania (or Bosnia), Macedonia, and Poeonia; and the  Poeonians
   bordered upon Macedonia to the south, Illyris to the north, Darda-
   nia  to the west,  and Thracia to the  east; so  that this  plague (if
   any such there was)  seems to have travelled from the north  to the
   south;  whereas  the  other travelled directly  contrary, or at least
   from the southeast to the northwest.   I conclude, therefore, that, if
   the Illyrian story is true, the description here  given  answers better
   to the slate of diseases  then;  but that the whole story is false I am
   more inclined  to believe,  because the plague  of Athens was the
   only one in those days  recorded  by men of credit.  It is true, the
   Illyrians might have reason enough  to complain of a very sickly
   season, and  other countries  might be attacked with  the same, or
   even worse, disorders; all which might  proceed from the  plague
   originally, for any thing I can say to the contrary.   For, as Thu-
   cydides observes, Lemnos and many other places were infected as
   well as  Athens, the skill of the physicians availing nothing;  and, if
   his account be true, the same winds that brought it there (supposing
   the wind to have had a share  in the affair) might easily have car-
   ried it farther, Lemnos being but a   little step from  the Thracian
.   shore one way,and  the south parts of Macedonia another; though,
   in  travelling there, the force and virulence of it might be so far
   broke  as  to produce  no more  than a  very  sickly  season.  But
   whether the malignant time here mentioned was  actually at the
   time of the plague,  or  very near it, this at least is certain, that wet
   seasons, sultry heats, and  calm weather,  are  always attended with
   bad diseases;  and such  was  the  year now  in question;  but, for
   want of a date (a great omission in Hippocrates) the precise time
   cannot certainly be known, though there is a great  deal of room to
   believe, both from the title itself, xaTasfra.(fii\oiiiuS^g, (which, however,
   Galen  suspects  as spurious) and  the  nature of the diseases there
   mentioned (which certainly were of  a very bad, or, if you please,
   malignant sort), that  it  was drawn up much about that  terrible
   time, and perhaps the very year of  the  plague; yet  not as a de-
   scription of the plague itself (for then it would have  been  weji Xoifww), 
                 THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.               363

but only of a malignant year, not many degrees removed from the
other."
  We now return to Hippocrates.—Ed.
   In  Thasus, the  son  of Parion, who lived above the Temple of
 Diana, was seized with an acute fever, which at first was continual,
 burning, and  attended with  thirst.   He was from the beginning
 comatose, and  again watchful.  His  belly  loose.  His urine thin.
 The sixth day oily  urine, with ramblings.  The seventh, worse in all
 respects; no sleep; the urine as before;  lightheadedness, together with
 bilious, fat, stools.  The eighth, he bled a little at the nose; vomited
 aeruginous stuff in a small quantity; and slept a little.  The ninth,
 no alteration.  The tenth, a  remission of all the symptoms.  The ele-
 venth, a sweat, but not all over.  He  grew cold all over, and in a
 short  time warm  again.    The  twelfth, an acute  fever;  many
 bilious, thin  stools; a thin cloud in  the urine; and  a  rambling
 head.  The seventeenth, great uneasiness, having had no sleep, but
 his fever did not increase.   The twentieth, a sweat all  over; no
 sleep; bilious  stools;  an aversion to food; and a coma.   The
 twenty-fourth,  a relapse.   The thirty-fourth, no fever;  the body
 not bound ; but he  grew hot again. The fortieth, no fever; the body
 bound, but not long; an aversion to  food; a  gentle fever again,
 but in the erratic  way continually, sometimes present, sometimes
 not;  for, if it left him or if he was easier, it returned again.  What
 he eat was of the worst kind, and in  a great quantity.  After the
 return he slept  badly, and was lightheaded.  The urine was  then
 thick, but  turbid and bad.   The body sometimes bound, sometimes
 lax.   He was also continually feverish, had many thin stools, and
 the hundred and twentieth day he died.
  This patient's belly was constantly,  from the  first day, either lax
 with  many bilious  liquid stools, or bound with  hot and undigested
 matter.  The  urine bad all along; and a coma for the most part,
 with pains, watchings, loathing of food, and a burning  fever conti-
 nually.
  In Thasus, the woman that lived by the cold  Spring, after being
 delivered of a daughter, and not cleansed, was taken with  an acute
fever the  third day, and  a chilliness.  But,  long before  she  was
brought to bed, she had been laid up  with a fever, and aversion to
food.   After the shivering, the fever became  continual, and  acute,
attended with a sense of horror or chilliness.   The eighth day and 
364               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

the following she was lightheaded, but came to herself again pre-
sently, and  had many thin, watery, bilious stools, without thirst.
The  eleventh, she came to herself again, but was inclined  to a
stupidness;  made a great deal of thin  and black urine; and  kept
awake.   The  twentieth, was a  little cold outwardly, and warm
again presently;  rambled a little, and  kept awake.  Her stools as
before;  and her urine watery, and plentiful.  The twenty-seventh,
neither fever, nor stool, but not long after a violent pain of the right
hip that lasted  long.  She grew feverish  again, and made watery
urine.  The fortieth, the hip was a little easier; but she had a  con-
tinual cough, and very humid; no stool; a dislike to food ; and the
urine as before.   The fever not entirely off, and the paroxysms in
the erratic way, sometimes present, sometimes not.  The sixtieth,
the cough  ceased without any sign; no  concoction appearing in
what was spit, nor any separation of what is usual, but the right
jaw  was  convulsed.   She was  also  comatose, and  lightheaded
again, but  came  to  herself presently.   Her aversion to  food still
continued; the jaw came to itself;  the stools were  a  little bilious;
the fever increased, not without chilliness; and the days following
she lost her speech, recovered  herself again, spoke, and  died the
eightieth.
   This patient's  urine was all  along black, thin, and watery. A
coma came on, with fasting, despondency, watchings,  anger, im-
patience, and melancholy.
   In  Thasus, Pythion, who lived above the  Temple  of Hercules,
after labour, and weariness, and careless eating, was  taken with a
great shivering, and an acute fever.  His tongue was dry, thirsty,
bilious.  No sleep.   His urine blackish, with  a thin cloud  above,
and no sediment.  The second day about noon his extremities were
cold, especially his hands and head.  He lost  his voice, and could
not speak;  was short-breathed; in  a  little time grew warm;  was
thirsty;  had a  quiet night; and  sweated a little about  the head.
The  third, a quiet day.   In the evening, about sunset, he grew a
little cold;  had a  very restless night and no sleep; and voided  little
hard pellets.  The fourth, in the morning early, he grew easy again,
but about  noon worse in all respects.  He was  also cold; lost his
voice and speech  too; was worse and worse ;  in  time grew warm
again; made black urine, with a little  floating cloud ; had  a  quiet
night, and slept.   The fifth, he seemed to be easier,  but complained
of a  weight in the belly with pain; was thirsty; and had an uneasy 
THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
365
night.  The sixth, in  the  morning early, he was quiet, but  about
sunset  his pains increased, and he was worse;  but, after a good
discharge in the evening from a  glyster, slept in the night.   The
seventh, he was qualmish in the day, and a little impatient;  made
oily urine; at  night was much out of order, rambled, and got  no
sleep.  The eighth, slept  a little  betimes in the  morning, but pre-
sently grew cold, lost  his speech, and breathed but faintly and less
and less.  In the evening was hot again, and delirious; but, as the
day  advanced, was a little easier.   His stools simple, small, and
bilious.   The  ninth, was  comatose,  and qualmish,  when  he was
raised, but not very thirsty. About  sunset was very restless, ram-
bled, and  had  a bad  night. The tenth in the morning  early was
speechless, very cold,  very feverish, sweated much, and died.
   His pains were upon equal days.
   He that had a  phrensy and was laid  up  the  fifth day, vomited
much green thin matter;  was feverish and chilly; sweated  much
and  continually all over;  and  had a weight and pain in the  head
and  neck.  He had also thin urine, with little clouds scattered  up
and down,that subsided not; thundering stools; rambled much; and
got no  sleep.   The second day betimes in the morning  he lost  his
speech; was very feverish; sweated,  but did not lose  his fever;
trembled all over; and at night  was convulsed.  The  third, was
worse in all respects.   The fourth, died.
   In Larissa, one who was bald was taken suddenly with a pain in
his right thigh, and nothing that was applied to it did him any good.
The first day an acute and burning fever, which  abated a little, but
the pain still continued.  The second, the pain of the thigh abated,
but the fever increased.   He was also somewhat impatient, with-
out sleep, cold  in his extreme parts, and  made a great deal of water,
but not good.  The third, the pain of the thigh  ceased, but he grew
lightheaded upon it, greatly disordered, and full of tossing.  The
fourth,  about noon, he died in a very acute manner.
   In Abdera, Pericles was taken with an acute, continual, fever
and pain.  A great thirst succeeded, and a qualmishness; nor could
he contain what he drank.   He was also somewhat  large-spleened,
and heavy-headed.  The first day, blood came from the left nostril;
the fever raged much; and his urine was turbid, thin, copious, with-
out a sediment after standing.  The  second, worse  in all respects,
but the  urine was thick indeed, and  rather subsided; and with  re-
spect to his Qualmishness  he was easier, and slept.  The third,  the 
306               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

fever abated.  The urine was increased, digested, and had a great
sediment.   The night was pleasant.   The fourth  day about noon,
a great hot sweat all  over.  The fever was carried  off by it, and
returned not again.
  In Abdera, a virgin, who lived upon the  Holy Way, was seized
with a burning  fever,  thirst, and  watchfulness.   Her  menses came
down then for the first time.   The sixth  day she was very sick at
her stomach, high-coloured, shivering a  little,  and restless.  The
seventh, no alteration.   The urine thin indeed, but well-coloured;
the belly  quite  easy.   The  eighth, she  was deaf, very feverish,
watchful,  qualmish, shivering  a  little, but yet  in  her senses,  and
made the same  urine.   The ninth, and the following  days, no alte-
ration.  The deafness remained.  The fourteenth, the  mind was
disordered, and the fever abated.  The seventeenth, she  bled much
at the nose; the deafness abated a little; but  the following  days
she was qualmish, deaf,  and  lightheaded.   The twentieth a pain in
her feet came on; her deafness and delirium went off;  she bled a
little at the nose, sweated, and lost her fever.   The twenty-fourth,
she relapsed, and was deaf again; the pain in her feet remained,
and she grew delirious.  The twenty-seventh, sweated  much, and
lost her fever and deafness;  the pain in her feet remained a little,
but in other respects the crisis was perfect.
  In Abdera, Anaxion, who  lived  by the Thracian Gates, was
seized with an acute fever.  His right side was continually in pain,
attended with a dry cough, that brought  nothing up the first days.
A thirst came  on, with a want  of sleep, and urine that was well-
coloured, much, and thin.  The sixth day he was lightheaded, and
received no benefit from  warm  applications.   The seventh, was
very uneasy. The fever increased, and the pains abated not.  The
cough was very troublesome, and a difficulty of breathing came on.
The eighth, he was blooded in the arm, and that plentifully, as he
ought.  The pains abated, but the dry cough still  continued.  The
eleventh,  the fever abated; he  sweated a little  about  the  head;
coughed still;  and brought away from the lungs something more
humid. The seventeenth, he began to spit a little concocted matter,
and was  relieved; but was  thirsty, and  the  luno-s were not well
cleansed.   The twentieth, he  sweated, lost his fever, and after the
crisis was easier.  The twenty-seventh, the fever returned;  and
much digested matter came  away by  coughing.  The urine  had a
large white sediment; the thirst went off, and sleep came on.  The 
                  THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.              ^Q1

 thirty-fourth, he sweated all over, had no  fever, and was perfectly
 freed.
   In Abdera, Heropythus was taken with  a pain in his head as he
 was upon his legs, and not Jong after was  forced to lie down.  His
 house was by the upper path.  An acute  burning fever  came on,
 with a vomiting of much bile at  the beginning; a thirst;  great un-
 easiness; and thin black urine, sometimes  with, sometimes without,
 a cloud atop.  The night was uneasy; the paroxysms of the fever
 uncertain; and for the most part  out of the common course.  About
 the fourteenth day he grew deaf; the  fever increased ; the urine, as
 before.  The twentieth, and the following  days, he was very light-
 headed. The fortieth, bled much  at  the nose,  and came more to
 himself.  The  deafness  remained still, but was  less.  The fever
 abated.  The following days he  bled  again often,  and  a  little at a
 time.  About the  sixtieth his bleedings stopped ;  but in the right hip
 was a violent pain; the fever increased;  and not  long after pains
 attacked all the lower parts.   It happened too, that the fever was
 either greater, and  the  deafness  considerable, or that,  upon  an
 abatement of these, the pains in the lower parts, about the hip, were
 stronger.  About the eightieth, there was  a  general remission, but
 it did  not go quite  off.  The urine was well-coloured, and had a
 good sediment; and  the deliriums were abated.   About the hun-
 dredth, a great discharge of bilious matter downwards, that did not
 cease presently.   These were  succeeded by dysenteric complaints
 and pain; though in other respects  he was very easy.  In fine, the
 fever went off, the deafness ceased, and upon the  hundredth day a
 perfect crisis happened in this burning fever.
  Nicodemus, in  Abdera, after  venery and drinking,  was  seized
 with a  violent  fever.  In the  beginning he was  qualmish, heart-
 burnt,  thirsty, with  a burnt  tongue,  and  thin  black urine.  The
 second day  the fever increased.   He was also chilly; qualmish;
 got no sleep; vomited bilious yellow stuff;  made the same urine as
 before; had a quiet night, and slept. The third,  every thing abated,
 and he was easy; but about sunset he was taken with an uneasiness
 again,  and had a  bad night.   The fourth he shivered; was very
 feverish; in  pain all over; made  thin urine, with a  cloud in it; and
 was very delirious.  The seventh, easy again.   The eighth, all the
other  complaints  abated.  The tenth, and  the  following  days, he
complained of pains, but not  so  much as  before;  and both" pains
and paroxysms were all along rather upon  equal days.  The  twen- 
36S
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
tieth, white thick urine, that  subsided not upon  standing; a  great
sweat; the fever seemingly spent:  but  about sunset  he grew  hot
again, and had the same pains, with chilliness, thirst, and a little
rambling.  The twenty-fourth, much white urine, with a good sedi-
ment ; and a  great hot sweat all over, that put an end to the fever,
and produced a good crisis.
  A peevish,  melancholy woman, in Thasus, was taken, after griev-
ing upon some occasion, with watchings, dislike  to food, thirst, and
great uneasiness, while  standing and walking  about.  She  lived
near Pylades's, upon the Plain.  The first day, as the night came
on, she grew  fearful, talked much, desponded, and had  a  little fever.
The next morning early was much  convulsed, and, upon the con-
vulsions intermitting, was lightheaded, and talked obscenely.  Her
pains were many, great, and constant.  The second  day, no alte-
ration ; no sleep; the  fever  higher.  The third,  the convulsions
ceased, but the coma and delirium remained.   She waked again,
got up, and could not  contain herself; was very lightheaded, and
very feverish.  The same night  she  had a plentiful sweat, but  not
all over; the  fever however left her; she slept, came to herself per-
fectly, and had a crisis.  About  the third day the  urine was black
and thin, and  the  cloud in it for the most  part round  and floating.
At the crisis her menses came down plentifully.
  In Lariffa, a maid was seized with an  acute  burning fever, at-
tended with want of sleep, thirst, a fuliginous (or sooty) dry tongue,
and  urine that was well-coloured,  but thin.   The second day  she
was  uneasy,  and got  no sleep.  The  third,  had several  watery
stools, and the following days the like, without fatigue.  The fourth,
the urine was thin, a little in quantity, with an elevated cloud that
subsided  not.  A delirium at  night.   The sixth, she bled  very freely
at the nose; shivered a little; sweated plentifully and  hot all over;
and the fever  came to its crisis.  But in the course of the fever, and
upon the crisis happening, her  menses  came down  then for  the
first time, she being a young virgin.
  She was all along qualmish, subject to horrors, red in the  face,
and  had  a pain in her  eyes, with  a heaviness in her head.  The
crisis happened without a relapse, and her pains  upon  equal days.
  Apollonius, in Abdera, was ill a long time, but not so  as to be con-
fined.  He was a large-bowelled man, had  an old pain about  the
liver a long while, and  was at that time troubled with a jaundice,
bloated, and of a whitish complexion.  Upon eating beef and drink- 
THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
369
 ing intemperately, he was at first seized with a  little warmth, and
 went  to bed.   But  upon  using  milk plentifully, both  goat's  and
 sheep's, boiled and  raw, and a bad  diet withal,  all his complaints
 were  made considerably worse.  For his  fever was exasperated,
 and of what he took in, very little to speak  of passed through him.
 His urine was  thin  and little; his sleep, nothing  at all; but a bad
 kind of inflation, a violent thirst, a coma, a painful elevation of the
 right flank, a coldishness all about the extremities, a little rambling,
 with a forgetfulness of what he had said, and at  last a  strong deli-
 rium laid hold  of him.  About the fourteenth day from the time
 that he  shivered, grew hot, took to his bed, and was mad; he bawl-
 ed out, was greatly disordered, talked much, and  then was silent.
 After this he grew comatose, and had many bilious, unmixed, crude
 stools.   His urine was,black, little, and thin ;  his uneasiness great;
 his stools various, sometimes black, little, and thin; at other times
 fat, crude, and acid; and at last milky to appearance.   About the
 twenty-fourth he was easier;  in  other respects  no alteration, but
 came a  little to  himself,  (whereas, from  the time  he laid down, he
 remembered nothing) and presently after lost himself again.  Every
 thing hurried on for the worse.  About the thirtieth, he was very
 feverish; had many small  stools; was  delirious;  cold in  his ex-
 tremities; and dumb.  The thirty-fourth, he died.
   This patient,  during my attendance, was  all along  disordered in
 his belly;  his urine  thin and black;  and he was  comatose,  watch-
 ful, cold in his extremities, and perpetually delirious.
   A woman in  Cyzicus, who was delivered with  much difficulty
 of two daughters, and not well  cleansed afterwards, was taken  at
 first with a chilliness and acute fever, attended with a weight and
 pain of the head and  neck.  She could get no sleep from  the be-
 ginning;  was silent, sullen,  and inflexible.   The urine  was thin,
 and without  colour.   She  was also thirsty, and  for the  most part
 qualmish and uneasy.   The belly irregular, sometimes  loose, and
 sometimes bound.   The  sixth day at night  she was very delirious,
 and got no sleep.  About the eleventh, was  mad,  and  came  to her-
 self again.  The urine black, thin, and, after  a while, oily.  The
 stools many, thin, and  turbid.   The fourteenth, she was  much con-
 vulsed ;  cold in her extreme parts; lost her senses; and  had a sup-
pression of urine.  The sixteenth, was dumb; and the seventeenth,
died.
  In Thasus, Dealces's wife, who  lived upon the plain,  was taken
                              24 
370               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

with a chilliness and acute fever, occasioned by sorrow.  She was
covered up from the beginning, and, without ever speaking to the
last, felt about with her hands, plucked off, scratched, and gathered
the nap of the clothes ; cried, and presently after laughed; got no
sleep;  had no stool, though  the belly was stimulated  with some-
thing;  drank a little at the  request of  others; made  a  little thin
water; was but moderately feverish to the touch ;  and cold in her
extremities.   The  ninth, was very delirious, and soon after reco-
vered herself, but was silent.   The fourteenth, her breathing was
deep and  seldom,  long and  short.  The  seventeenth,  another sti-
mulus was used to the belly; after which what was drank passed
through, without any gathering together, or stoppage.  She was
insensible  of every thing; and  her skin  was distended and dry.
The twentieth, she  talked much, and again recovered herself, but
was afterwards dumb, and breathed short.   The  twenty-first she
died.
   This patient's breathing was all along deep and  slow.  She was
insensible  of every thing; was always covered  up; and either
talked  much, or was silent to  the last.
   In Meliba2a, a young man,  heating himself a long time with drink
and venery to excess, was taken with a chilliness, a nauseousness,
and want of sleep, but without a thirst.  The first  day,  he had
many stools, with a great  flux of humours, and the following days
many watery ones.  The  urine was thin, little, and without colour.
The breathing seldom, deep, and  long.  The hypochondres dis-
tended, but  somewhat soft, and that for a considerable  length on
both sides.  He had also a continual palpitation of the heart to the
last;  made  oily urine; rambled moderately ; was composed again
and quiet.   His skin was  dry and distended;  his stools many, thin,
bilious, and  fat.  The fourteenth, was worse in  all respects; ram-
bled, and raved much.   The  twentieth, was mad ;  threw his  limbs
about; made  no water, and  scarce kept  his drink.  The  twenty-
fourth, died. 
     THE  SECOND  BOOK OF  EPIDEMICS.

                           Fozsius, p. 944.

    It would seem from Haller's prefatory remarks, that Galen refers
 to certain books, which he insists must have been formed by Thes-
 salus, from the common-place book of Hippocrates.   The first sec-
 tion of the present one, pays attention to the subject of crises, more
 carefully and better  arranged than any of the  Hippocratic books.
 The other sections are entirely promiscuous.   In the second sec-
 tion are  some imperfect histories of patients, and of diseases, such
 as angina, &c.  Section  third contains  the Perinthian epidemic;
 and predictions are  intermingled with the  history of diseases.   In
 the fourth section,  we have an  account of  the vessels, pretty much
 like that  in the book " De Ossibus."  The histories of diseases are
 introduced;  among  which  is to be found a  paralytic affection
 arising from the use of vitiated grain.1   The two last sections con-
 tain predictions, and  a mingled mass of other matters.
   There  appears to  be here, as well as elsewhere,  much useless
 variation  in the divisions of these books, as given by Fcesius, Hal-
 ler, Gardeil, and  others, dependent, it may be presumed, on the in-
 dividual fancy of each.   Such diversity, however, renders reference
 more difficult, and appears to be called for by no solid reason.—Ed.
   Gardeil, in some  preliminary remarks on this  book, says, that it
 is  generally believed that the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh
 books on Epidemics, are not productions of Hippocrates;  at least
 the same  order  that  exists in the first and  third, is here defective.
 We have, however, a commentary by Galen  on the  sixth book,
 which  be  looks upon as being the work of the Father of Medicine.
 In  my opinion, continues Gardeil, the fifth  and  seventh books are
quite as interesting as the sixth, in consequence of a considerable
number of surgical  observations.  We might even be authorized,
  » Analogous to  what has been ascribed in later times  to the use of
rye.—Ed. 
372               THK WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

he adds, to consider all the five books above-mentioned, as the real
works  of  Hippocrates, since  we  find in them  the  principles and
facts precisely as we read them in the other treatises that are usu-
ally acknowledged to be his, such  as the  one " De Humoribus," &c.
This,  however, by no means proves that all the  seven books on
Epidemics, wherein  so  little  order is preserved, have emanated
from the same author to whom we are indebted  for several of those
we have given, yet all  are generally regarded  as being nearly of
the same  period, and as emanating from the same school.   Many
general propositions are given in an aphoristic  form, accompanied
with numerous observations.
   Clifton,  in the  beginning of this book, leaves out several  pages,
amounting to nearly the whole of the first section of Fcesius, stating
in a note,  that it  consists of " aphorisms of various kinds that no-
ways agree with  the title of the book, and so are placed under their
proper heads  in other parts of this work," &c, to which he  makes
reference.
   I cannot commend his translation on many  occasions; a better
one, and more accurate to the text, is a  desideratum.—Ed.
  In Cranon, in the summer, were carbuncles.  It rained, during
the excessive heats, very much, and continually, but more with the
southerly winds.  Under the skin were thin sharp humours, which,
being confined, grew hot, and caused an itching; after which pus-
tules broke out, like what comes upon a burnt part, and occasioned
a sense of burning underneath.
  In this city inveterate  pains are attended with cold; fresh ones,
-with heat; and most of them from the blood.  Those from the hip
are likewise cold.
  A woman had the heartburn, and could not be easy;  but upon
steeping the finest flour of barley in the juice of quince, and eating
but once a day, she vomited no more;  as was the case of Charion.
  Changes, where the  change is not for the worse, are of service;
as in fevers to vomit after  taking a medicine.   But where a vomit
terminates in something simple and unmixed, there corruption is
denoted, as in the case of Dexippus.
   Serapis swelled after a looseness, but the exact time of the itching
I know not, though it was not  long.   An abscess in the flank, that
mortified, was her death. 
THE SECOND BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
373
  Stymargus's  wife  swelled too,  after recovering from  a short
looseness designedly stopped, and a miscarriage of a female child
four months old.
  Moschus, who was  much troubled  with  the stone, had a little
tumour like  a  barley-corn upon  his upper eyelid in the part next
the ear, which ulcerated inwardly.  The fifth  and sixth  day the
matter that was pent in broke out, and the complaints below were
taken away.   He had also a swelling of the gland by the  ear, and
another in the  neck, right against the upper swelling.
  Aristaeus's wife's brother fatigued himself upon the road when he
was hot, and  so brought  little black swellings, or tubercles,  upon
his leg, with a continual  fever.   The  next  day he  sweated, and
after  that upon the other equal days, without  being quit of his fever.
His spleen was a little suspected ;  he  bled often from his  left  nos-
tril, though but little at a time;  and was  freed.  The next day a
 tumour appeared behind  the  left  ear, and  the day  after another
behind the  right, but this was less and  grew warm.  Both of  them
 subsided gradually, without  coming to  suppuration.
   He that came from Alcibiades had, a little  before the  crisis, a
swelling in his left testicle  from  a fever.   His  spleen was  large
too, and his crisis happened upon the twentieth  day.  After this he
 grew a little warm now and  then, and his  spitting was somewhat
 florid.
   She, who brought up little or  nothing to speak of with her cough,
 was  seized  with a palsy in her right arm and left leg, without any
 alteration in her countenance, or understanding, or any other part;
 and even here it was not vehement.  About the  twentieth she began
 to go better, perhaps from the breaking out of her menses, which
 was  then the  first time; for she  was a young virgin.
   Apemantus, and the builder's father that broke the head, and
 Nicostratus, did not cough at all, but on the contrary were in pain
 about the kidneys.  Being asked,  they confessed they were always
 eating or drinking.
   Hercules swelled the eighth day of his illness.
   To one that suckled, pustules broke  out all over the body, which,
 upon leaving  off, were dispersed in the summer.
    The currier's wife, that  made the  leathers, after she  had been
 brought to bed, and to appearance perfectly well delivered, had a
 part of the membrane, chorion,  left behind, which came  away the
 fourth day with great  difficulty;  a  strangury  being  upon  her. 
 374               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 Soon  after she proved with  child  again, and  had a son.  This
 course lasted many years, and at length her menses stopped. When
 she was brought to bed, her strangury gradually left her.
   Another woman had a pain in her hip before conception, which
 was cured by conception.   The twentieth day after the birth she
 was in pain again, and delivered of a son.
   Another woman with child had  little pustules upon the lower
 part of the right leg, and the thumb  of the right hand, in the third
 or fourth month of her pregnancy;  to which the chips of frankin-
 cense  were applied.  But whether she was brought  to bed or not,
 I cannot say; for  I left her in  her  sixth month.  She  lived, as I
 remember, at the house of Archelaus, by the precipice.
   Antigenes's wife, who lived  with Nicomachus, was delivered of
 a child all over fleshy, but distinct in the principal parts, and about
 the bigness of four fingers.  It had  no bones, and was afterwards
 thick and round.   The mother was  asthmatic before her lying-in,
 and in her delivery vomited a little matter like that which comes
 from the boil called a felon.
   She that was delivered of two daughters  after a hard  labour,
 and was  not well cleansed afterwards, swelled all over, and became
 very big in her belly, but fell away in her other parts.  The reds
 continued for six months, and then the whites the rest of the time,
 in great  quantities.  These evacuations hindered her conception;
 but her menses came again pure, unmixed, and in a .proper manner.
  In lienteries of long standing, an acid belching, where  nothing of
 this kind  has happened before, is a  good sign; as in the case of
 Demaenetas.  Art  at this time  should try to imitate nature;  for
 such disturbances make a great alteration, and perhaps acid belch-
 ings will  carry off a lientery.
  Lycias, who  was  cured by drinking hellebore, was at last
 attacked  with a  painful swelling  of  the spleen, and  a fever; and
 the pain reached up  to her  arm.  The splenic  vein  in the elbow
 was opened, and beat often.  Sometimes again  it was not opened,
 and the pain went off spontaneously, or with a sweat.  Upon this
going off the spleen reached to the  right side;  her breathing was
doubled within, and not great; she grew lightheaded ; was covered
up; troubled  with  wind,  but nothing passed downwards, nor by
urine;  and, before  she was delivered, she died.
  The  swellings, that were produced by a great flux of humours on 
THE SECOND BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
375
each side the throat, did not ulcerate, but passed off to the left; the
spleen was affected with pain, and there was no crisis.
  Hieron's crisis was the  fifteenth day.
  Cous's sister had a swelling  upon her liver like the spleen, and
died the second day.
  Bion bled  at the left nostril, after  making a very great quantity
of urine without a  sediment;  his spleen being hard, and gibbous.
He  got over it, but had a  relapse.
  Those who had the quinsy were thus affected.   The vertebra? of
the  neck turned inwards,  in some more, in others less, leaving  a
manifest cavity outwards;  and  here  the  neck upon  touching was
painful.   It was also somewhat  lower than the process called the
tooth, and not altogether so acute.   In some it was very evident
by  the greatness of the  circumference;  but  the  throat was not
inflamed, except by the tooth above-mentioned, but subsided.  The
parts under the jaws swelled, but not as when  inflamed ; nor were
the  glands at all inflamed, but in their natural state.   The tongue
indeed could not easily be stirred, but seemed larger and more pro-
minent ; and the veins  under it  were very evident.   They could
not  swallow, or but  with great difficulty; and,  if  violence was
used, the  liquor returned by the nose;  through  which part the
voice came likewise.   The  breathing was not attended with  great
elevation of the shoulders.  In some the veins in the temples, head,
and neck were tumefied; and in these, where the pains were re-
newed and augmented, the temples  grew a little hot, though in
other respects they were  not feverish.  The greatest part kept
clear of suffocation, unless they  desired to swallow their spittle or
something else; nor did the eyes sink at all.
  Where the tumour affected not any one side, but  came directly
forward, none  of these, so  far as I remember, became paralytic,
but  all recovered.  Some grew easy in a very short  time, but the
greatest part continued forty days, and that without a fever.  Many
had  some remains of the tumour a very long  time, as appeared
from their swallowing and  their voice.   The wasting of the uvula
was a proof that the distemper was not quite gone off, though they
seemed to have nothing bad about them.   Where the tumour ap-
peared sideways, there a palsy followed in the part from whence
the  vertebrae inclined, and  they were drawn on one side.   These
were most evident in the face, the  mouth, and  the  septum of the
uvula.   Add to this, that  the  lower jaws  were changed in propor- 
 376               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 tion.  The palsies did not affect the whole body, as in other cases,
 but  stopped at the hand of the quinsy-side.   What they spit was
 digested, and a hoarseness followed. Where the tumour was direct,
 they also spit.   But where a fever  attended, there the difficulty of
 breathing  was  much  greater, the spittle  could not be contained in
 speaking, and  the  veins were more tumefied.   The feet, which are
 coldest of all, were remarkably so at this time;  and  those,  who
 died not immediately, were  unable to stand  upright: but those,
 that I was acquainted with, all  died.
   Coughs began  the  fifteenth  or twentieth  day about the  winter
 solstice,a from the frequent changing of the southerly and northerly
 winds, and snowy  weather ; some of which lasted but a little time,
 others longer;  and were  succeeded by  peripneumonies in abun-
 dance.  Many had a return  again  before the equinox, forty days
 for the most part from  the beginning.  In some indeed they were
 very short,  and went off well;  in others, inflammations  of the
 throat, quinsies, palsies, and that disorder  of the eyes called  nycta-
 lopia,  happened, especially among children.   The peripneumonies
 were very short;  but  inflammations of the throat came at last after
 coughing, or else held them a little while in the room of the cough.
 These were of short duration,  especially the  disorder of the eyes
 now mentioned ; but the quinsies and  palsies were either hard and
 dry, or little, and seldom  attended with digested  spittings.  Some
 indeed brought away a great deal.  Where  any took  more than
 ordinary pains in speaking, or  fell  into a  shivering, there a quinsy
 was generally the consequence. Where any used their hands much,
 their hands only were paralytic: but where they  rode, or walked
 much, or exercised their legs any other way, there paralytic weak-
 nesses fell  upon the loins or legs, with  a  weakness and pain in the
 thighs and  shins.   The hardest and most vehement coughs were
 such as ended in palsies.  All these  things  happened in the relapses,
 but not very much in the beginning.  In many they remitted about
 the middle, but  did not leave them  entirely, and appeared again at
 the return.   Where the voice was  broke  with coughing, there the

  * "This is the seventh section of the  sixth book of Epidemics ; a section entirely
independent of the rest of the book, and of a piece, in some measure, with the observa.
tions we have been just now seeing.  Whether he means fifteen or twenty days before
or after the winter solstice, does not appear from  the text.'^-CuFTON.
  Clifton employs too great a license on many occasions—as here, and in not unfre-
quently leaving out portions of the text.—Ed. 
THE SECOND BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
377
greatest part escaped a fever, and some had it but a little.   Add to
this, that neither peripneumonies, nor palsies, nor any thing else ap-
peared  in  this case, but  the crisis was determined by the voice
alone.   The disorder of the eyes  above-mentioned was  as when it
comes from  other causes, and  affected children most.   The black
of the eye  had a great variety, where the pupils were small; but in
short  it was  generally  black.  The eyes were rather  large than
small, and the hair  straight and black.  Women were not equally
fatigued with coughing, but a few had fevers.   Of these very few
came to peripneumonies,  and such as  did were among  the elderly
sort;  all of  whom  recovered.   The  reason  of this  was, in my
opinion, their not going abroad so much, and their not being at all
so liable to be seized as men.  Quinsies, and  those of a very mild
kind, happened to two free women, but among the slaves frequentlv,
and, where they were violent, they proved fatal very soon.   Many
men were  also seized, some of whom recovered, others died.  In a
word, those  who were able but to drink had a very mild and easy
time;  those, who could not speak  distinctly besides, had a more
troublesome  and tedious  one.  Those, whose veins in the temples
and neck  were swelled, were somewhat  bad ;  and those, who
breathed with great elevation of the shoulders, were very bad: for
these grew hot also. The  disorders were thus ally'd, or determined,
as here described.   The first happened without the last, but the last
not without the first.   They died very soon, after shivering now
and then as in a fever.  As they were  not oppressed with frequent
motions or risings  to  stool, I tried what stimulating the belly, and
what  bleeding would do, but nothing  was of service  to speak of.
I  also  bled them  under the tongue, and some  I gave a vomit to.
These things  happened always in  the summer, as many other things
did of the eruptive kind.   So painful ophthalmies, when the drought
was greater than ordinary, were very common.
  Swellings of the glands were likewise common, because the liver
was inflamed.and  out of order;  and  where they proceeded from
an artery  ill-disposed, as  in the case  of Posidonius, it was a bad
sign.
  We came  to Perinthus much about the  summer solstice.  The
winter had been serene and southerly;  the spring and summer very
dry, to  the setting  of the Pleiades; or, if any rain fell, it  was in
small  drops.  The Etesiae blew but little, and  that not  constantly.
In the summer many  burning fevers raged among the people: 
378              THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

during which  they were free from  vomitings, but subject to thin,
watery, frothy stools in abundance, without bile, but not without a
sediment now  and then  in that  that was set by, and in that part of
it which  was exposed to the air.   Now, where no alteration hap-
pens at any time, as to the appearance of the excrement, it is a bad
sign.  Many were comatose and  lightheaded in their fevers, and
some became  so  after sleeping, but  recovered themselves entirely
upon  getting up.   They elevated  their shoulders in,breathing, but
not much.   The urine was  thin in most, and little in  quantity, but
in  other  respects  not without colour.   Bleedings  at the nose were
very rare;  and so were  swellings  behind the ears; of which more
notice will be  taken  afterwards.  There was no swelling upon the
spleen, nor upon the right hypochondre; neither did any great pain,
or vehement distension attend it, but yet there was something of an
indication, and the crisis happened  for the most part upon the four-
teenth day, partly by sweat, partly by shivering, with  very few re-
lapses.  During the  drops that fell in the  summer, they began to
sweat in their fevers, and some fell into them from the beginning
without any injury;  others about  this time, and  the crisis went off
this way.  In  the summer fevers, about the seventh, the eighth, and
the ninth day,  little miliary roughnesses, very like the bites of gnats,
appeared upon  the body, without  any great itching.   These lasted
to  the crisis; but none of the  men had them  that I saw; nor did
any of the  women,  that had  them, die.  Their appearance  was
foretold by a thickness  of hearing, and a coma, where they were
not very comatose before. These complaints did not last the whole
year, but in the  summer and  to  the setting of the  Pleiades they
were comatose and sleepy, but afterwards more watchful.  Nor in
fine  did  they die during  this constitution or season.   The purging
could not be checked even by diet; but one might imagine that an
irrational method of cure  might  be serviceable, though  the  dis-
charges in some were very great, occasioned  by lying on a bed in
the cold; for  cold  ulcerates.   The warming such bodies ought to
be  gradual, without offering any  violence  to  nature; and as to
those who are  troubled with signs or complaints of this kind, whe-
ther  more   or  less,  viz., gaping,   coughing,  sneezing, yawning,
stretching, belching,  and flatus, all such tend to destruction.
   Zoilus, who  lived  by  the  wall,  was seized  with an acute fever
from a  digested cough.   His  face was red, and his  body bound,
unless when loosened by art.  His left side was painful, and the left 
THE SECOND BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
379
 ear very painful;  the head not so much.   Spitting continually a
 somewhat purulent matter, he could not get well, but in other re-
 spects had a crisis, and  discharged much matter by the ear, about
 the eighth or ninth day.   The beginning of the ninth the pain of his
 ear ceased;  but how the crisis could be without a shivering I know
 not.   About his head was a great sweat, and about his ear and left
 side a fixed  burning heat.  With the pain of the ear above, the
 other  pain  ceased, especially  about the shoulder-blade; but first
 came  on a great spitting, which at the beginning was florid, and so
 on to  the seventh or eighth day, and after that difficult and painful.
 The belly was  bound till about  the  ninth or  tenth day; the pain
 was quite removed, the swelling abated, and  little sweats came on,
 but not critical, as appeared  from other circumstances, and the
 going off.  For, when the  pain  of the ear began, the belly was
 loose; the abscess from the ear was  the ninth, and  the crisis the
 fourteenth, without any shivering the same day.  Add to this, that
 when  the ear  broke, the spitting  became more copious and more
 digested; but sweats and tetters about the head lasted long, though
 they dried up (in a manner) the third day.
   Whatever disappears  without  the  proper signs makes the crisis
 difficult, as in the erysipelas that happened to Polemarchus's  maid.
   Scopus, upon an  acrid, saline, bilious, distillation from the head,
 an inflammation of the chops, and a bad regimen, was bound in his
 body,  and seized with a continual fever.   His tongue was dry; his
 sleep gone from him; the rim of his belly violently,  but equally,
 distended, the distension proceeding  gradually to the bottom of the
 right side; his breathing, pretty frequent; his hypochondres in pain,
 both in  breathing  and  turning;  and  he brought  away, without
 coughing, a thickish matter.  Upon taking peplium, the pain went
 off from the  hypochondre, but nothing passed through.  The next
 day two suppositories put up appeared no more; but the urine was
 thick and turbid, with a  smooth  and even sediment.   The turbid-
 ness occasioned no  stool;  the  belly grew softer; the  spleen was
 swelled, pointing downwards;  and his drink was mead with vine-
 gar.  The  tenth, a  little  watery blood came from the left  nostril,
 which  gave him very little relief.  In the sediment of the urine was
something whitish  and thin, sticking to the vessel, that was neither
like, nor very unlike, seed, and continued so some little time.  The
next day (the eleventh), the  crisis  came on, and he lost his fever.
His stools were somewhat  viscid,  and mixed  with bile as  they 
380               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

came away.  His urine was a great relief to him, both as to quan-
tity and  sediment, which,  before he  began to drink wine, was a
little  like thin  phlegm.  Though his stools  were  little  upon  the
eleventh, they were  at the same time  viscid, stercoraceous, and
turbid.
  Query ? Whether such a discharge is critical, as in the case of
Antigenes in Perinthus 1
  Hippostratus's wife, after a quartan of a  year's standing,  was
taken with a swelling, and was manifestly coldish with it.  It went
all over  her body; a sweat  followed upon it, and  a crisis.   Her
menses  afterwards  came  down in great  abundance, continued
longer than usual (having been stopped before), and seemed unwil-
ling to give over.
  In  hemorrhages, attended with pulsations, the figure or position
of the part is to  be studied ; and, if  they happen in very depending
parts, they are  always to be elevated.  So moderate ligatures in
blood-letting promote the evacuation, but  violent ones  suppress it.
  Those who are of a sanguine and somewhat bilious nature are
subject to sour belchings, and perhaps  at last fall into the black
jaundice.
  In  iEnus, those who  lived continually  upon leguminous  food,
whether men or women,  became infirm in their legs, and remained
so.  And those who lived upon vetches, or  tares, complained of pain
in their knees.
  In order to recover the colour and  fuse the humours, we should
study to put a man in a violent passion; and,  upon other occasions,
to bring on cheerfulness or  timorousness,  and the like.
  If the whole body is out of order, the cure should  be general; if
otherwise, particular.
  Stymargus's  servant,  the  Idumaean,  upon a distortion of  the
mouth of the uterus, in  her being delivered of a daughter,  was
seized with a pain in her hip and leg, which grew better by bleed-
ing in the foot;  but her body trembled all  over.  We are therefore
to consider the occasion,  and the beginning of that occasion, in dis-
eases.
  In the  fourth section of this second book, we  find that  from the
constant  use of some kind of grain,  [" ex assiduo leguminum usu,
feminse et masculi, crurum  impotentes facti sunt, ac vitam dege-
runt."—Fees., Hal] several symptoms were induced, not dissimilar
to those produced from ergoted rye.—Ed. 
     THE  FOURTH  BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.

                         Fozsius, p. 1120.

  Of all the books on Epidemics, says Haller, this one  to me ap-
pears of the least importance.   All is intermingled and  confused;
imperfect histories of diseases, and aphorisms inadequately con-
firmed.  Some few things appear, which possibly were written by
Hippocrates, or were transcribed from him.  Galen  refers it to the
Collectanea of Hippocrates, edited without the corrections of Thes-
salus,—nor is it unlikely.   Much is interspersed respecting the sea-
sons, and the atmospheric changes.  Mention is made of the Cynic,
who called the author to a  patient.   Now, as Diogenes was pos-
terior to Hippocrates, and was also the founder of that sect, it is by
many supposed, that  the author of this  book  must be some physi-
cian posterior to Hippocrates.
  Gardeil, in a note to this book, says, it is difficult to determine
the country in which the patients  herein mentioned are to  be  as-
signed, since this is  not expressly mentioned.   The same may be
said of the books that follow.  Nor must we, from the title of Epi-
demics, believe that they are confined to such diseases.  They are
rather to be viewed as a choice collection of observations.

  Outline  of contents.—Metastasis  of certain humours after the
vernal  equinox;  notice of various  patients, some  of them of inte-
rest : relapses frequent after the autumnal equinox; the state of the
atmosphere, and the  diseases in winter;  frequent  abortions;  other
cases.  State of the  urine in different persons; notice of the state
of the sick towards the end of autumn ; interesting case of a young
man attacked with copious epistaxis on the third day of his illness,
continuing  till the sixth, with  delirium  and coma on the  seventh.
He seems to have surmounted this, and had  a relapse, and that
more than once.   A  discharge from the left ear of a viscous, thick,
and ichorous matter, fell upon the teeth, inducing great destruction
of the  parts  adjoining, viz., the palate bones, and upper jaw, and 
382               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

septum nasi, with other effects; the result is not mentioned.—Crises,
&c, with detached  remarks  and  cases.  A  cursory notice  of  a
large star or  meteor,1 followed by an  earthquake.   Menstruation
during pregnancy not uncommon; case of delivery on the seventh
day of seventh month;  the woman goes out  in four days; injury
from, &c.  Another case of  injury to the jaws and teeth; various
cases; a curious one stated of a  woman, whose mouth was twisted
to the right side, but which was  turned to the left in the fifth month
of pregnancy.   A slave relieved from a swelling and tension of the
belly  by the  return  of  menstruation, after a suspension of seven
years.  Observations on errhines,  on tumours, on sciatica, &c.; pecu-
liarities or diversity in the onset of diseases; observations on the
intestinal evacuations, &c.  Diseases occurring at iEno and  else-
where; various results of cough  in this state of the air; nyctalopia;
decay  of the  teeth; expectoration;  some few aphoristic remarks
towards the conclusion.
  After the equinox and the setting of the Pleiades, a sort of corro-
ding mucus, that opened the head, broke out above the ear; but in
him  who was with Leocydes, upon the foot; and in Phanodicus,
upon the toes by the sole.
  He, whose tibia was cut, had  a blackness come  upon the  part.
The ulcer was  large on  the  outside, and the discharge from the
hinder part.   When  it was  cleansed, he was seized with a pain of
the side and left breast opposite to it, grew feverish, and  died of his
fever.
  The ropemaker complained of a very bilious disorder; and,  upon
applying caustical (or burning)  remedies, he lost  a great deal of
blood downwards about the equinox.
  A very old man, who had  a great abscess, held out  not above
fourteen days.
  He, who was marked and burned by Antiphilus, was  freed  from
a bilious ardent fever (of that kind which is called <ru<pes) the seventh
day.  Three days after the crisis or  thereabouts he spit  blood, re-
covered, and had a  relapse afterwards.  His first crisis after this
was, as it ought to be, about the  setting of the Pleiades; and after

  » Sydus insigne visum est, quinto autem post sextoque die terra? motus extetit. Hal.
ii. 255; Fees., 1128. 
THE FOURTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
383
 their setting his biliousness extended to  madness.  Another crisis
 happened the ninth day without a sweat, and he got over it.
   The  Chalcidonian,  who  was  brought from the gates  to  the
 market-place, about the equinox, being  in  pain  from a  rupture
 about the right breast, spit up now and then a pale greenish matter.
 The belly was in good order.   A sweat  began the seventh, which
 lasted for the most part to the eighth, and the crisis happened the
 fourteenth. About the fortieth, swellings appeared behind both ears;
 nor was it  unlikely that  a suppuration  should follow,  though it
 did not.
   Aristodemus was  burnt upon  his breast;  and so was the son of
 Philis, for an abscess that  came after a fall; but he had had a pain
 higher before this.
   After the  autumnal equinox relapses happen, and at other times
 to the winter solstice.
   After the summer solstice, the wife of  Achelous miscarried  the
 sixth day, being full  of blood and chilly.   She sweated  afterwards,
 and had a  crisis  the  fourteenth.  How many months gone with
 child I know not.  Twenty days after this she said she miscarried
 of another male child; but, whether  she  said true or no, I cannot
 tell.
   About the winter solstice the wind was northerly.  Jaundices of
 very deep colours appeared, sometimes with a chilliness, sometimes
 without.  The tongue was burnt up the third day.  About the sixth
 and seventh, great disorders that lasted long.  The fourteenth, an
 astringency  in the belly that could not be removed by physic; and
 no sweats, as is usual in fevers.   In some the spleens were small,
 extended to  the right hypochondre, and rumbled upon being touch-
 ed.  Hemorrhages succeeded, and  such  depurations by urine,  but
 more especially by stool (for  the belly had  been  long bound), as
 produced  a  crisis.   Where these things  did  not  happen,  but  the
 spleens were tumefied,  they bled  at the left nostril.
  After the solstice, rough  winter weather, with northerly winds,
 and in a short time southerly, for fifteen days; and then abundance
 of snow for  fourteen  days more.   About this season deep-coloured
jaundices came on, that terminated not in a clear and evident man-
 ner, but returned again. After the snow came southerly winds and
 gentle showers.  Runnings at the nose ensued, with and without a
 fever.  In one person, who had been in moderate pain before, it  fell
 upon the teeth on the right side, the eyebrows, and  the eye.  They 
334               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

were hoarse too; the throat was inflamed,  and the glands called
atoyyoi (amygdalae) swelled,  attended with soft swellings about the
ears and jaws, that subsided with the fever.  Many of these happened
above and on each side, at the beginning of the fever; and some had
the tonsils swelled in the autumn and the winter. Add to this, branny
foulnesses of the  skin  came on; and many women miscarried all
kind of ways,  and had  hard labours.
  A maid, who had a crisis  the sixth day, had a relapse the sixth,
and  another crisis in six  days.  And in six or eight days all the
crises happened at that time.
  About the setting of the Pleiades, the wife of  Meander, the blind
man, spit  from the  first a pale greenish  matter,  and soon after,
about the  sixth day, purulent.  The  liver swelled, and  she had a
little purging.  What she spit was in a small quantity, white, broad,
and  like purulent flesh.  She had an aversion to  food, and died
about the twentieth.
  Thestor's servant, in the neighbourhood, was taken with a bilious
severe purging, and  a  distension of the hypochondres, occasioned
by something that was caustical.  The sixth day after the purging
was  stopped, she had one large thin stool, fell into a sweat  immedi-
ately, and had a crisis, without any more purging.  The  same hour
she shivered and grew feverish, but it went off again the same hour.
  The wife of Thersander, who was not very leucophlegmatic, fell
into an acute fever upon suckling.  Her tongue, as other  parts were
burnt up, was likewise  burnt at the same time, and became rough
like thick  hail.  Worms  also came out of her mouth.   About  the
twentieth she had  not a perfect crisis.
  About the setting of the Pleiades, Metrophantus's  son, who was
wounded on the head with a brickbat by another  boy,  was taken
with a  fever  twelve  days after; occasioned by rubbing the parts
about the wound in cleansing it.   A coldness succeeded,  and  the
lips swelled  immediately, but the  skin  beyond  the  ulcer  was in
many places  very thin.  Upon trepanning without delay,  neither
pus came out,  nor was the patient  relieved;  but upon the  left jaw,
by the ear, (for here the wound was,) there  seemed to be a collec-
tion  of  matter. This, however, went off too without suppuration,
and  there  was immediately a collection in the right arm.  The
patient died the twenty-fourth.
  After the  setting of the Pleiades, he who had a pain in  his ear
lost his speech twenty days  after, and became paralytic  on the 
THE FOURTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
385
 right side, without a  fever, but not without sweating.   The right
 ear and the right eye  gave way a little, and drew something from
 the lower part.  The eye was distorted to the left with a great deal
 of pain;  the neck became hard, and within three hours was equally
 painful.
    After the setting of the Pleiades,  the servant of the Attican, who
 had been ill with a quartan, had a stupid foolishness fixed upon him.
    Another at the same time  was taken with a true typhomania;
 which, upon  the hips and legs  becoming painful, went off; but what
 day I know not.
    About  the same time chillinesses; vomitings; and, after the crisis,
 aversions  to food;  bilious discharges;  great, hard, painful spleens,
 and likewise  hemorrhages were  the  complaints  of  some; and  of
 others, at the same time, hemorrhages  from the nose  of a pale
 greenish colour, occasioned by the spleens.
   In Cranon, the wife of Nicostratus, who was seized with a fever,
 complained at once upon the fourteenth day of a paralytic disorder
 (or imbecility) in her neck and other parts.   She  had had no stool
 to the tenth;  breathed  often  and little; could not contain herself,
 but felt about with her fingers; was  delirious, sweated, and had her
 neck, mouth, eye, and nose drawn to the right side.  The sediment
 in her urine was white, like pulse, at  one time; at another, white,
 stringy, and  membranous; and at another,  somewhat pale with a
 greenish cast, like the meal of lentils.  Sometimes again the surface
 would be  fat  and greasy, and that in a  heap, resembling sheep's
 wool; and not much  dispersed, as a  scattered cloud appears in
 urine.   After  this  her urine would  have  no sediment at all, but
 something of this kind.   Again, it would have some such sediment,
 at one time broad and scattered up  and down ; at another, turbid.
 Sometimes the cloud would resemble a blackish cloud of some con-
 sistence ; at another time it would be soft and thin.  Again, it would
 be thin, and of this kind; at another time, like  horses' urine; and
 at another, dark  and shady.
   The lad, that  was first taken delirious, made  thin  clear urine;
 and his evacuations the other way were thin and plentiful, without
 bile.   His tongue was very  rough; his  fever burning;  his belly
tumefied;  and he could  get no sleep.   In  his  ravings upon the
eighth day (if I mistake not) he behaved very wantonly, getting up,
fighting, and talking very obscenely, contrary to his usual manner.
Upon making a great  deal of thin water in a gushing  manner (for
                              25 
386               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

it had been suppressed), sleep came on, together with a  continual
sweat,  that seemed from  the circumstances to  be critical, much
about the tenth day.  After this his madness returned, and  he died
suddenly the eleventh;  occasioned (I imagine)  by hfs drinking
much neat wine a little before his  madness.  His age was about
twenty.
  In the autumn, Eumenes's wife  vomited black  bile, as was also
evident from the smell.   A fever ensued with chilliness, heartburn,
and little bilious vomitings,  in which came away a worm.  Her
stools were thin all along before the setting of the  Pleiades, and
stopped about that time.
  Hemorrhages; short fevers, that returned immediately for a little
while;  aversions to food; extreme languors and lassitudes; nauseas
and heartburns  happened about the  same time, together with a dis-
charge of worms about the crisis, shiverings, and bilious complaints.
  The young  man that was a  stranger bled much at the nose the
third, the fourth, and the fifth day;  the sixth it stopped, and a mo-
derate  delirium followed.  The  seventh, no stool; a comatose dis-
order.   The third day a  relapse; the belly loosened; the urine I
saw not.  About the crisis things were as they ought.  But about
the setting  of the Pleiades southerly  winds set in, with gentle
showers.  The young man had then a great many mucous, bilious,
digested, viscid stools; and a violent fever continually, with a dry
tongue.  The  sixth day it came to its  crisis.  The seventh it re-
turned again, and went off  the  same dav with a trembling.  The
sixth day there was a glutinous thick discharge from the left ear.
   The  boy, that had  the phagedenic  ulcer, had his lower teeth,
and the fore-teeth of the  upper and lower jaw fall out by suppura-
tion, and  a cavity was left there.   Now, where the bone of the
palate  comes away, the  nose  sinks in the middle: and where the
upper teeth before, the end of the nose  becomes  broad.  The fifth
from the fore-teeth has four roots, two of which are united to both
the next teeth,  and all  the extremities turned  inwards.   The third
tooth is more liable to suppuration than all the other, and to occa-
sion thick  rheums from  the nose, as well as pain in the temples.
This was  eaten away, especially the fifth, and in the middle was
a tubercle of the two fore-teeth ; the less was first eaten away in the
inside by the two next.  The seventh had a thick sharp root.
   The Athenian boy had a pain of his  tooth, the left side below,
the right above, that was carried off by an abscess in the right ear. 
THE FOURTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
387
   After the Pleiades the weather was mild, cloudy, and misty.  The
 crises happened  upon the fifth, sixth, seventh day, and even later.
 The fevers were subject to return, to  be erratic, to be bilious, and
 attended with aversions to food.   Dysenteries also, with aversions
 to food, and vehement fevers, were complained of.  About the set-
 ting of the Pleiades the southerly winds came strong, attended  with
 hemorrhages, and fevers nearly resembling tertians, besides others
 of another kind, in which the patient is cold and shivering perpetu-
 ally.   They call them H-n-iaXa.
   He  that belonged  to the shoemaker  bled plentifully, purged a
 little, and had his crisis upon the seventh, with a shivering.
   He that lived at the last  public house bled plentifully the fourth,
 and immediately was lightheaded, bound in his body, and his hypo-
 chondres  hard and painful.  By means of a suppository the sixth
 day he had a yellow bad stool.  The seventh in the  morning early,
 was exceedingly restless, bawled out greatly, and had a pulsation of
 the vessels about the navel.
   In the acutest fevers the pulsations are oftenest  and strongest,  as
 the paroxysms are in every disease, towards the evening.
   With respect  to the beginnings, the paroxysms, the first of the
 morning,  the  continuation of the distemper,  and the season of the
 year, are to be taken into consideration.
   The  wind was southerly after the setting of the Pleiades.   Crises
 came the fifth, then an  intermission for  one  day, and a return the
 next.   Eruptions of a soft and  lax kind, like  bladders, or  like the
 effects of the prickly acanthus, also appeared.  About the same
 time a great roughness came upon the skin, but without itchings or
 weepings, especially now.   There were also  tetters above the skin,
 like what happened to Pythodorus's  wife, and him who kept the
 public  house;  not without  a fever.  But' as  to Pythodorus's wife,
 she was seized, pretty near the beginning of her fever, with  a great
 weakness in the hips.
   After the setting of the Pleiades came chilliness and hemorrhages
 from the nose.
   The  shoemaker had  his crisis the  seventh,  an  intermission  one
 day, the next a return, and another crisis the fourth.
   One who belonged  to Leocydes, had his crisis the seventh;  and
another the fourth.
   Moschus bled  plentifully from the  left nostril  the ninth, and  a
little from the  right; had his crisis the fourteenth,  as he ought; but 
g§3                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

at the beginning  was much disturbed.  The seventeenth, was guilty
of mismanagements in diet.   The nineteenth at night arose a small
tumour on the  right  ear, hard within, but a little soft  without, and
painful without remission.
   In those who are very bilious, especially where a suppuration is,
what  comes away by purging  is  like  the  ink  of the cuttle-fish.
Such  was the  purging of  him who had  the cupping-glass  applied,
when his hip was in pain.   It removed downwards into his  leg, and
he was easy.
   He who fell  from the horse of  clay, and  had  a cupping-glass ap-
plied immediately, complained of an inward  burning.   The twen-
tieth, upon  its  breaking  out  again  afresh, a  hemorrhage  ensued,
with a discharge of feculent corroding matter.
   The Tenedian woman miscarried the fourth day of a child,  that,
as she said,  was thirty days old.   She had also  a loose small stool,
a burnt tongue, and a crisis the fourth.
   After the  setting of the Pleiades disorders of the spleen came on,
and to the fifth day hemorrhages with a  crisis.   Upon the seventh,
the  urine was  like the water in which tares have been washed, all
of a piece,  and  after  that clear.  A relapse  followed.  Megaris's
son  had  also an  intermission, and that without a hemorrhage, but
the urine was white, thick, and all alike,  as in Artigenes's case.
   About  the winter solstice a great star* appeared, and the fifth and
sixth day after, an earthquake.
  a "As to the great star that is said, in the fourth book of Epidemics, to have appeared
about the winter solstice, attended with  an  earthquake, all the information I have
been able to get  (and for which I am very much  obliged to"that most ingenious and
learned gentleman, Mr. Machin, Astronomy Professor at Gresham College, and Secre-
tary to the Royal Society) amounts to this, viz., that there were two comets in the
days of Hippocrates, and  both oT them attended with an earthquake.  The first ap.
peared about  the time of the winter solstice, in the month Gamelion, in the second
year of the 88th Olympiad, i. e. in the 427th  year before  Christ, the 5th year of the
Peloponnesian war, and the 33d year of Hippocrates's age (according to Soranus's ac
count of his birth); Eucleis (or Euclides, the son of Molon), the successor of Diotimus,
being then Archon of Athens. See Arist. Meteorolog., cap. 6, lib. i. and Joh. Philopon,
Meteorol. Arist., f. 96, p. 2, edit. Ven. 1551.
  "The other was a great comet, called by Aristotle o Mryitt KOf*>,<rH!, i. e. the great
comet, to distinguish it from all others.  This appeared also in the winter in a clear
frost, about sunset, and was  attended with the earthquake and inundation of Achaia,
that destroyed so many places and cities mentioned  by  Seneca (nat. qumst lib. 7,)
and others; Aristteus (or  Asteus, as he  is called by some) being then Archon  of
Athens, viz., in the fourth year of the 101st Olympiad, i. e. in the 373d year  before 
THE FOURTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
3S9
  Antigenes's wife, who was in Perinthus, remained asthmatical,
and had her menses come down at a time  when she did not  know
whether she was with  child  or not.   Her belly  was  sometimes
small, sometimes large; for she was always coughing, as if she had
been walking faster than  ordinary.  She was eight months  gone
when it stopped, and had been feverish  before.
  The wife of Apemantus's brother miscarried the seventh day of
a girl, that, as she said, was sixty days  old;  and  about the ninth
was in great disorder.  After the crisis she had a pain in the right
side, as if from  a distortion of the womb.  She conceived  again
soon, and miscarried.
  Another was delivered of a daughter  with  the whites upon  her,
another with the reds, as it should be.
  Chillinesses, nauseas, aversions  to  food, relapses, bilious  com-
plaints, hemorrhages, and  disorders of the spleen were to be met
with, and most of them  attended  with pain  from the left side.
  Apemantus's wife, when she was turned on this side, was affected
in her  right eye; when  on the contrary, in  her flank.
  Aristophon's  daughter was feverish  the third and fifth day, and
remained dry for the most part; but  her  belly was lax  and dis-
composed, the  crisis difficult, and about the thirtieth day she lost
her fever.
  Pustules, that come upon no violent exercise, reach the seventh
day, and are somewhat livid  (the  maid that lived behind Herous
was taken with a shivering); the white and  large are not of any
great service in those  who are  seized with a  deep stupidness, or
dozing, or in diseases that  are not of the falling kind, or where the
bile  stops; neither are  those serviceable that subside not,  whether
the  body be loose or bound.

Christ, and  the 87th year of Hippocrates's age.  But the  appearance of this comet,
though it is said to be in the winter, is not so particularly described as that of the
other; Aristotle mentioning the appearance of the first to he about the winter solstice,
agreeable to the Hippocratic memorandum; but of the second to have been in the
winter only, without mentioning  what time in the  winter.  Thucydides likewise ob-
serves, that  in the fifth and sixth years of the Peloponnesian war there were many
tremblings or shakings of the earth, and the plague,  that  had not been quite extin-
guished, broke out  again  at that time, and continued above a year after;  so that it is
very probable, if the malignant year already mentioned did not happen about the time
of the plague in the beginning of the war, it was about the time of this  comet's ap-
pearance, viz., in the fifth year of the 6ame war; such appearances, and  such trem-
blings, generally producing very sickly seasons."—Clifton, Preface. 
3go               THE WrORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

   Zoilus, the carpenter, had a  trembling slow pulse ; the discharges
by stool and urine moderate, but without colour;  the bottom of the
belly distended on both sides  directly to  the navel, with an acute
fever, an aversion to food, and no thirst.
   The clerk of the  market's  daughter at Tecomaius's, when her
pregnancy was  uncertain, vomited  for  two  months, sometimes
phlegm, sometimes  bile.   After this she had a  hard labour, was
perfectly  well  cleansed, and  vomited as before to the thirtieth.
Then a purging  came  on, and her  vomiting stopped.  A lientery
followed, and  her menses  kept up, but for two years  she had the
piles in the winter.
   The two brothers, that lived by Cecrops's, were at the beginning
seized  with black stools;  had afterwards  feculent bloody stools,
and, from very frothy ones, bilious.
   He,  who by agreement lift up the ass, immediately grew feverish,
and  bled  the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the seventh.  A crisis
came the  eighth by stool.
   He,  who was  concerned in the  mines, and  had  his right hypo-
chondre stretched ; his spleen large ;  his belly distended, hardish,
and flatulent, without colour; was taken with a pain  in his left knee,
but had a  relapse again, and after that a perfect crisis.
   Temeneus's son had a little  difficulty of breathing, so as t6 make
him  pale  with a  greenish  cast, which colour reached  to  his hands
too.
   The husband  of the woman that  lyed-in near  Sitodocus's, who
had a jaundice upon him, and  sent for me the seventh day, died the
eighth  without any evacuation by stool or urine.   His flanks were
large and  hard,  and his breathing quick; nor was his forehead
moist with the pain, before he  died.
   The wife of this person  miscarried of a girl the seventh day in
her seventh month, the signs of which appeared the fourth. A pain
seized  her in her  feet at the beginning, and,  upon  the fever ceasing,
her difficulty of breathing  was not carried  off, but  remained  still.
The pain likewise affected  her hands and arms.
   Where  the urine stopped before the  crisis, relapses were of long
continuance.
   Temeneus's sister's crisis was with  a  shivering.  A pain seized
her hands  and shoulders  upon the sudden  going oft' of her  pale
greenish colour.   These pains ceasing, her head was affected; the 
THE FOURTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
391
 upper eyelids were tumefied, and the tears ran out.   The rest I am
 a stranger to.   Her first crisis was the seventh day.
   The case of him who kept Menander's vineyard was the same,
 except that at the beginning he had thin stools, which stopped after-
 wards, as well  as  the urine; but a crisis  followed, without any
 shivering  the seventh day, because of the purging that had happen-
 ed before.
   Potamon's son had no purging the seventh day, nor a shivering
 two days  before the crisis, nor, for the same reason, a suppression
 of urine.
   Hegesistratius, who had had an abscess near his eye, had a col-
 lection of  matter about his last tooth. The eye was healed, and the
 nose discharged thick matter; but about the gums little round ca-
 runcles broke out, which about the third day seemed to suppurate,
 but it went  off  afterwards,  and immediately  his jaws and  eyes
 swelled.  Now, wherever abscesses form themselves about the eyes
 in burning fevers, a redness appears upon the cheeks, and a hemor-
 rhage follows.   The like happens in abscesses behind the ears; and
 perhaps abscesses in the joints are more  likely to follow; but this I
 am not perfectly satisfied in.
   Shiverings, with tremblings, distensions of the hypochondres, and
 a breaking out of the menses, happened the seventeenth day. If these
 things continued thus, in some the crisis  was the third, in others the
 fifth, and in others the seventh.
  Hegesistratius's  two last teeth were in their turns eaten away.
 The last had two tubercles above the  gums, one near the  erosion,
 the other opposite.  Where they both touched, there* the roots were
 broad, alike, and answered to one another.  On either side half re-
 mained that  was almost round.
  The woman, that had  a hemorrhage the fourth and sixth  day,
 had a crisis the seventh, with great redness.
  The other, that had a violent  pain in her  head, had her crisis
 about the  twentieth; at which time her hypochondres were hot and
 burning.   The seventh day she did not bleed much; her stools were
thin; and  about the eighth an abscess appeared by the right eye.
  A man  was affected in the same manner, except that his crisis
 happened  the seventh day, with a moderate swelling of the spleen
on the left side.  The eightieth  day the eye was  affected  in this
person, and  longer  too; perhaps, because it came after the crisis,
and because there was much to come away. 
392               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.'

  Temeneus's sister had a difficulty of breathing, and a distension
of the  flanks a long time.   Whether she was with child  or  no, I
know not.   Her body was  bound  at  first, and then  it was she
vomited; afterwards the vomiting stopped, upon a great deal of
viscid  bilious matter passing downwards,  without any hindrance
from the hypochondres.   The eleventh, the phlegmon attacked the
right thumb: it broke, and the vomiting returned.  Upon  this she
grew better, her dozing and fever abating.  Her breath was also
freer;  because she brought up foul nasty stuff.   The sixteenth her
breath  was little and quick, her fever came  on, and she  died.
  She  had a fever before the abscess, and died the seventh day
after the abscess.  She was also  something florid.
  Apemantus's sister's son had a swelling  upon his hypochondres
and spleen ; a difficulty of breathing; a discharge of viscid, bilious,
and somewhat stercoraceous matter downwards; and a weariness
after working.   The  twentieth,  his  feet were affected.  Query 1
Whether the crisis after such weariness does not happen upon the
joints, rather than on the eyes?   His hypochondres were distended
too, and he had a dry gentle little cough.
  What is  left after a crisis is apt  to cause relapses, and what is
separated in the course of the disease.   So will a spitting  digested
before  its time;  so will the belly, as it happens to be affected; so
will intemperance, and the like.
  Apemantus, who complained of pains in his  fundament,  his right
flank, and a  little below his navel,  made bloody urine before the
pain in  his right side, which gave over the third day.  The car-
penter  too made bloody urine from  a pain of  the contrary side in
the same direction, and upon its  stopping, both of them had a sedi-
ment the third day.  Apemantus was very  much heated; the other
felt nothing but on the left side.
  Nicostratus had also something at the extremity of the right side,
lower than where it happened  on the left.  It reached  too in both
above the flank even to the navel.
  The  old woman  at  Sosileus's, who was of a leucophlegmatic
habit, had  hard, white, rough  and scaly swellings upon her legs,
and upon her feet too, but less.   The parts below the  thighs were
also affected, and in many this complaint passes off with difficulty.
Add to this, that the loins were also affected, the belly slender, the
flanks softish,and the breath not  very short.  Most of these ceasing,
our  next care was  about the  eyes  becoming  gravish; a  disorder 
THE FOURTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
393
that was somewhat milder than the other.  The pains  of the hip
and leg seemed  to depend upon the womb:  for a sweet-smelling
suppository of meal and ointment dispersed and put an end to them
quickly.  The time of the abscess (or disorder) about the eye was
a year.
  One had a pain about the  navel, where the pustules were not
perfectly suppurated.   The like happens  too from dysenteric com-
plaints.
  In the village of Hippolochus there was a boy, who  had some-
thing in both his hypochondres, that was in the lower part like the
brasier's wife, who had a dropsy, which  upon watery stools pass-
ing off was softened a little.  This was upon the right side, all alike,
but raised above  the rest, and in some measure round.  His navel
was black from the birth, and  deeply ulcerated; nor was any scar
brought upon it.   The glans of the penis was naked too, but not on
a sudden, or from the birth ; and became more so afterwards.  He
vomited for the most  part, was feverish,'and averse to food, but re-
covered.  About the seventh day of his confinement to the bed (for
he had  been  ill  before), upon drinking much  water, and perhaps
committing other irregularities, he  grew very restless and uneasy,
and was somewhat convulsed.   The convulsion ceasing, he died
before we were aware of it;  but first made water plentifully, and
wind passed off audibly.  The parts above were not at all softened ;
but, immediately upon his dying, a  great relaxation followed;  and
the whole body appeared  red  as if  beaten with rods, except where
the tumour and the heat remained long.
  One of Abdera had an evacuation downwards.  Another had a
swelling forwards, without a  fever; and  the swelling was to the
touch like an abscess.
  A  servant  maid that  was  asthmatical,  and subject  to hemor-
rhages,  at  the time  of  her  menses was taken with an  asthma.
These stopping, a fever came  on; her left breast suppurated above,
and her ear from the beginning.
  Olympiodorus's servant bled at the right nostril, and had a crisis
the twentieth in  the way that fevers generally terminate; and  his
stools were such  as were commonly in the summer, like  those of
Hipponax.
  Hyle, the servant of Aristides, upon taking  a purge  the eighth
day, had the  appearance of those who  bear  purging well, if their
strength is not unreasonably pulled down by it;  and  voided neither 
394               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

frothy  nor  bloody  stools, but like eggs, as the wife of Hcraclides
did, who was purged briskly, and bore it with ease.
  One, in the village of Bulagoras, upon purging began to be fever-
ish  from the spleen.  Now ihose who have a rising  on  the right
side, but no distension, are red.   She was  rather red than other-
wise, and had a purging from the beginning; and it was  expected
it would have fixed upon the eye.  The seventh day a salt humour
ran down  from  the eyes like  tears.   It ran  likewise through the
nose, and into the throat, and upon the left ear.   The fifteenth, she
sweated, and shivered, but had no crisis.  Before the shivering she
grew very  pale with a greenish cast; the countenance was distend-
ed,  and fell.  The opposite  ear  to the spleen, and  the side, grew
painful.
  Children were subject to  purgings, and dry coughs; and some-
times, towards the  conclusion of the coughs, an abscess was formed
in the shoulder.
  The fuller was in pain about  his neck  and head.   The seventh
day his hand was numb.  The  ninth, his leg was numb too, and his
cough  ceased.
  She, whose jaw  was drawn  aside, felt a contraction in her womb
to the left side five months after.
  In Cranon, Lycinus the grammarian,  who was  ill of a bilious
fever that  came upon a swelling of the  spleen, was  taken with  a
heaviness of the head, and  some  little hard tubercles or roughnesses
about  the  spleen.   Both his lips had ulcers on  them, round within
and small,  and afterwards a little blood came out of the opposite
part.
  The  bought  servant, that I  saw, who  had a great hardness on
the right side, not very painful, with  a  belly large and  distended,
but not like a dropsy; and who  in other  respects was fat, and not
very short-breathed,  but  without colour,  missed  her menses for
seven  year*;.  A dysentery  attended  her without a tenesmus, and
after this the hardness became painful.   A  slow fever came on, but
not  above  seven days, and  her  stools were like amber,  somewhat
glutinous, and large.  She was well some days, and  after that her
menses came down;  the hardness grew soft; her colour laudable;
and her body thick.
   Minois's wife, who fell into a mortification from too great a pres-
sure upon  an  incision, presently gave notice, (upon the matters 
THE FOURTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
395
 fixing on the lungs,) how many days she was to live, and  that
 something else was concealed within.
   Upon putting any thing up the nose, if a  fever ensues, or if the
 pain is removed, a flux is produced of thick matter from the nostril.
 But if neither the pain is  removed, nor a fever excited, the matter
 is thin, and perhaps burning; as the thin matter in Hegesippus, who
 had something put up over night; but it was thick in Celeuris's son,
 of Corinth, who was like an eunuch.
   Digested abscesses in diseases are known to  be critical by these
 marks, viz., if, being of a  hot burning nature, a fever follows  not;
 or if, hard to be borne, they are nevertheless easily borne:  as was
 the  case of Charon, in what settled upon his fundament.  But in
 Leambius, whose intestine was thought to  be ulcerated, his  arm
 and seat on the left side, upon taking medicines for  a dysentery,
 were ulcerated, and a fever followed.
   He, who was distended with wind, had his  flank tumefied and
 painful.  Upon drinking much milk and pure wine,  and sleeping
 afterwards, he  was  taken  presently with  a sickness at his stomach
 and heat.  Afterwards, making a fire, and, instead of meat, eating
 meal baked over the coals, his body was tied up, and something
 like pus came away.   But, though the anus was inflamed, I affirm
 he had neither  fever nor pain.
   The old man, who  lived in the stone-porch, had  a pain in his
 loins and both his  legs,  which also affected both his thighs, and
 sometimes his  shins; sometimes  also his knees.   This continued
 long, and  returned  often.  His  feet, legs, and loins  swelled; the
 glands in his groin swelled a little too; the belly was hard;  and all
 the lower part of his  belly distended and painful.  For the  most
 part his bladder was hard  and painful, attended with eruptions and
 heats.
   Aristseas, of Amphilochus's village, was lightheaded the fourth
 day.  His stools were pale and greenish; his sleeps sound ; and his
 colour white.
   Some at the beginning had a sort of trembling in the fingers, and
 lips, when they spoke; hut in other  respects were nimble-tongued
 enough, though not with the  best manners.  Such had a redness in
 their faces for the  most part;  were lovers of wine to  excess; or,
after vomiting advantageously, swelled.
  He that lived at Medosadas's, who had  many thin watery stools
that  were not bilious,  had his hypochondres yielding  and  tumid. 
396               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

He was also comatose.  About the fourteenth, while the crisis was
going forward, a shivering  seized him without trembling, attended
with a relaxation, a languidness, and a falling down of his limbs;
his belly was loose; the coma continued; and he was  lightheaded
after sleeping, but not mad.  The fourteenth, had a crisis, none of
the critical signs opposing it.
   Just so  it was with the other person, who  at the beginning  had
stools that were  glutinous, of which the thick part proved critical.
He was watchful too; and afterwards had stools that  were some-
what glutinous,  somewhat bilious, digested,  more bilious, and not
thin: but, when  they began to have a consistence, the crisis soon
came on.   The  hypochondre  appeared  distended about the sixth,
with heat and pain, as when the veins are distended and agitated.
After that he slept the seventh, and had a crisis the ninth.  Both of
them were white-coloured, not yellow. The watery stools, exposed
to the air, were smooth and thin upon the surface, very like woad
or yellow amber, and had a sediment at the bottom.
   A softish distension of the right side denotes a phrensy, if it does
not go off upon the fever's  going off.
   If, upon the  softness  of  the belly, something happens  to be col-
lected there, hard, and painful, and of such  a  bad quality as not
to be dispersed, perhaps a suppuration will follow from  such a
swelling.
   Swellings  on  the right side, as many  as are in a great measure
soft, especially upon pressing, if a murmuring follows, are not to be
deemed of a bad quality;  as  in the Amphilochian, and  the Medo-
sadean, who were both of them comatose and delirious  in  their
sleep.
   He who had an ulcer upon his shin had red large pustules break
out, upon using the Attick ointment: and this, instead of a cough
 that was  afterwards troublesome, for he had no cough before.
   In  iEnus, as many  as  were chilly,  and  wounded  in the head,
 were in a bad way, and  came to suppuration.  They had also a
 pain in their feet upon travelling, from  a tenesmus;  and, in  often
 attempting to discharge, a weariness.   Such was the  case of Cli-
 nias, who was averse to  food, fell away, and discharged  a matter
 that was sometimes a little bloody, at other times pure pus.
   Hippeus's wife, who was dropsical, coughed  for three  years in
 the beginning  of the spring,  collected a great  quantity of matter, 
                 THE FOURTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS              397

 and in the winter became dropsical, but was relieved by purees for
 that purpose.   The maid-servant died.
   Those  among the coughers, who laboured with their hands, as
 the boy that twisted osiers, and Amyntas's son, were both  of them
 paralytic  in  the right hand only,  and  the cough  ceased; after
 which they had it with the cough.  Those who rid on horseback,
 or travelled, had it in their loins and thighs.  But the coughs were
 for the most part dry;  or, if not, very violent.
   Enmyris's wife, who was taken ill (but not in the  usual manner)
 seemed to  be without a fever, and  yet had  something of a typhus.
 After this a trembling came on all over, a wasting, an  aversion to
 food, a thirst, and a coldness.
   Those who had  the disease of the eyes  called  nyctalopia,  and
 made a great deal of  water, afterwards made but little; but upon
 coughing and growing  feverish had abscesses broke behind the ears
 about the  seventh or eighth day.
   Enmyris's  daughter  was feverish, and  pus came  out of her ear
 about the  eighth day; but I am not certain.  Some had  a tooth
 eaten away, especially  the third of the upper jaw.  In some it was
 painful, and suppurated;  in others the suppuration was in the ears;
 and  these  coughed much  more vehemently than  those.   Others
 again had a collection of matter with a fever, and were freed the
 seventh.   Upon the hypochondres  being irritated  no solution hap-
 pened ; and, upon the belly's being softened, there were  little gluti-
 nous  concretions, not  of any  service;  the urine like blood;  the
 spittle frothy.
   He the  Cynick brought me to, was much disordered  the seventh
 day, and had a crisis the  fourteenth.  The bad symptoms dwindled
 away by degrees.  His throat was clear;  and "what he spit  was
 little,  broad, and digested.  A  few drops fell from his nose;  his
 head was heavy; his hands and legs somewhat paralytic; his belly
 loose, and  to good purpose; and his feet  always warm.  He  also
 slept,  and  had  nothing behind his  ears,  because of his digested
 spittings.
  Demaratus's wife was  warm  in her feet, even when chilly;  but,
 whether it tended to suppuration or not, she died.
  The old  man who died  was taken ill  with  his wife, who  had
something  concealed in  her very  furious;  but  upon  a thickish
worm coming away, and the refreshment of a little food, her com-
plaints  immediately ceased; she slept, and was quite well.  The 
398               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

old man had the skin of his body stretched,  and his extremities
cold.   He was also  soft, and trembled  from the beginning in his
lips,  hands,  and speech;  was moderately  lightheaded;  and laid
with his mouth open, not much oppressed in his  breathing.  He
died at last, but how  many days beyond  twenty I know not.
  Where the  hypochondres and  the  belly discharge compressed
matter in  abundance, without any rumbling, as in Abdera, the ex-
crement is variegated.
  What  is spit up in peripneumonies is  in some  bilious, when the
disease will go off; in  others very yellow, when the crisis  will be
short.
  If such, as appear at the beginning, appear the  same afterwards,
this is an argument of very little concoction; and the crisis is as in
him who lived with the master, or as I have seen  it at other  times.
  Nicippus in his fever had frequent emissions, without any incon-
venience ; and was foretold that they would cease, when  the fever
was come to its crisis;  and so it happened.
  Critias was pestered with dreams in his fever, from which I know
he was freed after the crisis.
  Alcippus, who was subject  to the piles, was  forbid to be cured,
and upon being cured went mad.  An acute fever coming on, car-
ried the other off.
  In acute fevers, those who are  thirsty, and deprived of drink by
 heir physicians or themselves (though  they  could drink a great
deal), are the better for cold water given to vomit them; for much
bilious matter will come away.
  That the nerves (or tendons) attract one another,  is plain from
this: for, if the upper tendons of the hand  are wounded, the hand
will incline downwards, drawn by the lower;  and so  vice versa.
  A  dry  cough produces a  swelling of  the  testicle; and what
comes from  a cough upon the testicle must be cured by bleeding.
Inflammations cause coughs.   They also come  upon  fevers that
arise from swelled glands. 
THE  FIFTH  BOOK  OF  EPIDEMICS.
                         Fcesius, p. 1141.

  To me, says  Haller, there seems nothing in this  book unworthy
of Hippocrates.  The part which adverts to the manifest affinity
of sutures and fissures, is  pointed out by Celsus, and by Plutarch,
in praise of this great man.  It is in  parts obscure, and difficult to
comprehend;  but it contains histories of various surgical cases, not
always indeed  coherent, but many of which are uncommon and
useful.   Peripneumony from metastasis of angina; tetanus from
acrid applications  to a  wound; and  death from a slight blow on
the head.  The distinction  between arteries and veins  might lead
to the idea of the book  being of a later period.  Galen ascribes it
to Draco, or to  the second Hippocrates.   He considers  the seventh
book as spurious, but ascribes  the second, fourth, and fifth to  Hip-
pocrates, although probably not  edited  by him.   To me,  adds
Haller, the  fifth and  seventh appear  much superior to the others
mentioned.—Ed.
  The gardener's wife, in Elis, had a continual fever, and received
no benefit from purges.  Below the navel the belly was hard, swell-
ed, and in great pain.   Upon its  being handled, and pressed pretty
much by the hand dipped in oil, a great  deal of blood passed off
downwards; after which she grew well, and continued so.
  Timocrates, in  Elis, after hard drinking, was  seized with mad-
ness  from black bile;  and by the help of a purging potion brought
away (though not without much  uneasiness) a great deal of phlegm
and black bile in the daytime, and had no more stools in  the even-
ing.   After drinking some gruel  he fell asleep, and did not awake
till sunrise;  but seemed all  the while to the  bystanders to be dead,
neither fetching his breath, nor perceiving any thing  that was said
or done.   His body was stretched out, and stiff; yet he was alive,
and got up again. 
400
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
    Scomphus, in Oeniadae, died of a pleurisy the seventh day, deli-
  rious, after having  taken  a  purge the same day that wrought hut
  little. The day before he was in his senses, but upon purging grew
  delirious.
    Phoenix and  Andreas, two brothers in  Oeniada', had a swelling
  in one of their  cheeks, and  the lip that was opposite  to the cheek
  and eye.  Nothing  appeared inwardly upon examination, nor was
  there any abscess outwardly, but it swelled, and putrefied, without
  discharging any thing.  Both of them died; but Andreas died the
  seventh, after taking a purge to  no purpose ; whereas  Phoenix had
  the putrefied part cut all  round,  and  the ulcer discharged a great
 deal  before he died.   He died, however, though he held out long.
   Pyridamus, in Oeniadae, began  to be delirious the  tenth day in an
 inflammation of the  lungs; but, being taken care of, came  to him-
 self again, and what he spit up was clearer than it had been.   The
 disease grew better; a great deal of sleep followed upon it; but his
 eyes  looked as in the jaundice, and  about the twentieth he died.
   A  man in Oeniadae had  the following complaint.   When he ab-
 stained from food, hi's belly rumbled mightily, and was in pain;  and
 the very same  complaints returned in a  short time  after he  had
 eaten, and the food  was ground  small.   His body  also fell away
 and wasted; the food he took afforded no  nourishment; and what
 passed downwards was of a bad sort and burnt.  The rumbling
 and the  pain were least perceived immediately after eating.  He
 found no benefit from  purges of every  kind, both  upwards  and
 downwards; but being  blooded  at times  in each hand, till he had
 hardly any blood left, he grew easier, and got rid of his complaint.
   Eupolemus, in Oeniadae, felt a  pain in his right hip  and groin,
 the nearest joining of the hip to the groin, and the forepart of the
 hip.   Upon losing a vast deal of  black thick blood from the ankle,
 and taking,a smart purge downwards, he grew easier.  The pains
 indeed did not cease, but the hip, the joining, and the part about
 the groin suppurated, though  not.  without  an increase of pain:  for
 the pus laid deep, rather at the  bone than in the flesh. He was
 neglected for some time in this condition, till he  became extremely
 weak; and then a great many large eschars were  made by  the
 actual cautery, near one another, and a vast discharge of thick  pus
ensued.   A  few  days after this he died, partly from  the largeness
and number of the ulcers, and  partly from the weakness of his°body.
Whereas had one large incision been made, or even a second (if it 
THE FIFTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
401
had been necessary), and the pus discharged that way, and all this
in time, he might have recovered it.
  Lycon in Oeniadae was  in other  respects in the same condition,
but the pains extended to  the  leg,  though  not very  much.  Here
indeed was no suppuration, and yet he did  well  after a long time;
but then he  took  physic, was cupped, blooded,  and  seemed to be
better of his complaints.
  A man at Athens  was seized with an itching all over, especially
in his testicles and his forehead,  which proved exceedingly trouble-
some.  His skin was thick from head to foot, in appearance  like
that of a leper;  and could  not be taken up any where for the thick-
ness of it.  This man could receive  no benefit from any body;  but,
upon  using the hot-baths at Melus, got rid of his itching and his
thick skin.  He died, however, of a dropsy  afterwards.
  A man at Athens  was taken with the cholera  (or overflowing of
the gall); purged upwards  and downwards ; was  in pain; and could
not be relieved of either vomiting  or purging.  His speech failed
him, and he could not move out of his bed.  His eyes were misty
and hollow.  Convulsions seized him in the stomach from the intes-
tine, and a hiccough followed.   He also purged much more than
he  vomited.   But upon drinking hellebore  after  the juice of lentils,
and  upon this the other lentil juice, in as great a  quantity as he
could, a vomiting  ensued, which put a stop  to both his evacuations;
but he  grew cold.  His  lower parts were therefore bathed very
much up to his private parts, till the upper  grew warm again.   He
recovered upon it, and the next day drank some  thin  gruel.
  Gorgias's wife in  Larissa, who had a suppression of her menses
for  four years,  almost entirely, complained of a  pulsation  and
weight in  her womb, whichever side she lay on.  She conceived
afterwards, and conceived again upon the first.  In nine months
she was delivered of a live girl with an  ulcer on  her hip.   The
membranes came  away, and with them a great flux of blood.   The
next day, the third, and the fourth, clotted blood came  away; a
fever attended for the first ten days;  and the rest that came away
was red.  Her face, legs,  feet, and one thigh swelled very much;
her appetite failed her quite ; and her thirst was very great.   The
coldest  water was of service  to her, but wine by no means.   Her
belly, after the first child came  away, was somewhat softer, though
it did not fall entirely, but was  harder than it should be, and with-
out pain.  Forty days after the  first, the  second  child came away,
                              26 
402               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

like a lump of flesh;  the belly fell; all  the swellings went off; the
flux was small; the blood offensive; and she recovered.
  A woman in Pherse was troubled a long time  with a  violent pain
of her head, and could get no relief from any body, nor even from
purging the  head; but  was  easiest when her menses came down
freely.  Fragrant pessaries applied to the womb were of service to
her, when her pain was violent;  and a  little purging followed upon
it.  Her pains left her upon proving with child.
  A woman with child in Larissa lost a great deal of blood in four-
teen days in her tenth  month, but most three days before her de-
livery.  The fourteenth, a  dead child  fell out of  the womb, with its
right  arm growing to the side.   The third day, the same hour of
the  night the child was born in, the  membranes  came  away, and
the  whites followed.  After  this, for three  days  and nights, a great
deal came away, but not immoderately. This was succeeded by a
fever that lasted two  days and as many nights, attended with pains
all over the belly and the hips, especially the lower part  of the belly,
by the pubes.
  Hipposthenes in Larissa was supposed by his physicians to have
an  inflammation of the lungs, but the case was quite otherwise.
The beginning of his  illness was from a fall upon his back in a hard
place, and another falling upon him, as he  was wrestling.  He was
afterwards washed with cold water, got his  supper, and seemed to
be heavier.  The next day, was  feverish, coughed without spitting,
and  breathed  quick.   The fifth,  hawked up  bloody matter, but not
much;  began  to be delirious; and upon coughing complained of a
pain in  his breast and back.   The sixth, bled about a  quart at the
nose, upon sneezing; in  the evening  neither spoke, nor perceived
what was done or said.   The eleventh, died.
  He was, for five days, sometimes perfectly in  his senses, some-
times not, and without a fever.   He spit nothing at all;  nor had he
any rattling; because there was  no spittle  to occasion it.
  Scamandrus in Larissa  had a mortification  in his  hip, and an
abscess of long standing at the bone.  A large incision being made,
even to the bone, and ustion used afterwards, a convulsion began
the twelfth day after the  incision, and held him  strong,  reaching
from  the leg to  the ribs, and affected also the other side.  The leg
was sometimes contracted, sometimes extended, and he had the use
of his other limbs, but his jaws were  set.  The  eighth day after
the first convulsion he  died  in another. The cure  was carried on 
THE FIFTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
403
by applying warm bottles and fomentations of tares  to the whole
body, not omitting a  glyster;  by which  the faeces that  had been
long detained, came away in a small quantity.   He  also drank a
bilious purge, and even a second;  from  which indeed there was a
discharge, but to no advantage. After a little sleep he took another
strong purge of the like kind, and in the evening died  about sunset;
but in all probability might  have held out a long time, had not the
physic been too strong for him.
  A boy belonging to Palamedes's  stables of Larissa, about eleven
years old, was struck by a horse upon the forehead above his right
eye.  The  bone seemed  to be hurt, and a little  blood spurted out.
A large incision was made by the trepan even to the marrow, and
the bone thus affected  was healed ; the  other lamina (viz. the ante-
rior) growing  again presently.  Twenty days after this a swelling
appeared about the ear, attended with a fever and  shivering; and
this swelling was greater in the day, and painful. The fever began
with shivering; and his eyes, forehead, and whole body swelled,
rather on the right side of his head than otherwise, though the left
was not entirely free;  but no bad consequences followed.  At length
a continual fever came on; and these complaints lasted eight days,
but were less.   However, by burning, evacuating downwards by a
purging potion, and applying a cataplasm to  the tumour, he reco-
vered.  As to  his complaints, they were not  at  all occasioned by
the wound.
  Theophorbus's son in Larissa had the scabies  (or leprosy) of the
bladder; made viscid  urine;  was  in pain at the beginning and
going off of his water;  and rubbed his  glans.   After drinking a
sharp diuretic  nothing passed into the bladder, but  he  vomited a
great deal of purulent matter and gall, part of which  went also
downwards.   His belly was in pain, and  as it were  burnt  within,
while the rest of his body was cold, and  entirely unbraced.  Nor
could he take any thing at all.   His belly was grievously ulcerated,
and  that by the strength of the physic altogether; for the  third day
after it he died.
  Antimachus's wife, in Larissa, after having been with child about
fifty days, loathed her victuals the rest of the time,  and complained
of pain in the womb and the pit of her stomach for  seven days.  A
fever came on, and nothing passed downwards.   Upon drinking a
stronger dose of elaterium than was proper, she  vomited  burnt bile,
occasioned by her abstinence  and fever.  For  she had drank no- 
404               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

thing at all.   She vomited a little again with violence, and with it
some grumous matter.  After this she grew sick, lay down, and,
finding herself weak,  would drink  no more  water to encourage it.
The  intestines were upon this seized with a terrible  pain, (for the
medicine had ulcerated them,) and presently  with  the  stools  she
voided  something that was viscid, stringy, and a little bloody, as if
the guts had been shaved.   Her weakness and  the sickness at  her
stomach increased continually, and the purging amounted to almost
three pints.  This indeed stopped, by pouring a great deal of water
upon the belly, but still she could take nothing;  and about midnight
she died;  though in all  probability she  might have lived, if  she
could have drank water, and vomited immediately before it passed
downwards.
  Onesidemus's servant in Larissa had  her stomach and bowels
ulcerated by bile that was set afloat of itself; upon which bile and
blood  passed off upwards  and downwards, not without a fever.
She took, as she  was a weak woman, a weak  potion of  elaterium,
little in quantity and mixed with water.  Upon this she vomited a
great deal, and purged more;  and in the evening it came upon  her
again.   The  next day she was feverish,  but not much ;  the belly
was ulcerated, and she had the  same stools as before.   The third
she died about sunset,  the fever raging vehemently.
  The  case  appeared to be altogether desperate, but not at all
from drinking cold water, while the  vomiting lasted.   But when
the stomach, cleansed  by the water, was become cold, she drank
the cream of barley cold, and had some of the same injected.
  Eudemus, in Larissa, who was troubled with the piles  to a great
degree  and long, having but little blood left, was seized with  the
flowing of the gall.  The body indeed was very little affected with
it, but  the belly  was  thrown into purgings, and what came away
was bilious.   The piles also came out.  Upon  drinking something
to pass downwards he was purged well, and  upon drinking  the
cream  of barley  after  it he was purged more, not without a pain in
the hypochondre.  The belly not being in  the best condition, the
piles were  taken in  hand; for he  wanted a farther  cure,  and
vomited afterwards.   Upon  rubbing  something  upon  the  part
swelled, a fever came on, and  never left him till it killed  him ; for
if at any time it  intermitted, a shivering succeeded, and fever came
on again, and bilious stools  followed  with  wind that sometimes
passed  off, sometimes  not;  and the  belly was also in pain.   The 
THE FIFTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
405
piles were  swelled without the anus,  from the time the  purgings
were made use of; and the wind  passed through them by the help
of sneezing at the beginning.
  A man at Larissa was wounded behind by a broad javelin, from
one very near him, the point of which  penetrated below the  navel.
The part was livid and swelled for a  great way.  Upon receiving
the wound,  a violent pain first  seized him, and his belly swelled.
The next day he took something to pass through him, discharged a
little bloody matter, and died.  His intestines  seemed to be hurt,
and his belly to be full of blood.
  Apellaus, of Larissa, who  was about thirty, or something less,
was taken ill of a distemper that  used to affect him  by night in his
sleep, raiher than by day, and continued so two years  before  he
died ; attended with a vomiting  of sometimes yellow, sometimes
black bile, upon being waked.  After  purging the head smartly for
a long time, and  taking physic twice,  it  left him six months.  He
was a  great eater,  and  of a bilious  habit.   A violent  shivering
seized him after much wrestling; a fever followed, and in the night
his old distemper.  The next day and the following he seemed to
be well;  but the next night it came upon  him again, after  he had
supped, and taken his first sleep, and continued till  supper-time the
next day.   Nor did he recover his senses  before he died.   A con-
vulsion first seized his right side, then his face, and  whole body,
and after that his left side.  When it  seemed  to  be  over, he grew
comatose, snorted or rattled  in his throat, and had  a  return of his
distemper.
  Eumelus of Larissa had such a stiffness in  his legs, hands, and
jaws, that he could neither extend nor  bend them, without the help
of another; nor could he  open his jaws, without another did it for
him.  He was in no pain any where else, nor did he eat any thing
but a sort of flummery, with mead for  his drink.   The  twentieth
day he fell from  his seat backwards, and struck his head very hard
against a stone.   Upon this his sight grew dim; but  he soon got up
again, recovered himself, and was entirely free, except that, when
he got up after sleeping, his joints  seemed bound together.   He was
twelve or thirteen years old, and ill three or four months.
  A maid in  Larissa, after vomiting a little blood, had a collection
of matter formed; upon which a fever coming,  she could  not get
the better  of  it, till death  freed her from  all within three months.
Before she died,  her ears were so  deaf that she could  hear nothing 
406                THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

at all, unless one bawled to her very loud:  and before this vomit-
ing of blood happened, she was but in a weak condition.
  Dyseris's servant, of  Larissa, in her  youthful days, complained
of violent pain in  the act of venery, and  not  at any other  time.
She never proved  with  child : but, when she was about sixty, was
taken after noon with violent pains like labour-pains, having eat just
before a good  deal of garlic.  She  got up, when  her pains  were
more violent than  ever, and felt  something rough in the mouth of
the womb; but, fainting away afterwards, another woman put  up
her hand, and  brought from her a rough stone as big as the whirl of
a spindle.  She grew well upon it immediately, and remained so.
  A loaded wagon came  upon the  ribs of one who belonged to
Malea, and broke them.  Matter  lodged for some time under the
ribs, but upon  being cauterized below the spleen, and the ulcer kept
open with lints and the like, he held out ten  months.  After the
skin was cut, a cavity appeared both ways, reaching to the omen-
tum, not without putrefaction.   It extended  likewise  to the kidney
and the bones.  The habit of  this man's body was  not perceived
to be bilious, and so the putrefaction  became great and dry, affect-
ing the omentum and other fleshy parts.  A dry medicine was here
immediately necessary,  while  the strength of the patient lasted;
for the moist  medicines were  so far from abating, that they in-
creased the putrefaction.  The moisture being stopped by the lints
that were applied,  a shivering  and a fever  came on; the putrefac-
tion  increased; and a fetid, blackish, putrid matter ran out.   But
before we undertook the cure, a great deal of such  stuff  was dis-
charged every day, though not freely.  By this we knew the nature
of the  disease, and that it was deeper than the skin.  So that if
every thing had been done for him in a proper  manner, yet his case
would have been desperate;  even though a purging had also hap-
pened.
  Autonomus  died in Omilus, the sixteenth day, in  the middle of
summer,  of a  wound of the  head, occasioned by the  throwing of a
stone at a little distance upon the sutures in the middle of the os
bregmatis, or parietal bone.  I did not perceive that the trepan was
wanting ; for  the  injury was  received  upon the very sutures (as
was extremely clear afterwards),  and so deceived me.   A violent
pain seized the collar-bone first of all, and  after that the  side, to-
gether  with a convulsion in both hands ; for the wound was  given
in the middle of the head, and the parietal  bone.  The trepan was 
THE FIFTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
407
applied the fifteenth; a  little  pus  came  out;  and the membrane
appeared free from any corruption.
  A young girl in Omilus, about twelve years old, died in the mid-
dle of summer, the fourteenth  day, of a wound  in her head, occa-
sioned  by somebody's  throwing a door upon her, that bruised and
broke the bone.   The wound was right upon  the sutures, and it
was plainly seen  there was occasion for the  trepan.  It was ac-
cordingly applied, but  not  so far  as it ought; however,  what re-
mained came  to suppuration.   The eighth day she shivered, and
grew feverish; and though she was not as she should be, yet she
was as she had  been  some time  before, when she had  no  fever.
The ninth, the remaining part was trepanned, and a very  little pus,
streaked  with blood, appeared underneath.  The  membrane was
clear, and sleep came  on, but  the fever never  abated  more.  The
left hand was convulsed, the wound being rather on the right side.
  Cyrenius in Omilus was burnt  upon the belly for a collection of
pus there;  and,  though  it was thirty  days  later than it ought to
have been, yet he was pretty well  after it, and the pus that was in
the belly was dried up.  But eating afterwards, in the hottest time
of the  year, the  fruits  of the season and other improper food,  he
fell into a fever and looseness, and went off.
  Hecason in Omilus was cauterized  later  than  he  ought, just as
the other was, and almost the whole belly was dried  up too; but a
dysentery came on; and, as soon as he got over it, he eat of every
thing till he swelled all  over.   The pus  afterwards broke its way
downwards;  a looseness attended it; and he died.
  Hecason in Omilus  had an acute pain fixed in his hip, from the
foulness of his body, and injudicious purging.  Upon its going off
a fever ensued, that confined him to his bed a long while.   He nei-
ther drank any  thing, nor was thirsty, but was weak and chilly.
His distemper went off in a  proper manner,  as  it ought, and his
body was the better for what was given him.  At last the distemper
broke downwards, and went all off with a great deal of bile.  He
grew delirious upon it,  however,  and died; but seemed to be able
to get over it.
  A man in Salamis, falling upon  an anchor,  was wounded in the
belly, and in great pain.   The physic he drank passed neither up-
wards nor downwards.
  The  woman that cut her own throat was strangled;  but a purg-
ing  potion, that was given her a good while after, passed through
her. 
408              THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

   The young man who  came from  Euboea, and had been purged
very much, grew feverish upon its intermitting and stopping.  Con-
cluding from  this that a vomit was necessary, he  drank a weak one,
viz., the  root, and elaterium, and died  four  days after, without
any evacuation;  but he  was sleepy, and his thirst could not be
quenched.
   The maid-servant, that was a foreigner, vomited a  little  from
what she drank, and was strangled;  but  purged very much down-
wards, and died  in the  night.
   The man of Euboea, upon drinking a purging potion, was purged
three days, and died.  His hand suppurated up to his elbow.
   Symmachus's boy was strangled  with  bile, as he was asleep in
the night, and feverish.   The physic he drank would not stay with
him, nor  was he purged in six days before he died.
   He who lived by the race-house, and vomited  blood in the night,
died the  next day, vomiting a great deal of blood, and strangled.
The spleen and parts below it had a quantity of bloody matter pass
that way.
   The boy, that was struck by a mule upon the belly and the liver,
died the  fourth.   His breath was quick, his senses confused, and a
fever attended besides.
   Hermophilus's son, who was ill eleven days, was feverish, bound
in his body, and  delirious at first, but it went off  in the night.  The
next day he lost  his speech, rattled as he lay, had his eyes distorted,
and was  feverish.  A feather being put down his  throat, he brought
up  black bile, and by the help of a  glyster  had a very great dis-
charge.
  ,Aristion's servant had  a  mortification  about  the middle of her
foot from the  inside obliquely, without any reason for it.  The boneg
putrefied, separated, and came away  in a fistulous manner by little
and little.   Upon a looseness succeeding,  she died.
  A woman in good health, and  corpulent, complained of pain in
her belly, a colic in her bowels, and with these a  swelling, after
drinking  something upon  account of conception.  A difficulty of
breathing attended, with great uneasiness of mind and  pain.   She
also vomited blood, but not much, and fainted away five  times so
as to be  thought dead.  Neither  the pain nor the breathino-  were
relieved by vomiting with cold water;  the only thing that relieved
her was  the pouring about thirty firkins  of cold ivater upon her
body.   For after this  a great deal of bile passed downward, and 
                  THE FIFTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.              499

  she recovered;  whereas, when  the  pain  was  upon her, nothing
  could pass.
    Antandrus, who was well in other respects after taking physic,
  seemed to  have a pain about his bladder.  A very great clearage
  and depuration was  made there by what he had taken, and in the
  afternoon a violent pain  seized him.  The next day  a  suffocation,
  with great perplexity and restlessness.  He vomited too, without
  any thing passing downwards,  had a bad night, and no  sleep.  The
  third day a great deal went  downwards, followed by  blood, and so
  he died.
   The cobbler of Pityus, as he was sewing a sole, ran the awl above
  his  knee into his thigh about an  inch, but no blood followed, and
  the wound closed up presently: however the whole thigh swelled
  upon it, and the swelling reached to the groin and flank.  The third
  day he died.
   A man  received a wound in his groin by a dart, and recovered
  contrary to all expectation ; for we saw the case.   The head of the
  dart was neither taken out, because it lay very deep; nor was there
  any loss of blood to  speak of, nor inflammation, or lameness ; but
 six years after the accident we  found the dart, and took  it  out.  Our
 opinion is that it was buried  between the nerves or tendons, with-
 out  dividing either artery or  vein.
   Another  received an insignificant wound to speak of (for it  was
 not  deep) a little below his neck  behind  from a sharp dart; which
 being taken out  not long after, he  was  drawn  and distorted back-
 wards, as in the opisthotonus.  His jaws were also fastened ;  and,
 if any thing moist was put into  his  mouth, and he  attempted to
 swallow it, it returned again through the nose.  In other  respects
 he grew worse immediately.  The second day he died.
  A young  man, running hastily over rough ground, felt a pain in
 his heel, especially the  lower part.  No  moisture being collected,
 nor  any abscess formed,  the whole  part turned black  the fourth
 day, as far as the bone called astragalus,  and the hollow part in the
 bottom of the foot.  Before the  mortification could  break away or
 suppurate, he died, twenty days  in all after the running.
  He who was  wounded by his eye, received it  upon  his eyelid,
 and  the point of the dart  went  in deep, but the fang or beard"of it
 appeared outwardly.  Upon  laying open the  eyelid,  every thing
 was  taken out without any inconvenience:  for the eye was saved
and healed presently, and the blood flowed freely andsufficiently. 
410
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
  Nerius's handsome girl, about  twenty,  was  struck upon the pa-
rietal bone with the palm of the hand by another young woman in
play;  upon which a mist came on, and she could not breathe.  As
soon as she was brought home, a violent fever attacked her, with a
pain in her head, and a redness about her face.  The seventh day,
above a spoonful of fetid reddish pus came out of her right ear; she
seemed to be better, and  was  lighter and  easier.  The fever, how-
ever, increased again, and  was attended  with a dozing, a  loss of
speech, a contraction  of the right side of the face, a difficulty of
breathing, a convulsion, and a trembling.  The tongue was also
confined,  the eye fixed, and the ninth she died.
  A young  man, after  drinking a great deal of genuine wine, fell
asleep in  a certain shade, and the  serpent called Arges crept into
his  mouth.   As soon as he  perceived it, not being able to speak, he
grinded his  teeth, bit  the  serpent through, was seized with great
pain, threw  out his hands as if strangled, tumbled and tossed about,
fell into convulsions, and  died.

  Note.—At this place Clifton leaves out several pages as they appear in Haller; and
what follows is from the sixth  book, omitting nearly the two first of the sections as
given in Haller,—the only explanation for which is  in the following note, which to
me is not satisfactory.—Ed.
  " This is the first observation* in the sixth book (see section the 2d, aph. 22,) that I
could insert here; the former  being  all  aphorisms  of such a nature, as cannot be
brought, with any propriety, into  a book of Epidemics.  The other observations are
not so good as I could wish them, but yet must not be omitted."
  *  This refers to the sixth book, beginning with "Broad eruptions," in the next
page.—Ed. 
       THE  SIXTH  BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.

                         Foisius, p. 1164.

   This, says Haller, is much of the same  character with the pre-
 ceding; and is said to have been transcribed from the note-book of
 Hippocrates, by Thessalus.   Galen has commented upon it.   It is
 a  medley of histories of diseases, aphorisms, and predictions, fre-
 quently taken from the other  writings of Hippocrates, often  defi-
 cient  in  limitation, and half true.  Herodicus  ridicules his ratio
 medendi.  Some physiological remarks are interspersed;—and a
 story  is given of an Abderite woman, who was changed into a man,
 and whom the author in vain attempted to cure !
   Gardeil,  speaking  of this  book, says, that Galen had written a
 commentary on it, for the use of his disciples, a part only of which
 has reached us, from which we may however perceive how much
 he was frequently embarrassed to  discover the real meaning of the
 author.  This difficulty must  now be  much  augmented ; and he
 claims on this score the indulgence of the readers of his translation,
 stating that  he had submitted its revision to several friends  before
 committing it  to press.   These he gratefully names,—and asks for
 further favours from distant members of  the profession, in case
 another edition should be required.  He states this book as contain-
 ing numerous sentences, mostly deserving attention, both in respect
to hygiene and to therapeutics.—Ed.
  Broad eruptions,  without  any great itchings (such as Simon's
were in the winter), were not relieved by vomitings;  but perhaps
warm  fomentations applied  might have  been  of service; for  he,
upon being either anointed by the fire, or bathed with warm water,
was relieved.
  The  woman that  lived by the great theatre, behind the Heroes
monument, was taken with a jaundice that remained with her; and 
412               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

the man that lived  by Timenes's niece was  taken with a blackness
all over.
  In Perinthus, the urine was like seed.   Such was also critical.
Complaints about the pubes are relieved this way, when the case is
curable by urine:  for, without  much  flatus, or much (but viscid)
excrement  passing off, it  grew  soft;  the hypochondre not being
large.  The seventh day he  ate some cabbage, while a difficulty
of breathing was upon him, grew softer about the  pubes, breathed
well, and his belly  was loosened by it.
  The woman, that I first cured in Cranon, had naturally a large
spleen.  Her fever was of the burning kind,  attended with great
redness and difficulty of breathing.   The tenth day  she  sweated
upwards for the most part; but, the fourteenth, a little downwards.
  Agasius's daughter, when  she  was a girl,  was  short-breathed;
and, when  a woman, was taken with a little pain not long after her
delivery; and, upon lifting  up a great  weight, something seemed to
crack  in her breast.  The next day she was asthmatic, and had a
pain in her right hip.  When  this was  troublesome, her asthma was
so too, but ceased with the other's ceasing.   What she spit was
frothy, but florid at  the beginning; and, after standing, resembled
a bilious thin vomiting.  Her pains were greatest, when she work-
ed with* her hands.   She was forbid meddling  with  garlic, pork,
mutton, and beef;  or  to bawl, or put herself in a passion, whenever
she had occasion to speak.
   Where a tumour in the  head spread itself, there burnt alum was
at first serviceable. Another  abscess followed, perhaps because the
bone was to come away.  This  happened sixty days after, above
the ear,  whereas the wound  was higher, upon the crown of the
head.
   A man after a fatiguing journey, was quite spent, heavy, and fell
a  spitting; a cough coming  from the top of his head.  A smart
fever ensued, that  was very uneasy to the touch.   The  next day a
heaviness in his head, with  a  burnt tongue.  No blood from the left
nostril, though picked with his nails.   The  spleen was large, hard,
and painful.
   The autumn is bad  for consumptive  persons; and so is the spring,
when  the fig-leaves are like a crow's foot.
   In Perinthus, a great many were consumptive in the spring, occa-
sioned in some by an epidemic cough, in the winter; and in others
by the long continuance of disorders: for thus what was doubtful 
                  THE SIXTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.              4^3

 before was now confirmed.   Some indeed, who  had been lono- ill,
 escaped a consumption, as those did who were troubled with ne-
 phritic  pains; and so did some others, as the man, for instance, the
 Cynic brought me to.
   Satyrus, in Thasus,  surnamed Grypalopex, when he was about
 five-and-twenty, often  spent in  his sleep,  and  indeed often in the
 daytime.  A consumption seized him about thirty, and he died.
   The  keeper of the wrestling-place in Abdera, whose name was
 Stheneus (or the strong man), after wrestling  much with a stronger,
 and falling upon his head, went away and drank a great deal of
 cold water.   He could get no sleep  that night, was very restless,
 and cold  in  his extremes.  The next  day he went home;  had no
 stool, though a suppository was put up; made water a little, where-
 as  before he had made none; was bathed at  night, but  yet could
 get no sleep,  or lie still, and was lightheaded.   The third  day, was
 cold in his extremes;  grew hot, and sweated; but died  this very
 day, after drinking mead.
   Phaethusa, in  Abdera,  the wife of Pytheus, who had had  a child
 formerly when she was very young,  upon  her  husband's  being ba-
 nished, missed her menses a long time; and her joints grew after-
 wards painful and red.   Upon this  her body became manly, and
 hairy all over; a beard  thrust out, and her  voice became  rough.
 Every thing  was tried by us that was likely to bring down  her
 menses, but all to no purpose; and not  long after she died.
  The same  thing happened in  Thasus, to Namusias, the wife of
 Gorgippus.  All the physicians  that I talked  with were of opinion,
 that the only hope left  was in her  menses coming down  again as
 they ought. But this could never be brought about, though we tried
 every thing;  and she died not long after.

  Note.—Here, throughout, large portions of the text are omitted by Clifton; giving
his reasons therefor in the preceding note.—Ed. 
    THE  SEVENTH  BOOK  OF  EPIDEMICS.

                         Fossius, p. 1206.

  This  book, says Haller, is the  production  of the author of the
fifth book, in both of which we find much repetition, and with little
order, from his note-book, on the  subjects  of phrenitis, continued
fever, dropsy, the diseases of pregnancy, and some surgical cases.
A  foetus remaining in utero nine  years, is  mentioned.   The book
contains a larger number of histories of epidemic diseases than the
others, the best of which are at the commencement.
  In his notes, Gardeil has taken the pains to  point out some of the
parts of this book with which Book V. corresponds.—Ed.
  After the dog-days the fevers  were attended with sweats, nor
were  they  thoroughly cold after  sweating, but grew warm again,
and were feverish a long time, had commonly a difficult crisis, and
were  not very thirsty.  In some they ceased upon the seventh and
the ninth  day; in others upon  the  eleventh, the  fourteenth, the
seventeenth, and the twenty-second.
  Polycrates had a fever, and sweated in  the  manner now men-
tioned.  After taking a smart purge, his fever was so mild, that one
could hardly perceive it, except in  his  temples.  In the evening
little sweats came on again about his head, neck, and breast, and
afterwards all over; upon which he grew warm again.  About the
twelfth and the fourteenth the fever increased, his stools were few,
and  after purging he  supped either  broth or gruel.   About  the
fifteenth, had a pain in his belly by the  spleen and the left hypo-
chondre, which was  relieved  by applying cold things  rather than
warm, and upon taking a soft glyster ceased entirely.
  The same method relieved  Cleocydes of a like pain and fever.
About the  sixteenth the  heats seemed to abate; pure bile passed
downwards; he grew fierce and audacious; breathed  moderately, 
                THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.            415

 and sometimes, when he drew it in  plentifully, discharged  it again
 tumultuously, as if he  was swooning, or as a man breathes when
 he sits in the shade after travelling in the heat.  The seventeenth,
 as he was sitting on his bench in the evening, he fainted away, lost
 his speech a  long time, and was  senseless.  He drank some mead
 with great difficulty, the fibres of his neck being stretched, as when
 the throat is  dried, and a general impotency upon one.   At last  he
 recovered himself with great difficulty, and the heats abated.  After
 this his disorder left him the twenty-second.
   About the  same  time Pythodorus  was taken  with a continual
 fever.  The  eighth day  he sweated, and  again  grew hot.  The
 tenth, another sweat.   The twelfth, supped some  ptisan, and to the
 fourteenth had  no sensible fever, except in his temples; nor any
 thirst; and thought himself well.  Sweats came on every day; and
 the  fifteenth,  after  supping chicken  broth he vomited bile, purged,
 and had  his fever more than ever, but it  stopped again.  He sweat-
 ed much, but the whole  body, except the temples, was very  cold,
 and the pulsation did not cease; it seemed  however to cease  for a
 little while, so that he thought he was  going to be hot again.  The
 twenty-fourth, after eating meat  for many days, and dining, he was
 very feverish, and  in the  evening delirious as he  slept.  The fever
 was continual  and strong, without any sleep for sometimes one,
 sometimes two  nights; and all the rest of the time he was so heavy
 to sleep,  that it  was not the easiest matter to wake him.   He was
 delirious too  in  his sleep;  and,  if at  any time he was waked,  he
 was hardly himself, had no thirst, breathed moderately, sometimes
 as Polycrates, and his tongue had some  colour.  Seven days  after
 the relapse,  ptisans were offered him;  and, after the fourteenth,
 meat.  The first seven days he broke wind and vomited, and some-
 times matter  a little bilious  came away with his drink without any
 sickness, till  a passage was opened  downwards.   The sweats left
 him after the relapse, except upon the forehead,  where they were
 too small to  signify any thing.  His tongue, if he did not wash it
 after sleeping, faltered from the dryness of it, and  ulcers  broke out
 upon it,  and  also  upon the lower lip, and about the teeth.  His
 stools were few; but, about ihe fifteenth day after the relapse, more
 frequent and glutinous; which were stopped by a decoction of pome-
granates.  The urine, such as in long cases.  Towards the conclu-
sion  a  pain took him  so in his breast, as he was swallowing his
drink, that he put his hand upon it.  This was removed by supping 
41f,               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

cummin and egg.   The tongue  was relieved  by a medicine made
with the  chips of frankincense.  The fiftieth  day from the begin-
ning, about the rising of Arcturus, little short sweats came on about
the loins and breast, with a coldness all over  (except the temples),
that lasted but a little while.  The fifty-first, a remission, without a
return  the next day.
  Eratolaus's boy was taken with a dysentery and a fever about
the autumnal equinox.  His  stools were bilious, thin, frequent, and
moderately  bloody;   but  the pain of his  belly vehement.   Upon
drinking  whey  and  burnt  milk  his pains abated ; his stools were
somewhat bloody, and afterwards  bilious ; but he was forced  to
rise often, though without pain.  Some  part of the time,  after the
first  six days, the fever seemed to the patient and to many others
to be off, it was so imperceptible; but yet  there was a pulsation  in
the temples, and the  tongue faltered from its  dryness.  His thirst,
however, was but moderate;  and as to sleep, he could never obtain
if.  What he lived  upon was soups  and  wines.  About the four-
teenth, hard, crude  tumours  appeared  behind the ears,  first one,
then the  other,  which  disappeared afterwards  entirely, and were
moderately painful;  but his stools continuing,  and all along bilious,
the  bile and the pain  abated  for some time,  upon his supping the
plant that was boiled with the meal; however, his discharges were
still frequent  and liquid; and  his aversion to food so great, that he
never took it but upon the utmost necessity.  His fever, his tongue,
and his thirst, were as* I have related  them, without  any sweat  at
all.   His memory failed him  in  such  a  manner,  that, if he asked
about any thing  he had heard but a  little before, after  pausing a
little he would ask again, just as  if he had said nothing before; and
upon sitting  down would forget himself,  if nobody put him in mind.
This disorder he  was sensible  of himself;  and  yet  fetched his
breath  like a man in  health.  From the thirtieth to the fortieth day
the pain of his belly  increased much ; he lay down upon his  back,
and could not turn himself in the least.  His  pain was so  violent
that others were forced to feed him.  His stools were  large, sepa-
rated, and thin, resembling sometimes the  colour of the wine he
had  drank,  and  sometimes blood.  The firmness of his body was
wasted to  the last degree;  and so  great a  weakness came on, that
he could not rise even with the assistance of another.  If any one
laid  his hand between  the navel  and  the cartilage (or pit of the
stomach),  there was  a greater palpitation than  is ever felt about the 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
417
heart after running or a  fright.  Upon  drinking  for two days  to-
gether nine Attick cotylas* of ass's milk  boiled, a very great dis-
charge of bile followed, his pains ceased, and his appetite returned.
After this he  drank  about four Attick  cotylas of cows' milk raw,
at the rate of a quarter of a pint at a time, in a day, first mixing a
sixth part water, and a  little black, rough wine.  He eat but once
a day, in the evening, about half a chcenix  of  bread baked  under
ashes, or a little rock-fish, dressed  plain, or a bit of goat or mutton.
The milk was drank forty days without water, after the first ten
days, with a small quantity of black wine.  Seventy days from the
first he sweated a little in the night after bathing; drank but little;
and, after eating,  drank his usual drink, or rougher than  he used to
take it.
  Ctesicrates was relieved more by that preparation with the meal
than by goats' whey, when the pain was all over his belly, attended
with fatigue, rising often, stools  a  little  bloody, and  a swelling in
his feet.   So  was Adrianus for about  twenty-five days; but Cae-
neus had most benefit from ass's milk boiled.
  Cydis's son was taken, about  the winter solstice, with a  shiver-
ing, a fever, a pain of his right  ear, and a pain  of his head.  He
had been subject  to  this sort of pain from his  infancy, with  a run-
ning, and a fistula of a bad smell.  While it was thus, he was gene-
rally without  pain;  but  now his  pain  was acute, attended  with a
pain in his head.  The second or third day he vomited bile, and, as
he sat,  had a bilious viscid stool, of a  pale yellow like an egg. The
fourth and fifth, was a little lightheaded; and the pain of his head
and ear violent, with a fever besides.  The sixth, was purged with
the herb  mercury, upon which the heat and pain seemed to be car-
ried off.  The seventh, was in a  manner well, but the beating in his
temples did not leave  him, nor did any  sweat follow.   The  eighth,
supped  the cream of barley, and in the evening  the juice of bete;
slept in the night, and had no manner of pain.   The ninth, was in
high spirits till sunset;  but at night  the pain of  his  head and ear
returned  with vehemence;  and immediately, upon  the  pain's be-
coming  vehement, pus ran out of  the ear;  but all that  night, and
the next day, and the greatest part of the night,  he  knew nobody,
and groaned  continually.  The  next day he came to  himself; the
pain ceased;  the  heat  was milder; and, upon taking another soup

  1 An Attick cotyla is something more than our half-pint.  See Arbuthnot's Tables.
                               27 
418               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

or drink made of mercury, had, the eleventh day, phlegmy, slimy,
fetid stools.  The twelfth and the thirteenth, was pretty well.   The
fourteenth, began to sweat all over from daybreak till noon, sleep-
ing and  being  so comatose  that it was not the easiest matter to
wake him.  In the evening his sleep left him, and  his body was
moderately  cool, but the  beating in his temples remained.   The
fifteenth and sixteenth, supped some juices or creams.  The seven-
teenth, his pains returned again at night, with lightheadedness, and
a discharge of  pus.  The eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth, he
was  mad, bawled out, and attempted to raise himself up, but could
not keep his head still; and,  stretching  out his hands, was always
catching at something in vain.   The twenty-first, sweated a little
about his right side, breast, and head.  The twenty-second, sweated
most about his face; and, as to his speech  at that time, if he took
very great pains, he could say whatever  he had a mind to, dis-
tinctly; but, if  he did not take such great pains, imperfectly, and
by halves.  His mouth became  paralytic,  and  his  jaws  and lips
were always in motion, as if he had a mind to speak.   His eyes
moved quick, looked earnestly, and the colour of the right one was
as if it had  been blood-shotten.  The upper eyelid swelled;  his
cheek was red  before he died; all the veins  in the face appeared;
his ears  were  contracted ; his eyes no longer  winked,  but  were
fixed, and the upper eyelid was  elevated, as when something  falls
upon  the  eye.  When  he drank, a sound followed it, as it fell into
the thorax and stomach, just as in Chartades's case.   His breathing
was  generally moderate all along; his tongue of a pale white colour
from the beginning, as in an inflammation of the  lungs; his head in
continual  pain;  his neck so stiff that it could not be moved with
the head; and the spine from the neck  downwards  strong and in-
flexible.   His posture in lying was as we  have said already, and
not always  with his face upwards.   The  pus was  serous, white,
very troublesome to be dried up with  sponges, and besides very
fetid.  As he drew  near  his end, he was insensible when his feet
were touched.
  Harpalidas's  sister, in the fourth or fifth month of her pregnancy,
had watery swellings in her  legs, a swelling in the hollow part of
her eyes, and her whole  body puffed up as in a phlegmatic habit.
Besides these she  had a dry  cough, a difficulty of breathing of the
erect kind, and  an asthma of the same.   Sometimes  she was so
near suffocation in her breath, that she was obliged to sit up in her 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
419
bed continually,  without being able to  lie down; and, if she had
any inclination or thought of sleeping, it was  in a sitting posture;
but yet she was seldom feverish.  The child within her was the
greatest part of the time without motion, and  fell  down as though
corrupted or dead.  Her asthma followed upon it near two months,
but upon using beans mixed with honey, licking honey itself, and
drinking Ethiopian cummin in wine, she grew easier.  After this
she coughed up a great deal of digested, phlegmatic, white matter;
her difficulty of  breathing  went off, and  she was brought to bed of
a girl.
  Polycrates's wife, in the  summer, about the time of the dog-days,
was  taken with a fever.  Her difficulty of breathing was less in a
morning, and  greater  after the middle of the day, and  a little
quicker.  She coughed and hawked up, immediately from the first,
as those do who have pus within them.  In the inside, about the
windpipe and upper part of the gullet, there was a roughness and
hissing.  The countenance was of a  good colour; the cheeks red,
not indeed  extremely,  but moderately  florid.   In process  of time
the voice grew hoarse, and the body wasted.   About the loins were
breakings-out; and the belly at last became loose.  The seventieth
day she was feverish, but very cold outwardly, without any beating
in her temples ; and her breathing was quicker.   After the beating
ceased, her breath was so  quick that  she was forced  to keep sitting
till she died.
  In the windpipe there was a great noise; her sweats were bad;
but she was  very composed to the last.   The coldness continued
above five  days; and  after the first she continually hawked  up
purulent matter.
  The woman, that lived  above the  gates, had a little fever in her
old age, which, upon ceasing, was followed with a pain of her neck
down to her back-bone and  loins;   parts that she  was not very
strong in.   Her  jaws and  teeth were so set, that a probe could not
be introduced; her speech  faltered, from  the body's being paralytic,
immovable, and  weak; but still she kept in her senses.   By  warm
applications and warm mead there was something of a relaxation
the third day ; and after this, by the help of soups and broths, she
recovered  perfectly.   This happened  about the end of autumn.
  The anointer  by Harpalis, growing  impotent  in his hands and
legs  about  autumn, drank a medicine  rashly that purged  him up-
wards and downwards, after which he grew feverish.  Something 
420               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

fell upon his windpipe that hindered his speaking;  and whenever
he spoke he was asthmatic, as one  in a quinsy with a  hoarseness.
He had  also the suffocation and  other symptoms that attend a
quinsy, but no swelling.  The fever and the cough  increased, and
a great deal of moist phlegm was hawked up.  In the course of his
illness a pain seized him in his chest and left breast; and, when he
would rise or be moved, he  was very  asthmatical, and sweated
upon his forehead and head.   The complaints about  his throat con-
tinued, but in a less degree, the pain removing to the chest.   Upon
these considerations he used beans with honey from  the beginning;
but, when the fever  was upon him, rather warm  oxymel, and a
lambative of honey plentifully.   After fourteen  days all  his com-
plaints ceased; and, before it was long, he had very good command
of his hands and  legs.
   Chartades  had a burning fever, discharged much bile upwards
and downwards, could get no sleep, and  had a round swelling upon
his spleen.   The third day he rose early, upon a  rumbling in  his
belly without pain; and, as he was discharging, above  a gallon of
fresh blood  came away.  After stopping a little, concreted  lumps
of blood  came away  the third time.   His heart was sick, and
greatly disordered; and a little  sweat  broke out almost all over,
with a gentle fever.  At first he seemed to be perfectly in his senses;
but, as the day advanced, his sickness  and restlessness increased;
his.breathing was a little quicker; his speech  and reception bolder,
and again  more humane, than occasion required; and he seemed
inclinable to faintings.  Nor did the soups or the  barley-water that
were offered him take them off;  but his  breathing towards evening
was exceedingly difficult; his tossing, first on one side, then on the
other, very great, without being able to rest one moment.   His feet
were cold,  his temples and head rather hot,  with many little sweats
about them,  as death  approached.   His drink occasioned, as it
passed, a sound about the breast and stomach; which was as bad
a  sign as  could  be: and, while he wTas  saying  that  something
wanted to  pass downwards, he  fixed his eyes, and  in a short time
expired.
   Hermoptolemus's wife was taken in the winter time with a fever
and pains in her head.  Whenever she drank, it was with so much
difficulty that she got up and said she had a great uneasiness at her
heart, or at least the mouth of her stomach.  Her tongue was livid
from the  beginning;  and the  occasion of all seemed to be a chilli- 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
421
 ness after bathing.  She got no sleep night nor day.  After the first
 days she complained no more (upon our asking) of the pain of her
 head, but of pain all over her body.   Her  thirst  was sometimes
 vehement, at other times moderate.  The fifth and sixth, and almost
 to  the ninth, she was delirious, but came in some measure to her-
 self again, and spoke her words by halves, being comatose.  Some-
 times she reached out her hand  to the wall, and clapped a  little
 cold pillow that was under her head to her breast.  At other times
 she threw off the clothes.  Her right eye was a little bloody, and
 wept.  Her urine such as we always count bad  in children.  Her
 stools from the first  yellowish, and afterwards very watery, but of
 the same  colour.   The  eleventh day the heat seemed to be more
 moderate.  The thirst left her  sometimes so far, that, if they did
 not give her any thing, she never asked.   After the first time she
 commonly slept in the day, and kept awake in the night, complain-
 ing of more pain at that time.  The ninth, her stools were watery,
 and so they  were the eleventh.  The following days she commonly
 got up often, and  had the same  sort of stools.   The first days of
 her illness she was violently passionate, grieved  like a child, cried
 out aloud, was frightened, and  looked  about her, when she came
 out of her coma.   The fourteenth, it was a hard matter to hold her,
 she jumped  and bawled so, on a  sudden, and with as much vehe-
 mence, as if she had been struck, or was in great pain, or in a great
 surprise from somebody's seizing  and detaining her a little.  After
 this she was quiet again, comatose, and slept perpetually, without
 seeing at  all, and  sometimes  without  hearing, but not without fre-
 quent changes (almost the whole  day)  from one to another, first of
 ruffle, then of quiet.  The next night she voided  something a little
 bloody like slime, and again like  muddy slimy stuff, and after this
 very leeky and black.  The fifteenth, violent agitations of the body
 with frights, but the bawling moderate.   Upon this followed fierce-
 ness, rage, and crying, if what she had a mind to was not reached
 her presently.  She knew every body and every thing immediately
 from the first days.   That about her eye went no further; but her
 unreasonable madness, and bawling, together with the change be-
fore-mentioned, followed to the coma. She heard unequally; some-
times  very well, even though  one spoke but low; at other times a
louder voice  was necessary.   Her feet were always of an equal
warmth to the last with the rest of her body, but the sixteenth less.
The seventeenth,  greater moderation than the other days; but at 
422               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

night, contracting herself as if a chilliness had come upon her, she
grew more feverish and  very dry, other complaints of the like kind
following.  Her hands trembled ; her head shook ; her eyes looked
bad;  her thirst so vehement, that, after she had drank, she asked
again, snatched the mug, and drank plentifully; nor could they pull
it away from her.   Her tongue was dry and very red;  her whole
mouth and  lips ulcerated and dry.  She  carried both her hands to
her mouth  trembling, and fell  a  chewing;  and, if any one offered
her something  to  chew or  sup, she drank and  supped  plentifully
and like a mad woman,  looking all the time badly.  Three or four
days before she died, such a  chilliness came upon her that her body
was  contracted and covered up, and her breathing  rendered very
difficult.  Her legs were stiff, her feet cold, her thirst  and under-
standing, as before.  Her gettings up to stool were either to no
purpose, or what came away was little and thin, with some small
tension.   The  last day of all,  viz.,  the twenty-third, the eye was
large in the morning, and she looked about but little, and was easy,
sometimes without being covered, or without  being comatose; but
in the evening the right eye moved about, from the external angle
to the nose, as if she was looking at, or  wanted, something.  She
knew every body, and answered to what was asked her.   A little
after  this, her  speech, broke with bawling  and hoarse  withal, fal-
tered.
  Amphiphrades's  son was taken in the summer with a pain of his
left side, a cough, and many watery bilious stools.  The fever seem-
ed to go off about the seventh, but  the cough  continued.   His spit-
ting  was whitish and palish; but about the fourteenth, of a pale
yellow colour.   As the disease advanced, his breathing was always
thicker and asthmatical, attended with a kind of wheezing about
his breast and windpipe.  He made use of soups, and kept his senses
all along.   About  the twenty-eighth he died.   Sweats sometimes
broke out.
  The cook, that had an inflammation of his lungs, had also a dis-
charge downwards immediately.   About the fourth  he  sweated
much; the  fever seemed to go off; and his cough was nothing to
speak of.   The fifth, sixth, and  seventh, was feverish  again, and
sweated again  the eighth.  The ninth, hawked  up pale yellow mat-
ter.  The tenth, purged  very much, but not often.   The  eleventh,
was  easier; and the fourteenth, quite well.
  Hermoptolemus, after  the  setting of the Pleiades,  grew feverish, 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
423
coughed a little, and his tongue was as  in an  inflammation of the
lungs.   The  ninth, he sweated, and was cold  all  over, to appear-
ance.  About noon they gave him the cream of barley, and he grew
hot.   The eleventh, he sweated again;  and, upon his belly's being
disturbed, had bilious stools that were followed by a small cough.
The fourteenth, what he hawked up was pale, and he rattled in his
throat.  The fifteenth, after having been sensible all the time, he
died.
  Another person  had  the like noise upon  the roof of his mouth;
his tongue was dry, as in an inflammation of the lungs; his senses
remained, and he died.
  Posidonius was  also taken, in  the summer, with  a  pain in his
breast, hypochondres, and Tside, that lasted a long time, but without
a fever.  Many years before he had had a collection of matter in
his breast; and, being chilly in  the winter, the pain  increased, and
a little fever came on.   What he  hawked  up was  purulent.  His
cough  was attended with  a wheezing in his throat  and a rattling.
He also kept his senses to the last moment.
  Bales's son, having been guilty of all kind of irregularities in the
summer, had upon the sixth day a very red bad tongue; a falter-
ing voice; discoloured eyes, that moved up  and down as in wink-
ing, for want of sleep;  and the colour  of the  rest of his body not
very much upon the jaundice, but palish and livid.  His voice was
bad, and  not  distinct; his tongue, as  in an  inflammation of the
lungs; his senses, not perfect;  his breathing,  manifestly bad, and
yet neither thick, nor deep;  his  feet, cold as stones.   About the
ninth he died.
  The woman with the quinsy, who lived at or by Metron's, had a
pain of her right hand and leg, with a little fever, a gentle cough,
and a suffocation.  The third  day, a remission.   The fourth, was
convulsed and dumb, rattled in the  throat,  grated  her teeth, and
had a redness in her cheeks. Not  being able to hold  out any longer,
she died the fifth or sixth; and of this the lividness that was in her
hand was a sign.
  Bion, after having been long ill of a dropsy, had an aversion to
eating  many days, and was taken with  a strangury.   An abscess
came upon the left knee, that suppurated; and he died.
  Ctesiphon fell into a dropsy after  a  violent  burning  fever; and,
being dropsical and splenetic before, the scrotum, legs, and  belly
were filled prodigiously.   Towards the  conclusion a  cough came 
424               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

on, with stranglings in the  night, more  from the lungs (as  those
have whose lungs are vitiated) than elsewhere.  Three or four days
before he died, he shivered, was feverish, and, in the inner part of
the right thigh by the middle vein that comes from the groin, a sort
of lividish erysipelas gathered, that had withal a redness.  At night
a pain seized him about the heart, which  was soon followed by loss
of speech, strangling, rattling, and death.
   One in Olynthus, who had  also the  dropsy, presently lost his
speech, was lightheaded day and night, and died.
   Prodromus's son could not speak plain  in the  summer;  had  a
burning  fever; a tongue  so  dry that  his words could hardly be
heard; a violent purging; and recovered.
   Leophorbidas  had an  acute  fever, after  the  winter  solstice, at-
tended with a pain  of the flanks and belly; many liquid bilious
stools; a stupid heaviness in the daytime; a peripneumonic tongue,
and no cough.  The twelfth,  his stools  were black, little, and leeky.
The  fourteenth, the fever seemed to go  off; after which  he made
use of soups. The sixteenth, the mouth was very salt and dry. The
beginning of the evening a shivering came  on,  and a fever.  The
twenty-first, about the middle of the day, he shivered and sweated.
The  fever went  off,  but yet  a little heat remained.  At night he
sweated  again*  The twenty-second at  night another sweat, and
the heat abated.  All the former days he was without a sweat, but
the belly was humid, even in the relapse that afterwards seemed to
happen.
   Theocles's relation, who lived  above,  was taken with an acute
fever, during the Pleiades.  The sixth day it seemed to go off, and
she bathed herself as if it was gone. The seventh, in the morning
her cheek was very red, but which I don't remember.  In the even-
ing she was very feverish again, fainted, and lost her speech.  Soon
after this she sweated, and recovered perfectly the seventh.
   Theodorus's wife  lost a great deal  of blood in a fever  in the
winter time; and,  upon the fever's  going  off  the  second day,  a
weight first attacked her in her right side as if from the womb, and
afterwards an acute pain of the breast.   The pain in the side, upon
fomenting the  part, abated.  The fourth, her pains returned.  Her
breathing was quicker; the windpipe wheezed  a little, as she was
scarce able to fetch her breath; and, lying with her face upwards,
she could not easily be turned.  At night the fever was  more acute,
attended with a short delirium. The fifth in the morning she seemed 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
425
to be easier.  A little sweat  broke out first upon the forehead for
a short time, and then  was diffused  for a  long  time  over all the
body down to the feet.  After this the violence of the  heat abated,
and the body was colder to the touch than  it seemed  to be by the
arteries, the beating of which was greater in  the temples than any
where  else.  Her breathing was  quicker;  now  and then she was
delirious; and  worse in all respects.  Her tongue was  all  along
very white; and she had no  cough,  except a little while the third
and the fifth day.   She had no thirst, but spit.   Her right hypo-
chondre was very  much tumefied  about  the fifth, but after that
softer.   The third,  she had a little stool from a  suppository.  The
fifth, another that was liquid.  The belly was soft. The urine viscid
and like seed.   The eyes like one fatigued, looking up and moving
about with  difficulty.  The fifth, at  night,  she was very much out
of order, and after that delirious.  The  sixth, she sweated  much,
about the same hour that the forum used to be full, first in the fore-
head, and afterwards all over  a  long time.  She  came to herself,
and put her affairs in order; but about the middle of the day was
very delirious.  As to the cold, that was as before ; but every thing
about the body was heavier.  In the  evening her leg fell out of bed;
she threatened her little boy unreasonably;  then  held her tongue,
and was quiet  again.   About  the first sleep she was very  thirsty
and  mad;  sat down  and  abused  the  company; then held her
tongue, and was quiet again, and seemed to  doze  away the  rest of
the night, but her eyes  were  not closed.  The next day she answer-
ed for  the most part with nods; was quiet in her body, and tole-
rably  sensible  in  her  mind;  and  sweated  again the  same day.
Her eyes were dejected as before, rather lying upon the lower eye-
lid, and looking fixed  and  stupidly.  The whites were  pale and
deadish, and the whole colour pale and black.   Her hands were
generally employed about the wall,  or the  clothes.  A great noise
attended drinking,  and  it was returned upwards by the  nose.  She
spread out  her hands, picked up the nap of the bedclothes, and hid
her face.   After sweating,  her hands were like  crystals;  a cold
sweat  followed, and the body was cold to  the touch.  She jumped
up, bawled out, grew mad, breathed hard, trembled in  her  hands,
and, as she drew near  her end, was  convulsed.   The seventh day
she died.   The sixth, made but little water in the night, and that,
upon drawing it out with a  twig, appeared viscid and  seedy;  got 
426
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
no sleep  all the time; and after  the sixth  day made water a little
bloody.
  Antiphanes's son had a pain of his right side in the winter, with
a cough  and fever; but yet he eat, went about, was a little feverish,
and seemed to have something broke within him.   The  ninth, the
fever remitted, but did not leave him;  his cough was much, thick,
and frothy; his side was painful.  About the fourteenth, and again
about the twentieth,  his fever seemed  to  leave him, but  returned
again.  The heat indeed was but small, and in  a little time left him.
The cough was sometimes gone, sometimes vehement, with much
strangling; then it abated, and  he hawked up  afterwards a great
deal, coughing as if  he should  be choked.  The purulent matter,
that fell upon the vessel, boiled and frothed; and in  the throat was
generally a hoarse roughness and a kind of  wheezing.   He was
always asthmatical, and breathed quick ; seldom well.  After forty
days, and near sixty (as I remember), the left eye was blinded by a
tumour without pain; and, not  long after, the right.  The pupils
were very white and dry; and  in a short  time after this blindness
(not above seven  days) he died, rattling  in the throat, and  talked
much out of the way.                                   *
  The like symptoms happened from the like causes about the same
time to Thessalion, as to the boiling, the frothing, the pus, the cough,
and the hoarse roughness in the throat.
  Polemarchus's wife had a swelling about the windpipe in a quinsy
in the  winter, and was very feverish.   Upon being let blood the
strangling in the throat went off, but the  fever continued.   About
the fifth her left knee was painful and  swelled; something seemed
to be gathered  about her heart; and she  breathed  as a  man does
after being dipped over head and ears.  Such a sound came from the
breast, as those impostors make,  who, in prophesying events, speak
from their  belly, and are therefore  called sJyaspifxuSoi.  About the
eighth  or ninth at night a purging  came  on,  and  her stools were
many,  liquid, tumultuous,  bad, and  fetid.   Her speech  failed her,
and she died.
  Aristippus, after receiving  a wound  in his  belly from a javelin,
had a great deal of difficulty to survive it.  A violent pain of the
belly came on, which heated it presently to such a degree that no-
thing passed downwards.  He was sick at his  stomach, and vomit-
ed bile of a very deep colour, after which  he seemed to be  easier,
but in a little while his pains  returned  again with vehemence; the 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
427
 belly was burnt up  as  in an ileus; he  grew hot and  dry, and in
 seven days expired.
   Neopolis, from the like wound had the same complaints; but by
 the use of a sharp glyster had a great discharge downwards.  The
 colour diffused over  him was  thin, pale, black.   His eyes  were
 squalid, heavy, turned inwards, and fixed.
   He, who was wounded upon the  liver by a dart near hand, had
 his colour changed presently to  deadish.  His eyes were hollow;
 and, after tumbling and tossing  about with great anxiety, he died
 before  the  assembly  was  dismissed,  the very day that he was
 wounded.
   He who was wounded upon the head  with a stone by the Mace-
 donian, though the wound was little more than skin deep upon the
 left temple, was seized with a dizziness,  and fell down.   The  third
 day he lost his speech, was  exceedingly restless, feverish but not
 much, and had a small beating in his temples, as when the heat is
 mild.   Add to this, that he lost his hearing and his  senses, and
 could  take  no rest.   The fourth day a dew broke out about his
 forehead,  and  under the nose down  to the chin.  The fifth, he  died.
   vEniates  was wounded in Delus with a javelin upon  the  back
 part of his left side, but  the wound was not painful.  The  third day
 his belly was  in a little pain, and voided nothing;  but, upon having
 a  glyster  at night, a  stool followed, and the pain went off.  The
 anus came out to the scrotum.   The  fourth, such  a  violent  pain
 seized  the pubes and  the whole belly, that he could not rest.  Bilious
 vomitings of a deep  colour came on;  his eyes were  pale with a
 greenish cast, and  like  the  appearance they make in a  swoon.
 After five  days he died.   Add to  this, he was a little hot.
   Audellus being wounded in the back, a great deal of  wind came
 through the wound with a  noise, and blood followed it; but, upon
 applying,  with a bandage, the medicine for  green wounds, he re-
 covered.
   Philias's most unfortunate boy,  upon the  forehead's being laid
 bare, was  taken with a fever the ninth day.  The bone turned livid,
 and he died.
   Phanius's son, and Euergus's,  upon  the bone's  being  livid, at-
tended with a  fever, had a separation of the skin from the bone!
but the  pus  made its way inwards.  Upon applying the trepan, a
thin, serous, palish, fetid, deadly sanies  came up from the very
bone. 
428               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  Vomitings came on in these patients, and towards the conclusion
convulsions.  Some in this case make a shrill noise, and others are
quite impotent.   Again, if the wound happens on the right side, the
left is affected;  if on the left, the right.
  Theodorus's son, basking himself in the sun, the ninth day, was
taken with a fever the tenth from the bone's being bare, though no-
thing at all to speak of.   A lividness came on with the fever; the
skin separated;  and his voice was very shrill.  The twenty-second
his belly swelled, especially about the flanks.   The twenty-third he
died.
  Those,  whose bones are  broke,  are feverish  upon the seventh
day;  sooner, if the weather be hot; and immediately, if they are
very much broke.
  Exarmodus's  little boy  was affected pretty much in this manner,
and had a pain of his thigh, but not opposite to the  wound.  His
voice was also shrill, and his neck painful.
  Posidocreon was convulsed the third  day, continually hot, and
died the eighteenth.
  Isagoras's son, who was wounded in the back part of his head,
recovered the fifth, though the bone was shivered and turned black,
but did not separate.
  The master of a great ship had the forefinger and the lower bone
of his  right hand broke  to pieces.   An  inflammation came on, a
mortification, and a fever. The fifth day  he was  purged moderate-
ly ; the heat and pain abated; and part of the finger fell off.   After
the seventh, a little  gleet came away;  and after  this he said he
could not  pronounce his words plain.  A prediction was made, that
that kind of convulsion which draws one  backward would happen;
to which  contributed  the jaws  being  set, and drawn  down to the
neck.  The third day the above-mentioned convulsion seized him
all over, and he sweated.  The sixth day after  the prediction he
died.
  Telephanes's  son, by Harpalus' freed woman,  received a wound
or bruise of his  great toe.  An  inflammation came on, with a vast
deal of pain. Upon its abating  he went  into the field, and, as he
was going, a pain took him in his loins, for which he  used bathing.
At night  his jaws were  set, and the convulsion that draws  one
backward seized him.  What he spit was  frothy, and came from
him through his teeth with difficulty.   The third day he died.
  Zeno, the son of Damon, had an ulcer about the bone of  the leg 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
429
or the ankle by the tendon, that was now grown clean.  Upon the
application of a corroding medicine he fell into  convulsions of the
opisthotonic kind, and died.
   Menon, who  was but in  a weak  condition (about the  rising of
Arcturus and before) from a fever in the summer  and a looseness,
upon being fatigued with a  journey was taken with a pain of his
left side; and the  cough, that he had had before  from a catarrh,
was now become vehement.   He could  get no sleep, and bore his
fever from the very first with  great uneasiness.  The third day he
sat down, and spit pale matter with a gentle wheezing and rattling
in his windpipe.  About the fifth day his breathing was commonly
thick; his feet,  shins, and extremities for the most  part cold and
uncovered.   A  bilious  looseness  came on from the first, and was
moderate enough.  The seventh,  eighth, and ninth he seemed to
bear his illness easier, got some sleep, and what  he hawked up was
more digested.  The tenth, and even to the fourteenth, it was very
white and clear.  The right hypochondre was softer, and made the
breathing easier; but the left was distended.  However, upon using
a suppository, a moderate discharge followed.   The thirteenth, the
spitting was pale again, and more so the fourteenth.   The fifteenth,
it was of a leek-colour; and a fetid, bilious, liquid  stool  followed
frequently.  The left  hypochondre was swelled.  The sixteenth, the
swelling was very great; he rattled in his breathing; sweated about
the forehead and neck, seldom about the breast.  The extremities,
and the  forehead, were generally cold;  the vessels  in the temples
kept beating; his  sleeps were comatose day and night towards the
conclusion;  and his urine crude from the first, and of the  colour of
ashes.  About the tenth, and  to the  thirteenth, it was thin, and not
coloured  at all; but from the  thirteenth, just as at  the beginning.
  Cleochus had a pain of his  side and  a fever.   The fever after-
wards remitted, a sweat came on  all over, a great deal went off by
urine; after which it grew very turbid.
  About  the setting of the  Pleiades, Olympiades's wife, who was
eight months gone with child, was taken with an  acute fever upon
a fall.  Her tongue was dry,  reddish, and of a pale yellow, as in a
burning  fever.  Her  eyes were of a pale  yellow, and the colour
deadish.  The fifth day she  miscarried without any difficulty, and
her sleep seemed to be of the  comatose kind.  In the evening, when
they took her up, she was not sensible, but recovered her hearing 
430               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

a little by the help of a sternutatory.   She also drank some ptisan,
and coughed a little in the drinking, but did not recover her  voice
by it, or bring any thing up.   Her eyes looked dejected; her breath
was fetched with much heaving, and drawn through her nose; her
colour was  bad;  and a little before she died, a sweat appeared upon
her feet and legs.
  Nicolaus's wife had large swellings behind both her ears from a
burning fever;  one of which a short time after (the  fever now
seeming to  abate upon the swelling's  appearing) subsided about the
fourteenth  day, without any signs of solution;  and so the fever re-
turned again.  The colour was deadish; the tongue  rough, very
thick, whitish, and dry; the discharge downwards much,  liquid,
and fetid all the  time; and, before she died, (which happened  about
the twentieth) her body was consumed by the quantity.
  Before the setting  of the Pleiades, Andreas  was taken with  a
chilliness, a fever, and vomiting.  It appeared to be a semitertian
from  the first.   The  third  day, while  he was  attending the forum
again, he grew  chilly and feverish;  vomited pure bile;  was  light-
headed, and at night  easier  again.  The fifth, was very much out
of order. The sixth, had some good stools from  an infusion of mer-
cury.  The seventh was worse, and after this the fever was more
continual.  He had no sweats from the  beginning, and was thirsty.
His  mouth in particular was dried up a little, and he could  drink
nothing with pleasure, there  was so much  disagreeableness  about
his mouth.  His  tongue  was dry, inarticulate, rough, and of a pale
white colour.  He was  also watchful, sick at  his stomach, relaxed
all over, and  as  it were  broke to  pieces.   His tongue was some-
times so dry that he  could not  speak, without  stammering,  till he
had  washed his   mouth.   What he  lived  most upon  was ptisan.
The  ninth  or tenth day, the  little swellings that were behind his
ears  disappeared without any sign.  The  urine all along  had  a
colour, but  no sediment.  The fourteenth, he sweated upwards, not
much indeed, but moderately.  The seventeenth, the heat went off.
After the tenth,  his body was so bound as to  discharge nothing
without suppositories.  About the twenty-fifth,  small pustules that
itched a little, and were hot, as if burnt with fire, broke out. A pain
was  also felt about the  armpits and the sides, which afterwards
removed to the legs, without any signs that were critical, and there
ceased.  Bathing was of service, and anointing with  the ointment 
                 THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.            43j

 made with vinegar.  Two, or perhaps three, months after, the pain
 that he had complained of at times fixed upon his kidneys.
   Aristocrates was taken, about the winter solstice, with a lassi-
 tude, a chilliness, and heat.  The third day a pain of his  side and
 loins came on, together with a hard swelling, that, arising from the
 armpit, reached all over the right side, and was red  the whole way
 at first, but afterwards livid, as if heated  and burnt with fire.  He
 was also sick  at his stomach;  bore his  illness badly; was  very
 thirsty;  had a whitish  tongue;  made no water; and was coldish
 in his feet.  After an infusion of mercury he  had a small, liquid,
 whitish,  frothy discharge downwards.  At night he heaved very
 much  in  his breathing; sweated a little  about  the  forehead, was
 cold in his extreme parts; sick at his stomach and restless; bloated
 in his neck, but without a cough; and died very sensible.
   Onesianax had an inflammation  of his eyes about the autumn,
 and  afterwards a quartan ; in the beginning of which he was very
 averse to food, but  in the progress  of it very well pleased with it.
 Polychares was also affected in a  quartan  after the same manner
 as to eating; but Onesianax had a looseness before and for a long
 time after his fever, attended  with a discharge of much white mu-
 cous matter; sometimes a little blood came away,  without either
 trouble or  pain; and, besides these, he had a rumbling  noise in his
 belly.  After the fever a hard tumour was formed about the anus,
 which remained  undigested a long time,  but at  last  broke into the
 gut,  and became fistulous  outwardly.  As he was walking in  the
 forum, flashes  appeared  before his  eyes,  that  hindered  him from
 seeing the sun  very  well.   Upon quitting  his place he was a little
 lightheaded and convulsed in his neck; and, when he was brought
 home, he scarce saw any thing,  and was  hardly himself.  First of
 all he looked about upon those that stood around him ; and his body
 was so cold that it could scarce be  warmed by the  application of
 warm things, and fomentations applied under him.  When he came
 to himself, and  got  up, he was not  for going out, but said he was
 afraid; and, if any body spoke of dangerous diseases, he withdrew
 himself for fear.  Sometimes he said he was hot in his  hypochon-
 dres, and  the flashing of his eyes followed upon  it.  His evacua-
 tions downwards were copious, frequent, and like what he had had
in  the winter.   He was  blooded,  took  hellebore, drank cow's milk,
and before that, ass's, which agreed  well with him, and stopped his 
432               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

looseness.  He likewise drank water from the beginning,  walked
about, and was purged in his head.
  Anechetus's son was thus affected in the winter.  Upon being
anointed by the  fire  after bathing he grew hot,  and immediately
fell  into  convulsions  like epileptic fits;  and,  when many of these
had attacked him, he looked about, and was not quite in his senses.
After coming to himself he was convulsed again the next morning,
but did not foam  much.  The third  day he  could not speak dis-
tinctly.   The fourth,  made signs with his tongue.   The fifth, could
not speak  at all, but was stopped at the beginning of the  words;
and the very same day his tongue was very much affected ;  a con-
vulsion came on, and he grew lightheaded again.  Upon a remis-
sion of these, his tongue recovered, with difficulty, its former state.
The  sixth, he abstained from every  thing, not  excepting his soups
and drink, and took nothing more.
  Cleochus, after weariness  and exercise, was seized with a swell-
ing in his  right knee upon  the use of honey for  some days, espe-
cially towards the  lower part about the tendons that are under the
knee.  He went about, however, though a little lame.   The calf of
the leg swelled, and was hard even to the foot  and the right ankle.
His gums about his teeth were large,  like grape-stones,  livid, black,
and without  pain, when he did not  eat.  His legs were free from
pain too, but when he got up: for the swelling came upon the left
side, and was not so livid.   In the  swellings that were about the
knees and feet, something like pus seemed to be contained;  and at
last he could  neither  stand nor go upon his heels, but was forced to
keep  his  bed.  Sometimes  he  was  manifestly  hot;  loathed his
victuals; and  yet was not  very thirsty, nor got up to his seat.  A
sickness and uneasiness  attended him, and sometimes he was pusil-
lanimous.  Hellebore  was prescribed him, and his head was purged.
His mouth was also  relieved with  the medicine made of the chips
of frankincense, mixed with other things.   Lentil broth was also of
service to the ulcers in his mouth.  The sixtieth, the swellings sub-
sided  upon the second dose of hellebore, and  only a pain affected
the knees as he was laid.  A humour mixed with  bile fell upon his
knees, and  that many days before he took the  hellebore.
  Pisistratus  had a pain and weight in  his shoulder a long time,
while he was walking about, and  in other respects well.  But in
the winter a great pain of the side attacked him with heat, a cough,
and a hawking up of frothy blood, which brought on a rattling in 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
433
the throat.   He bore all this well, and was  perfectly in his senses.
The  heat, the hawking,  and the rattling  abated;  and about the
fourth or fifth day he got well.
   Simus's wife, who was shook in her delivery, had a pain about
her breast and side, accompanied  with a cough, a fever, purulent
hawkings, and a consumption.  The fever lasted six months, with
a continual looseness.  At last the fever stopped, and after that the
looseness; but in seven days' time she died.
  Euxenus's wife, too, seemed to derive her illness from fomenting.
The  heat  never left her, but was rather greater towards the even-
ing, and she sweated all  over.  When the fever was  about to in-
crease, her feet, and  sometimes her legs and knees, were cold; a
little dry cough came on, when the  fever began to grow worse,
and  then ceased; but a rigor all over continued a long time;  and
she was all along free from thirst.  Upon taking a purge, and whey
afterwards, she grew rather worse.  From the beginning she  was
entirely free from pain, and breathed well; but about the middle of
the time a pain  took her in her right side, attended with  a cough,
an asthma, and a hawking up of little, white, thinnish matter.   The
chilliness was no longer from the feet, but from the neck and back;
the belly was more  liquid ;  the fever abated with a great sweat;
and  the coldness returned again.  Her asthma had great variety,.
and she died in her senses the seventh day after the remission.
   Polemarchus's wife began to be feverish in  the summer, but it
left her the sixth day.  After this she crept about, was hot at night,
and, after another intermission, the fever seized her again, and  held
hec near three months, with a  violent cough, and  a  hawking  of
phlegm.  From the twentieth day her breathing was always quick;
noises were  heard in the breast; and a sweat was commonly upon
her.  In a morning  the fever was  milder;  a  chilliness sometimes
came on ;  and sleep  ensued.   She was also sometimes loose in her
body, sometimes bound ;  and tasted her victuals tolerably.  About
the middle of the time a pain took her in her knees and legs, so that
she could neither bend  nor  stretch them  out  without assistances
and this complaint of the legs  continued to the last.  As she drew
near her end, her feet  swelled  up to the  legs, and  upon being
touched were  painful.   The sweats  and  the  shivering went off,
and the fever was always increasing.   Before she died, a looseness
came on,  but  her senses still continued.   Three days  before she
                              28 
434               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

went off, a rattling in the throat came on, and upon the return of it
she expired.
  Hegesipolis's little boy had a gnawing pain about  his navel near
four months, which  in time increased.   He  beat and twitched his
belly;  was troubled with heats;  and wasted away, except  in his
bones.   His feet and testicles swelled.   That part of his belly was
puffed  up, as  when a disturbance or looseness of the belly is coming
on.  He was also averse to food, and lived upon nothing but milk.
As he  drew near his end a looseness came on, with  a discharge of
bloody, fetid  sanies; the belly was exceeding hot  with it, and  he
died vomiting  a little phlegmy substance, that one would have
almost taken for seed.
   Plateas's boy had the suture of his head very much hollowed in
his last  moments, and in time of health was always beating the
forepart of his head with his hand, but especially as he drew near
his end, and  yet the head  was not  in  pain.  In the left thigh the
parts below the groin were livid (perhaps the day before), and his
testicles were grown slender.
   Hegetoridas's son was affected in the same manner, and died;
but with this difference, that he had more vomitings towards the
conclusion.
   Hippias's sister, who was ill of a phrensy in the winter, tore her-
self the fifth  day (not knowing  what  she did), as she was doing
something with her hands.   The sixth,  at night she lost her speech,
was comatose, bloated in her cheeks  and lips  as  a person  in his
sleep,  and died the  seventh.
   Asandrus was chilly, had a pain of his side, and in his knees and
thigh; after eating grew delirious, and  in a short time died.
   Cleotimus,  the cobbler,  after a long  illness,  and  a feverish dis-
order, had a  rising like a tubercle about the liver,  which fell upon
the intestines, and occasioned a looseness.  Another such tubercle
came  about the liver above, near the hypochondre, and he died.
   Some were troubled with a violent pain of their head, and heat
at the  same time.   Now where it affects half the head, and some-
thing of a thin or digested humour discharges itself downwards by
the nose, or  ears, or throat, there is the  greatest security;  but
 where these  parts  are dry, and  the  corruption of the brain very
 great, there danger  is to be feared.  If, besides all this, there is a
 ruffling, or  bilious  vomiting, a stupidness  of the  eyes, a  loss of
 speech, or but a word now and then, or any delirium, death and 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
435
 convulsions are then to be feared.  Again, where a pain seizes half
 the head from a catarrh, and, the humour discharging itself by the
 nose, a gentle fever succeeds, in  five or six  days  they grow cold
 again.
   Echecrates, the blind  man, had a  violent pain of his head (rather
 behind,  where  the  neck and head  join), which proceeded  to the
 crown, and in  time to  the  left  ear,  affecting half his head very
 much.  A  mucous  matter came away constantly, but commonly
 burnt a little; a little heat followed it,  with a loathing of his food.
 In the day  he was easy, but in  the night in pain;  and, when the
 pus made its  way out at the ear, every thing ceased.  This erup-
 tion  happened about winter.
   Query,—Whether, in  all collections of matter, and in disorders
 of the eyes, the pains are at  night?
   Those who have coughs  in the  winter, and especially  with the
 southerly winds, are subject to fevers during their hawking up much
 thick matter; but  then  they commonly cease  in five days.  But
 coughs will extend to forty, as in the case of Hegesipolis.
   Those who have sometimes  a  cessation of great heats, are cured
 of them by sweating, not indeed  all  over the body, but either about
 the neck, the armpits, or the head.
   Charit.es was taken in the  winter  with  an acute fever upon a
 cough that was epidemical.   He threw off the bed-clothes ; was
 comatose,  and  uneasy;  his  urine  was red, like the  washing of
 vetches,  with a large white sediment immediately from  the first,
 and afterwards  a reddish.  The seventh, he had  a little stool from a
 suppository.  The coma continued, but without  uneasiness.  A dew
 appeared upon  his forehead.  He  slept at night, and the heat was
 milder.   The eighth,  supped  some  ptisan, and remained comatose
 till the eleventh, the heat in a  great measure then ceasing.  Upon
 coughing he always hawked  up a great deal  with ease, first viscid,
 white, thick, and after that digested  like pus.  The  urine after the
 eleventh  was clearer, the sediment rough.   The thirteenth, a pain
 on the right  side  to  the flank and lower part of the belly.  The
 urine stopped, but was relieved by  an infusion or decoction of the
Calliphyllum.   The fifteenth, the pain returned again.  The six-
teenth, at night, the pain of the flank came more upon the belly, but
 was carried down  by an infusion or decoction of mercury.  The
heat  was spent within twenty days; but the hawking up  of thick
matter with ease continued forty. 
436               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  The bellies of people should be gently purged  in diseases, when
the humours are digested; the lower, when you are satisfied  that
they  are settled downwards:  (this may be  known  by the patient's
not being sick at his stomach or uneasy, or heavy in his head)  and
when the heat is  mildest, or when it ceases after  the  fits; the
upper (or the stomach) in the fits themselves; for, when  the upper
parts are  sick, or uneasy and  heavy, the humours are then raised
upwards spontaneously.  For this reason no purge should be given
at the beginning, because at  such  a time they are purged sponta-
neously, or delays are dangerous.
  The great process of the elbow being wounded by a fall, a mor-
tification came on, and upon that a suppuration.  When the matter
was  digested,  a  thick glutinous  sanies was pressed out,  and soon
stopped, as in the cases of Cleogeniscus and Demarchus,  the son of
Aglaoteles.  So again from  the very same  causes  no  pus came
out,  as  in the case of iEschylus's son ;  but  in  most cases, where
pus is gathering, a chilliness and fever attend.
  Alcmanes,  recovering  from  nephritic  complaints, and being
blooded downwards, the  disease was translated to  the  liver.  The
heart was in such violent pain that the breath was suspended by it;
the belly discharged with difficulty little pellets  like  goats' dung;
there was no sickness or anxiety at the stomach, but  sometimes he
shivered, and was  a little feverish.  He sweated, too, and vomited.
While the pain was upon him, he received no benefit from a glyster
of sea-water, but from a  decoction of brans he  did.   He  had an
aversion to food seven days; drank a simple kind of mead, lentil
broth, and thin panada, with water after it.  He  then drank water,
and  eat a little of a boiled puppy, with  a  small quantity of maize
as old as possible.  As the time advanced, his diet was neat's feet,
or pigs' petty-toes boiled.  The next  day  he drank water again,
rested, and  covered himself up.  For the nephritic  complaint a
glyster of wild cucumber was given.
   Parmeniscus's boy was deaf,  and received  benefit from his ears
being cleansed with wool, and then oil or netopum  poured in, with-
out any syringing. * He  was also ordered  (and to advantage too)
to walk, rise early, and  drink white  wine; to abstain from herbs,
and  to live upon bread and rock-fish.
   Aspasius's wife had a  violent pain of the tooth, with  a swelling
of her jaws.   Upon washing with castor and pepper, and  holding
the same in her mouth, it abated.  Her strangury complaints abated 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.             437
too.  The flour or meal that is mixed with ointment of roses is also
healing.
  Headaches from the womb  are taken off by castor.
  The greatest part of hysterics are caused by winds, as is plain
from belchings, noises  about  the  belly, swelling  of the  loins, and
pains about the kidneys and hips.   Black wine that has  been kept
so long under ground as  to have  nothing of the  must left;  or one
third spices, and two of flour, boiled in sweet-scented white wine,
and poured  upon a cloth, apply, when  it is daubed with the  oint-
ment,  as a cataplasm, where the hysteric pains affect the belly.
  Callimedon's son, who  had  a hard, large, crude, painful tubercle
in his  neck, was relieved  by bleeding in the  arm, and a  cataplasm
of torrefied linseed moistened  with oil and white wine, not hot, nor
much  boiled, or else boiled in  mead with the flour of faenugreek, or
barley, or wheat.
  Melisander was relieved by bleeding in the arm, in a great swell-
ing of the gums, attended with much pain.   Egyptian alum at the
beginning is also of service as a represser.
  Eutychides  was seized at  last  with cramps in  his legs, and a
purging, from a cholera morbus.  He vomited a great deal of bile
of a deep colour, and  very red, for  three days  and nights; drank
something upon his vomiting; was mighty restless, and  sick at  his
stomach;  nor could he contain any thing that  he either drank or
eat.  His  evacuations  by urine and  stool were much suppressed;
soft faeces  came up with the vomitings, and  also made  their way
downwards.
  The Cholera Morbus,  " witness the  case of Bias, the  champion,
who was naturally voracious," proceeds from eating of flesh, espe-
cially swine's, with the blood  in it; vetches; drinking to excess of
old sweet-scented  wine; insolation, or being exposed to the  sun;
from cuttle-fish, lobsters or cray-fish, and  crabs;  and from eating
of herbs, especially leeks and onions.  It  also comes from boiled
lettuce,  cabbage, and the cruder docks; from desserts, sweetmeats,
summer fruits, as apples, and  ripe  cucumbers; from milk and wine
mixed;  from tares,  and new barley meal.
  The  summer is  most  productive  of choleras, and intermitting
fevers, and such as are  attended with  chillinesses.  These are some-
times of a bad sort, and pass into  acute diseases; but care must be
taken.   The fifth, the seventh, and the  ninth days are the principal 
438               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

indicants in these diseases; but it is better to be upon  our guard to
the fourteenth.
  Calligenes, when he was about twenty-five, had a catarrh and a
great cough, attended with much difficulty in  bringing the matter
up, but without any  discharge  downwards.   This continued  for
four  years, with gentle heats at the beginning.  Hellebore was of
no service at all, but a spare diet was, in conjunction with exercises
of several kinds, eating of bread, drinking of black  wine, eating
with bread whatever he would, whether flesh  or fish; and abstain-
ing from every thing sharp, salt, or fat;  the juice of silphium, and
crude herbs; and with walking much.  Drinking of milk  was of no
service, but drinking sonlething more than three spoonfuls of sesa-
mum with soft wine was.
   Timocharis, in the winter, had a defluxion upon his  nose, that
was stopped entirely by venereal recreations.  A lassitude and heat
came on, with a heaviness in the  head,  and a great sweat, first
about the head, and then all over.   Sweats were familiar to him in
time of health.  The third day he recovered.
   Cleomenes's boy began, in the winter, to  loathe his  food;  fell
away upon it, but had no fever;  vomited  his victuals  and phlegm;
and  seemed thus disgusted two months.
   The cook, that had the  bunch upon his backbone after a phrensy,
received no  benefit  from any  kind  of purging potions;  but black
wine, eating of bread, abstinence from bathing, anointing the part,
and  gentle friction after unction, with warming the part gently, and
not by much fomenting, were  of service to him.
   Tesimus's daughter, upon drinking something for that  purpose of
her own head, miscarried of a fcetus thirty days old.  Pain followed
upon it; and, whenever she drank, she vomited  much bilious, pale,
Ieeky,  black  stuff.   The third day was convulsed,  and bit  her
tongue.  The fourth I  came  to  her, and found  her  tongue black
and large; the whites of her eyes red.  She got no sleep, and died
the same day at night.
   The girl that fell from the precipice lost her speech, was exceed-
ingly restless, vomited at  night, bled a great deal from the  left ear
that she fell upon, drank mead with difficulty, rattled in her throat
and breathed  quick like a dying person.   The veins about  her face
were distended;  her position was supine, her  feet warm, her fever
not  much, but yet sometimes  acute, with great stupidness  in her
 understanding.  The seventh, she recovered  her speech; the heats
 were milder; and she got over it. 
                THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.             439

   Onisantides was relieved, in a pain of  his arm in the summer
 time  from an abscess, by bathing or  moistening his body and  his
 arm for a long time in the sea.   For three days together he drank
 a white watery wine lying in the sea, and made water there before
 he came out of it.
   The fuller in Syrus, who was ill of a phrensy, and had a trem-
 bling in his legs after burning, was  marked  upon the skin like  the
 bites  of  gnats.  His eye  was large,  and  the motion quick.  His
 voice broken  or interrupted, but yet distinct  or  intelligible.  His
 urine clear, without a sediment.  Query—Whether from his purg-
 ing with  thapsia 1  The eighteenth it remitted, and went off with-
 out a sweat.
  Nicoxenus, in Olynthus, seemed to have  the like  remission  the
 seventh day  with a sweat.  He afterwards took soups, wine, and
 grapes dried  in the sun.   The seventeenth day I came to him, and
 found his tongue  burnt up, with a  heat upon him, but not very
 vehement outwardly;  his  body was  terribly loose and  flabby;  his
 voice so  broke that it was a trouble  to hear him, though it was at
 the same time distinct;  his temples  fallen;  his eyes hollow;  his
 feet soft and warm; and a distension about his spleen.  He could
 not keep  the glyster, but returned it.   At night a stool came away
 a little solid, and  a  small quantity  of blood; I  suppose from  the
 glyster.  The urine was clear and  bright;  his position  in bed  su-
 pine ; his legs parted as through excessive  weariness; but he could
 get no sleep all the time.  The heat went off within twenty days.
 His drink was bran-water, with the juice of apples and pomegra-
 nates, the juice of  torrefied lentils cold, and the washings of meal
 boiled into  a thin soup.  He got over it.
  The fullers had  large and hard swellings of the glands, without
 pain, about the pubes, and the like about the neck.  A fever attend-
 ed at first for ten days, and a cough  succeeded upon their breaking.
 The  third or the  fourth month the  belly wasted; heats came on;
 the  tongue was dry and thirsty; the evacuations downwards diffi-
 cult; and death put an end to all.
  Pherecydas, after the winter solstice, lost a pain of his right side
 at night that he had been used  to before.   He got his dinner, went
out, was  chilly,  and at night  feverish, but  without pain.  A  dry
cough came on.   A great deal of urine, with much  sediment, that
appeared  from the  first like shavings, smooth, and  dispersed, but
after four days was turbid.   The urine was  not without  colour, 
440               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

and had a sediment, but no collection appeared in the chamber-pot,
when it was cold.  The third day, a natural stool.  The fourth, by
the help of a suppository, stercoraceous and bilious stools, with a
great flux of humours.  He slept a little in the  night, and a little
more in the day; and was  not very thirsty.   The same day, espe-
cially at night, the skin about his forehead and other parts was con-
tinually soft.  The fever seemed to the touch to  be  brought under,
and  a dewy moisture  broke out.  The pulsation of the vessels in
the forehead (or temples) was very obscure.   Whenever he turned,
or went to stool, a heaviness came upon him for a  little while, but
he was free from pain all along from the first, and after being sick
at his stomach a little while vomited.   The seventh, by means of a
suppository had three stools, bilious, stercoraceous, very liquid, and
pale; rambled a  little;  and soon  had  a  dew  upon  his forehead
again.  He  covered  his face with the  clothes, looked about again
to no purpose, as if he saw something; winked again, and threw
his clothes off.  The  ninth,  a sweat began in the  morning about his
breast, and continued till he died.   The fever raged; the delirium
continued; he sweated much about his  forehead, but with a terrible
or whitish appearance; the skin under his  hair was  marked; his
right hypochondre tumefied; and his discharges downwards bilious.
The  eighth, he was marked, as if bit by gnats.   Before he died, he
coughed up things like mushrooms, made of slime and surrounded
with white phlegm; a little before which  he  hawked  up white,
milky, concretions.
   A  certain person was taken with a  chilliness in  his  sleep after
supper.  The next morning he got up,  and complained of a heavi-
ness in his head, was  chilly, vomited, and had the same heaviness
still.   At night it abated, and remained so till about the middle of
next  day.   Then he grew  chilly again, and passed the night but
badly.  The next day he was very feverish, had  a stupidness in his
head, vomited much  bile, the greatest  part of it porraceous; was
better in all respects after it; slept at night;  was cold  all over next
morning; sweated a  little, and had a dew upon the greatest part of
his body.  His spleen (for  he pointed to the  place with his hand)
had a collection of something without pain, that went off again pre-
sently. At night he got no sleep.  About the  hour of the assembly's
meeting, the  fever was exasperated ; a sickness at the stomach came
on; a dizziness; a pain of the intestines and  head; and a vomiting
of porraceous, smooth, viscid  matter like phlegm.   About sunset 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
441
 every thing ceased.  He sweated about the  head and neck;  and
 after vomiting had a stercoraceous, liquid, bilious discharge, neither
 black,  nor convenient.   The  night and  next day were  tolerable.
 At night again he got no sleep; vomited in  the morning as before,
 and also the next day, without any sickness.  The pain of the head
 went off after sweating.   In the evening every thing abated.  The
 ninth, no vomiting, but  he was rather hot.  In  other  respects he
 seemed to  have no fever, but  yet had a pulsation in the temples.
 No pain any where, but  a continual thirst.   The same day, as he
 got up upon the stool, he fainted very  much;  by  means of a suppo-
 sitory he voided black bilious shavings, and what dropped away was
 of a stercoraceous colour.  The  voice was broke; a heaviness at-
 tended  turning; the eyes were hollow; the  skin of the  forehead
 stretched.  As to  the rest, he breathed well, and was composed;
 generally turned to the  wall; and was moist, curved, and at  rest
 in his bed.  His tongue was also smooth  and white.  About  the
 tenth day and  after, the  urine looked red about the edges, and  a
 little  white  in  the middle.   The twelfth, the  same  bilious  and
 abraded droppings  from  the suppository, and  afterwards  faintings.
 After that the mouth  was  dried,  and always washed; and, if the
 water was not  very  cold, like snow itself, he would  say it was
 warm.   There was no thirst complained of.   He always put  the
 clothes off from his breast, nor would  he suffer his  gown  to be
 warmed.  The  fire was at a distance, and  but little.   Both  his
 cheeks  were  red.   After this  his speech was inarticulate, and he
 grew hot again a day or  two, and then it terminated.
  Androthales  lost his speech, was ignorant  of  what passed, and
 withal delirious.  But, these going off, he went about many years,
 and then relapsed.   His tongue remained all the  time so dry, that,
 unless he washed his mouth, he  could not speak.   There was also
 a great bitterness  for the most part.  The mouth of the stomach
 was sometimes in pain, but this was taken off by bleeding.  Drink-
 ing of water  and  mead  was of service to him.  He  also drank
 black  hellebore, but nothing bilious passed off, or but very little.  At
 last, being taken ill in  the winter, a lightheadedness came on;  the
 tongue was affected in the same manner as it had been;  the heat
 was small, and  without pain; the colour of the tongue nothing at
all; and the voice, as  in  a  peripneumony.   He threw the clothes
off of his breast, and ordered them to carry him  out, as though he
wanted to make  water, not being able to speak any thing plain, nor 
442               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

to keep his senses.  He was accordingly led out, and died at night,
after having lain two or three days.
  Nicanor's disorder was of such a kind, that, when he was obliged
to go to a drinking-bout, he was always afraid of a flute; and, when
the piper began to play, the music immediately threw him into such
a great fright, that he was  not able to bear the disorder of it, if it
was  night; but if he heard  it in the day, it gave him no  uneasiness
at all.  This continued with him a long time.
  Timocles, who was with him, seemed to be  dim-sighted, and of a
broken texture of body; and said he could not pass by a precipice,
or over a bridge, or cross a ditch, though never so shallow, and that
through fear of falling; but at  the same time could go  through that
very ditch.   This lasted some  time too.
  Phaenix's  complaint was of such a nature, that flashes like light-
ning seemed to dart from his eye, and generally his right eye. Not
long after, a violent pain seized his right temple, and then his whole
head and  neck.  The back  part of his head at the vertebrae swelled;
and  the tendons were upon the stretch  and hard.   Now if he at-
tempted to move his head, or  to open his teeth, a pain  seized him
from the  violence of the stretch.   Vomitings, whenever they hap-
pened, removed the  pains now  mentioned, or made  them easier.
Bleeding was also of service; and hellebore draughts brought away
all sorts of humours, especially porraceous.
  Parmeniscus, who was  formerly in a despairing way, and desi-
rous of death, would  sometimes be in his right senses, and well dis-
posed.  In  Olynthus, he was  taken one  autumn  with a  loss  of
speech, but lay quiet, attempting to speak as little as possible; and,
when he did speak any thing, he lost his speech again.   Sometimes
he slept,  sometimes  kept  awake; tossed about without saying a
word; was under great anxiety, and clapped his hand to his hypo-
chondre, as if he was  in pain  there.  Sometimes he turned away
his face, and lay quiet; was feverish continually, but breathed well.
At last he said he knew those that came in.  Sometimes he would
not drink for a whole day and night, though it was offered him; at
another time he would snatch up  the  pitcher, and drink all the
water.  His urine was thick like that of beasts of burden.   About
the fourteenth it abated.
  Conon's maid-servant, from  a pain that began in her head, grew
lightheaded, bawled and lamented  mightily, and was seldom quiet. 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.             443
About the fortieth day she died, but lost her speech, and was con-
vulsed, ten days before she died.
  Timochares's servant  died in the same manner, and about the
same time, affected (to appearance) with the same melancholy dis-
orders.
  Nicolaus's son was  taken  about the winter solstice with  a chilli-
ness  after a drinking-bout, and was feverish at night.  The next
day he vomited a little pure bile.  The third, while  the assembly
was full, sweated all over; lost his fever, but soon  grew hot again.
About the middle of the  night shivered, was very feverish, and the
next day shivered again at the same hour, but soon grew hot again,
and vomited as before.   The fourth, from an infusion of  mercury
had a very good stercoraceous  liquid stool, but  somewhat fetid.
The urine was of the  colour of ashes, not unlike the mercury infu-
sion,  but without any sediment; nor  was  there much urine, and
but little cloud.  The left  flank and  loins were in pain.  He thought
to fetch his breath  well  after vomiting,  but fetched it sometimes
double.  His tongue was  white, and had a small concretion sprout-
ing out like a lupine, on the right side.   He was withal  a little
thirsty, watchful, and  lightheaded.  The sixth, his right eye seemed
larger than ordinary.  The  seventh, he died ;  but before his death
his belly swelled, and  his  back parts were red after death-
  Meton,  after the setting of the Pleiades,  had a fever, and a pain
of the left side to the collar-bone, so acute that he could not  possibly
rest.   The inflammation  continued, and  his stools were many and
bilious.  In about three days the  pain  went off, and the heat about
the seventh or ninth.  A  cough attended, but what he hawked up
was neither somewhat bilious, nor large in quantity, but a coughing
up of  phlegm succeeded.  He tasted what  he eat, and sometimes
went out  as if he was well; but was sometimes taken  with little
heats, that lasted not  long.   Gentle sweats came on at night.   His
breath, while  the heat was upon him,  was thicker; his cheek red;
and about his side,  under his armpits, and even to his shoulder, he
felt a  weight.   The  cough continued; and the medicine  he took
brought away bilious stuff upwards. The third day after the physic,
pus broke out, forty days from the first of his illness.  About five-
and-thirty days after,  he was purged again, and grew well.
  Theotimus's wife,  in a semitertian, was  sick at her stomach,
vomited,  was chilly  at the beginning, and  dry.   As it advanced,
the heat was  very great  at  the beginning of a fit; but upon drink- 
444
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
ing mead, and returning  it again,  the chilliness  and the  sickness
went off; after which she drank the juice of quinces.
  Diopethes's sister, in a semitertian, had a violent pain  at the
mouth of her stomach, when the fit came on, and it lasted the whole
day.  Other women had nearly the same complaint; but, about the
setting of the Pleiades, men  were more  rarely affected in this
manner.
  Apomotus's wife, about the time of Arcturus, had a violent pain
at the mouth of her stomach  upon a fit, in a semitertian, coming on.
She vomited too, and had hysterical chokings at  the same time, be-
sides pains in the back near the spine.  These, when they got there,
put an end to her stomach-pains.
  Terpidas's  mother, who came from  Doriscus, after miscarrying
of twins by a  fall in the fifth month (one coming a way immediately,
enclosed  in a certain  membrane,  and the  other  in about forty
days), conceived again.   But in  the ninth year she complained of
violent pains in the stomach a long time, beginning sometimes from
the neck and spine, and  ending in the lower part of the stomach
and groins; at other times from the right knee, and ending in the
same  place.  When  the  pains were about the  stomach, the belly
was swelled; and when it went off, the heartburn came on, without
any stranglings indeed, but  the  body was as cold as if it laid in
water.  At the time the pain was upon  her, the  other pains re-
turned all over, but with  more mildness than at first.   Garlic, sil-
phium, and all acrid things signified nothing; nor sweet, nor acid
things, nor white wines, but black wines, and  bathing now and then
were of service.   Terrible vomitings came on from the  beginning,
and no food could  be taken ;  nor did her menses come down with
the pains.
  Cleomenes's wife,  about  the time of the west wind's  blowing,
was taken, after a sickness at her stomach  and a  weariness, with a
pain of her left side, that  began from the neck and shoulder. She
grew feverish, was chilly, and  sweated.  After the fever began, it
abated not, but increased.  The pain was vehement;  a cough came
on, and what she brought up was a little bloody, pale, and in great
quantity.   Her tongue was white; her stools  moderate and liquid;
her urine bilious.  The fourth at night her menses came down plen-
tifully.   The  cough, and  the hawking, abated.   The pain abated
also, and the heat was very moderate.
  Epicharmus's wife, before she was brought to  bed, had  a dysen- 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
445
tery with a  great  deal of pain,  and stools that were  somewhat
bloody and slimy.   Upon  her delivery she grew  well immediately.
  Polemarchus's wife, who had  been  troubled  with  pains in her
joints, was taken on a sudden  with a violent pain in her hip from
her menses not flowing.  Upon  drinking an infusion of bete, she
lost her  voice  a whole night, and to the middle of the next  day.
However, her  hearing and  her understanding were good, and she
made  signs with her hand that  the pain was in her hip.
  Licinius's  sister, who was a little past her bloom, vomited what-
ever she took  for  fourteen  days, without a fever; brought away
blood  in her  vomitings ; and complained  of belchings.  A contrac-
tion and strangling was also about the  heart.  Upon taking castor,
seseli, and the juice of pomegranate, all was stopped ; but a moderate
pain went off to the flank.  The juice of a bulb,  austere  wine milk-
warm, and  loaves as small as possible  dipped  in oil, were made
use of.
  Pausanias's  daughter, qpon eating a raw mushroom, was taken
with a  sickness at her stomach, a strangling,  and a pain of her
belly.   Drinking warm mead, and vomiting, were of service to her,
and so  was warm bathing:  for in the bath she brought up the
mushroom;  and,  when every  thing was going off, she fell into a
sweat.
   Epicharmus, about the setting of  the Pleiades, was taken with a
pain of  his  shoulder, and a very great weight upon the arm.  He
was also sick  at his stomach, vomited  frequently, and drank water.
   Euphranor's son had  eruptions like the bites  of gnats for a little
while, and the next day he  grew feverish.
   After the  west wind, great droughts set in to the autumnal equi-
nox.  In the  dog-days were excessive  heats, hot winds, sweating
fevers,  that  immediately grew hot  again.  Tubercles  behind the
ears appeared in  many; particularly  in the old woman  with the
cough,  about  the  ninth day; in  the young  man whose spleen was
out of order (the  maid-servant's son)  with  a purging at the  same
time; in Ctesiphon, about  Arcturus, and pretty near the seventh
day;  in the boy (the  only case that came to suppuration); in Era-
tolaus's boy, where they went off again on both sides.  No sweats
followed ; but a stuttering or lisping, from the dryness of the tongue.
The  Ornithicc blew much and  cold; snows fell sometimes after
clear weather; and after the equinox came southerly winds mixed
with  northerly, and frequent showers.  Many  coughs  went  about 
 446               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

 epidemically, especially among  children; and in many behind the
 ears  were appearances as in the satyrs.  Sometimes the winter,
 even  before this part of it, was rough and  turbulent, attended with
 snow and northerly showers.
   Timonax's little boy, about two months old, had small eruptions
 on his legs, hips, loins, and lower part of his belly.  The swellings
 were very red, and upon their subsiding, or going in again, convul-
 sions and epileptic fits attacked him, without a fever, for many days
 before his death.
   Polemarchus's son, who had been troubled with a collection of
 matter  and hawking some time before, grew hot afterwards, and
 dropsical, attended  with a swelling of  the spleen, and an asthma.
 If he  went at any time up of high ground, he grew faint and thirsty;
 and sometimes he  had a little aversion to eating.  A dry  cough
 continued with him a long time. However he crept about,  and, if
 he had no  more than one stool a day,  with  ease, he  seemed full,
 and his asthma and suffocation  increased.  At last a  catarrh and
 hawking came upon him with a cough ; and what he brought up
 was thick and pale, but purulent.  The fever was smart, but seemed
 to go off; the  cough was milder;  and  what he hawked tip was
 clear.  The  fever  returned again  with vehemence;  he breathed
 thick, and died, but shivered first in his feet,  and afterwards grew
 cold.   His  breath was more intercepted; his urine  stopped;  his
 extremities cold;  and he died sensible, three days after the return.
   Thynus's  son was oppressed  almost  to  death  with  hunger in a
 burning fever; had  a  great many  stools, with bile,  faintings, and
 much sweating;  grew  very cold, and lost  his speech a whole day
 and night.  The cream  of barley,  that  was poured down, stayed
 with him.  His understanding was clear, and his breath good.
   Epicharmus's son, from walking and drinking, fell into a crudity
 of digestion; and the next day, upon drinking water,  vinegar, and
 salt, in  the  morning,  vomited phlegm.  After  this  he  shivered,
 bathed with  a fever upon  him, and  felt a pain in his breast.  The
 third  day, about daybreak, a  coma seized  him  for a  little  while,
 and he  became delirious, very feverish,  and restless under his dis-
 order.  The fourth, he  could get no  sleep, and died.
   Ariston's  toe was ulcerated.  A  fever came  on, and  he could
 speak distinctly.  The mortification spread up  to  the knee, and
killed  him.   The ulcer was black, dryish, and fetid.
   He, that had the cancer in his throat burnt, was cured by us. 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
447
  Polyphantus, in Abdera, had a pain of his head in a violent fever.
His urine was thick and much, and the sediment  thick and turbid.
The pain of his head not ceasing, medicines were ordered the tenth
day to sneeze with ; after which a violent pain of his neck attacked
him.  The urine  was red and turbid, like that of a beast of burden.
He rambled like a man in a phrensy, and died in strong convul-
sions.
  The domestic of Eualcides was affected in much the same man-
ner.   After the urine had come  away thick  a long time, and  the
head  had been in pain,  she became phrenitic, and died  in  strong
convulsions as the former.  For urine, that is  very thick and turbid,
is a certain sign of pain of the head, convulsions, and death.
  The Halicarnassean, who  lodged  in  Xantippus's  house,  was
troubled in the winter with a pain  in his ear, and a violent  one in
his head.  He was then about fifty.  A vein was opened  by Mnesi-
marchus, from which the head, being emptied and  cooled, was in-
jured; for no suppuration followed.  A phrensy took him, and he
died.  His urine  was also thick.     '
  Metrodorus's son, in  Cardia, had a mortification of the jaw from
a pain of the teeth, and a terrible excrescence  of the  gums.   A
moderate suppuration came on, and both the grinders and the jaw
fell out.
  Anaxenor, in  Abdera, who was  splenetic  and  ill-coloured,  hap-
pened to have a  swelling about the left thigh  that disappeared on a
sudden.  Not many days after,  that which they call epinyctis (from
its beginning in the night) appeared upon the spleen, attended with
a hard, red swelling.   Four days after this a  burning fever came
on, and  the parts all  round looked  livid and  putrefied.   Death en-
sued,  but he was purged a little before that, and came to himself.
  Clonigus, in Abdera, who had nephritic complaints about  him,
pissed blood  by  little and little,  and generally with difficulty.   A
dysentery was added to his other misfortune.  He was  ordered to
drink  goat's milk in a morning, with a fifth part water, so that the
whole quantity should amount to a  pint and half; to eat in an even-
ing bread thoroughly baked, and with  his bread beet or  cucumber.
His urine was black and thin.   He also eat ripe cucumbers.  By
this diet his  dysentery stopped, his  urine came away clear,  and he
continued the milk till the urine was come to its proper state.
  A woman, in  Abdera, had  a  cancer upon her  breast of  such a 
448              THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

nature, that a sanies somewhat bloody discharged itself through the
nipple, which discharge, being stopped, killed her.
  Dinius's little boy, in Abdera, had a slight wound upon the navel,
that  ended in a fistula;  through which a thick  worm sometimes
passed, and sometimes bilious matter, (as he himself said,) when he
was  feverish.  The gut being near, fell upon the fistula, and was
corroded as that was.  Another rupture  succeeded, arid would let
nothing stay.
  Python's son, in Pela, began to be very  feverish  immediately,
and very heavy to sleep.  His voice was lost, his sleeps came to
him, and his  belly was hard all the  time.   A suppository of gall
being applied, a great discharge followed, and immediately upon
that a remission.  But the belly was soon swelled again, the fever
raged, and the same  heaviness to sleep came  on.  While he was
in this condition, he took a little of those medicines that are made
with wild saffron, wild cucumber, and meconium;  upon which he
fell into a bilious purging, and immediately the stupidness went off,
the fever grew mild, every thing was easier, and the crisis happen-
ed the fourteenth.
  Eudemus had a violent pain in his spleen, and was ordered by
his physicians not to eat much, to drink a little thin wine, to walk
often, and to  keep strictly to this method.  He was  also blooded;
lived but  sparingly in  his eating and drinking; walked by degrees;
drank black thin wine; and  recovered.
  Philistides,  the wife  of Heraclidas, was taken  with an acute fever.
Her face was red, without any evident occasion; and a little after,
in the day, a  shivering came on, and was succeeded, as she did not
grow hot, by  a convulsion in her  fingers and toes;  a little after
which she  grew  hot.   Her  urine  had  something in  it compact,
cloudy, and as it were torn off.  She slept at night.   The second
day  shivered  again; grew a  little  hotter in  the day; the redness
abated; the convulsions became more moderate; and the urine the
same.  She slept again at night, but laid awake a little, without
any manner of uneasiness.  The third, her urine was better colour-
ed, and had a little sediment.   The  same hour  she shivered again,
grew very  hot, sweated at night all over;  but in the  evening  her
colour was changed to a jaundice, and she slept the whole night.
The  fourth she bled very much from the left nostril, and her menses
appeared a little in their natural course.  But the same hour she
grew very  feverish again;  her urine had the like compacted  par- 
THE SEVENTH BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.
449
tides  in  it,  and was in small quantity.  Her belly, which was
naturally bound, was now  much  more so,  and nothing passed
downwards without a suppository.  She slept at  night.  The fifth
the fever was  milder; at night she sweated all over; her menses
went on; and she slept in the night.   The sixth, she made a great
deal of water in a gushing manner, and with the same particles as
before.  It had also a little sediment  of the  same colour.  About
the middle of  the day she  shivered again,  grew a  little hot, and
sweated all over.  Her water was of  a good colour, and  she had a
perfect crisis.
  Tychon, at the siege of Datus, was wounded upon the  breast by
the engine they used to throw  darts or stones with, and  in a short
time fell  into a fit of tumultuous noisy laughter.  The physician,
who took out the woody part, seemed  to me to leave the iron of the
dart within, by the diaphragm.  In the evening he had a glyster and
a purge, being in pain.   The  first night was very troublesome to
him;  but in  the  morning early his physician and  others thought
him better; because he was quiet.  A prediction was made, that a
convulsion would come and carry him off.   The next night he was
very restless, got no sleep, and  lay upon his  belly for the  most part.
The third day betimes in the morning  a convulsion came, and he
died about the middle of the day.
  The eunuch, that lived by Elealces's spring, fell  into a dropsy
from hunting and running about.  He  had  had for near  six years
the complaints that proceed from such riding, together with a swell-
ing in his groin, a sciatica, and defluxions upon his joints.
  A person  in a dropsy  should use exercise, sweat, eat  hot  bread
dipped in oil,  drink  but  little,  bathe  his head much  with hot or
rather warm water, drink white thin wine, and take  but little sleep.
  He  who had the  tabes dorsalis died the seventh.
  In those who at  first bring up undigested pus, salt things mixed
with honey are good.
  Venery is a  cure  for a  long dysentery.
  Leonidas's daughter's menses were  coming down powerfully, but
diverted  another way.  Bleeding at the nose ensued, and a great
change.  The  physician did  not perceive it, and the girl died.
  Philotimus's boy, a stripling about  fifteen, came to  me with the
bone of his skull as incurable.  The wound was  above, upon the
crown of his head, and  he was cured  by a discharge of pus from
the ears.
                              29 
450               THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.

  Pythocles used to prescribe his  patients water, and milk  mixed
with a great deal of water, by way of nourishment.
  Kibes are to be cured by scarification, calefaction, and heating
the feet as much as possible by fire and water.
  Lentils, sweet apples, and herbs are bad for the eyes.  But for
pains about the loins, or hips, or legs, from hard working, bathing
the part with salt water and vinegar, fomenting with sponges dip-
ped  in the same, and binding up with unwashed wool  and  lamb-
skin, are good.
  Drinking origanum is bad for inflamed  eyes and the teeth. 
           THE  BOOK  OF  APHORISMS.

      Aphorismorum Liber,    .   .    .   .    Fcesius, Treat, ii. p. 1242.
      LrBER Aphorismorum,    ....    Haller, i. p. 460.
      Des Aphorismes.......Gardeil, ii. p. 128.

  This  book of Aphorisms,* the  most extensively known  perhaps,
and that which has probably been more frequently  given to the
world in an isolated form than any of the other  writings that have
reached us under the imposing title of Hippocrates, is divided under
seven sections, by Fcesius, Haller, and  others.  C. J. Sprengel, in
the  English dress  he  has given  to  it, more than  a  century ago,
(London, 1708,) has given it in  eight sections, and  has apparently
added several aphorisms from other of the books that have  hereto-
fore  been noticed.  De Gorter has  done the same,  (Amsterdam,
1742,) and both accompanied with  copious  explanations  and refe-
rences.   I have made a concise table of these different divisions, as
in some respects they may be useful in reference.
	Sect. 1.	Sect. 2.	Sect. 3.	Sect. 4.	Sect. 5.	Sect. 6.	Sect. 7.	Sect. 8.	Total.
Fcesius, - .	25	54	31	82	72	60	88		412
Sprengel, - -	25	54	31	83	72	60	79	18	422
De Gorter,	25	54	31	83	72	69	79	14	418
Haller, . .	25	54	31	83	72	69	85		420
Gardeil,b - -	25	54	31	82	72	63	88		412 *
  At  the  beginning of the eighth section,  Sprengel remarks, that
" A great  many have omitted this eighth section; some have only
added six  aphorisms of  it to the foregoing; but  others have added
the  whole section  as we have done  here.  For there are several
of them that ought not to be despised."
  * " Aphorismus.—ttqopir/txot, est oratio, quae omnes rei proprietates brevissimis verbis
circumscribit."—Castelli Lexicon.
  b Gardeil's division is into seven books. 
452
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
  De Gorter, at page 886, gives the residuary aphorisms (405 to
418) under the title of Aphorismi interjecti;—with  some slight ex-
planation, not  very dissimilar from  Sprengel, of the circumstances
leading to the  diversity of different editors.
  " We might, (says Gardeil in concluding the book, and arranging
the sections after Fcesius,) here remark, that in  some editions, other
aphorisms have been added that are not to be found in Foesius; and
we might augment the number of them, exclusively of those tracts
that are written aphoristically, such as the Prognostics, Humours,
Predictions, &c, by  a  variety  of aphoristic sentences, especially
from the books on Epidemics, and De Locis in Homine ; but confin-
ing myself strictly to the Aphorisms really of Hippocrates.  Those
under  the name of Coacce, can  scarcely be so regarded,  although
highly esteemed by ancient  physicians, and which are truly a col-
lection of Aphorisms, unaccompanied either by discussions or rea-
soning,—appearing to constitute a part of those writings that have
been ascribed  to Thessalus or Polybius,—or perhaps to some physi-
cians of the celebrated school of Cos; though whether prior to, or
after Hippocrates, is not fully settled."
  In what may be deemed  a preface to this book, Gardeil says,
"The  Aphorisms of  Hippocrates  are to be esteemed as general
maxims, which he attempted  to constitute from  his practice, in pro-
portion as the  observation of  the progress and issue of diseases pre-
sented various results.   Certainly  he could not  consider all  his
Aphorisms as  rules with no exceptions; but  merely as  facts of
sufficient extent to deserve to be collected together; and every man
endowed with  a portion of genius and  sagacity, in any profession,
will be led by  many circumstances  to  act like him.   We all can
judge that such a collection  could  never end,  for  it would be un-
ceasingly augmented and corrected  to the close of life.  All admit,
tKat  in  publishing this work in advanced life, he thought that it
needed  to  be  reviewed  and corrected;—and we  find scattered
throughout the writings that appear  under his name, many of such
medical sentences,  that could without difficulty be transferred to
the close of this one."
  Haller, in noticing this  treatise,  says,  " That from  time imme-
morial, it has been considered genuine, and as having been written
by Hippocrates in advanced life and maturity of judgment.  Yet it
must  be admitted by the lover of  truth, that  it  was  loosely per-
formed, and handed to posterity; since many aphorisms are twice 
THE BOOK OF APHORISMS.
453
repeated, and  some are contradictory to each other, (which are all
casually  noticed  by Gardeil.)  The best parts are those that refer
to the symptoms  and  termination of acute diseases;  the worst are
the  physiological; some being false, respecting the fcetus, the signs
of conception and of fruitfulness, as likewise of abortion from  vene-
section."   He  here  makes  reference to the eighteen spurious apho-
risms of some  editions, and then indicates the character of those in
each section.
  The first  and second sections consist chiefly of aphorisms that
have reference to regimen  and  evacuations  both in sickness and in
health.  The third, to the influence of different seasons,  and the
diseases incident to  the various  ages of life.   The  fourth, considers
the  subject of  purgatives and the nature of the stools; though after
the  twenty-eighth, a variety of different ones are  introduced, and
from forty-one to sixty-seven, a succession of aphorisms in respect
to fever; and  on urines,  from  thence  to the end of the section.
The fifth, relates  to the female  sex, at  least after the twenty-ninth
aphorism to  the sixty-third.  The others  are various, and appertain
to convulsions, phthisis, heat, cold, &c.   There is but little order in
the  distribution of the  various aphorisms of the sixth  and seventh
books.  They  refer chiefly to the signs and presages of disease and
health, &c,  as deduced  from different circumstances; and much is
suspicious as to the authority from whence derived.   Some are of
trifling importance, others but repetitions or coincidences of some of
the  other sections, or even of the same  one.
  With this  we terminate the  seventh  section,  venturing  the re-
mark, that, although so often quoted and spoken of, as a whole, the
Aphorisms, collectively taken, add nothing to the celebrity of Hip-
pocrates.—Ed. 
SECTION   VIII.
                      EXTRANEOUS.

  Besides the articles here mentioned, as found in the eighth section
of Fcesius, accompanied with the Greek version; we find in Haller's
edition  (8vo.  Laus., vol.  iv. p. 199,  et seq.)  sundry other small
tracts, and  which, after those from Fcesius, I shall introduce among
the  sgwnxa,*  as probably their most  appropriate location.  How
Haller comes  by them, I do not altogether comprehend ; nor how
it is that Fcesius makes no mention of them, or at least of only two
or three which are intermingled with the letters.  I enumerate the
letters as I find them  in  Fcesius, without  reference to their con-
tents.—Ed.
                EPISTOL^E HIPPOCRATIS.

  Haller, as a preface to these letters, says, they are very ancient,
since  Cato alludes to the one in which  Hippocrates refuses his as-
sistance to  Artaxerxes.   Many of  them, however,  are  deemed
problematical.  The honorarium of  ten  talents from the Abderites
to Hippocrates, was far beyond their  means.  The dream is un-
worthy of the gravity of Hippocrates, and the collection of letters
appears to be rather the  production of some sophist, than of that
eminent man.  Cratevas is manifestly  of a different era;  and the
account of the plague cured by Hippocrates, can  scarcely be re-
conciled with  the narration of Thucydides; neither is it any where
cited  by Galen.

  » This section contains in the arrangement of Fcesius (p. 1271), under the title of «
6|»t«*. hoc est  externa, the following articles:  Epistohe aliquot;—Atheniensium
Senatus-consultum;—Oratio ad Aram;—Thessali Legati oratio;—Genus et Vita Hippo-
cratis secundum Soranum, 
EXTRANEOUS.
455
   1.  Artaxerxes to Paetus, respecting the plague in his army.
   2.  Paetus to Artaxerxes, recommending Hippocrates to him.
   3.  Artaxerxes to Hystanides, praefect, offering high rewards for
the services of Hippocrates.
   4.  Hystanides to Hippocrates, announcing this to him.
   5.  Hippocrates to Hystanides, refusing his services to an enemy.
   6.  Hippocrates to Demetrius.
   7.  Hystanides to Artaxerxes.
   8.  Artaxerxes to the Coans, threatening them if Hippocrates is
not sent.
   9.  The Coans, in reply, refusing his demand.
  10.  The Abderite senate and people, to Hippocrates, in behalf of
Democritus.
  11.  Hippocrates, in reply.
  12.  Hippocrates to Philopaemon.
  13.  Hippocrates to Dyonisius.
  14.  Hippocrates to Damagetus.
  15.  Hippocrates to Philopaemon.
  16.  Hippocrates to Cratevas.
  17.  Hippocrates to  Damagetes, a long letter in  relation to De-
mocritus.
  18.  Democritus to Hippocrates.
  19.  Hippocratis de Insania scriptum.
  20.  Hippocrates to Democritus.
  21.  Hippocratis de Veratri usu libellus.
  22.  Hippocrates to his son Thessalus.
  23.  Democritus to Hippocrates, de natura humana.
  24.  Hippocrates to King Demetrius.
  25.  Decree of the Athenians  in  favour of Hippocrates and  the
Coans.
  26.  Oration of Hippocrates before the altar of Minerva.
  27.  Oration of Thessalus, his son, to the Athenians.
  These letters are followed by an account of the life, family, and
writings of  Hippocrates, from  Soranus, and Vander Linden, with
numerous  testimonials  from various  sources; the last of which is
taken from the " Itinerary of John Mandevyle," chap. 6, and is enti-
tled, " De  filia Hippocratis mirabile."   A curious relation, from a
curious traveller! 
456
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
  Subsequent  to these testimonials,  we find in  Haller, vol.  iv. p.
345 to 367, a  collection of what he  denominates, " Fragmenta et
Elogia"exeodem Lindenio, from numerous ancient writers,—Plato,
Aristotle,  &c,  down  to Ulpian and Bartolu.s.   Following which,
appear the " Consentientia ex  Galeno," from  various authors, p.
367 to 398 ; and lastly, a division entitled " Contradicta et Defensa,"
p. 399 to 414,  with which  the edition of Haller terminates.
  A few short treatises, introduced by Haller under his division of
'' Hippocrati  adscripta opera spuria," vol. iv. p. 127, require to be
here noticed,  as some of them do  not appear in Fcesius ;  and they
are therefore  here added to complete the object of ihe editor.

 I. LIBER DE HOMINIS STRUCTURA, AD PERDICCAM
                           REGEM.
                         Haller, iv. p. 199.
  Haller tells us this exists only in the Latin.  It treats of the four
elements; of  nature; and the four humours of  the human  body,
their constitution, and location, &c.; of  arteries;  veins; the causes
of mirth  or  sorrow,  pusillanimity,  &c.;  of  lethargy, phrenitis,
palsy.   Some  affections  of  the  head  depend  on  the  stomach;
sutures of the head  occasionally wanting; colour of the hair, bald-
ness,  &c, explained.   Three gradations of voice: grave, acute,
and intermediate.  Liver,  its influence  in digestion.  Five senses.
Fourteen  constituents of  man  stated  (qu.  tissues ?—Ed.), viz.:
nerve, vein, artery,  blood, spirit, flesh, fat, cartilage, nails, bones,
marrow, hair, membrane,  and humours.  To these are  added, in
the female,  milk and catamenia.  Spine  consists of twenty-four
vertebrae,  and as many ribs.   Teeth more  than  thirty.   Stomach
in length five palms ; intestines thirteen cubits.   Names of the dif-
ferent  fingers.   The  four seasons; their  properties, &c.   Some
observations as to the non-naturals, &c.

                II. DE NATURA HOMINIS.
                         Haller, iv. p. 205.
  This constitutes the twenty-third letter, of Democritus to  Hippo-
crates, in  the  preceding list.  It is, says Haller, a rhetorical descrip-
tion  of  parts  of the body,  in which much appears of a later period
than that of Hippocrates.   It is a piece of little or no importance. 
EXTRANEOUS.
457
                 III. LIBER  DE  iETATE.
                       Haller, iv. p. 208.
  A small treatise of two pages, which Haller says is a fragment;
in which the signs are pointed out of foetal death at seven and eight
months, in a better way than in the legitimate treatises under those
titles.  A description is given of certain human ova, of seven days'
formation, discharged by whores, through the agency  of abortives;
in  which the  outline  of every part was  conspicuous.  Septenary
periods of life, &c.
  A small fragment on the  same  subject, by Philo, follows.  It is
entitled,  " De iEtate Fragmentum,  ex Philonis Judaei, de  Opif.
Mundi,"  p. 24.  It seems a mere abstract of the above, and of about
the same estimate*.


    IV.  DE  SEPTIMESTRI PARTU, LIBER SPURIUS.
                       Haller, iv. p. 211.
  Undeserving of notice, says Haller.—It is, however, well to look
into it, if only to become acquainted with some former opinions.


V. DE SIGNIFICATIONE YITM ET MORTIS, SECUNDUM
    MOTUM LUN.E, ET  ADSPECTUS PLANETARUM.
                       Haller, iv. p. 214.
  Altogether astrological, says Haller, and  very remote from  the
wisdom  of Hippocrates.  It  does not exist  in the Greek, and is  the
production of some later writer.  It runs  over (in fourteen para-
graphs, and sixteen pages) the whole  signs of the zodiac,  and of
the moon's locality  in relation to them. Its perusal will afford some
insight into the absurdities of astrology ;  a  science still pointed to,
in  the figure as a frontispiece to many  of our annual  almanacs!


    VI. LIBER DE MEDICAMENTIS  PURGANTIBUS.
                       Haller, iv. p. 238.
  Some things herein, says Haller, are taken  from the Aphorisms.
A  bold defence  is  set up for  the doctrine of elective  purgation,
founded  on the difference of  the four humours.
  The great variety in the operation  of purgatives noticed. The 
458
THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES.
same one at times operating powerfully,  at  other  times, not at all.
Sometimes what is not expected is discharged, or in smaller amount,
&c.   All which is explained, and leads to the division of purgatives
into chologogues, &c, according  as they act on the humours; and
directions  are laid  down for the success of this:  for,  adds  the
author, it is a shameful misfortune to kill  a man by super-purgation.


                  VII. DE VERATRI USU.
               Fcesius, Epist. xxi. p. 1287.—Haller, iv. p. 241.
  Haller here states, that much is taken from the Aphorisms, Prog-
nostics, and  Prsenotions, relating to  the  ptisan, and  menstruation,
which are quoted as if the productions of the author of this treatise.
Towards the close, some extension is given to the subject of purga-
tion by means of sesamoid;  and cases are stated wherein veratrum
is appropriate, and cautions given  as to its employment.  Purgation,
in this treatise, seems  more  intended for vomition, or purging up-
ward (sursum).


                   VIII. DE ANTIDOTO.
           Ex Actuarii Methodi Medendi, vi.—Haller, iv. p. 243.
  This is called by Haller,  a " farrago aromatum," and is said to
be from Myrepsus.  It is  in  the  text called an antidote of Hippo-
crates, " quo usus corona Athenis est donatus."   Many  virtues are
attributed  to its employment; its doses  are stated, and  mode of
administration ; its preparation is  finally given, constituted of about
twenty-five ingredients,  and  no doubt was equally a  panacea with
the confectio Damocritis, and Theriaca so celebrated by Galen!


                      IX. ANTIDOTUM.
      Ex Nicolai Alexandria, DeComp. Medic, i. 365.—Haller, iv. 244.
  Pretty much  of the same character with the preceding, but con-
sisting of only eleven  ingredients, one of which is  opium.   This is
also called an antidote of Hippocrates, and was used as a panacea!
Hundreds  might be formed  of equal importance,  by drawing out
the names of medicines from a wheel,  and manipulating the ingre-
dients secundum artem! 
EXTRANEOUS.                        459
                X.  DE RE VETERINARIA.
                        Haller, iv. p. 247.
  Much posterior (says  Haller) to the  period of Hippocrates.  A
farrago of remedies, many of a superstitious character.   It is not
altogether devoid of interest, as being of so remole antiquity, and
not  deficient  in treatment of  sundry affections  of  importance.
Venesection described, &c.
  I have now brought to  a  conclusion  the  immediate object in
view, that of affording a  general  outline of  all the  writings that
have reached  us  under the name of Hippocrates, rather  than  a
complete translation of the whole.   I  trust such a work may yet
appear in the English  language;  and, although it will be perceived
that  of nearly eighty treatises, scarcely a dozen are attributed un-
disputedly to him,—yet their antiquity alone  would be  a sufficient
plea  for the medical profession, to desire  to know the state  of that
profession nearly three hundred years  before  the  birth  of  our
Saviour ;—and that, even  if it did not contain  much really useful
matter.   Were I  now half a  century younger, with  my present
feelings towards the memory of  that  great  man,  and  of his  still
greater successor, Galen,  I should  take pleasure in assuming  the
task; but at the age of more than  " threescore years  and  ten," I
feel that the hour-glass of life must soon  have its sand  expended ;
and  that other cares should now engross my mind.  I will add,
that  imperfect as this present attempt is, by  myself  considered,
I look forward with a fervent hope, that it may prove a  pioneer for
a more efficient  labourer  in the  schools of Hippocrates  and of
Galen, when the present writer may perhaps, be holding  an interest-
ing communionship with those individuals themselves in  a  higher
state of existence.—Editor.
EN'D OF THE WORKS OF HIPPOCRATES. 
 
       AN ABSTRACT




            OF THE






WRITINGS OF  GALEN. 
ft 
INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS.
   During several years, whilst holding successively the Professor-
 ships of Chemistry, and of Materia Medica and Pharmacy, in the
 University of Pennsylvania, I endeavoured  in  my  Introductory
 Lectures to afford  some slight information to  my class, as to the
 character and writings of Hippocrates; and to  vindicate him from
 the unwarrantable aspersions that have been  cast upon him, even
 by those who considered themselves as being among  his warmest
 admirers.   That they derived their  impressions of that great man
 from second-hand observations, whether favourable or  unfavourable
 to him, I have no doubt; for I consider such an imperfect and par-
 tial  acquaintance  with  his  writings,  as  being  the only means by
 which  we can explain  the  singular' circumstance, that  fault has
 been found with him, and  ignorance  ascribed  to him on subjects,
 which  a due and personal acquaintance with his works, would have
 assuredly prevented.  I pursued a  similar plan with respect  to
 Galen  in two or three successive Introductories, but  the continu-
 ance of which  was precluded by my separation from that institution.
 Being  thereby prevented from pursuing the object I contemplated,
 I have long been led to think that it might not be unacceptable to the
 Profession, if I should, by slightly modifying the lectures, present  a
 brief outline of the works of both those wonderful and accomplished
 physicians.   In the preceding pages, my readers  will have attained
some slight view as to Hippocrates and his writings; and in those that
follow,  will be found an epitome of Galen—his illustrious  successor,
his warmest advocate moreover, and vindicator, as well  as commen-
tator;  hoping that it might lead to  an eventual  consideration of  a 
461                 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
debt of gratitude to him,  of long standing, that of giving  him a
complete and perfect English  dress; by  which  thousands, unac-
quainted with  the  Greek  original, or the  Latin translation, might
be enabled  to  peruse with pleasure  and with  benefit,  his learned
lucubrations.3
  Not inferior, probably superior  to  Hippocrates, from possessing
the advantage  of four centuries of additional information, accumu-
lated  in  the vast  libraries  of Alexandria,  Greece, and  Rome; im-
proved moreover by  the extension of  that  information, or rather its
collection and  concentration as it were into a focus, constituted of
the Greek and  Alexandrine schools, we cannot doubt that Medicine
received its full  proportion of  attention ;  since, even  prior  to the
time of Galen, it  had obtained the  fostering  care of  kings  and
princes.   Mithridate, so called  from the great King of  Pontus, has
reached  the present  day,  though  greatly  modified  ; together with
the Theriaca,  prepared for use  by the  chief physician  alone;  and
which last has  been illustrated and described by Galen, in a curious
and learned commentary, whilst it was held in the highest estimation
for nearly fourteen hundred years.
  That Galen  and  his doctrines  should have  so long  maintained
the highest  rank  in  medicine, and been the arbiter of our science
for upwards of a thousand years, will appear surprising  to those
alone, who  are ignorant of him  and  of his  imperishable writings!
It  is true,  his  works, originally in Greek, are from that cause a
sealed book to  a majority of the Profession; but numerous editions
from  the Juntas  of Venice, and Frobinius of  Basil, of the  Latin
translation exist, and might be obtained by all who really desire to
consult them;—or at least if their high price should prove an obstacle
to  this,  all will admit,  that no  public library, especially a medical
one, can possibly be  complete without  them.   Imagine  them now
presented in an English dress! how many  embryos  of the hundreds
of our since discovered facts and theories, should  we  not behold?

  a I appeal to those who may honour these pages with a perusal, whether they have
ever known fully, what were  the subjects of the voluminous writings of Galen, even
by  name ?—And I might  make the same  appeal with  respect to a large portion of
the writings of Hippocrates!—By a majority of the medical profession, if this appeal
were truly replied  to, I doubt not the  answer would be in the negative!__And yet
the names of both  those illustrious authors are familiar to all the Profession  as their
household gods!! 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
465
The plagiarists of past  and present times would stand forth in bold
relief, and credit would be awarded to the great original!  Hinc
ilia lachrymal—Our authors wish not to withdraw the veil, or else
it might with ease be accomplished.  Galen has never yet been per-
mitted to  assume the British toga, although the Roman fitted him
so well.
  I cannot but admire the  apathy with which those  extraordinary
productions are  regarded by many of the learned professors of our
science! who, whilst they employ the lighter works of fancy to form
the chief  intermedia between the present and by-gone times; they
look through a glass, darkly, along a vista of more than fifteen hun-
dred years, when Galen constitutes  the object of their contempla-
tion !  Fain would I hope, that his works may yet be given' to the
world,  in such  a dress, as readily  to introduce them, not to our
libraries only, but to our minds.  May it devolve on America to dis-
charge this debt;—but little hope can be anticipated from England,
in this  particular.   It would present a mirror that would reflect
back the  images of facts and theories, long assumed and  regarded
as of domestic  origin,  with no  acknowledgment of their Grecian
source.  Here, in the pages of Galen, would be discovered many of
those great principles, both in theory and practice, which have, at
different  periods, been  advanced as novelties; for  Galen has re-
mained a fixture only,  on  the shelves of medical  libraries.   As in
the pages of Burton, the plagiarisms of Sterne  have been demon-
strated by Ferriar; so in those of Galen, an equally egregious
memento of medical effrontery might be  readily shown to exist.
But who  now,  we may be permitted to inquire,—who reads his
works ?—Where indeed, with few exceptions, are they to be found,
even in our public institutions for private reference X  It is time that
justice, so long delayed, should at length be exercised towards one
of the most brilliant stars of the medical  world.  It is time to dispel
those fanciful dreams,  that in  the  mighty march of intellect, "all
the talents" are concentrated in our present period, and that  retro-
spection is unnecessary.  The flippant usage of too many of our public
writers and teachers, of denying to the ancients any merit, as if
their intellects were barren as  their own,  cannot be too severely
reprehended.   Those ages  which produced the poets and philoso-
phers, whose works have  reached us, and  which have ever been
considered  as the  standards of merit in their respective  spheres;
could never have been deficient in the yet more important and per-
                              30 
466
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
 sonally interesting science of medicine !*   Test this, by the writings
 of Galen  alone, and  its truth will conspicuously appeal',  in  opposi-
 tion  to the dicta of our would-be master  spirits, who fondly please
 themselves that they  alone are the shining lights of  the Profession;
 and  which their  vanity,  and ignorance  of those bygone  writers
 whom  they  profess  to contemn, yet, as  opportunity  serves, most
 ostentatiously quote,  can  alone  explain.b   When  we hear the  an-
 cients  most  unblushingly undervalued, let us set it down as a fact,
 that  such  persons have never  examined the  authors they contemn,
 and  are therefore desirous of retaining others on a level with them-
 selves, either of ignorance or indifference.0
   In following up the plan  I have  marked  out, it is my  intention
 briefly to glance at the contents of the several writings of the  ex-
 traordinary person in  question,  that my  readers  may  know what

   a "O vous quijugez avecautant d'injustice que de legerete la physique de Seneque, et
 qui payez d'un souris dedaigneux et malin les fruits utiles de ses veilles ; oubliez le mo-
 ment ou vous existez, et ce que vous  devez aux decouvertes de  voire  siecle sur  cette
 science: transportez-vous au temps oil il a ecrit; proposez-vous  les memes questions,
 et voyez si vous les  resoudriez mieux que lui.  Vous seriez peut-etre tres vains alors de
 rencontrer son erreur."—Avertisement de L'Editeur  des 03uvres de  Seneque, sur les
 Questions Naturelles. Vol. 6th, Paris edition, an 3.
   In the above, the  reader  must be pleased to  read " la medecine de Galen."  Mutatis
 mutandis, the application is fully as correct.
   b Did time and space permit, I could furnish from Fabricius a copious and extraor-
 dinary catalogue of  " Opera deperdita," which would probably astonish the reader, and
 lead him to regret the loss  the world has sustained from the non-discovery of printing
 in those bygone times.  We may, however, like the old woman and  the empty cask,
 in iEsop's Fables, form some judgment of our loss, by the comparatively few that have
 fortunately been spared from the ravages of time, under the  controlling influence of
 despotism, barbarism, and  superstition.
   c These  gentlemen might  learn a lesson from  Shakspeare's  favourite knight, Sir
 John,  at least, in relation to Galen, that would be useful to them.— Vide Henry IV.
 Part II. Sc. 2.
  " Lord Chief Justice.—You would not come when I sent for you.
  Falstaff.—I hear,  moreover, his highness is fallen into this same whoreson apoplexy.
   Ch. J.—Well, Heaven mend him !  I pray let me speak with you.
   Fal.—This apoplexy is, as I take  it, a kind of lethargy, an't please your lordship;
 a kind of sleeping in the blood, a whoreson tingling.
   Ch. J.—What tell you me of it? be it as it is.
  Fal.—It hath its original from much grief; from study and perturbation of the brain:
 I have read the cause of his effects in Galen :  it is a kind of deafness.
  Ch. J.—I think you have fallen into the disease ; for you hear not what I say to you.
  Fal.—Very well, my lord, very well !—Rather, an't please you, it is the disease of no*
listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled with," &c. 
                      INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.                 437

  they may expect to find in full, should they think fit to look into the
  venerable and nearly obsolete folios of their most illustrious  prede-
  cessor; and if unable or unwilling so to do, that at least they may
  be checked in any attempt to  decry them,  by this slight epitome.
  It will consist, for the most part, of the  simple outline (with a few
  exceptions  more fully given), of  those  writings,  as they have  ap-
  peared to the editor; and which can scarcely be considered as even
  a skeleton, as it were, of the proudest work of which the science of
  medicine can boast, either in ancient or  modern times, if estimated
  by its individual  merits  alone!  No slavish  and ignoble plagiarist
  was Galen.  In thought, as in action, he appears to have been free:
  and those thoughts  are evincive  of superior genius,  improved by
  all  the  arts and science of his own, and of preceding ages*  In
 every page, his character stands forth in bold relief.  His works are
 a library of past events, an encyclopedia of facts from every branch
 of medical literature; and forestalling many of the most extraordi-
 nary events of our own times; whilst even in experiments and  in
 operations, considered as novelties in the present  day, he has pre-
 ceded them.
   In order to comprehend the writings of Galen,  he must, I  think,
 be permitted to explain himself, through  the context of other  parts.
 That he was wrong on many points of physiology, when compared
 with those deemed perfect in our day, cannot be denied ;  but are
 we absolutely certain of the truth  of all those we  now  maintain?
 Will not the fluctuation of the physiology of the last fifty years be
 adequate to set  aside such flattering pretensions ?  The stamp of
 mutability is affixed  to the science, now, at least as  much so,  as in
 the days of Galen; for, with  all  our boasted attainments, it can
 scarcely with justice be affirmed,  that the superstructures we have
 erected,  are more beautifully, or more securely and symmetrically
 arranged, than was that of Galen; or that we have, in truth, a sys-
 tem of physiology that  is more settled or superior to his.a  Let  us

  * I would earnestly  request the older members of the Profession, (I  mean those of
thirty or forty years' standing), to cast a retrospective glance at the numerous changes
in physiology, and pathology, and therapeutics, that have been given to the medical world
since their first connexion with it. Nearly a century ago, a Doctor Lizarri of Venice]
published a defence of oleaginous remedies, in bilious diseases, in opposition to  the
celebrated Tissot, who  condemned their use.  Lizzari affirms, that in order to favour
his opinions, Tissot had even frequently mutilated the text of Hippocrates.  A journal-
ist of Venice, reviewing the work, exclaims, " Malheureux sort de Thumanite; il n'est 
46g                 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

inquire how stands the fact, in  two  or  three  particulars.  Whilst
Galen  regarded respiration  as  intended to cool and  ventilate the
blood, we have, at one time, been  led to  consider it as productive of
animal heat, and at another, as  being required to oxygenate, or, to
decarbonize the blood.  Now, of  all these, which is true?—If some
have supposed  the air to be  absorbed, in  whole, or  in part, in the
different views of respiration, Galen had, before them, thought the
same; and surely the ventilation of the  blood, and conveying to it
an aeriform fluid or spirit, as taught by the ancients, is an hypothesis
at least as beautiful;  and is by Galen as well maintained, as any of
the present day ; even if we cannot perceive in it a complete fore-
runner of those systems, which as now  vamped up, are proclaimed
as  new,  though based on a groundwork of nearly  2000  years.
All this has  been accomplished by  the magic  influence of a few
new-fangled, and fresh-coined terms, derived  from  the  fluctuating
vocabularies of our changing systems of medical philosophy.
   With respect to the various opinions as to the power and agency,
by which the circulation is enforced and continued ; whether by that
of the heart alone, or by that of the arteries, or of both combined;
it may be allowed us to inquire whether,  with all our greater and
more ample anatomical researches, aided by the microscope, and
by injections, and by the most  powerful physiological acumen, this
interesting fact is better ascertained, or more  conclusively substan-
tiated  than it was by Galen, who  ascribes it to the heart alone; and
founds  his  reasons,  in part, on  the synchronous  character  of its
beat, with that of all the arteries of the body.
   In regarding the veins,  as the channel by which nourishment was
conveyed to every part, according to our present views, Galen was
in error.*  That he perceived the absolute necessity of a  circula-
tion, from the very  facts themselves, of nourishment and growth
 in every part, seems to  follow,  as an  almost necessary  result;
and one that can scarcely  be  supposed to have  been beyond the
 speculations of his  penetrating and inquiring mind.  Now this is

pas encore decide  si Phuile est salutaire ou nuisible dans telles maladies, et les malades,
 meurent pendant  la dispute !"   Will not this equally apply at present, to much of
 medicine in its different branches ?
   1 It must be remembered that by the ancients, the term q\t^, was a generic one
 for tubes of every kind capable of conveying fluids.   It was not limited to the vessels
 alone in the human body ; but in order to discriminate between an artery and a vein,
 the former was called a pulsating, the latter a non-pulsating vein. 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
469
infinitely strengthened by comparing and connecting those disjointed
or independent portions of his multifarious pen; in which a circula-
tion is more than merely obscurely hinted at, as we shall endeavour
to demonstrate in the progress of these pages. The assumption, (for
it is nothing more,) that his idea of a circulation was simply that of
a flux and reflux of the blood in the same vessel, like the rise or fall
of the tide, will not coincide with the circumstances of the text in
numerous parts of his works ; and can only be maintained  by those,
who, at all hazards, uphold the sole right of Harvey to the discovery
of the circulation in all, its most unlimited extent.  We can  at pre-
sent merely surmise, that Galen could not have looked, either for a
general, or partial nutrition, without  some  definite views as to  a
channel of communication, for the especial purpose of transferring
to every part, an ever-moving fluid, which he undoubtedly  regarded
as containing the  nourishment of the system at large, and  that nou-
rishment taken in, ab extra,  daily,  at his meals.  How he  supposed
nutrition to be actually accomplished  from the blood,  as  freighted
with its  important addition, we may partly comprehend  from  his
ingenious doctrines of attraction and repulsion; together with other
powers, which he  ascribes to every organ of the  body;  doctrines
probably not surpassed by any since promulgated; and quite as in-
geniously built up  and sustained.   We ascribe the deposit of various
matters, either of  nutrition or secretion, to arterial branches of the
circulating system; yet, at the same time  we admit the anomaly of
the secretion of bile from venous branches.  It is  not then, per-
haps, incorrect to  admit that Galen was partially right  on  points, in
which,  even now, from our  absolute uncertainty as to the exact
character of the capillary link of  circulation, we have  no positive
or fixed conviction.
  It may excite surprise, but it is not the less true, that  by  changing
our present nomenclature  for that of Galen,  we find the doctrine of
Tissues very distinctly taught  by him;—a doctrine so  ably and
beautifully, and  let us  cheerfully add, more fully and satisfactorily
enlarged upon by  the celebrated  Bichat.   That a doctrine so lu-
minous  and harmonious, should have occurred to  both  these illus-
trious men, may be regarded as a strong presumption of its being
founded  in truth;  and identifies in a powerful  manner,  the con-
geniality of their  minds  and pursuits.  It is possible  that  Bichat
derived  his views on this  subject  from Galen; yet it is not impro-
bable, considering  the neglect into  which  the writings of Galen had 
470                 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

fallen, that Bichat owed it to  himself.   Their  mutual and  strong
attachment to anatomical research, qualified them certainly, for far
more extended views of physiology and pathology, than falls to the
lot of  the  major part of the Profession.   At an  interval then, of
nearly sixteen hundred years, during which the doctrine had slum-
bered, it may be said to have again been discovered, or resuscitated
and  embellished, by those  improvements  which  may be conceded
to have sprung up.
  Nor is  the  division of diseases into Functional and Organic, by
any  means obscurely  taught  by Galen.  By merely a change  of
terms, we find the same  ideas, that  are  now enunciated.  And if,
as Shakspeare says,  " a rose, by any other name would smell  as
sweet,"—it would be  difficult to say, why the doctrines of Galen
should be less acceptable  to us, under his  primitive nomenclature,
than as now set forth to the public, as novel, under a mask of new-
fangled names and explanatory elucidations.
  I  cannot forbear  to repeat, what Galen himself perpetually en-
forces, that  the  fluctuation of names,  has always  retarded  the
pursuit of knowledge; and that  it has been, is now, and ever will
be, the principal means  adopted by every  dexterous plagiarist,  to
mystify an otherwise well-known subject; and  by giving it to  the
world in a new dress, an aspect of novelty, it is palmed upon igno-
rance or apathy, as the production of genius and research, such  as
previously had no existence.  This  nomenclatural fluctuation was
well  known to Galen; and  whilst it is wofully deplored by him as a
source of infinite evil, he fails not to castigate it by those  sarcastic
remarks he often indulges in."
  Although in several places, Galen seems to incline to the doc-
trine of the unity of disease, yet the prior claim to it by Hippocrates
must be admitted, if  there  is any  force in words.—" Morborum
omnium unum et idem modus est, locus  autem  differentiam  facit."
—Lib. de Flatibus.—Or, as an annotator (Fracassini,  opusc: Pathol.
Leipsic, 1758, ch. 18, p. 92,) on this part  has it: "Cum  humanum
corpus liquidis ac solidis,  nempe vasis  ipsa liquida continentibus,
constet, et  utraque  in  statu  sano sequabili  ac proportionate motu

  * It might well be demanded of these  incessant coiners of new terms, " by what
authority" they do this?  by which almost every science is kept  in a constant fluc-
tuation, if not absolutely retarded.—Let any one compare the changes of nomenclature
for the last fifty years, in Medicine, in Botany, in Mineralogy, in Chemistry!__and
then ask, " Cui bono ?" 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.                471
moveantur, vasa scilicet oscillatio quo dilatantur ac  contrahuntur;
liquida vero progressivo ac circulari, quotiescunque horum motuum
interruptionis, vel periurbationis causa, in qua morbus consistit, ex
uno in alium locum transferatur,  essentia morbi  commutatur, ac
alter0 exsurgente, alter scepe recedit; si  vero per  quodcunque or-
ganorum secretiorum materia? trajiciundse aptorum eliminetur,  om-
nino extinguitur morbus."—Whatever  may be thought of the ex-
planation here given, there  seems no room to doubt, that here is to
be found a complete exposition of the " Unity of Disease."
  These  preliminary remarks are, however,  sufficiently extended.
In confining myself to  the simplest outline, I shall  take the  liberty
of making  occasional  observations,  in order to direct attention to
some particular point, in a more especial manner; and shall intro-
duce but rarely, the appropriate quotations, on which  those observa-
tions may be founded, as well as those on which I should rest  my
claims to the attention  of the  Profession,  for Galen and his works.
                                                     Editor. 
 
THE  WORKS  OF  GALEN.
   The writings of Galen consist of nearly seven  hundred books
 or treatises, of which  several are  lost, and  they constitute a mass
 of materials  that can scarcely be appreciated, except  by direct
 reference to them.   Originally written in the language of Greece,
 they  have been translated  into Latin  by different persons; and
 these have passed through numerous editions, the principal and best
 of which  may be considered to be those that have been published
 by the Juntas at Venice, and by Frobinius  at Basil.  Besides two
 different Greek editions, I possess in the Latin, the third of 1556;
 the sixth  of 1586, and the ninth of 1609, all Venice copies; and
 the Basil  edition of 1549,—from which last I have chiefly formed
 the following epitome.   The editors  of the Latin  cppies  stated,
 have  divided the writings differently from the Grecian.  They have,
 however,  carefully  collected, not  only those admitted to be from
 Galen, and complete, but likewise such  as are spurious and im-
 perfect.*
   The writings of Galen in the Latin editions, have been principally
 divided into  seven  classes,  embracing all  the   range of medical
 science, as will  be  comprehended  by  a concise exposition of the
 plan pursued.  These classes  are preceded by  the Prolegomena,
 or introductory books, denominated Libri  Isagogici." They  will
 be found in some measure to form an epitome of the whole, giving
 some  general ideas to  the reader of what may be expected in those
 that follow.

  1 I have lately added to my collection the edition by Ktihn, in 20 vols. 8vo., con-
taming both the Greek and Latin texts, and which  is infinitely more convenient for
reference than the ponderous folio.
  b Eia-nyuyM.—Introductio, Lexicon.  Hence students, as beginners, are called by
Galen, u<rAyo/unoi, i. e. Tyrones.—Lib. de Pulsibus ad Tyrones. 
474
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                            CLASS  I.

  This class  embraces Physiology.*—hs different books are conse-
quently devoted to the  consideration of the  nature of the human
body, its elements, temperaments, humours, various  structure and
habits,  the  anatomy and use  or functions of  the various  parts,
together with  their respective faculties or powers;  observations
respecting the  seminal fluid  and the foetus, as necessarily connected
with  the  subject  of generation.   In this class  some of the most
interesting works  of Galen are introduced.
                           CLASS II.

  This class embraces  Hygieneh—or  the  means of  preserving
health, chiefly constituted  of the  various so-called  non-naturals;
viz.: air,  food, drink, sleep, wakefulness, rest and motion, repletion
and  abstinence;  and  the  affections  and  emotions  of the  mind.
Herein too, we  find several commentaries of much value, on some
of the  books of Hippocrates, as for example, three, on the celebrated
treatise "De Aere,  Aquis, et Locis;"  and  on  that "De Salubri
Dioeta."   Much is said  of the powers of food;  of the  healthy  or
unhealthy state of the fluids; of the ptisan,  so  celebrated by the
Grecian practitioners.   Some mental affections are also considered;
some gymnastic exercises;  the  influence  of habits  and customs,
&c.; and it will be found,  on  the whole, a  class of considerable
interest.

                           CLASS III.

   Is  Aetiologicat—that  is, explanatory of diseases,  and  of their

  1 QvtTHMyi*.—Idem est, quod Physica, vel specialiter in medicina ea dicitur pars
ministra, quce explicat  tres res secundum naturam, puta sanitatem, causas ejus, et
accidentia, in rebus naturalibus corporis humani fundatas.—Caslelli Lexicon Medicum.
   b Tyuivti.—Vocatur methodi medicinalis pars prior, quae tractat modum sanitatem
 conservandi in sanis per certas indicationes et congrua media.—Castellus,
   c AtrioMym.—Vocatur quibusdam medicina? pars pathologica, in qua non solum
caussae  morborum, sed et morbi ipsi et symptomata pertractantur.— Castellus. 
PROLEGOMENA.
475
different symptoms and causes, &c, all which are taken up in suc-
cession, and are duly considered.   Some of the books of this class
are commentaries on various Hippocratic writings,  especially  on
the Epidemics, and are a valuable addition to the reader, in enabling
him to  comprehend them more readily.
                          CLASS IV.

  Semeiotics* is the division of medicine that is connected with the
symptoms which distinguish diseases and the parts affected, and by
which, likewise, we are enabled to predict what, is  subsequently
to happen; that is, the  prognosis,  derived  from  the  attendant
symptoms,  as evinced by the pulse, by respiration, excretions, &c.
In this  class are several commentaries on Hippocrates, viz., his
Prognostics and Prorrhetics.   The  subjects  of crises and of critical
days are also duly noticed; together with much  interesting matter
of a  highly practical character, and  which will  amply repay the
attentive perusal of  these books.
                           CLASS V.

           PHARMACYb OR PREPARATION ETC., OF REMEDIES.

  This class embraces all that is connected  with simple remedies
and their  preparations and  substitutes; purgatives, antidotes, com-
pounding of medicines, weights, and measures.  The class is of con-
siderable interest, as giving probably the best history we possess of
the various articles at that period employed in  practice.  We find
many that have reached our own  times,  and which, consequently,
may be deemed to have received the sanction of all the intermediate
ages.   Here  too, we find the most particular details of the long-es-
teemed Theriaca, and of some other then-deemed Panaceas.

  ' Xh/auutix),.—Est pars medicines signorum omnium differentias et vires expendens.
—Castellus.
  b *a^u»jnyn*».—Vocatur pars ministra artis medicee, tradens descriptionem medi.
camenlorum et rite adliibendi modum.— Castellus. 
476
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                         CLASS VI.

  This, although by far the  shortest of all the different classes, is
yet one of the most interesting, embracing, as  it does, under the
title of " de  cucurbilulis, scarificationibus, hirudinibus,  et phleboto-
mia," every thing connected with the evacuation of blood through
their means.   The importance of blood-letting is maintained in op-
position to Erasistratus, who seems to  have been  nearly as violent
an opponent to it as old Van Helmont in times nearer to  our own.
Galen likewise attacks, with equal severity, the followers of Erasis-
tratus, and  shows, that, whatever they might say, they either did
not comprehend  their  master,  or if they did, that  they  made no
scruple to deceive on the subject.


                          CLASS VII.

                         THERAPEUTICS.8

   This class,  which in its different books, is more or less diffusely
considered, contains,  as may  be understood from  the title, every
thing appertaining to the practice of the profession, such as diet in
acute and other diseases ; remedies for each disease, &c; the prin-
ciples and practice of surgery, embracing the  treatment of fractures
and luxations, the description  of bandages, &c,  (fasciarum et la-
queorum,) and of the different  apparatus.   We find  also several
commentaries on  different  books  of Hippocrates, which serve
greatly in their elucidation.


                 CLASS EXTRAORDINARY.

   The above class closes the  regular writings attributed chiefly to
 Galen.  The  present one is formed of those  that are  probably his
 also;  but which are more of an aphoristic character.   They are,
 however, of great interest, containing, as they do, commentaries on
 the Hippocratic aphorisms, as also an explanation of many obsolete
 words that are found in that author.

     * QtfntvtuTix.ii.—Pars medicines curatoria;—methodus medendi.—Castellus. 
PROLEGOMENA.
477
  Superadded to this extra-class we have a variety of those spurious
writings that have been attributed to Galen.   Whether  spurious or
not, many of them abound in interest, and deserve to be known.
They amount to nearly forty distinct essays or tracts, and they are
followed by numerous Fragments, appertaining to different parts of
medicine, which have been considered as derived from  Galen ; and
which,  although mere fragments, possess considerable interest.
  In estimating the above  as  a mere table  of contents, we may
venture  to state, that the writings of this great man will, without
difficulty,  arrange themselves  under  the following heads,—and
amongst them, scarcely will there be found wanting a single  sub-
ject, that in any way appertains to medicine.
  1. General or introductory.
  2. Such as appertain to Anatomy.
  3.    "        "      Physiology.
  4.    "        "      Hygiene — including the practice   of
                           Physic and Surgery.
  5.    "        "      Materia Medica et Alimentaria.
  6.    "        "      Philosophy and Metaphysics.
  7.    "        "      Miscellaneous subjects.

  Can it be  possible that such a writer can be devoid of merit, and
his  works undeserving of examination in the present day, when  it
is remembered, that for more than one thousand  years they main-
tained a supremacy, that has never been exceeded, perhaps not even
equalled!
  I now  proceed to present a  concise notice of all the different
works that are to be found in the above-mentioned classes. 
PROLEGOMENA,
VEL GALEN I  LIBRI  ISAGOGICI.
         THE INTRODUCTORY TREATISES OF GALEN.

  Under the above distinctive title, we have sixteen books or trea-
tises of  an introductory character;  but which,  in  interest,  are
scarcely surpassed by any of those that are to be found in the suc-
ceeding divisions.   We give, in a connected  view, the respective
title of each one.

  1. Galeni, Oratio suasoria ad  Artes.
  2.       Si quis optimus Medicus est, eundem esse Philosophus.
  3.       De  Sophismatis in Verbo  contingentibus.
  4.       Quod Qualitates incorporeal sint.
  5.       De  libris propriis Galeni.
  6.       De  ordine librorum suorum.
  7.       De  Sectis.
  8.       De  optima Secta.
  9.       De  optimo docendi genere.
 10.       De  Subfiguratione Empirica.
 11.       Sermo adversus Empiricos Medicos.
 12.       De  Constitutione Artis Medicae.
 13.       Finitiones Medicae.
 14.       Introductio, vel Medicus.
 15.       Quomodo morbum simulantes sint deprehendendi.
 16.       Ars Medicinalis. 
INTRODUCTORY TREATISES
479
             1. ORATIO SUASORIA AD ARTES.

         AN ORATION IN FAVOUR OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES.

                         (EIGHT CHAPTERS.)

  In  this first book of  the  introductory division  of the works of
Galen, we have a topic of much interest presented for consideration.
Galen sets off by showing that man alone, of all the animal creation,
is endowed with reason, by which he is qualified for the pursuit of
every art and science;9 that consequently, the improvement of the
mind is of infinitely more importance than that of  the body, or than
an increase of wealth ; and therefore that it is disgraceful to neglect
those sciences for the  mere  pursuit of gain.   This leads him natu-
rally  to a description of Fortune, whose inconstancy is  pointed out,
and exemplified by several conspicuous and familiar instances; such
as Croesus, Priam, Dionysius, Caesar, and others;  and  he deduces
from  various circumstances, the superiority of  striving to improve
in the beneficial arts, to that  of toiling in the mere  pursuit of riches;
strengthening his remarks by quoting the opinions  of Diogenes and
Demosthenes and others on the subject.  He furthermore points out
the  folly of those who lay great stress on  their nobility, aiding his
own, by the remarks of Themistocles and Anacharsis.—Even the
elegance of the body,  and of furniture and dress, &c, is considered
by him of little  importance,  unless it be  at  the same  time united
with  a well-adorned mind.b   He cautions all to whom  his remarks

  * Brutes, however, he concedes that they possesssomewhat of the like in common
with us, some in a greater, others in a less degree—but all, with  few exceptions, are
deficient in art; and what these enact, man imitates—as spiders,  bees, &c.  From these
and  other enumerated causes, although reason  is not wanting to  other animals, yet
man alone, as superior to them, is said to be endowed with it.
  b Here he inserts a story of Diogenes, who received an invitation to dine with one
whose house was splendidly  furnished, in the  highest  order and  taste, and nothing
therein wanting.  Diogenes, hawking, and as if about to spit, looked in all direc-
tions, and finding nothing adapted thereto, spat right in the face of the master.  He,
indignant, asked why he did so ? Because (said D.) I saw nothing so dirty and filthy in
all your house.  For the walls were covered with pictures, the floors of the most pre-
cious tessellated character;—and ranged with the various images of gods, and other
ornamental figures.  Now (adds Galen), since we are connected with the gods by the
use of reason, so are we with brutes, inasmuch as we are mortal;  it is therefore more
expedient to attend to the mind and its improvement, than to the body and its  appen-
dages, &.c, by which we are on a par with the brutes alone. 
480
THE WTORKS OF GALEN.
apply, by no means to misapprehend him when he speaks of study
or of the arts; none of which are of importance, unless they benefit
society ; and he supports his views, by giving some details and parti-
culars relative to the  care bestowed in  the  gymnastic trainings of
the athletce, in  preparing for their duties  of  merely a  corporeal
character.  He considers the nature of the arts as being twofold;
the one is noble, from its connexion with the gifts of the mind; the
other is  ignoble or inferior, being dependent  on corporeal labour
alone ;  the  first receives the name of  liberal; the other is called
mechanical.  Then, as might be anticipated, he places  medicine at
the head  of  the first division, from  its being  superior to every
other mental pursuit that classes such among the liberal arts.



II. SI QUIS OPTIMUS  MEDICUS EST, EUNDEM ESSE
                      PHILOSOPHUS.

          A GOOD PHYSICIAN  MUST ALSO BE A  PHILOSOPHER.

   In this book Galen  endeavours to prove that, which  the title amply
implies, viz., how greatly the medical man is improved by an inter-
communion with learned men, and by a knowledge of philosophy;
and it is of further interest, by the insight it  affords of much of the
philosophy  of that  period.
 III. DE SOPHISMATIS IN  VERBO  CONTINGENTIBUS.

                     OF VERBAL SOPHISTRY.

                       (FOUR CHAPTERS.)

  Here, he takes notice of the sophisms  in conversation, giving
various examples of them.  It is an ingenious and amusing treatise,
but is not very particularly connected with medicine.  It serves to
demonstrate, nevertheless, the  magnitude of a mind, which seems
to have embraced the whole circle of science as then pursued, both
at Rome, and elsewhere. 
INTRODUCTORY TREATISES.
481
     IV.  QUOD QUALITATES INCORPORE^E  SINT.

      WHETHER THE QUALITIES OF BODIES ARE INCORPOREAL.

                      (NINE CHAPTERS.)

  In this metaphysical tract, the question is considered  as to the
propriety of the Stoics,  in denominating the qualities  and other
accidents of bodies corporeal.  Galen denies it, and gives a definition
of a body.


           V.  DE LIBRIS PROPRIIS  GALENI.

            OF THE APPROPRIATE WRITINGS  OF GALEN.

                    (EIGHTEEN CHAPTERS.)

  This book is of importance, inasmuch as it enables us, (at least
to a certain extent,) to establish  the writings that  are his, and to
point out those that are erroneously ascribed to him.   A preface
explains the circumstance leading to his writing it.  He then pro-
ceeds to mention the works  he had written on  his first  arrival at
Rome;—next,  those that were written by him and given afterwards
to his friends, when he  left that  city.  He then speaks of his
anatomical  writings, and adverts to twenty books  on anatomy by
Marinus, which he  had  epitomized.  After this, he  mentions  his
books on Diagnostics, Therapeutics, and Prognostics; his commen-
taries on Hippocrates, on Erasistratus, Asclepiades, the Empirics,
and the Methodists; and of  those that pertain to demonstration, or
which are proper and common in the arts.  Lastly, he notices such
of his works as belong to Moral Philosophy, to  the Platonic, Aris-
totelian, Stoic, and  Epicurean systems; and of those that  were
common to  grammar and rhetoric.


         VI. DE ORDINE L1BRORUM SUORUM.

     OF THE ORDER IN WHICH HIS WRITINGS ARE TO BE  PLACED.

  The title  sufficiently explains the purport  of this book.
                             31 
482
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                       VII.  DE SECTIS.

                 OF DIFFERENT SECTS IN MEDICINE.

   This book gives an interesting account,  and one, probably, more
accurate than is elsewhere to be found, of  the different sects in
medicine.  From this, every writer on the subject, from the days
of Galen to the present period, seems deeply to have quaffed, either
directly, or as copyists, without any, or but trifling acknowledgment.
No one,  whilst  reading  the  lofty pretensions and  explanations of
hypotheses  assumed to  be of modern origin;  or in hearing  the
same detailed in learned lucubrations, ex cathedra, would suppose
that the  subject had ever, previously, received  the  slightest eluci-
dation !  Happily for these conceited and oracular exponents, Galen
preceded them by ten  or more centuries;  and from his  extensive
hives, those drones have stolen  the honey, if  any is to be found in
their asserted claims.   It is but just  to pay our homage  in  return,
and rendering to Caesar the  things  that are  his, confess his supe-
riority with a " detur dignissimo."
  This book  embodies much  matter that is of a character peculiarly
interesting to those who  may desire  to explore the discrepancies of
former sectarians,  and  to investigate by  what  means  the same
remedies were alike employed in the practice of them all, although
it was founded on  principles  so  different!  Notice  has  also been
taken as to what has, by turns, received the opposition of them  all.
The Methodists receive a due share of attention, both as to their
defence, and  to  the attacks made upon them  by the Empirics and
Rationalists.
            VIII. GALENI, DE OPTIMA SECTA.

                       OF THE BEST SECT.

  This  is an important and interesting book, consisting of no less
than fifty-one chapters, in which  the pretensions of the different
sects in  medicine are duly canvassed.  Galen sets off with the pro-
position that every medical precept, and  every general  precept,
should  be founded in  truth  as its primary recommendation; then, 
INTRODUCTORY TREATISES.
483
that it should be useful, and lastly, conformable to established prin-
ciples.  By these alone can a sound precept be properly judged of,
and that, if deficient in  either, it  should  not be tolerated.  The
whole of this book seems to base its remarks on these propositions,
and an infinite variety of highly valuable matter is spread over the
whole treatise.  He adverts to the difficulties that spring up  in con-
sidering and judging of precepts assumed from mere appearances,
or which are assumed from the authority of others as having been
previously  demonstrated.  He points to the  cautions essential in
such  investigations, and strengthens  his views by numerous cases,
either actual or supposititious.  By  these propositions he enters into
his inquiry  as to the character, &c, of the three principal sects, viz.,
the Rationalist, the Empiric, and the Methodic; by which his judg-
ment may  be enlightened  as to his selection of the best.  This  he
fully  does,  and  points out their respective advantages or defects,
their discrepancies, and the imperfection of many of their remarks.
In  short, it is  a valuable  criticism,  which may be  very advanta-
geously consulted by every medical man, who desires sincerely to
arrive at truth in his researches, and not be led away by the empty
and frivolous hypotheses that  swell the publications and lectures of
the last fifty years.


           IX.  DE  OPTIMO DOCENDI GENER£.

                OF THE BEST MODE OF EDUCATION.

  This book is of a general character in respect to education, and
is deserving attention, if merely as  affording the  views of  a man
most  deeply impressed with, and  who  appears to  have thought
much, upon the subject.


          X. DE  SUBFIGURATIONE  EMPIRICA.

              AN EXPOSITION  OF THE EMPIRIC SECT.

  This may be regarded as a compendious history of the "sect of
the  Empirics.   As to their origin,  they themselves derive it from
Hippocrates;  but  Galen  considers them  as springing  from  the 
 484                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

 Sceptics  of the  more  ancient philosophers.  The foundation  of
 their art is said to be that of experience.  What that consists of is
 considered, and  an  explanation given of  some terms connected
 with it: such as aurora, gfjwrsipia, &c.  Galen adverts to the division
 made of  the art  by some of them, into two parts;  by others into
 three, and  four,  and even  five  parts.  Herophilus's definition  of
 medicine  is stated, and  the difference  is  pointed  out  between
 Empiricism  and  Dogmatism.   The  whole  book is replete with
 interest, at  least to those who  desire to investigate the origin and
 diversity of the various doctrines of those distant times.


      XI.  SERMO  ADVERSUS EMPIRICOS MEDICOS.

   In the  Venice edition of Galen's works  is a short essay which
 does not  appear in  the Basil edition  of  Frobinius, entitled "A
 Discourse delivered in opposition to the Empiric Physicians."   It
 is of little or no importance, and why introduced at all would be
 difficult to say, especially in this part of Galen's works;—for, even
 in the Venice edition, it is called " Fragmentum quoddam exiguum
 et mendosum."  Its title gives its intent.


       XII.  DE CONSTITUTIONE  ARTIS  MEDICO.

                    OF  THE ART OF MEDICINE.

   A considerable number of Galen's writings appear as letters,  if
 v/e may so  express it, addressed  to different individuals, probably
 his disciples; and, at times, apparently  under fictitious names: thus
 the present book is addressed in its prefatory remarks, to Patrophi-
 lus, which may, or may not be a real one. By some, the  book
 has been  divided into two parts, the first, consisting of remarks on
 such particulars as lead to a knowledge of bodies, either simple or
 compound.  The second, of a notice of remedies, or those instru-
 ments of  pharmacy  and of aliment, in  any way employed by the
 physician.
   Galen commences  by  assigning his reasons for writing the book,
and strongly exhorts to the pursuit of useful arts, declaiming at the
same time against the ignorance of the age and of its  increase. 
INTRODUCTORY TREATISES.                485
He points out  the arts as being of a fourfold character.:  1. Con-
templative; 2. Practical, or Active;  3. Effective, poetically; that
is, in creating that  which had no  previous  existence,  or  in cor-
recting that which did exist.  Of this description he affirms medi-
cine  to  be.   Lastly;  4.  Acquisitive,  or  Accumulative, as in  the
various  arts of hunting, fishing, &c.  He then proceeds to a more
particular consideration of medicine as a factitious art, and  explains
how it is so; its parts, and actions;—states the essence of each part
to consist in its conformation, magnitude, number, sympathy, and
use, with much other speculative, yet interesting matter, diversified
with that of a medical character.   He then remarks on the nature
of remedies, their discovery;  the mode of attainment of the nature
of diseases, and of the part affected, especially if internal; speaks
of their causes, symptoms, variety, prognosis, and divination, &c;
of the  selection of remedies, prevention of disease, and  of con-
valescence.


                XIII. FINITIONES  MEDICE.

                      MEDICAL DEFINITIONS.

   This is useful by directing  attention to  the importance of defini-
tions.  It adverts to physicians, anterior to the time of Hippocrates,
as having written but little, and defined nothing.  Hippocrates was
the first to collect these  scattered fragments, and add  to them his
own.  Many after him pursued the same plan, though without any
kind of order, but merely spread at random through their works,
such as  Herophilus, Apollonius, and others.   We are now pre-
sented  with a  definition, of  what a  definition  is;—then  follow,
definitions of  a science, art,  sect, medicine,—and  its  respective
sects, &c.  Man  is defined, his  elements, organs, humours, nature,
age,  respiration, sanguification,  pulse, motion, senses,  health, and
sickness.   To this, succeed that  of  fever and its varieties, and that
of various other  diseases, as of the  head  and  other  parts.  He
speaks of medicine  as being  divided  into two parts, contemplative
and active, that is into theory and practice.   The affections of the
uterus,  its discharges;  the hair and  its  diseases,  of which nine
varieties  are enumerated,  one,  under the title of rhopalosis, (i.  e. 
486                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

" velut in baculos coagmentatio,") appears to me to be the plica, or
nearly allied to it.   Fractures of the skull follow;  diseases of the
eyes and other organs of sense; the semen and its formation,—in
which is agitated the question of the female seed ;—that of the fcetus,
and  its nourishment;—and also  of monsters; of  seven  and eight
month children, and of  uterine polypi, whose  excision  is recom-
mended  when large.  Hemorrhage;—surgery and its  parts, are
noticed.   This book, is in fact, in many respects a very useful one;
it enables us, in  case of difficulty, to look into the original meaning
of words; and if not practically important, it is  interesting through-
out,  if only on this score;  a good translation of it might be useful,
under this consideration.


           XIV. INTRODUCTIO VEL MEDICUS.

           INTRODUCTION TO MEDICINE, OR  THE PHYSICIAN.

   This book  has  by some been  ascribed to  Herodotus, and  this
seems the opinion of the editor  of the  Junta edition.   In  either
case, it-is  of great antiquity, and tends to fix  the  doctrines of
the  times.   The  Venice edition  divides this book into nineteen
chapters; that of Frobinius,into thirty.   Why  so, is not explained,
nor  is it probably of any consequence.*  The whole is  of sufficient
interest to command attention, whoever be its  author.   A preface
to it adverts to the manner in which medicine was discovered, and
a detail is given of many of the nursery tales, and original fables
on this point.   Esculapius is reputed as its inventor; and the Ascle-
piades, (his successors,)  especially Hippocrates, are mentioned as
having first taught the principles of rational medicine.   The author
proceeds next to treat of the principles of medicine, which he regards
as threefold, viz., inventive, constitutive, and traditionary or interpre-
tative.  He next mentions the  three principal  sects, viz., the Logi-
cians or Rationalists, the Empirics, and  Methodists, with  remarks
on each of them, and some account of their respective  leaders.  Of
the Rational sect,  he considers Hippocrates to be the author and the
chief; then Diodes, Praxagoras, Herophilus, Calcedonius, Erasistra-
tus,  Mnesitheus, Asclepiades, and Prusias.  Of the Empirics, Philinus
*  Such variations in the divisions are very frequent in the two editions. 
INTRODUCTORY TREATISES.
487
stands foremost, as being the first who separated from the former;
then Serapion,  the two Apollonii, father  and son;  Antiochenes,
Menodotus, and Sextus.  Of the Methodists, Themison led the way,
quitting the phalanx of the Rationalists, and followed by  Thessalus,
Mnaseas, Dionysius, Proclus, and Antipater.  Some differed from all
the preceding, and by  their seceding from them gave rise to various
minor sects, as the Synthetic, Eclectic, &c.   An inquiry  is then en-
tered  into, whether medicine  is an  art; and the opinions of the
different sects, on the subject, are pointed out.   Next we are  pre-
sented  with an enumeration of the parts or divisions, and the defi-
nition of medicine.  Its division is into five  parts,  viz.: 1. The con-
templation  or consideration  of natural  things, constituting physio-
logy.   2. A consideration of the affections, and of a knowledge of
their causes, giving  rise to pathology and aetiology. 3. The ra-
tionale of preserving health, or hygiene.  4. Of the observance of
signs or symptoms, or semeiotics.  5. Of the mode of cure, or the-
rapeutics.  After some remarks on each of these  in particular, the
author considers  the  propriety,  or  necessity, of  this quintuple di-
vision ; then takes a view concisely of the human elements, as laid
down by Hippocrates and other philosophers; some of whom enu-
merate  four, viz., fire, air, earth, and water.   Some reckon only
three, a humid, dry, and aerial element, (answering to the conti-
nentia, contenta, and  impetum  facientia, of later writers;) the first
consisting of the solids, as bones, nerves, arteries, veins, &c.   The
second are the  fluids,  that are  conveyed by vessels to every part of
the body.   The third  consist of spirits, considered by the ancients
as  twofold, animal and natural.   Erasistratus   considered three
species of vessels, arteries, veins, and nerves, (omitting humours and
spirits,) as the beginning, and the elements of the whole  body: and
Athenaeus  maintained, that  fire,  air, water, and earth, were not
themselves  the four primary elements;  but he had great respect to
their qualities, of hot, cold, dry, and moist.  These and many other
views of ancient philosophy respecting the elements, are noticed
by Galen, which  need not be here mentioned.   This part is  suc-
ceeded by the names of the  external parts of the body,  their divi-
sion and etymologies; the internal parts and etymologies in like
manner;  and here  we  find various parts  called by names alto-
gether different  from those to which those names  are now applied.
Thus stomachus, implied the oesophagus, and not the organ of diges-
tion, as now.  An enumeration of others is here unnecessary, but it 
48g                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

is pretty fully detailed by Galen.  The fluids are next adverted to,
and some functions and diseases.   Six species of intermittents are
mentioned.   Diseases are divided into febrile and non-febrile, acute
and  chronic; and their mode of treatment is  concisely noticed.
Then, a concise description of acute diseases and their treatment is
given; next, of the chronic  in like manner.  Remedial measures
are then referred to, as being internal or external. The internal are
divided under twelve genera, deduced either from the affection itself
or from the seat  of  the disease.   The  external are placed under
eleven divisions.  All this is followed up by a long chapter on the
diseases of the eyes;  these, by a notice of various cutaneous affec-
tions; and  the remainder of the book embraces surgery and its va-
rious indications, &c, fractures, luxations, &c.   This book, though
replete with matter, is however very concise;  and is yet deserving
of attention.

    XV.   QUOMODO MORBUM SIMULANTES SINT
                     DEPREHENDENDI.

           HOW TO DETECT THE SIMULATION OF DISEASES.

   This is called a libellus; but is not shorter than many, dignified
by the title of Liber.  It would  seem that in former  times, the
march of intellect was  fully competent as at present, to direct the
mind  to evil; and it would admit of much reflection, before a just
estimate could be  drawn as to the comparative superiority of  vice
or virtue of that distant period, over that of present times.  In this
production, Galen acquaints us with the simulation of diseases, and
points out the means of detection.  Tumours, inflammation, spitting
of blood, extreme  pain  and  delirium, &c, all become tributary to
fraudulent  intentions.   A case is given of  feigned colic;  another of
a swelled knee, excited  by artificial means, in a servant desirous of
avoiding out-of-door work.   Some instruction may be  derived
from this treatise, at this period.

                 XVI. ARS  MEDICINALIS.

                    OF THE ART OF MEDICINE.

   This book is divided into one hundred chapters, containing much
interesting  and  important  matter, although of infinite diversity. 
                    INTRODUCTORY TREATISES.                48g

 Some prefatory remarks are made on the triple doctrines, or modes
 of inquiry, as to what  medicine  is,  &c, and replies are given to
 such inquiries.  It is said to be the knowledge of that art or science,
 that  teaches what  is  healthy, what induces disease,  and of the
 causes and  accompanying symptoms.   The body is said  to  be the
 recipient;  causes act and  operate  upon it;  symptoms indicate,
 both  the state of health, and of disease.  All this is more particu-
 larly noticed under  each respective head, of the healthy, unhealthy,
 and negative or neutral state;  of healthy and unhealthy symptoms,
 and,  of such as indicate  the highest  health.   The  difference of
 parts, is then considered, either as original, or derivative; thus, the
 brain, the heart, liver, testes, are  regarded as original; whilst the
 nerves and  spinal marrow are  derived from the  brain; arteries
 from  the heart, veins  from the liver, and  the seminal vessels from
 the testes, &c, and  from these, as from  a centre,  what respectively
 concerns each, is treated of;  as of the signs connected  with the
 brain, arising from its magnitude, &c, of reason, memory, and the
 various senses, and  their organs.  So of the heart and other parts,
 their different signs  or symptoms, indicating approaching or actual
 disease; the  various modes, or  modified  changes  of the system;
solution of continuity;  most usual curative indications;  obstruction
as productive of disease, either in number, location, or in force, &c,
and1 with this, the Libri  Isagogici  terminate. 
CLASS   I.
       PHYSIOLOGY,  ANATOMY,  ETC.


  This class contains twenty-eight books, and embraces an account
of every thing connected with the human body, from its first  forma-
tion of elementary matter; together with much physiological inquiry
as to respiration,  the pulse, muscular motion, generation, &c, all
highly interesting, and  containing  the germs of  many  of the
theories, or rather hypotheses of the  present period.

  The First Class consists of those works  of Galen,  that may be
considered as chiefly belonging to  Physiology; wherein is to be
found abundant matter for speculation, as well as much of a prac-
tical nature.  Here are nearly thirty distinct  tracts, some consist*
ing of several books or chapters ;  and in point of interest, scarcely
yielding to any writings downwards to  the present time.   Sterne
says, " I pity the  man who can travel from  Dan to Beersheba, and
cry, 'lis all barren;—and so it is: and so is all the world  to him
who will not cultivate the fruits it offers."—(Sentimental Journey.)
And  in like manner, I would  say,  that whoever could read this
class of Galen's  writings, without feeling  his whole soul pressing
forward,  sympathetically, to  pay his  respectful  homage  to  the
greatest ornament of the medical  profession, must  be  incapable of
appreciating  truth  and merit,  because  appearing in an  ancient
dress; whilst  he  receives with  avidity, the plagiarisms  and dicta
of our schools; unconscious, that what is praiseworthy therein, is
mostly derived from ancient authority, which their teachers  profess
to despise! whilst what is the reverse, is  generally of " domestic
manufacture!"—Ed. 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.               491
        INDEX OF THE VARIOUS BOOKS OF THIS FIRST CLASS.

  1. Galeni, De Elementis, Lib. 2.
  2.        De Temperamentis, Lib. 3.
  3.        De Natura humana.
  4.        De Atrabile.
  5.        De optima nostri Corporis constitutione.
  6.        De bona habitudine.
  7.        De Ossibus.
  8.        De Musculorum dissectione.
  9.        De Nervorum dissectione.
 10.        De Venarum Arteriarumque dissectione.
 11.        An sanguis in arteriis natura contineatur.
 12.        De Anatomicis administrationibus, Lib. 9.
 13.        De utilitate respirationis.
 14.        De Causis respirationis.
 15.        De usu Partium, Lib. 17.
 16.        De dissectione Vulvas.
 17.        De instrumento odoratu.
 18.        De Pulsuum usu.
 19.        De Hippocratis et Platonis decretis, Lib. 9.
 20.        De naturalibus facultatibus, Lib. 3.
 21.        De motu musculorum, Lib. 2.
 22.        De motu thoracis et  pulmonis.
23.        Quod animi vires Corporis temperaturas sequuntur.
 24.        De formatione foetuum.
25.        An omnes particulas  animalis quod faetatur, fiunt simul.
26.        An animal sit, id, quod in Utero est.
 27.        De Semine, Lib. 2.
28.        De septimestri partu.
I. GALENI, DE ELEMENTIS, LIBRI DUO.

               OF THE ELEMENTS.
  The first  book is taken up with considering  the nature of an
element.  It  is regarded as being scarcely cognizable to the senses, 
492                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

in consequence of its minuteness, but rather, appreciable by reason.
Inquiry is made as to the number of elements, if one, or more; and
attempts are made to prove that one  alone  is insufficient.   This,
although the belief of man)', is refuted  by reasons  deduced from
various considerations, as well  as  from the discrepancy of those
who maintained the opinion; and the conclusion is drawn, that the
idea is ridiculous, whether maintained by philosophers or physicians,
that there is but a single element, either of man, or of the universe;
for even they who most warmly contend for this opinion, can come
to no agreement as to what this element is;  and  the author criticises
them accordingly; more particularly Melissus.  As  chiefly specu-
lative,  this book, as well as  the  second on the same subject,  is
perhaps, of little absolute importance, further,  than  as  they afford
us the  first views of philosophers and  of medical  men, on several
particulars; from which, as a foundation, various hypotheses sprang
up, and fructified, or decayed, in due proportion to the  ingenuity of
,their respective proprietors.   As a matter  of curiosity, more than
of real importance, it however is deserving of a full translation.
   It is translated into Latin, from the Greek, by N.  Leonicenus
(Basil  Ed.), and by Victor Trincavellius  (Venice Ed.)


     II.  GALENI, DE TEMPERAMENTIS, LIBRI  TRES.

                       OF TEMPERAMENTS.

                THOM. LINACER, TRANSLATOR.

   Hypothetical as are these three books, they are abundantly interest-
ing and entertaining.   The subject commences, by showing why it
deserved investigation.  Its division by different persons, some into
two, others into four  temperaments, together with  the omissions of
the older writers, are referred to. Some remarks relating to spring
and autumn follow, and animadversions on the errors of nomencla-
ture among the ancients; the right signification of  names in con-
nexion with temperament, together with  the different accommoda-
tion of the  same name,  and the number and distinction  of the
temperaments, are fully considered.
   The second book begins with a brief repetition of  the preceding,
and then notices the temperament of different ages, and explains them, 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
493
 together with the contrary arguments of many, on these particulars;
 it enters into  the consideration of the temperaments of different
 parts, as evinced to the senses and reason; and by various qualities,
 such as thickness, tenuity, roughness, smoothness, &c.
   In the third  book  the temperaments,  or degrees of medicines, are
 considered, and the  means by which any article becomes possessed
 of power.  The difference of substances received into the  body,
 assimilation of particles, spontaneous combustion, with a digression
 to the combustion of the  Roman fleet by Archimedes with specula,
 all are considered;  and also aliment, in its variety,  and as differing
 from medicines. These last are divided under four  orders, and are
 treated of, together with the difference produced in them from mix-
 ture, or variety of administration, viz., whether applied externally,
 or internally taken.   Notice is taken of the harmless nature of the
 poison of the viper, or of a rabid animal, when internally  received,
 and its opposite tendency if externally  applied.  Experimental expe-
 rience  of the  knowledge of remedies is insisted  on, and  much
 variety of particular subjects connected with this,  is interspersed;
 together with a concise abstract of  the whole treatise,  which con-
 cludes the book.


 III. GALENI, IN LIBRUM HIPPOCRATIS, DE NATURA
            HUMANA, COMMENTARIA DUO.

    TWO COMMENTARIES OF GALEN ON  THE BOOKS OF HIPPOCRATES,
              ENTITLED, " OF THE NATURE OF MAN."

                  H. C. CAMPENSIS, TRANSLATOR.

  These  two  commentaries seem to be merely an appendage to
the preceding  books on  the elements  of bodies.  Thev are com-
ments on that work of Hippocrates, translated  above, De Natura
Humana, and  by Haller  and others, De Natura Hominis.  Galen
considers all, beyond that which his first commentary  embraces, as
spurious, and not coming from the pen of Hippocrates.   He ascribes
it  to Polybius, his  son-in-law.  They are, nevertheless, closely
connected, and are not devoid of interest.  They advert chiefly to
the  four elements of nature, and to four in the human  body,  as
influencing  health and disease; and  they give the general  opinions, 
494
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
 (and the diversity also,) of physicians, as to what man  consists of,
 viz.: of blood, bile, &c.  We  here  find  some  remarks  on  the
 blood-vessels,  in  which  some  of the  errors of that period,  are
 intermingled  with  truths of later date;  and  adequate,  if duly
 weighed with other parts, to assure us of a conviction of a circu-
 lation,  even in yet  more remote  times, although  its  route was
 imperfectly comprehended.—Galen correctly  observes, that our
 judgment is not always to be captivated by demonstration, but that
 reason  is to have fair play; and he points out the error of some of
 those assumed  demonstrations: such as, of four pair of vessels
 proceeding from the head; which, so  far from being the case, as
 asserted by some, not any of the best anatomists had ever advanced.
 Much might be here adduced in  order  to  aid  our  estimate of the
 extent to which the views of a circulation were really carried.


        IV. GALENI, DE ATRA BILE, LIBELLUS.

                 OF THE ATRABILIS, OR BLACK BILE.

                    B. SYLVANEUS, TRANSLATOR.

   This  may be regarded as a  treatise  of  some importance, in so
 far as it affords a view of the  opinions of the ancients respecting
 the nature  of this presumed peculiar principle of the body, the atra-
 bilis, or black  bile,  as  contra-distinguished from  the  yellow or
 natural  bile, and as the supposed and abundant source  of disease.
 After some censures on  the writings of Plistonicus, Praxagoras,
 and Philotimus, on the subject of atrabilis, and praises of Hippocrates
 and Rufus  for their statements ;  he adverts to the humours, and to
 their necessity  in the body, among which is atrabilis.  He rebukes
 the Erasistratians, Asclepiadeans, and Methodists, some  of whom
 ventured to say, that any information as to the humours was use-
 less in medicine.1   He  sets off, in speaking of the humours, with
 the blood;  and notices the difference of colour between that of the
 arteries  and veins;  its coagulation out of the body, and in the body,

  *  Here  we see the first dogmas of exclusive Solidism!  A more absurd doctrine
 never found a place in medical science, with, perhaps,  the exception of one founded
on it in a  great measure, that of sympathy, pushed to the extreme that it has been in
the present day! 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
495
as in the belly, intestines, bladder, lungs, windpipe and other parts:
he mentions the healthy and unhealthy appearance of it, as to its
colour and consistence; and states  that it is sometimes  like tar or
pitch (" liquida; pici similis," p.  154, Bas.  ed.)   He  considers the
arterial  and venous blood as being the same, and therefore entitled
to one appellation; and proceeds to  the notice of  some other hu-
mours, pointing out their difference, &c, from the blood,  and dwells
particularly on  the atrabilis, which is  precisely expressed  by our
English word melancholy, i. e., fjisXag ^oXtj, or black bile.   He next
adverts  to several diseases assumed to  be produced by its presence,
&c.   Other particulars are mentioned, and receive an explanation,
different, perhaps, from that  now  given,  but  probably  not  more
satisfactory; such for instance  as  the occasional  injury sustained
by curing  hemorrhoids, &c, and  other  chronic  complaints, and
varicose ulcers  of the  leg, &c.  All  the humours are  considered
as being contained in the blood, (in venis, arteriisque,)  and  to be
the source of health, when in due proportion, otherwise,  as  leading
to disease, if this proportion is  altered, either  generally or locally.
This  change is often  apparent in  the modified  appearance of the
blood itself.   The  causes that augment or diminish the atrabilis
are mentioned.  He then opposes Erasistratus in his opinion as to
the use of the spleen, and  maintains that some of his views would
lead to  the belief that all kinds of evacuation, by bleeding, purging,
Sec, were equally beneficial at all times, and hence,  that the  daily
observations of physicians  in these particulars, are altogether use-
less.  Much praise is bestowed on Hippocrates;  and reference is
made to Melampus, who  treated affections arising  from atrabilis,
three hundred years before Erasistratus, who  has  said  nothing, or
but little, about  it.  Considering this humour to be contained  in the
blood, some remarks  follow, which, although  founded on  an erro-
neous basis, yet they go to accredit a belief in  a circulation, for,
without such a  supposition, even the  erroneous  foundation is itself
devoid  of  sense.1  A  full  persuasion of  a circulation here, and
elsewhere, seems  unqualified: the qua  via is not  established by
him, and is of no importance;  it  is  in  part apparently here, and
throughout his writings.  Its full perfection is not yet determined.
Galen has done his part and full proportion towards it.—He termi-
nates this  book by referring  to his  own experience  as  to  the
' Bas. ed. p. 163. 
495                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

importance  and necessity  of  the  atrabilis to the system,  (longa
experientia mihi certo cognita,  compertaque sunt,) and  although
our present theories discard this humour, practically, it is  admitted
on many occasions.
V.  GALENI, DE OPTIMA  CORPORIS CONSTITUTIONS

               OF THE BEST BODILY CONSTITUTION.

                    F. BALAMIO, TRANSLATOR.

  In what this  best constitution  consists,  is well laid down by
Galen,  viz., in an harmonious  temperament of all the  parts of the
body, as well as in their proper situation, size, figure, number, and
connexion.  Health is stated  to consist  in that  sound and whole-
some state, in which all  the actions of nature  are correctly per-
formed.  What these are, are  then  more fully explained ; and the
opposite, or ill state of the body, is incidentally brought into view.
      VI.  GALENI, DE BONA HABITUDINE, LIBER.

            OF A GOOD CONSTITUTION OR HABIT OF BODY.

                     SAME TRANSLATOR.

  This  book seems a  necessary continuation of  the  preceding.
Galen commences  by stating what he means by habit, viz.: that it
is a permanent and durable affection, whether that be good or bad;
the  latter  may  be  such, either simply, or comparatively; but the
former is  simply so, in the best  constitution.   Such was  the case
with Milo, Hercules, Achilles, &c, differing  from that of the  ath-
letae, as is  explained, and comparisons drawn between them.   The
athletse, from their  immoderate diet, or increased circulation  (san-
guine nimium aucto), are sometimes suffocated, or rupture a vessel
in the lungs or liver.  A case is  detailed from  Hippocrates, of the
sudden loss of speech from vascular repletion. 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
497
           VII. GALENI, DE  OSSIBUS, LIBER.

                        OF THE BONES.

                    SAME TRANSLATOR.

  This book, addressed to beginners (ad tyrones) affirms the abso-
lute necessity to the physician, of being acquainted with the natural
connexion of the  bones.  Galen  traces their  nature, uses, differ-
ences, and parts; their twofold mode of union, and the subordinate
species, &c.  Some remarks indicate his observations to have been
made on the human body (humani corporis ossium, invicem cohse-
rentium  universa compactio sceletos appellatur), and not of brutes
only.  In a succession of chapters, he follows up a brief descrip-
tion of the bones of every part of the body, in a sufficient manner
for the purpose of beginners; remarking at the conclusion, that the
few rudiments of osteology  thus laid down, he thinks adequate to
the wants of a tyro;  that the  junction of  all the bones,'constitutes
a skeleton, and, that as for  sundry small  bones, such  as the  sesa-
moid, it is not requisite  to notice them  here.  He nowhere  speaks
as though his osteology was derived from brutes; and, such is the
importance he  attaches to the subject, the mind is forcibly impressed
that his observations are derived from man, chiefly.


    VIII.  GALENI,  DE MUSCULORUM DISSECTIONE.

                    OF MUSCULAR DISSECTION.

               A.  GAGALDINUS, TRANSLATOR.

  This book is introduced into the Venice edition of Galen's works,
but seems wanting in that of Basil.  It appears, however, to have
an important connexion  with  several of the  succeeding  books,
which treat of  dissection of the nerves, arteries, and veins, as well
as with the preceding treatise; completing  thereby the brief  view
of these parts;  and thus preparing us for a  more compendious work
succeeding to them, " De Anatomicis administrationibus," of which,
                             32 
498
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
most unfortunately, several books are lost.   I introduce it here, as
following the order  in  the  Venice copy, and  principally to afford
the outline of its proemium, or preface.   It commences by saying,
that no one had written on the subject of muscular dissection with-
out  error;  but  that Marinus is the most accurate of such writers.
Yet that, as in one book, he could not detail every thing, therefore,
the works of Pelops, Lycus, and ^Elian, should be consulted. Pelops
(3d book of the  Instit. of Hippoc.) dissected the muscles, as well as
all the other parts of the body.  Lycus  composed a large book on
the same subject; and iElian, in a compend that  he formed of the
anatomical writings of his father, together with many other particu-
lars, also wrote  on muscular anatomy.  The works of Lycus, owing
to much prolix interpretation, and intermixture of logical questions
with those  arising out of dissection,  besides much  that relates to
diseases, were scarcely connected with muscular dissection. ./Elian
and  Pelops noticed  carefully the objects presented  to them, and
which Galen was therefore  the less  induced to describe  (quod et
ego nihilo secius nunc facere decrevi), since he had, in two commen-
taries, elsewhere treated on muscular motion, wherein all  that was
useful  in these particulars, is noticed.   Exclusive of which, every
thing that relates to the best mode of  dissection, not of the muscles
only, but of every other part, is detailed in the  anatomical tracts;
hence he deemed it useless to write expressly on the subject, saving,
that  he thought fit to  state  whatever was  discovered  in  his own
dissections, and  collect  into  one book all that the authors above-
mentioned  might  have  omitted, or otherwise  incorrectly noticed.
Besides, adds  Galen, " numerous friends  required  me to communi-
cate, together with  my own, such particulars  as they themselves
had observed in their own private dissections."   He has given us
merely the heads of what is demonstrated in other books, and those
simply as helps to the memory.
  The above explains sufficiently the  character of the present book,
which  proceeds, in thirty-five chapters, to give a concise notice of
the muscles, beginning with the platysma myoides, and other mus-
cles of the head  and  neck, and proceeding downwards to the feet. 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
499
    IX. GALENI, DE NERVORUM  DISSECTIONE,  AD
                        TYRONES.

               OF THE DISSECTION OF THE NERVES.

       SAME TRANSLATOR, VEN.--A XT. FORTOLOVERSUS, BASIL.

  In this book, the nerves are described, as being the organs of
sense and motion, arising partly from the brain, and in part from
the spinal marrow.  Notice is taken of the anterior ventricles of the
brain, and of the optic and  other  nerves up  to the seventh pair,
with their subdivisions, distributions, and inter-communications (qui
inter se conjungantur), and of the discordant opinions of anatomists
with respect  to them ; with an explanation of the  causes  of their
ignorance of  the subject.  The close connexion of  the nerve with
the carotid  arteries is mentioned, and enables him in another place
(De Decretis  Hipp, et Plat.) to explain some erroneous experiments
on  those arteries, leading to their incorrect denomination; after
which the nerves of the spine and loins are mentioned.


    X.  GALENI, DE VENARUM, ARTERIARUMQUE
                      DISSECTIONE.

         OF THE DISSECTION OF THE VEINS AND  ARTERIES.

                 ANT. FORTOLO, TRANSLATOR.

  This book is addressed by Galen, to his beloved Antisthenes; and
is  a compend, requested by him  on the subject,  to  refresh his
memory as  to what he has observed in the dissection of monkeys
(simise);—but he states, that a more exact account  is contained in
his  books of anatomy,  not of the above parts only, but of all others.
In order that Antisthenes may the  more  readily comprehend him,
he desires him, in imagination, to  look  at  the trunk of a tree; its
lower  part  terminating  in  numerous  roots, the upper, in  many
branches and  twigs, as affording an idea  of the blood-vessels; and
to which  they have  been likened by Hippocrates and  other  cele-
brated anatomists, for facilitating their teaching. Thus, adds Galen,
the veins that are spread over the belly and intestines, respond  to the 
500
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
roots of the tree; whilst those termed hepatic and cavas, (jecorarium,
tum  cavam,) are, as it were, the trunk of all the veins distributed
throughout the body.  For a like reason, the arteries, having  their
origin in the heart, are in part, spread through  the lungs, and  may
be regarded as the root, in their short series of distribution.   Pur-
suing this train of ideas, he goes on to point out the  distribution of
the veins that proceed from the portae of the liver, to the intestines,
spleen, stomach,  &c,—and  then those of the vena  cava;  men-
tions its  conjunction  with the  axillary vein, and its ramifications
down to the hand; the division of this vein, and of those veins going
to the anterior part of the thorax, both internally and externally;
and  from the cava adjacent to  the  clavicle,  &c.  Of  the external
and  internal jugulars, &c.; all of which is, he says, more fully stated
in his anatomical books.  He proceeds to those below the diaphragm,
and to the divisions of the descending cava ; the minute and capillary
branches in the kidneys, testes, spine, &c.; the deltoid  divarication
of the cava in the loins, and its  further subdivisions.  He then  men-
tions in like  manner the arteries and their subdivisions, and adverts
to such veins as  are found  unaccompanied  by  arteries, and of the
latter, such as have no accompanying veins.


        XI.  AN SANGUIS IN ARTERIIS NATURA
                      CONTINEATUR.

         IS  BLOOD NATURALLY CONTAINED IN THE ARTERIES^

                     M. ROTA,  TRANSLATOR.

  This book may be regarded as closely connected  with the pre-
ceding one.   That blood is naturally contained in the arteries is a
proposition fully considered, and maintained by Galen, in opposition
to Erasistratus and others.  That they  do contain  it, he affirms
from the fact, that it flows therefrom when  they are wounded; it
must, therefore,  either exist  there,  or flow into them from some
other source.  Now, if they contained air, and the blood came  from
some other part, then the air should  issue first,—which is not the
case: a demonstration,  says Galen, sufficient  for those, who like
him, are slaves to no sect; and who are capable of distinguishing
true  from false reasoning.   But, as  all physicians are not of that 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
501
description, he deemed it right to oppose them ; since the followers
of Erasistratus contradicted  him, and  asserted that his deductions
were false.  The dispute seemed  to  be, whether air alone is  na-
turally contained in  the  arteries, or  blood only, or both together.
His opponents appear to have been somewhat divided among them-
selves as to their views, and equally so, as  to where the air or spirit
came from.   Galen pursues them  regularly in their explanations,
points out the absurdities and difficulties of their opinions, and pro-
poses a query for Erasistratus himself to resolve, as to  what would
result from a wound  of an artery in the arm.  In this quotation, one
part  is particularly deserving of attention, " Ab ea vero quae  de-
scends (the descending artery from the heart) alias (arterias) quas-
cunque in reliquum corpus diffunduntur; manifestum est hasce quo-
que omnes ad extremas usque ipsarum partes vacuas reddi oportere.
Cum primum vero ad ultimas arteriarum partes vacuitas pervenerit,
e venis in arteria, adapertis ipsarum  ostiolis, quod solum contingit
ubi totus spiritus exierit, sanguis transit," &c.—" Atque ita  sanguis
spiritum sequens, ab arteria brachii susceptus in vulnus feretur, sic-
que universus sanguis, quisquis in toto corpore fuerit, ad acus punctu-
ram confluct,—atqui hoc nimium etiam verest.   Videmus enim ab
una quavis arteria (modo capacitatis alicujus sit) in fluxum  suppri-
mas, universum e toto corpore sanguinem erumpere."
  From  this,  as well as from numerous other parts, it  plainly
appears that a passage, or circulation of the  blood  from the veins
into the arteries  is fully asserted, although the route is not particu-
larly pointed out.  The fact of its adoption seems  absolute, from
the necessity insisted on, of arresting  the flow of blood from  its
local point of discharge, in order to prevent its total and complete
evacuation.  The admirers of Harvey, in giving him  the merit of
the full discovery of the circulation, will  do well to ponder on this
part of Galen's writings; and honestly estimate what proportion of
that alleged discovery should be awarded  to his great predecessor.
  Pursuing his objections  to the  views  of  Erasistratus, and his
derision of the ignorance of his followers, as either forgetting or
misunderstanding what their master says of the mesenteric arteries,
(Bas. ed. p. 219,) some of the remarks  made, would seem to indi-
cate an acquaintance with, or at least a sight of the lacteals, which
were mistaken for^rteries.   Galen affirms that nature does nothing
in vain; and he draws an analogy from the  stomachs of oxen, all
varying, yet tending  to one and the same  end, towards which each 
502
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
one  has its own peculiar office.  So with the arteries  and  veins;
blood  is  contained in  each, dissimilar  in  constitution, for  some
specific  object, as  he  elsewhere (aliis  in  libris)  explains.   That
blood is there, he demonstrates by laying bare an  artery, and then
tying it in two places;  on opening the intervening part, nothing but
blood is to be  found.   He notices the ignorance of  the  Erasistra-
tians as to  Dialectics;  and sarcastically laughs  at them (Bas. ed.
222).  He adverts to other difficulties, &c, and  explains how the
arteries are filled, maintaining the power of the heart in the disten-
tion  of the arteries, and referring its further consideration  to another
place, (De Decretis Hipp, et Plat.)  He next adverts to an experiment
which deserves our especial notice, inasmuch as it forestalls what
has been repeated since by Harvey, and  by  others near to our own
time, by persons who seem not always to have known that  it origi-
nated with  this  great  master of our  science; or if so,  they have
given it as their own without any notice  of Galen.a
  A full translation of  this book would be useful.


XII. GALENI, DE ANATOMICIS ADMINISTRATIONIBUS.

            ANATOMICAL INVESTIGATIONS, IN NINE  BOOKS.

                    J. ANDERNACH, TRANSLATOR.

                         Bas. Ed., 226 to 394.

  Of these most, interesting books of Galen we have  already stated
that  part of the  ninth,  all of the tenth, eleventh,  twelfth,  thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth, are lost;  and  as we shall  see shortly, a
sixteenth also.—An hiatus, maxime deflendus !

  1 " Quibus si unnm etiam addidero, quod e corporum dissectione colligimus, finem
dicendi faciam; est autem id quod dicimus, ejusmodi; arteriam unam e  niagnis et
conspicuis quampiam nudabis, primoque pelle remota ipsam ab adjacenti suppositoq:
corpore tandiu separare non graveris, quoad  funiculum circumdare valeas:  deinde
secundum longitudinetn arteriam incide, calamumque et concavum et pervium in fora-
men intrude, vel asneam aliquam Jistulam, quo et vulnus obturetur, et sanguis exilire
non possit; quoadusque sic se arteriam habere conspicies, ipsam totam pulsare videbis.
Cum  primum vero obductum  laqueum contrahens, arteri® tunicas calamo obstrinxeris
non amplius arteriam ultra laqueum palpitare videbis," &c. 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
503
                            BOOK  I.

   Galen begins by stating his reasons for writing on the subject of
anatomy.   He  informs us  that  he had  previously written on it, at
the period of his  return from  Greece to Rome, in the beginning of
the  reign  of Antoninus/  and who was then  ruling.  He  states
why he resumed the  subject;  one reason  he  assigns, was  the
intreaty of Flavius  Boethus,  a  particular  friend,  and  a  great
lover of anatomy, (anatomicae  speculationis amore  flagrat, quam
mortalium qui vixerunt  unquam,  ullus alius, &c.,)  to whom he gave
the  copy in his possession on his departure  from Rome, together
with some other works.  This copy he  could not recover, on  the
demise of  Boethus;  and it would seem  that he  lost another, by a
destructive fire  at Rome.b  Being now again urgently intreated by
his friends, he was compelled  to resume  his  pen;—and herein, we
see a full display of the benefit of printing !  Had Galen not written
this third copy, we should now have been utterly unable  to appre-
ciate the  anatomical  merits of this wonderful  man!  He offers
another reason, viz., that the work would be greatly improved, from
various circumstances.  He  makes reference to anatomical books
by Hippocrates and Erasistratus, besides commentaries  on some,
on living  dissections  (praeter illos  de  vivis resecandis,  item  de
mortuis, &c.,)—and  informs us that he had composed a large  work
(ingens volumen) on the use of particular parts, in seventeen books,
which he sent to Boethus; and  notices  three commentaries of his

  * Antoninus was born  A. D. 121, and  reigned from 161 to 180, dying at fifty-nine
years.
  b Reference is elsewhere  made, by Galen,  (de  Compos. Medic, per genera,) to
this same event;  and Justus Lipsius notices the occurrence as follows, in his treatise
"de Magnitudine Romana," Lib. 3, chap. 6, p. 139, 3d ed.: Plantin. Antuerpiae, 1605,
4to.  It is of the celebrated Temple of Peace he speaks—-which was larger than the
Capitol itself—and in it the most choice and richest deposits were placed, the spoils of
a conquered world—such as the golden vessels of the Jewish Temple, &c. &c.
  " Qnod magis impressiusque refero, ut tristius damnum cognoscatur, quod factum
est Templi hujus incendio sub Conimodo. Tunc enim, ut Herodianus refert, levi terrae
motu prsevio, sive ictu fulminis, sive igne  e terra exspirante, subito et improviso totum
conflagravit, itemque Porticus, et totus ejus ambitus," &c.  " Inter adjecta autem ve
circumjecta, periit et bibliotheca quae in ambitu ejus templi erat." 
504
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
own, on the motion of the thorax and  lungs, composed by him in
his youth.  He appears to have  met with difficulties on the death
of his friend, which, with other circumstances, impelled him to the
steps he pursued.  He  adds, that he  had  shown Boethus  many
dissections, at which were always present Eudemus the peripatetic,
and  Alexander of Damascus, now (says he) holding at Athens, the
public profession of that sect;—and hence, continues he, in order to
oblige Boethus, I was at length induced  to compose these principles
of anatomy.
   In the second chapter of this book, he enters more immediately
into  his subject.  He says  that  the whole figure of the body is
dependent on the bony fabric ; and on this proposition, he proceeds
to state, that, of all animals, the  monkey, in its interior conforma-
tion, of muscles,  arteries,  nerves, &c, most  resembles  man, for
such is the case in respect to his osteology.   But how could Galen
draw  this analogy between man  and apes, if  he had  not equally
employed himself in  the dissection of  both ?   Yet, from this very
chapter, have been drawn the principal arguments of those,  who
confine his anatomical  researches to  brutes  alone!   Indeed, he
recommends  an  accurate knowledge of the bones, not from books
merely, but from practice, and demonstration in the human subject.1
Should difficulties present in this, he then commends the ape for
dissection, giving a caution to select a species that most resembled
man.  I am, therefore,  fully persuaded myself, from the general
tenor of the chapter, that Galen did pursue his anatomical researches
on man, and recurred to  brutes,  only for the purpose of compara-
tive  anatomy, or  in a  case of need; as is further shown by the
following words  (p. 230): " Ossium, ut dixi,  omnium natura  per-
discenda est, sive  in humana, sive in simice  corpore, modo possis;
praestaret autem  in utroque,"—and soon  after,  " Prcestiteret sic
instructum esse, ut si quando simiae copia non datur, aliorum ani-
mantium corpora queas incidere," &c.b

  1 "Quoniam igitur corporis forma ossibus assimilatur, et his aliarum partium natura
respondet, velim te imprimis exactam humanorum ossium cognitionem peritiamque
iudipisci, non obiter ca spectare, neque etiam ex libris solum discere," &c, Bas. ed.
p. 228.  And further on : " Hoc autem sit opus tuum, hoc studium, ut non librorum
modo lectura, verum  sedula etiam  inspectione,  fideque  oculata,  cujusque  ossis
humani speciem accurate perdiscas," &c.
  b What has been stated both for and against Galen's anatomy of the human sub-
ject, is given pretty fully in Le Clerc. 
                  PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.               595

  Galen, in the third chapter, adverts to the importance of a know-
ledge of the muscles, and to the  neglect of the ancients in  dissect-
ing them.   He mentions a prolix commentary on  the subject, of
five  thousand verses, and  notices its  omissions;  shows the high
value of their acquaintance to the surgeon in particular, from the
frequent occurrence of deep-seated  abscesses and  ulcers among
them, and  from other assigned  reasons; and he affirms, that he
who is best acquainted with them, will cut when necessary, with
more self-possession.  All this, taken in connexion, impels  me the
more strongly to believe, that dissection was  then far from being
confined to brutes; but that, at least  in his hands, it was intimately
associated with human anatomy.   It may, perhaps, strengthen this
opinion, to  add, that in this part, as well as elsewhere, Galen refers
to the ignorance of many in this respect.  Certainly, says he, we
shall grievously offend all those who have neglected anatomy; nor
is it at all surprising that such should be the case with many; since,
whatever they may say in behalf of it, it is a fact, that they would
not put themselves out of the  way  in  its pursuit.   He gives one
instance in a member of his own  family, (probably a student,) who,
on first taking up the subject of dissection, and skinning a monkey
for the purpose, considered  it as a degradation—but, from Galen's
account, he soon became partial  to it; as will be the case inevitably
with all, who, after the  first impressions of disgust have subsided,
pursue it diligently, and with a sincere desire for improvement.
  In the fourth chapter, he thinks it expedient to explain his reasons
for opposing the ancient anatomists, by pointing out their numerous
contradictions ; and the great discordance in  their disputes respect-
ing muscles having several heads and one tendon, and of others
having only one head, and several tendons.  All this is now, of but
small importance, further, than   as  it tends  to prove, that, even
before his time, anatomy was in   all  probability as extensively pur-
sued as in the  present day, comparative, as well as human.   Having
disposed of  these preliminary observations, Galen now proceeds to
the  consideration of the muscles and  tendons  of the arms  and
hands; on which he lays great stress, greater  indeed than  on those
of other  parts; inasmuch as  he ascribes the vast  superiority of
man to brutes, chiefly to the wonderful construction and adaptation
of those parts in  him,  and to their being peculiar to man alone.
He  is very minute in this  examination and  description, and pro-
bably, an accurate examination  and a comparison of these parts, 
506                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

by a competent anatomist, both in man and in the monkey, might
determine whether the description given by Galen, is derived from
dissections of man alone,  or of both.


                         BOOK  II.

  This second book of Galen's anatomy, is even of superior interest
to the preceding, since it fully and conclusively evidences the great
extension of anatomical research among  the ancients;  and which
we  cannot question, without  placing a seal upon  almost  the only
writer whose works have escaped  the ravages of  time, and which
are worthy of consideration.   He begins by explaining the paucity
of ancient anatomical writers, and if  words have any meaning, we
have in his statement the  strongest reason to believe, that  anatomy
was infinitely more extended then, than it is at present!  So  far
from  being  confined to the  dissecting-room of the  physician or
surgeon,  it seems  to have constituted a part of regular  instruction
under  the parental roof,  even from childhood !   Monkeys  must
have  been as plenty as mushrooms,  if such universal  dissections
had  to depend  on  them  alone.  Let  us  hear his account of the
matter.   In  the first chapter of this book, he says, that "it  was alto-
gether useless for the ancients to write commentaries on this sub-
ject,  inasmuch as  it was pursued  at home  from  childhood (a
pueritia), by reading and writing, and by the dissection of dead
bodies (cadaverum);  and this,  not  among physicians only,  but
also by philosophers.  A  memory thus  early exercised, was not to
be  readily obliterated.  In process of  time, however, it seems to
have become customary to extend this instruction to strangers, as
well as to children,  (non liberis modo, sed alienis etiam artem com-
municare honestum esse consuerant,)  who consequently  were no
longer exercised  in actual dissections; and its early  exercise in
youth, being thus abolished, the  knowledge  of  anatomy was of  a
more superficial  character."   Galen then proceeds  to show how
things went on from bad to worse, and so limited  in operation,
that commentaries  on  the subject became necessary, in  order to
preserve what was  known.
   It  does not appear, however,  that such commentaries were
wanting,  even  anterior  to this  period;  for we find, in fact, that
Galen refers to books on this subject;  he mentions one of Diodes, 
PHY/SIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
507
as the most ancient that had reached them ; and that after him, the
writings of some of the elder, and many of the younger physicians
had come to hand, (" post  hunc alii  quidam veterum medicorum,
neque pauci ex junioribus, quorum prius mentio facta est," &c.,) in
which anatomy was so intermingled with other branches of medical
science, such  as diagnostics, prognostics, therapeutics, &c, that  it
was comparatively useless.  He points out an example of this in
Hippocrates,  and  adds, that " as there is danger  of  such works
being lost, either from the negligence of the age as  to acquiring in-
formation, or from the discontinuance in the instruction of youth, I
think it expedient to write on the subject myself (merito commen-
taries scribimus);  more especially, since  some persons invidiously
withhold their  own information from others."   The above, and
other remarks of a like nature, sufficiently explain, I apprehend, the
character and standing of anatomy, both in the time of Galen, and
that which preceded.  Its importance is  still  further enhanced by
Galen, in pointing out its close  connexion with surgery, as in the
case of wounds, the extraction  of darts, excision  of bones—luxa-
tions, compound fractures, opening of fistulas, of sinuses, abscesses,
and the like;  adding, that without a knowledge of  the situation of
a principal  nerve, muscle, artery, or vein, a surgeon would prove
himself the author of death, rather than the preserver of life!  He
then states wha^ he considers best to be known, practically, and as
of far more importance than mere speculation, which, although of
interest to the mere philosopher, is so to the physician in  a degree
infinitely inferior.
   It may not be improper, here to inquire into the causes which led
to the opinion of Galen being unacquainted with human anatomy,
and that his dissections were limited to the brute creation, and prin-
cipally to that of monkeys.   In this inquiry we are reluctantly led
to tarnish the name of a man, long venerated and esteemed as
among the earliest and best anatomists, and who has even been con-
sidered by many as the father of this important foundation of the
science of  medicine; I mean Vesalius I   It is to him chiefly, that
this derogation  to the claims of Galen is owing; others have only
followed in  his  footsteps, from placing unbounded reliance on his
good  faith;  and from ignorance,  I apprehend,  of the writings of
Galen themselves; for certainly, this illustrious man has not wanted
strenuous advocates in his behalf, among  those who evidently had
made those writings the subject of study and  reflection. 
508
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
   Fabricius (J. A., in  his Elenchus Medicorum  Veterum,  article
 Galenus. Bibliotheca Grneca, vol. xiii. p. 165), speaking of some of
 the writers of the life of Galen, &c, adverts to J.  Woweranus,
 Th. Reinesius, and Caspar Hoffmannus,—who, " non sine causa dis-
 sentiunt a Vesalio et Amato, qui Galenum secuisse humana corpora
 negant," &c, although  they  admitted  his  dissection of  brutes.
 Now, in order to strengthen  this dissent of the above-named writers
 to Vesalius, it is  necessary to  adduce facts  that  have never  been
 denied, that I know of;  facts, derived from  some of his contempora-
 ries and associates, and others of later date.
   C. N. Jenty, in an historical compend, prefixed  to his anatomical
 lectures (3 vols. London, 1757), thus speaks upon the  subject, after
 stating that Vesalius was  born  at Brussels in 1514, and died in 1564,
 at the age of fifty; and, that at the time Vesalius appeared, anatomists
 were so much blindfolded with the authority of Galen, that to have
 contradicted him had  been  looked upon as  heresy: that Vesalius
 ventured to expose the  mistakes, and correct the errors of  Galen,
 both in physic and  anatomy: which led to the censures of some
 distinguished authors, who charged him "with ignorance, want of
 honour, vainglory, and plagiarism."  To confirm this, he presents to
 the  reader  (p. 94), an extract (translated)  from Piccolhominus,
 whom he calls an  author  of considerable  note.   As  I possess the
 work  of  Piccolhominus1  (Praelectiones  Anatomicae,  fol. Romas,
 1586),  I prefer to give it in his own  original words, for Jenty omits
 a part, of some consequence to the full comprehension of the merited
 castigation of Vesalius.  It will be perceived, that, (referring to his
 work, p. 207,) he is speaking of the foetal heart, and lays claim for
 Galen, to certain parts that have been delivered by Vesalius  as dis-
 coveries of his own; referring to the sixth book, De Usu Partium, cap.
 20, 21, and ch. 6, of fifteenth book, in proof of Vesalius's dishonest
 conduct.  His words are  as follows,—after stating that Vesalius
 "in magno illo de re anatomica volumine" had not mentioned these
 particulars from  Galen.  "Qua ab eo praetermissa, duo perspicue
 indicantur;  alterum, se in foetubus dissecandi  segnem  et ignarum
fuisse, cum hanc neque invenerit neque prodiderit;  alterum, se libros
 illos Galeni quos modo commemoravi, nunquam legisse. Nee  minus
 mirari subit Fallopius, qui  passim Vesalium divinum appellat!  An

  1 By the inscription around the portrait of Piccolhominus, he died at the age of sixty;
 so that he was nearly contemporary with Vesalius. 
                  PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.  ,            599

divinitatis nomen meruerit quod rei anatomicae, omniumque corporis
humani partium, fuerit inventor primus et observator?" (The above is
omitted by Jenty.)  " Si mihi aliquando per otium licebit, luculenter
commenstrabo, qucecumque bona  scribuntur a Vesalio in  illo volu-
mine, omnia ex Hippocrate, Aristotele, Galeno, aliisque antiquiortfous
esse transcripta, horum virorum, nullaprorsus facta mentione ; Qua-
cunque verb falsa, ab eodem scribuntur, quaequam plurima sunt, ex
suo furibundo marte prodidisse."   And soon  after,  he  adds, "Ex
duobus itaque illis Galeni libris, et locis, in quibus admonet, horum va-
sorum  coitionem in foetu, nonnulla, veluti problemata eruam, quo res
obscurissima, tractatur dilucide et maxime perspicue."  A sentence
is added here in Jenty's translation, omitted above, viz., " and though
he has secretly stole many things from Galen, yet he never mentions
his name, unless it be with a view to find fault with him /"
  These are serious charges, we must admit, yet  they  do not rest
on the  assertions of Piccolhominus alone,—for Jenty thus proceeds:
"The censure  of Caius is still more remarkable.   We both lodged,
says he, in the same quarters at  Padua, at the time when Vesalius
wrote and prepared his book ' De Corpora Humana Fabrica.'  One
Aldinus Junta,  a  Venetian printer,  employed him  to  correct the
anatomical works of Galen, both Greek  and Latin ; and for that
purpose,  several emendations were  sent him;  but he  rendered
Galen's text more  corrupt than  it was before, with no other view
than that he might have somewhat to find fault with:" and  though
Fallopius  owns him  to be the father of anatomy, yet he carps at
his opinion almost every  where.—Columbus  talks thus of him :  " I
cannot but be surprised  that he, who  on all  occasions lashes and
chastises Galen for  his having described apes and brutes, instead
of men,  should yet,  himself, be so ridiculous,  as to describe the
larynx, tongue, and eyes  of oxen, and not of men; without so much
as ever giving a caution with  regard  to it.  He  also ascribed
muscles to the epiglottis,  which are only found in brutes !"  Eusta-
chius has also  observed of him, that  " he described  and delineated
a dog's kidney, instead  of  a man's."   Arantius  styles him the
common master of anatomists, but accuses him of having delineated
the pudenda of brutes, on account of the scarcity of the bodies of
women ; whereby it happened that Valverda,  and  those who imme-
diately followed him, taking things upon  trust, split upon the same
rock.  Johannes  B.  Carcan  Leon  speaks  of him thus:  "It is
surprising that Vesalius, whilst he  accuses  Galen, the  chief  of 
 510                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

 physicians and anatomists, of so many blunders and errors, should
 yet himself, be so justly liable to censure in the same respect; and,
 what  is still worse, by these accusations, he seems widely to have
 mistaken Galen's  meaning, ascribing  to him things  he never so
 much as dreamed  of; and affirming, that he  denied  those things
 that he  insisted  on in the  most distinct and explicit manner;  and
 whilst he so often wonders at, and finds fault with Galen, he himself
 deserves to be wondered at, and found fault with."
   I repeat, then, that these  particulars  respecting Vesalius, are
 deserving of the strongest reprobation; and yet Galen's character
 as an anatomist, has  been settled by such an  ungenerous conduct.
 Whatever may be  the real standard of Vesalius's attainments, no
 one, after reading the above  statements of those, whose names are
 well known in our  anatomical researches, will  venture to derogate
 from Galen's high standard, from the authority of his calumniator,
 who, in attempting  to depress and depreciate him, vainly strove to
 elevate himself; and merits the contempt of every honourable mem-
 ber of the profession of medicine.
   In the third chapter of this second book, we find much to interest,
 much to  instruct us.  Galen here enters into some details of the omis-
 sions and negligence of preceding anatomists respecting the muscles,
 nerves, arteries, and veins;  and  notices the ignorance  of many, as
 to these  particulars, even  in his  time.   He adds that  such  know-
 ledge is  so absolutely essential to the medical  man, that even  the
 Empirics (the sect), who have  written largely against Anatomy,
 have never dared to condemn it; but, whilst confessing it to be  the
 most useful and important of any of the branches of medicine, they
 add, that it is attainable by the frequent inspection of wounds!   He
 is wroth  that any one should presume to think that a bare inspec-
 tion of wounds can make an anatomist; and he pursues  his remarks
 with much and well-seasoned sarcastic asperity, concluding that it
 is scarcely worth while to dispute with such people.   He exhorts
 beginners to  attend  first  to that which is  most useful;  amongst
 which  he reckons the nerves, the arteries, and  veins of such  parts
 as are most likely  to come under notice, rather than  those deep-
 seated  parts that are less under our control.   He lays  great stress
on this, and tells us he does so,  from  the fact that he  saw around
him  many who considered themselves very highly accomplished,
although  altogether  ignorant in these particulars.  He proceeds, in
the subsequent chapters, to speak of the muscles of the thigh, leg, 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                5 j j

&c.,—and makes a remark that I think adds strength to the impres-
sion  I have  advocated, of his dissections being human, and not
limited to brutes; viz., when speaking of the foot of the monkey, he
mentions it as being very different from  that of man, and repeats
the same as to the hands and fingers, which he would  scarcely ven-
ture  to assert without a due acquaintance with each.  In the last
chapter, some observations occur in opposition to Erasistratus, on the
subject of the nails.
                         BOOK  III.

                            Bas. Ed. 267.

   This is an important book, and is connected with the nerves, the
 veins, and arteries of the hand and foot. Galen commences it with
 animadverting on those persons who make their studies to consist
 in sophistical discussions, rather than in the faithful and steady pur-
 suit of anatomy.  He points continually to the necessity of acquiring
 a knowledge of the external parts, and to the errors of judgment,
 and the unhappy results of  practice, which an ignorance  thereof
 induces.  The extreme neglect he had witnessed  in these  particu-
 lars led him to the greater attention; and he strongly urges all who
 dissect, to pay early attention to the anatomy of  the  arteries, the
 veins, and nerves.  We continually, says  Galen, meet with physi-
 cians who know accurately how  many membranes belong to the
 heart, or muscles to the tongue, with other  things of like character;
 but who are  altogether ignorant of the structure of  the external
 parts, and of  very much that they ought besides  to have  known.
 He gives  a case or two in  point;  and in a succession  of chapters,
 he notices the nerves proceeding from the spine to the arm, &c, the
 passage of the axillary vessels, the nerves of the thigh, leg, and foot,
 and their  vessels. In chap. ix. he reiterates his views as to  the dili-
 gence required  in  investigating the nerves and blood-vessels, and
 this, from considerations unsurpassed by any that could probably
 now be advanced by the first surgeons of this period. He here  like-
 wise gives a prominent instance of the gross ignorance, and conse-
quent rashness, of a surgeon, who, in some affection of the arm, in-
cautiously employing the scalpel, divided both the nerve and vessels
of the part!  Alarmed at the great effusion of blood, but  expecting 
512
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
 nothing more, the vessels were tied (" funibus vasis quae amputata
 erant, circumdatis," p. 284); immediately the patient discovered that
 he could not move his hand, and that sensation in many parts of the
 limb was entirely destroyed ; on which he exclaimed  to the physi-
 cian," Wretch, thou hast cut a nerve !" (evevpoxoirrigcts).  So that, says
 Galen, by one single cut a whole limb was rendered useless.  Again
 he refers to the general resemblance between man and the monkey,
 and commends a frequent recurrence to the latter.  He speaks of a
 book  (unfortunately lost) wherein he has treated on the  danger of
 blood-letting;  which book, probably, from the mode of expression
 respecting it, might have enabled  us more fully to have appreciated
 the peculiar subjects of his anatomy (" ut nuncomittam quae in san-
 guinis detractione mala  designent, ignorantes quae  observanda sint,
 in singulis cubiti venis: de quibus etiam in libro de mortuorum con-
 sectione tractatum  est.")   The whole chapter is interesting, whilst
 the whole  book,  I think,  sufficiently establishes   the  exercise of
 anatomy by Galen, as being on  the  human subject  principally,
 although that of animals was not neglected;  and that the assertions
of Vesalius and others, are not to be at all relied on, when employed
in disparagement of this great man.
                      BOOKS IV.,  V.

                           Bas. Ed. 290.

   These two books continue a description of the muscles, viz., of the
face, head, neck and scapula, thorax, abdomen, loins and spine, &c,
embracing much interesting detail as to the order he  had adopted
for his  anatomical books, &c, and in the first chapter, terms  are
employed in relation to the monkey,  which show that he, at least,
knew well  the  difference  of its anatomy  from that  of man,
("simiam vero  ridiculam hominis simulationem  existere demon-
stravimus: ac ob  id hominis quidem  modo graditur; sed in ipsis
principalioribus partibus manca est," &c.); of which he  mentions
sufficient  proof.   He moreover animadverts on the dissections of
the physicians of his day, as being of parts the least important; and
he esteems it his duty to impress this  upon the minds of young men,
and  to  urge  them to a more useful  line  of conduct.  This  first
chapter is, indeed, a kind of summary of the preceding books, and 
                  PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                 5jg

of those that succeed.  Some reference is made here to books appa-
rently lost, and which  I have already adverted to, as mentioned by
the editor of Galen.  These books are from the fifth chapter of the
ninth book, all the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and
fifteenth books, and in  the first chapter, fourth book, he speaks of a
" decimus sextus illius  operis liber, agit de arteriis, venis et nervis,"
in which,  he tells us, he  has  explained what is generally  and
commonly known respecting them.  This must be considered  as a
great loss, for it  would in all  probability have enabled us more
accurately to appreciate his anatomical skill, and the chief objects of
his dissections;  and also to estimate more fully his knowledge and
views of a circulation  of the blood.  In the sixth chapter of the fifth
book, he makes a slight reference to a singular case, which being
more fully detailed in  the  seventh  book, I shall there revert to it.
He remarks on the ignorance of the older anatomists respecting the
use of the intercostal  muscles, notices the diaphragm  (phrenes, vel
septum transversum),  and speaks of it as if it was formed of two
muscles, an idea that has been entertained by later writers.1
                         BOOK VI.

  The subject changes in this book; and those organs are taken up
which receive and distribute nourishment, and  subserve the excre-
tions, &c.  The  approximation of the  monkey  to  man  is  again
touched on, and  observations  are occasionally  interspersed, that
approximate very  closely to the present views on Phrenology, (" nul-
lum itaque  miraculum  est  cujusque animantis  internam compositi-
onem exfigura exteriorum dare .conspecta prainoscere."  Bas. edit. p.
332.)   Indeed, the whole book is in a measure  replete with it, toge-
ther with much other ingenious and instructive  matter; all tending
to prove that Galen fully deserved the  high standing he  attained;
and must excite our astonishment that worth like his should be now
so completely  forgotten or  underrated, instead  of causing him  still
to occupy  the foremost rank, which  was  awarded formerly,  and
continued  uninterruptedly for  more than ten centuries!  It  might
not be amiss at present, for every  member of the Profession care-
fully to peruse these interesting books, and then with candour (if

          1 Among others, by  Swedenborg, in his Regnum Animale.
                               33 
514                THE WORKS OF GALEN.

self-love would  permit it), contemplate  his own attainments, and
judge of them by Galen's standard, instead of estimating Galen by
his own dimensions !   Perhaps  it might lead to  the conviction,
even  though that  self-love might receive thereby  a deep wound,
that " all the talents" have not been limited to the present period of
the world, even  with the  aid  of  the superior facilities of attaining
information which the  improvements of philosophy and of education
are supposed to  afford!
   Galen considers the  organs of nourishment to be of three  kinds,
viz.:  1. For reception, digestion, and transmission of food.  2. Re-
ceptacula, for excrementitious matters; and 3. Of such as subserve
the discharge of those  matters.  This view of the subject leads to a
digression on the  difference of  stomachs, as connected  with the
different food of animals; ruminant and  non-ruminant animals are
noticed; the number of stomachs in the  former, and  the intention
of that singular formation.  He then treats of the peritoneum, omen-
tum, mesentery, its arteries and  veins;  the coats of the stomach
and intestines; the variety of  the liver in man, and  some animals;
the spleen, the vessels,  and gall-ducts connected with the liver; the
kidneys and urinary passages;   the various  sphincter muscles in
different parts; in  all of which, the position seems strengthened as
to his dissections being human.  He tells us, (chap. xiii. p.  34G,)
that a useless dispute had  been sustained  by anatomists, respecting
the name of the  ureter, and  if it  were  more  appropriate to call it
artery or vein—and then speaks more particularly of the sphincters,
their situation and  uses.
                        BOOK  VII.

   In this book Galen  proceeds to treat of the heart, the lungs, and
arteries, as seen, both in the dead,  and in the living subject.  He
tells us the principal  organs of breathing (spiritus) are three;  the
lungs, the heart, and  the thorax.  He takes notice of the twofold
kind of artery, viz.: the one arising from the left ventricle, spread-
ing throughout  the body, and  pulsating in unison with the heart;
the other, called the aspera arteria, the upper part of which has the
name of larynx, whilst below, it ramifies by numerous  branches 
                    PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                5j5

through the lungs;—then follows an account of the pleura and peri-
cardium,  and a comparison is drawn  between the former and the
peritoneum; he proceeds to speak of the heart and arteries, and of
the different opinions respecting the vessels of the lungs, and of the
pulse.1  I give a short  quotation in a note, which, to many, I doubt
not, will be interesting, as would much more of the same nature, in
connexion with the  subject of the circulation, which  has so unad-
visedly been entirely ascribed to  Harvey.   I do not wonder these
books  have never received an English  translation!  National pride
would  be shocked   at the trappings  which would inevitably fall
from  the  mantle  with  which  he has been  invested, and find their
original location in  that of Galen !
   Galen here takes notice of the non-pulsation of the vessels in the
lungs;—a circumstance  I do not  recollect to have met with else-
where.   He further remarks,  that it  had  been  conjectured that
these vessels are continued  into  the  left ventricle;  a  conjecture,
adds  he,  not solely  probable,  but, which seems  certain, from the
knowledge we have of its functions ;—I  believe this is the intent of
his observation, which is connected with the  above consideration
of the  pulsation or non-pulsation in the lungs.   A complete transla-
tion of this book would be very desirable, since so much of it will
be found to be intimately associated with the subject of the circu-
lation,  treating as  it does of the  heart and its valves, &c, and
assuredly  forestalling  much  of  Harvey's  assumed discoveries.
The largest elephant, and the  smallest bird, that breathe, (continues
Galen,) have a similarly  constructed heart and lungs.  And in ex-
plaining some of the differences between an artery and a vein, (p.
353,)  he adds:  " Quales  igitur  toto  corpore existunt  arterise, tale
vas ex dextro cordis sinu procedens, in totum pulmonem serie dif-
funditur.   Quales autem  venae, tale ex  sinistro: ut ex tribus vasis
pulmonem intertexentibus, quod a sinistro  cordis ventriculo  pro-
  1 "Quemadmodum  pulsans  ipsum viscus, cor omnes appellant; sic etiam  vasa
singula pulsantia, artcrias nuncupant.   Alias autem omnes arterias, quotquot toto
insunt corpore, sensu  pulsantes dignoscere nullius est negocii, et omnium ipsarum
cum majore  arteria continuitas, idem hoc indicat.  Verum in  pulmone  pulsantes
sensu admodurn evidenter deprehendere nemo potest; verum inde, quod sinistro ven-
triculo sint continual, conjecturam aliquis fecerit.  Et si quidam non conjecturam
solum, vel probabilem spem, sed certain functionis ipsarum scientiam habere arbi-
trantur, non  tamen eodem modo utrique,  quoniam ne ab eisdem quidem opinionibus
omnino auspicantur," &c. &.c—(Frob. 351;—Ven. chap, iv.) 
516
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
 ficiscitur,  arteria  venosa  nuncupetur, quod  a dextro,  arteriosa
 vena," &c.
   In the thirteenth chapter, Galen reports the case I adverted to in
 the fifth book, as being here more fully detailed.   It  is one of sin-
gular interest, not only in point of curiosity, but because it really
 is singular, as being, I believe,  the only case  of its kind recorded in
 the  Fasti  of medicine.  It is  a case, which, by  proving his un-
 rivalled anatomical and surgical skill,  must,  I think, for ever set at
 rest any doubts  as to his dissections  having  been of  the  human
 subject.   No one since has had  the  opportunity of exactly follow-
 ing in his bold and successful attempt.1  It is to this effect:—
   The son of an actor received an injury on the sternum at some of
 the gymnastic games of the circus.   It was not attended to, and he
 was supposed to  have  got  well.   About four months  after,  an
 abscess appeared,  the  part  was incised, and speedily cicatrized.
 Inflammation again succeeded, and suppuration ensued;  again an
 incision was made, but the part would  not  heal.  At length, a con-
 sultation was proposed, to which  Galen was invited.  On examining
 the part it was sphacelated, the bone was affected, and  even a pul-
 sation  of the heart  was obvious.   No one  dared  to remove the
 diseased bone.   At length, Galen, without,  however, promising a
 cu e, undertook  to remove it,  at the same time being uncertain  of
the state of the parts beneath.  He accordingly cut away the diseased
bone; and the vertex of the pericardium being also in a putrescent
 state, was  likewise removed, thereby leaving the heart entirely bare.
 In due time the boy recovered  perfectly; which, says Galen, could
 not have happened, if no one had been bold  enough to  remove the
 diseased bone,  and  which no one  would have attempted,  unless
well versed in  anatomy,  (" nisi in  administrationibus  anatomicis
prae-exercitatus.")— Another  case, related  in  the same chapter, de-

  • A heart outside of the chest.—The Baltimore Sun contains the following account of
the birth of a living  child, with its heart outside of the  chest, which was noticed in
our Baltimore letter yesterday.  The heart is entirely outside of the body, and destitute
of any pericardium;  thus even without  this natural protection it is protruded from the
external surface of the chest, which at that point bears a mark resembling a cicatrix, as if
the flesh had been opened, the heart pulled out, and the wound suffered to grow up again.
Each pulsation, of course, can be  distinctly observed, and the whole  natural action of
this delicate organ is  made visible to  the immediate investigation of the eye.  This re-
markable phenomenon in the history of human nature is an absolute  and indisputable
fact, however unlikely it is to meet with credibility on the part of the public —Ledger
June, 1846.                                                         ' 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.               517

monstrates clearly, I think, the employment of ligatures to restrain
or arrest hemorrhage.  It  is of a  person who  had a portion of
putrid flesh removed from an abscess of the arm,  by an individual,
who  from  ignorance divided a large  artery.  The immense dis-
charge of blood so disconcerted him, that, it being deep-seated, he
could scarcely secure it,  (vix  laqueo ipsam  possit intercipere.)
The danger, however, being arrested from this source, death ensued
from gangrene of the  artery at the  ligature,  which extended itself
in every direction.—In the first case above narrated, Galen stands
unrivalled.  The only one at all resembling it, is one mentioned by
Harvey, in  which  the heart was laid bare  through the effect  of
disease, and in which art had no share.   The  case of removal of
the  ribs, related  by Richerand, is  in many particulars different,
although it evinces great boldness and decision in him.   Its event,
at any rate, was unfavourable; and  Galen's  case continues as an
immortal trophy  to his  well-established  fame.   I would here  de-
mand, whether  such an operation  on  the  living body,  can be
reasonably ascribed to anatomical skill derived from the dissection
of brutes alone?   If this is  admitted, I would say, that  it adds
another laurel to his crown;  whilst,  at the same time, it diminishes
the importance of human anatomy !
  After  these interesting details, Galen proceeds  to state, what is
to be seen in the thorax, on  dissecting a living animal.  This is a
curious  chapter,  and in several places, we  find  expressions and
sentences, bearing strongly on the doctrine of a general circulation.
We  find the pulsation  of  both sides of the  heart particularly
adverted to;  and  even  the ultimate  motion of  the  auricles,  at
lengthened intervals,  continued  after that of  the ventricles  had
altogether ceased!  In  the  conclusion of this  book, Galen again
renews his censures against the neglect of anatomy, and ridicules
the followers of Erasistratus, who  promised to  demonstrate and
show that the arteries were void of blood.  A bet of one thousand
drachmas seems  to have been  proffered, and  to  have  even been
deposited by one of the parties.   Galen gives a most laughable
description of the ensuing dissection, and appears  to have enjoyed
greatly  its failure,  in every  respect of what was promised.  He
adds  another anecdote with no  less humour,  of an old  man  of
seventy,  (senex  quidam septuagenarius,) who  also promised  to
show the artery empty.  A comic account is given  of the affair,
and  the  deceptions practised in its progress are explained.   He 
518                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

ends  by saying  that such  is the  audacity of some,  who most
rashly affirm as facts, what  they never witnessed!  This remark
might, without much difficulty, be verified  in the present, as well as
in the time of Galen! and  that, in every department of medical
science.
  From some part of this chapter, there  is reason to  believe that
Galen, or some of his contemporaries, had a view of the  lacteals;
and that they were mistaken for the  mesenteric arteries.   (Initio,
igitur aiunt, simulac  mesenterium denudatum fuerit, arterias aeri
similes apparere, postea lacte repleta  conspici.)    He opposes  the
idea  of the arteries being filled with  air,  and  adds, that  the very
circumstance that is  subsequently mentioned  of their being filled
with milk, sufficiently disproves it.  The vessels thus seen, whether
by himself  or others,  must  undoubtedly have been  the lacteals, as
seems indeed to  be proved  from the very character of the experi-
ment  that precedes the statement, and to which reference is  made.


                       BOOK  VIII.

  The subject of  the thorax is  here  continued; its structure and
boundaries—the  ribs, clavicle,  and muscles;  the  diaphragm,  re-
garded as  the governor or ruler of the motion of  the thorax, and
as aiding in the function of respiration.  The  motion of the ribs is
considered  and explained, and some ancient  errors are pointed out.
The   division of  the  intercostal muscles, and the  symptoms that
follow, whether the incision be on one, or on  both sides.  He notices
the dividing the  nerves, by which the  action of the intercostals is
destroyed,  and  the voice is lost; dividing  the spinal marrow in
different  parts, and of the  affection of distant parts thereby pro-
duced.  He notices  and opposes some opinions of Erasistratus;
and  every  circumstance  throughout,  evinces  the  indefatigable
pursuit of  anatomy by Galen;  here,  chiefly, on  (living) animals
as the subjects  of his experiments, on  numerous and  highly inte-
resting points.  Assuredly we may be allowed to maintain, that no
one so fully convinced  of the importance of  anatomy as he was,
could dissect so  long, and so accurately,  and  limit his  dissections
to brutes alone!   The  proposition seems to be so unreasonable, that I
conceive it to be  untenable, and  submit the subject to the verdict
of the best  anatomists of the present day.   In  the  last  chapter of 
                    PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                519
this  book, he  speaks of  experiments  made on animals,  by death
from different  causes, as drowning, strangling, division of the spinal
marrow and  large vessels, &c.;  some of which,  and the results
have been since  his time repeated, without any  reference  to his
priority.  I  have wondered  much, in  my progress  through  the
works  of this great writer, where he found  time to write, to pursue
his researches, and to practise !   What an illustrious  example does
he every where afford to  the Profession!  How few,  alas,  will
follow  in his footsteps!
                           BOOK  IX.


   This book  commences with a few remarks  on the propriety or
 utility of dissecting  living  animals, in order  to  comprehend  the
 functions of the different  parts; the dissection of the dead body
 pointing out other particulars, but not embracing this.
   Imperfect as this book is, after the fifth chapter, as before stated,
 it yet gives the anatomy of the brain, speaks of its membranes,
 their vessels  and  their route; the  choroid plexus, ventricles, and
 many other parts.  Whether his  descriptions are  derived from
 human,  or  chiefly from comparative  anatomy,  such respect has
 still been paid to him in  this  department, that the names of  most of
 the  parts, as assigned or approved of by  him, are continued to the
 present day.   The portion of  the book  that is lost, would probably
 have shed greater light on the subject; its loss  is a subject  of deep
 regret; yet how much greater  that which is felt from the  loss of
 the six or seven books in continuation, can  be  appreciated  only by
 him, who carefully investigates  those writings which we  happily
 possess.1

  1 " Discovery of the  six missing books of Galen's principal anatomical work.—We
 have the following from a learned and much-esteemed correspondent.  We beg to
 direct the particular attention of the Sydenham Society to the discovery.—Lond. Med.
 Gazette, Dec. 1844, p. 329.
  " A very interesting and valuable discovery has lately been made at Oxford, which
 it seems right to lay before our medical brethren, though we are almost afraid that its
 importance will be better understood and more justly appreciated in France and Ger-
 many than in Great Britain. (!!)  It is well known that Galen's principal anatomical
work, called Tltp) Avn.ro/mtKZv EyKtii»t<rea>v,—De Administrationibus Anatomicis,—con-
sisted originally of fifteen books, of which only eight and part of the ninth have come 
520
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
          XIII.  GALENI,  DE UTERI  DISSECTIONE.


                   OF THE DISSECTION OF THE UTERUS.

                         J. CORNARIO, TRANSLATOR.

                               Bas. Ed., p. 395.


   This book treats,  in  twelve  chapters, of  the  dissection of  the
uterus.   It points out its situation, size, figure, its cornua,  and  the

down to us.  The contents of each book are mentioned by himself, (De Libris Propriis,
cap. 3, torn. xix. pp. 24, 25, ed. Kiihn,) from which account, it appears that the last six
treated of the eyes, tongue, oesophagus, larynx, os hyoides, the nerves belonging to
these parts, the arteries, the veins, the nerves arising from the brain, those arising from
the spinal marrow, and the organs of generation : so that Galen's account of several
of the most  important parts of the body, is contained in the  lost books.  In Acker-
man's Historia Literaria, prefixed to  Kuhn's edition of Galen, (p. lxxxiv.), we find the
following notice: ' E Golii arabico codice libros xi. usque ad xv.  editurum se promi-
serat Thomas Bartholinus, De Libris legendis, Dissert,  iii.  p. 75 (p.  58,  ed 1711).
Erant  Galeni De  Administ. Anatom. libri sex postremi cum adnotationibus Jacobi
Golii in Bibliotheca Narcissi, Archiepiscopi Dublinensis, n. 1787.'  No further infor-
mation  on the  subject  could  Ackerman, (who was  a most  diligent  and accurate
inquirer,)  obtain; nor apparently could Kiihn himself, who, in the last volume of his
edition of Galen, corrects some errors and supplies some  omissions.   In turning over
the pages of a very different  work, J.  G.  Wenrich's Dissertation, ' De  Auctorum
Graecorum Versionibus et Commentariis  Syriacis,  Arabicis, Armeniacis, Persicisque,'
(Lips.  1842, 8vo.) we noticed that two copies  of the  Arabic translation were said
(p. 245) to exist in the Bodleian  Library at Oxford, one consisting of fifteen books,
the other only  of the  last six.  Upon referring to Uri's  catalogue of the oriental
manuscripts of  the Bodleian, (p. 135,) we  found that the latter manuscript was said to
be in the handwriting of Golius himself; that it had belonged at one time to Narcissus
Marsh, Archbishop of Dublin, and was, therefore, probably the very MS. spoken of by
Ackerman;  and the actual examination of the two MSS. in question  has shown us
that the modern one was copied from the other, the pages of the original being marked
in the margin of the transcript.  The original MS. is written on oriental paper, and
by an oriental scribe, and contains the complete work of Galen  in  fifteen books.  It
was bought  at  Constantinople for forty-eight florins, (rather  a  large  price,) but by
whom  is uncertain, nor is any thing else known of its  history,  except that it once
belonged to the Archbishop of Dublin, though it does not appear in the list of his MSS.
contained in the Catalogus Librorum MSS. Angliae et Hiberniae, printed in 1697.  It
appears to have been seen and used by Golius, (a celebrated Arabic scholar at Leyden),
who must have known that the Greek copies of the work contained only nine books,
and accordingly copied the remaining six with a view to publication.  He did not,
however, transcribe the remainder of the ninth book, which is wanting in the  Greek 
                    PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                521

sinuses in multiparient animals, but which are not found in women;
states the uses of the cornua;  and proceeds to  consider the con-
nexion, union, dependence, and nourishment of the uterus, by veins
and arteries, whose intertexture is  adverted to.  Here is to be found
a tribute to the merits of  Herophilus.  The coats of the uterus are
stated  to be  two, an external, simple and nervous; and an internal,
which is double and vascular.   Its neck is then treated of, as beinp;
muscular and cartilaginous, and  although  constricted  in  common,
yet, in partu, it is capable of a most wonderful dilatability.  Its  coats
are noticed, and  their varied  thickness  or tenuity under different
states, and periods  of life.   The female  testes  (ovaria),  and their
difference from the male;—their coats,and vessels,extending to the
neck of the bladder, and unknown to prior anatomists.  The changes
which take place in the uterus during pregnancy, from the presence
of the  fcetus, membranes, &c: these membranes are the chorion,
the amnion, and  allantoid.   Reasons are  assigned for the greater
facility of conception, just before,  or after menstruation.  The vas-
cular adherence of the chorion  to the  uterus; what those vessels are;
their existence asserted, although denied by some.  The vessels thus
distributed through the chorion,  at length  unite  in  two  trunks, an
arterial and  venous, each of which is double,  and go to  constitute
the umbilicus,  having the  allantoid between them.  The fluid of the
allantoid is  said to be yellow, and  small in amount;  that contained
in the amnion is considerable in quantity and whiter.

copies, and which is about twice as long as the portion hitherto known in Europe.
The MS. was either given as a present by Golius, or bequeathed  as a legacy at his
death in 1667, to Thomas Bartholinus the elder, Professor of Anatomy at Copenhagen,
and was in his possession in the year 1672, when he wrote his work De Libris Legen-
dis. Probably after his death, in 1680, it came into  the hands of Narcissus Marsh,
Archbishop of Dublin, and appears in the catalogue quoted above. From him it came,
either by gift or legacy, to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, where it still remains,
together with the original MS. from which  it  was transcribed.  It should be added,
that, (as far as we are aware,) no other copy  of the Arabic translation is to be found
in  anv European  library; nor do any of the  old Latin translations contain the last
six books of the treatise." 
522
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
    XIV. GALENI, DE INSTRUMENTO  ODORATUS.

                    OF THE ORGAN OF SMELL.

              L.  BELISARIUS, TRANSLATOR.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 403.

  Smell, says Galen, signifies not only the immediate perception of
odour, but also that power or faculty whence the sense of smell
emanates.  The nose is not the instrument, but merely the channel of
smell; the instrument or organ itself, is somewhere beyond the nose.
He then adverts to the openings of the nose or nostrils, and to the
different  parts within them;  some having a  connexion with the
fauces, and with respiration;  others extending to the brain, and by
which that organ is enabled to evacuate its humours; the internal
lining of the nose, and its nerves are  noticed;  the nerves, through
which the sense of smell is effected, are pretty large  and  soft, as is
the case  with those of the eyes, tongue, ears, and  mouth of the sto-
mach ; but those  connected  with the  touch, are,  on  the  contrary,
small and firmer, and are distributed throughout the  skin over the
body; this sense is, therefore, less acute.  These ideas arc followed
by further remarks on the other senses.  Smelling, we are told, does
not depend on the air only, as in hearing, nor on  moisture only, as
in taste, but on both united.   Parts of the nose are bony, and are
covered with a membrane, proving that neither of these are the in-
strument of smell; for bone is altogether void of sensibility, and the
membranes have not nerves sufficient alone for the purpose; neither
have  they any affinity to the substance or  matter of odour, for no
smell is perceptible, unless the air is drawn in: the covering of the
palate, fauces, or windpipe is not the instrument;  for if we hold the
nose, and thus compress  the nostrils, no smell is perceived on inspi-
ration.   The air, we are  told  by Galen, is attracted to the brain,
either by the motions induced by respiration, or,  perhaps, by some
proper motion of the brain itself; by which the  air follows as the
brain contracts itself, and is expelled on its expansion.  He gives us
some cases of imperfect smell, in which pepper mixed with oil being
forcibly snuffed up, a biting sensation was felt in  the brain (I  pre-
sume resembling that which all  have experienced by too large  a
portion of mustard with  food, and which is  instantly  removed by 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
523
snuffing  up the odorant  emanation  of a piece of bread);  from
whence he concludes the sense of smell to be seated in the anterior
ventricles, and not in the membrane of the  nose; in which he op-
poses the opinions of Aristotle, whose particular views on the sub-
ject are largely considered.   This is followed by an explanation  of
the utility of sternutatories in some diseases of the brain, as lethargy,
&c, founded on the principles which  he advocates; and, if these
be admitted, his superstructure is admirably erected upon them.


XV.  GALENI, DE  USU  PARTIUM CORPORIS  HUMANI.

     OF THE USES OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE HUMAN BODY.

                      IN  SEVENTEEN BOOKS.

                 N. R. CALABRO, TRANSLATOR.

                           Bas. Ed. p. 418.

                       BOOKS  I.,  II.

   These books are  very interesting on many accounts, resembling
in various parts  those already noticed, De Administralionibus Ana-
tomicis, and, like them, are  well deserving of an accurate transla-
tion  into English.  The mere  expose here given, affords a very
meagre and imperfect outline of their contents; scarcely, indeed,
can it be regarded as a table of contents.
   It  has been before mentioned, that Galen  considered the hand  of
man, from its peculiarity of structure, as the chief source  of his
great superiority over every other animal, both as to the operations
of the body and  the mind; and he enters fully, in these two  books,
into  their consideration;  confining  his observations almost  exclu-
sively thereto, and to the carpus and  forearm.   It is almost impos-
sible to form a regular abstract of them, sufficiently concise for the
object of this compend, and  I therefore prefer omitting so mutilated
an attempt altogether.1
  1 The treatise on the Hand, by Sir Charles Bell, much as it has been admired, is, in
my opinion, infinitely inferior to these books of Galen on the same subject. Indeed  his
best parts may be regarded as abstracted from those of Galen, clothed in the language
of the present age.—Ed. 
524
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                         BOOK  III.

  In this book, the lower extremities are considered.  Here, Galen
expatiates on man's  superiority, from having only two, instead of
four or more legs; and ridicules, very justly, the amazing absurdity
of Pindar, in his fanciful  production of the  Centaurs.  He enters
into a consideration  of " why man was made  a biped;" evincing,
by his observations throughout, that even in an age of credulity, he
possessed in perfection the mens sana, in corpore sano, and that he
well knew how to draw the line between truth  and falsehood, or
fancy, if the term may be thought less offensive.  He next takes
notice of the erect character or position of man, and points to the
physiological reasons  of  the  case.  He  ridicules the  idea of  its
being intended, as some affirmed (p. 447), " ut ad caelum prompte
suspiciat, et dicere possit,  respicio ad versus  Olympum fronte  intre-
pida,"a—that is, for the purpose of looking towards heaven! and  he
archly asks, whether they who thought  so, had ever seen the fish,
that by the Greeks is called oupavoc^o^ov, or looker towards heaven?
Now, adds Galen, this fish, from its very formation, must always
behold the heavens, but man, only when he  throws back his  head,
and which  an ass can perform  equally well!—We  must not omit
here to notice the admirable piety of this pagan philosopher;  it  is,
indeed, exemplified on every appropriate occasion, in various parts
of his works; but here, more  particularly,  this excellent and extra-
ordinary character, after considering the leg, and its instruments of
motion,  breaks  out in admiration of the  goodness,  the wisdom, and
infinite power of the Deity, as exemplified  in  the works of creation,
and especially  of man !  (p. 495), a rhapsody not undeserving of
translation, and of a  place in some Christian  publication.


                         BOOK   IV.

  Galen now engages in the consideration of the stomach, liver,
and  other  organs appropriated for  nourishment; that is, for the
* Os homini sublime dedit: ccelumque tueri
  Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.
                            Ov. Metam. i. 1. 85. 
                  PHYSIOLOGY. ANATOMY, ETC.                525

digestion of food, and its conveyance to every part; together with
the emunctories  for the discharge of superfluities,  and excremen-
titious  portions,  &c.   He  supports vvith  ardour the  important
agency of the liver in the  process of sanguification, and  the whole
is accompanied  with much interesting  matter.  In the  thirteenth
chapter of this book, we find sundry problems respecting the veins,
the arteries, and  nerves of the liver, that deserve consideration; and
it is well remarked, that unless the particular uses of each part are
well  understood, as is too  commonly the case, it would be better to
omit its notice altogether.   A question is proposed why a  double
sinus was not given to the liver as well  as to the heart; in the con-
sideration of which, expressions are employed which indicate his
credence of a circulation ; and, so far  as relates to the doctrine of
hasmatosis, or formation of  blood, if any there be now, of superior
preponderance;  that of Galen, by which this important  process is
ascribed to one  of  the  largest and  most surprising organs of the
body, is at least  equal to it; and his arguments,&c, on the subject,
not  inferior to any I have met with in  recent publications.  He
notices the distinctive appearance of the blood in the  liver, spleen,
and  lungs, treats of the intestines, the  mesentery, omentum, and
other parts, their construction and uses, and in


                          BOOK V.

  He considers the remaining organs of nutrition and excretion, the
pancreas, kidneys, &c, in  the same manner ; states  his disputes with
several persons, in his books De Facultatibus Naturalibus; renews
the subject of the mode of excretion, and treats of the diaphragm,
and  its uses in respiration, and as co-operating in the excretions.


                         BOOK  VI.

  The thorax, with its  contents, the lungs and heart, &c, are con-
sidered in this book.
  The  oesophagus, called stomachus ventriculi, is  mentioned; and
we are told, that fish, having no lungs, have only the heart  in the
thorax, and therefore are mute;  the use of the lungs being that of
respiration; and that one of the uses of respiration, is " quod in 
526
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
ipso fervet (the air) et quasi combustum et fuliginosum est, ex ipso
profundens," p.  554,—and which I take to imply, that something
is discharged in  expiration, of a noxious character, of a burned or
carbonated  nature;—in  other  words,  expressing what  is  now
familiarly spoken of, as decarbonizing the blood.   He  lays  much
stress on the contrivance of nature to prevent any injury to the
vena cava,  by means of the soft elastic parenchyma  of the lungs,
with other curious matter, and ventures to  apply the same intention,
in the formation of the thymus gland.  Do we know a more cer-
tain explanation ?   If he is  wrong, how  can we  convict him of
error, if we cannot  supply one less  beset with difficulty ?   In suc-
cessive  chapters, the heart, its figure, substance, divisions, &c, is
taken up; the nutrition of the lungs; the vena arteriosa, and arteria
venosa,  with many  other  important  subjects, succeed;  amidst
which, if we cannot find strong  evidences  of the circulation  being
known to him,  it  is, because we will not!  The junction of the
arteries and veins by anastomosis, is in language too palpable to be
mistaken, independently of what is  dispersed in one  hundred pas-
sages of his writings.1   I know  not that  the capillary circulation
is now belter described, or even  understood, than by Galen, sixteen
centuries  ago;  but it  signifies nothing to  support  his  claims in
opposition to  Harvey, who  has stated as his own, what was  long
before known;  and  almost the whole of which  was  familiar to
Galen.   Whenever these books  shall receive an English dress, that
all may fairly and fully investigate  his real claims, the award to
Harvey will be  reversed, and he will  sink greatly from the height
to which he by the  British nation, to the total exclusion of Galen's
claims,  has been so unjustly elevated !   It is  no  wonder  that he
has never received an English translation!   This must be reserved
for America !—I say nothing of others, his immediate predecessors
and  contemporaries, who have  had  their laurels  insidiously  ab-
stracted, without acknowledgment, to form the crown that was
bestowed upon him; as I am now  only concerned for  Galen, and
have elsewhere fully treated  of  the  whole  subject.b—On the valves
of the heart, Galen has been sufficiently explicit;  and this having

  1 " In toto corpore mutua est anastomosis, atque oscillorum apertio arteriis simul
et venis; transumuntque ex sese pariter sanguinem et spiritum per invisibiles quasdam
atque angustas plane vias," &c.
  t> Inquiry into the Claims of Dr. Wm. Harvey to the Discovery of the Circulation
of the Blood.  Philadelphia, 1834. 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.               527

 been admitted by Harvey, I believe no one has contested the point;
 how he was led to concede it, I cannot  surmise, seeing that with
 respect to those of the veins, he has  arrogated to hirnself, if not
 absolutely, yet indirectly, their  discovery; and assuredly, also, has
 claimed that of their presumed  use in the  system ; a use which was
 announced by Piccolhomini, (perhaps by others,) before Harvey even
 began the study of medicine ! but, eheu, jam satis !—I shall merely
 mark  below  a  few  references  to  the  Basil1 edition of Galen,
 (though all should, in fact, be read in connexion, to make the  affair
 completely  apparent),  in  which some  idea  may  be formed,  of
 the true extent to which Galen had carried his  views of a circu-
 lation.  Proof  from  these  and  other parts  may be deduced,  to
 satisfy every candid mind,  that  he  knew  the influence of the right
 side of the  heart, the arterial  character  of the  pulmonary veins,
 and the venous character of the pulmonary artery.   He  attacks
 Asclepiades and others, in  a bitter  strain  of irony, respecting  the
 vessels that  go from the lungs, as to their character; and  adverts
 to the valves,  the auricles, and  ventricles, as to their difference  of
 thickness, and other particulars, in several successive chapters.   In
 the seventeenth, p. 580, in opposition to Erasistratus, he maintains,
 that the arteries contain blood;  and again adverts  to  their anasto-
 moses with the veins.b  He adds, that  Erasistratus taught,  that in-
 flammation could not possibly take  place, except by the flowing of
 the blood from the veins into the arteries;  the absurdity of which he
 professes to  expose, even from  Erasistratus himself; and as being
 a subject he had often considered and disputed about.  A  dispas-
 sionate perusal of this  whole book, must, I think,  incline the reader
 to admit the claim of  Galen to a knowledge  of  the circulation, if
 even not accordant altogether with  our present views; but of the
 truth of which, in all its  parts, a doubt may be  entertained.   His
judicious  views of the general contrivance of nature cannot be
 overturned by the sophistry of those,  who  give  to  Harvey the
 exclusive merit of the most interesting discovery in medical science.
 The remaining chapters of  this book, are  of equal interest.   They
  1 Chap. ix. pp. 569, 575; chap. xii. p. 571; chap. xiii. p. 572 ; chap. xvii. p. 580; &c.
  b " Orificiorum arteriarum ad venas apertiones non sine causa neque frustra par-
avit natura, sed ut respirationis ac pulsuum utilitas non cordi soli atque arteriis, sed
cum eis, venis etiam distriburetur." 
528                   THE WORKS OF GALEN.

treat of the lungs and of the heart, &c, in the foetal state, together
with their functions and peculiarities.1


                         BOOK   VII.

  This book continues the subject of the thorax, lungs, and trachea,
the construction of the larynx, its muscles, cartilages, nerves, &c,
the os  hyoides,  diaphragm, &c.;  and,  as  being located  on  the
thorax, he makes a digression to the mammas.


                        BOOK  VIII.

  Treats of the head, the  brain, the neck; which last, he  notices
as being uniformly present  in animals having lungs,  and  as being
equally deficient, where  the lungs are  wanting.   The  common
purposes of the  head; the  instruments of  sense; cerebral  nerves;
ethmoid  bone ;  meninges ;  pericranium ; cerebellum ; ventricles,
&c, are all noticed, and sundry criticisms  are made on Praxagoras
and  other philosophers, for their  respective opinions.


                          BOOK  IX.

  In this book, the subject of the brain  is continued; its arteries,
veins, and nerves;  its different  channels  of purgation; the caver-
nous structure of the cranium ;  plexus retiforme, and its convolu-
tions as compared with  that of the testicle.   The mode of entrance
of the cerebral vessels is described, and  their variation from  com-
mon distribution; the distinction of hard and soft nerves, and their
appropriation  to motion  or to sense; cranial  sutures,  squamose
bones, &c.

  * What, really and truly, did  Harvey discover and demonstrate  as exclusively his
own ?  Surely his admirers and advocates, can immediately place their finger thereto,
or they have read him to little  purpose !   And I challenge them to the direct proof of
any part belonging to him.  I fear, however, they may have  exhausted their praise
and adulation on Harvey—and  looked  over his writings, whilst they have grossly
overlooked the immortal pages of Galen !   The full translation  of this sixth book alone,
would appear adequate to  every unprejudiced  reader to strip the  laurels  from the
brow of Harvey. 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
529
                         BOOK X.

  The organ of vision is here  considered, its parts  described, and
an hypothesis on the subject of vision, quite as likely to  be correct
as those now advanced ; at least, as well  sustained, and certainly
not less interesting, when  regarded as  the speculation of nearly
twenty centuries past.


                        BOOK  XI.

   The remaining parts of the  head are here considered; those of
the face also, the muscles, teeth,  and their variety in different
animals; the tongue,  pharynx, ears, nose, &c.  One chapter, the
thirteenth, is chiefly occupied  with a  consideration of the beauty
of the parts, as superadded to their  utility; which last is,  how-
ever, admitted to be superior, inasmuch as it is the  primary scope
and intention of the  whole construction.   He then treats of the
hair and beard, and attempts  an  explanation of the exemption of
women  from the last-named; also, why the eyebrows and lashes
always  continue of  the same length;  and much other curious
matter,  which no  one but Galen  would have  deemed  worthy of
attention.   That pagan philosophy did  not alone occupy his  mind
is obvious, for, (p.  718,) we here find  him adverting to the writings
of Moses, in reference to some particulars respecting the hair, &c,
from which he dissents; although he considers the opinions of Moses
to be superior to those  of Epicurus,  yet  maintaining that neither
should  be followed implicitly.  He takes notice of the difference
of the skin of different parts; also the motions of certain parts, as
of the alae nasi, &c, and gives some remarks on the bones; and he
terminates the book with the following observation,  to which every
reader will assent,  " Nam ita demum naturam maxime admiraberis,
si omnia ejus opera perlustraris."


                         BOOK  XII.

   This book is occupied with the  parts common to the neck and
head,  and its  spinal  connexions;  muscles,  ligaments,  cartilages,
                               34 
530                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

nerves, &c.   The vertebras, spinal marrow, &c, with reasons for,
and problems respecting, the difference of size, form, &c, of the
vertebras and parts of the back, with various other matter.


                        BOOK  XIII.

  The subject is continued, and is replete  with interest, both to the
speculative and practical anatomist.   The  nerves of the  vertebras
and neck; of the thorax, and those of  the lower extremities.  The
meningeal coverings of the dorsal medulla.   Of the  scapula and
other parts, with their difference in man and animals or quadrupeds;
of the humeral and other articulations, and ending  with observa-
tions on the wonderful address of nature in all these.


                        BOOK  XIV.

   A new subject, of great interest, here breaks in upon us; viz., the
importance  of the continued life of animals, through the process of
generation,  resembling in  some measure, by such  perpetual suc-
cession, a species of immortality.  To  this  end, an appropriate set of
organs, differing in the sexes of all animals, is  provided.  In the
details hereof, much ingenious speculation  and anatomical research
are conspicuous.  So far as this last respects the dissection of the
uterus, it would seem  to  be  principally of that  of animals;  and
hence, several wrong deductions as to the  human uterus, appear to
be drawn from facts that are strictly correct  of the former.  The
wonderful character and the connexion of the uterus and mammas
are pointed out; the superiority of man, the concurrence of the se-
 minal fluids of both sexes, the production  of males  or females, the
 order of the formation of  the foetal parts, the testes, and the sur-
 prising distribution of their vessels, all are taken up, and  duly con-
 sidered ;—and continued in


                          BOOK XV.

   Which enters more fully into the character, formation, and  struc-
 ture of the  fcetus, and its different parts; its coats, vessels, humours j 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                531

followed by an inquiry into the reason of its immense liver; and all
interspersed with numerous curious physiological questions, viz.; as
to the greater strength of the veins in early life, and the more gra-
dual, but progressive augmentation of that of arteries and nerves;
why the foetal lungs are red;  the close adhesion of the os uteri in
pregnancy, &c, all serving to prove, that Galen was as inquisitive
in physiology, as he was observant  in practice, and that nothing
escaped his penetrating observation and inquiry.


                         BOOK  XVI.

  This  book goes far,  I think, both directly, and by implication, in
support of the opinion  of Galen  being acquainted with, and even of
having  taught, the fact of a circulation. Such continual implications
cannot  be ascribed  to accident alone; but must be placed to the re-
sult of well-founded opinions, arising out of facts, isolated perhaps,
but strongly supporting one another and the common  doctrines to
which they may have  given origin.   The book is  taken up with a
general  consideration  of the common distribution  of the arteries
and veins throughout the body.   The artery, vein, and nerve, Galen
calls the common instruments of the  whole body, (de communibus
totius corporis instruments, arteria, vena et nervo prius quidem dum
partes exponeremus, verba ssepe feeimus," &c, ch. i. in initio,) and
he repeats, that the great artery  arises from the heart, the vein from
the liver, and the spinal marrow and nerves from the brain.  Now,
since, (says he,) they require  to be exhibited over  the  whole body,
attend to me whilst I demonstrate the justice of the  division.  This
is his object in the successive chapters  of the  book, wherein he
enters  more  at large  into  the origin of  the vessels  and nerves.
He then points out  the insertion of the nerves, and  notices several
in particular, such  as, of the voice,  the viscera, and intestines, the
neck, scapula, and head; the recurrent, those of the thorax, extre-
mities, and of some of the muscles.  Then follows the distribution of
the great artery, or aorta,  its rise, and progress through the body.
Nature, says he, curiously derives the arteries that supply the testes
and  the  mammas  from a distance,  and gives a  reason for  this.
After this, he proceeds to the ascending branch of the aorta, speaks
of the  carotids, and  notices the insensibility of the  arteries and
veins, with some other peculiarities  respecting them.  Some veins 
532
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
are found without corresponding arteries.  The artery arising from
the left ventricle is the  root  of all the arteries  in the body.  The
great equality  of the  distribution of the vessels by nature, and the
community of use of  the arteries and  veins  is explicitly  stated.'
If the books mentioned as'being lost, (De Anatomicis Administrationi-
bus should ever be recovered (of which, however, no possible hope
remains), I doubt not, that a full elucidation would be found of the
interesting subject of the circulation, so as to satisfy  every rea-
sonable mind,  that Harvey  has been adorned  unjustly, from the
wardrobe of Galen !h
                         BOOK  XVII.

  This last book is  rather  more  speculative than the others.  It
consists  of views  respecting  the  proportions which  the  different
parts of  the body bear to each other, and to the universe at large;
and  it contains a  kind of recapitulation of the preceding books,
points  out their utility, and gives  numerous  references to  many of
the older poets and writers.   Upon  the whole, there is a conside-
rable degree of resemblance between these books, and those pre-
viously noticed "De  Anatomicis  Administrationibus."   They tend
mutually to  support, and often to explain, apparent  deficiencies.
That they are  well deserving of an English  translation, no one who
has perused, or even  inspected them  cursorily, could, I  think, for an
instant hesitate to  admit.  Even these imperfect  outlines, I hope,
will  tend to forward such  an end ; or  at least,  to  induce some
younger member of the Profession to give  an epitome, or a more
extensive view than I have been able to afford.  A more acceptable
present, I cannot believe could be given to the medical community.

  1 P. 841. "Diximus etiam et de vasis quae ad mammas et testes ferantur, dum com.
muniter et de venis et arteriis ageremus, que vtrceque communem vsum haberent.  Pari
modo et cum de arteriis  ageremus, de venis diximus quae ad manus perveniunt, quod
communis utrarumque sit ratio," &c.
  b This was written  before it was known that a discovery had been made of these
lost books, as stated in the note at p. 519; and as I have  as yet seen no further evidence
of the truth of this, I  feel no disposition to expunge it. 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
533
  XVI.  GALENI,  DE UTILITATE RESPIRATIONIS LIB.

                 OF THE UTILITY OF RESPIRATION.

                    J. CORNARIO, TRANSLATOR.

   Galen proposes a question at the beginning of this book, which
 it might be well  for  each one to reflect  on,—and candidly say,
 whether he can better reply to it, than Galen did sixteen centuries
 ago.
   "Quasnam est utilitas respirationis?"
   Reader, pause here; and recall to mind the various physiological
 explanations of this wonderful  function, since  the  period of  the
 illustrious man who asks an answer to his question !  Examine them
 well, and say whether you cannot find in Galen a groundwork of
 them all.
   Wherein, he asks, does the  utility of respiration depend?  He
 replies,  " unquestionably, it is of no common character; we cannot
 exist for an instant without it; consequently, it does  not pertain to
 any one individual action, but must be connected with life itself: of
 its high  importance, all indeed are convinced.  It is even superior to
 the functions of the stomach or the brain, whose actions are greatly
 influenced by it."  He then gives a concise statement of the opinions
 of his predecessors  on  this head, viz., of Asclepiades, Praxagoras,
 Philistion, Diodes, Hippocrates, and Erasistratus.  His own seems
 to be, that it is intended for the preservation and regulation of the
 innate  heat,  (caloris  insiti,) and  for affording the  animal  spirit
 abounding in the brain.  Here, he advances a proposition founded
 on fact,  but erroneous in the deduction from it, at least, to a certain
 extent, for it is not altogether fallacious.  It depended on the imper-
 fect chemical knowledge of that period, (and  almost indeed  up to
 the present  time,) of the  composition of the  atmosphere, then re-
 garded as a simple element.
  His proposition is, that the use, or benefit of respiration, or rather
 of the air in inspiration, depends, not  upon its actual substance, but
 rather on some quality connected with it, (" utrum substantia aeris
qui per inspirationem advenit, indigemus, an qualitate, an utrioque,")
p. 852;  and he thinks he proves  it by  the fact, that suffocation will
ensue, when the lungs  are filled with air, as  readily as if we did 
534
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
not breathe  at  all.  The theory he  adopts, viz., that the air  was
inspired, with the intention of ventilating the blood, and of cooling
it, as some  maintained; is  quite as well advocated, and with as
much ingenuity, as any of the present day respecting this important
function.   Nay, by a mere trifling alteration of the terms employed,
we shall find it  differs but little from that now generally adopted.
Instead of ventilation, let us employ  that of decarbonization of the
blood, and consider animal heat as depending on the decomposition
of the air inspired.  It would indeed seem that Galen actually had
an  indistinct notion of  this  very particular, judging from  the ex-
pressions made use of: " Quando  quidem  igitur  ut ex aere  quid
adtrahat  cor, thoracem  id permittere necesse est, permittit autem
cum dimensionem transmutat, transmutat autem inspirantibus nobis
aut expirantibus, et tunc sane cor transsumet."  Much, however,
must be gratuitous in the suppositions we may make, or be gathered
by implication, and a collation and comparison of different passages,
rather than  by  an immediate or direct appeal to an individual part.
If in law, it is true, that circumstantial evidence is often of more
importance  than positive, why should not the same principle obtain
in medicine  and its branches?   Science changes its theoretic specu-
lations, just  as the philosophy of the  day may render it necessary;
and different explanations will consequently be assigned to the same
acknowledged fact at different times.  This is  sufficiently obvious,
if we compare  the physiological views of  the present day,  with
those of only half a century preceding ! If  then asked to explain
the difference of colour between arterial and venous blood, the re-
ply would have been, that the former was  oxygenated, or oxygen
was absorbed in the process of respiration;  and  now, the answer
to  the same  question  is, that the venous  blood  is decarbonized.
Now, it need not be  said, that  neither of these  views,  nor  some
others, on the same subject,  are universally admitted to be correct,
to the reversal  of all the others.   Nor can it be affirmed,  that other
views may not  arise, from the changes or improvements in philoso-
phy, that will put to flight all our previous hypotheses.  What then,
with all  our boasted superiority, especially in  chemical research,
are we, in our physiology, as to this important function, in advance
of Galen, devoid as he was  of the light of science!  If we cannot
perceive  the present doctrines, modified  by new terms, to  be merely
scintillations from his forge; at least we shall find arguments as in-
genious, and perhaps facts as numerous, as are  to be noticed in our 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                  535

oivn affirmed,  more enlightened publications!  at all  events,  as  a
physiological  curiosity of  so  ancient a  date,  a good translation
would be acceptable to the  Profession, as  a just tribute  to the me-
mory of a man, who is second to none in the whole train of medi-
cal observers !a
  XVII.  GALENI, DE  CAUSIS RESPIRATIONIS  LIBER.

                   OF THE CAUSES OF RESPIRATION.


                      J. CORNARIO, TRANSLATOR.

                             Bas. Ed. p. 865.

   The causes of respiration, are in this book stated by Galen to be
threefold, (tres sint in genere respirationis causas, facultas  volunta-
ria,  instrumenta  voluntati subservienlia,  et ad  hasc utilitas ipsa);
that is, the faculty or power itself, the organs subserving thereto, and
the end, or utility of the function.   His statement of the multiform
and variety of the instruments employed  in the  process,  is  concise
and graphic.  Some convey the air through  appropriate channels,
to others fitted for its reception; others are operative in the motion
of every essential part;  whilst the importance of the spinal nerves
is not omitted, as being absolutely essential to the perfection of the
process.  Much  incidental  matter is  introduced, of great  interest;
and the  whole may be regarded as an appendix to the preceding
book.

  * It was not until the year 1776, that Dr. Priestley, in the sixty-sixth volume of the
London Philosophical Transactions, attempted an explanation of what took place in
the process of respiration,  by affirming the discharge of phlogiston, at that time a
ruling principle in chemistry. In the following year, Lavoisier read, at the sitting of
the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, his views of the decomposition of the air in the
lungs, to the following effect, viz.: " that it appears that our lungs absorb precisely that
portion of atmospheric air, which combines with the  metals in calcination;  the residue
of that air thus decomposed, has different properties, and though always elastic, it  can
no longer  subserve the purpose of respiration."  Seventy years are scarcely  passed, and
we now no longer admit of phlogiston, nor of the absorption of the air by the lungs.
The use of respiration is now considered as being essential to the conversion of the
carbon of the venous blood into carbonic acid gas, by which abstraction, the venous is
restored to its arterial character:—and this effect, mutato nomine, is precisely the ex-
planation given by Galen more than fifteen hundred years ago. 
536
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
       XVIIL GALENI, DE PULSUUM USU LIBER.

                   OF THE USE OF THE PULSE.

                T.  LINACER,  TRANSLATOR.

                          Bas. Ed. p. 867.

   The intent of  this book seems to be, to show that the use of the
pulse is  that of  preserving the innate heat, and of conveying the
animal spirits to  every part.  Now, although the language employed
may give a different aspect to our present views on this  subject,
and that of the  circulation, yet I apprehend the doctrine of a cir-
culation  is adequately sustained.   The influence of ventilating the
blood and of  cooling  it,  as  has been previously  noticed, is  here
adverted to, and the abstraction of something noxious from it, seems
clearly expressed.   In fact, except in name, we can almost exclaim,
Mutato nomine, de te narratur; for this abstraction of noxious
matter, is the present decarbonization of the vital fluid.
   Physicians and  philosophers alike  concluded, p. 867, that respi-
ration and the pulse both tended to one end, or subserved the same
intention.  Of this, Galen affords proof, as well as that the heat of
each part is maintained by the pulse.  He mentions the fact, that
on opening the  ventricles of  the heart of  an animal, especially the
left one,  if the finger  is immediately introduced, the heat is  there
felt to  be greater, and continues  longer than  in other pajts.   He
advances several reasons, and some experiments, to prove that the
heat flowed from the heart—such as tying the vessels ; and he thinks
both arteries and veins are engaged  in this (p. 870); and from all
he says, he deduces the connexion between the pulse and respiration,
and speaks without ambiguity of the union of the arteries and veins.
If in this book, the candid inquirer cannot find sufficient proof of a
circulation being well  known to Galen, even  if it be  not exactly
explained and elucidated,  as in the present day ; and that, moreover,
scarcely one fact or proof is adduced by Harvey, that is not equally
asserted by Galen; I must confess that I have greatly misunderstood
the tenor and intent of all his pages, which go to prove that his
actions depended upon such  a knowledge and belief; as well  as
from his necessary conviction of the  absolute  necessity of such a 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.               537

 function to every part of the system, (see p. 872,) in which is to be
 found, that man is included in the question there considered, and by
 which he  is led to the following conclusion, " et cum semper vacu-
 atas cum arteriis venas deprehendissemus, veram esse sententiam
 de communibus arteriarum et venarum osculis, et communi de una
 in alteram per ea transitu, nobis persuasimus,'" &c.   This junction
 of the arteries and the veins, seems to have been a prevailing doc-
 trine, equally, as that the arteries derive their power from  the heart,
 and communicate with every part of the body.  This communication
 between  the arteries and  the veins, is not so luminously  explained
 by Harvey ; for it was never  understood by him, and he died in
 uncertainty, whether  that  communication was direct, by anasto-
 mosis, (as sustained  by  Galen, and as  proved by microscopic
 observations,) or indirect, by an intermediate effusion from the one,
 and an absorption by the other; yet Harvey is regarded as \hefull
 discoverer of  the circulation,  and all his predecessors  are  alike
 consigned to oblivion, nay, in many cases, to contempt and obloquy !
 A complete  translation  of  the  works of Galen  would effectually
 prove the  frauds that have been perpetrated,  to support the honour
 of the British nation, which would be tarnished  by the abstraction
 of those laurels that have been  so  unjustly awarded to a  man con-
 sidered as the glory of their country!


    XIX. GALENI,  DE SUBSTANTIA FACULTATUM
                NATURALIUM, LIBELLUS.

            OF THE SUBSISTENCE OF NATURAL FACULTIES.

                         Bas. Ed. p. 877.

  The author adverts  to the various and contradictory statements
given  by auditors of what they hear, and refers to Plato as having
been thus made to contradict himself; of which, instances are given
with respect to his views of an  Anima Mundi, and which is more
fully noticed in the treatise De Placitis Hipp, et Platonis.
  Plants are said to want a principle of motion and of sensation,
although it is not uniformly maintained.  They are called cold,
and  animals warm, but this, not absolutely,  but relatively; as is
indeed also the power ascribed to plants, and  which is attributed to 
538                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

nature, rather than to a soul (anima).   Reference is made to these
views in relation to ethics, inasmuch as respects the certainty, pro-
bability,  or doubtful character of what is asserted,  &c.  All admit
of a soul, but from being ignorant of its essence, it has been called
a power or faculty.  The disputes  on this point are  adverted to,
and hence Galen is led to state only what to him appears probable;
and which, though not absolutely necessary either to medicine or
ethics, is yet an ornament to them.   He proceeds to point out, that
all bodies consist of four elements mixed and  united together; but
whether  such mixture  pervades the essence  of bodies,  or their
qualities only, he professes  not to know.  Some ideas are thrown
out with respect to temperaments  and their variations; and  it is
denied that a knowledge of the essence of the soul is  necessary to
medicine or to ethics.a He notices the attraction of the natural facul-
ties to familiar objects, and their repulsion of strange  ones, without
being themselves possessed of sense or recognition.  To the natural
soul  is  granted only a notion or idea, that tends to pleasure or to
 pain; and as to sensible  objects,  only of that which  relates to
 nourishment; hence it  attracts that only which can  subserve  this
 intention, and be elaborated through  its  powers, all which is more
 extensively pursued; but the inutility of the subject to medicine and
 to ethics, is again affirmed.

 XX. GALENI, DE HIPPOCRATIS  ET PLATONIS  DECRE-
         TIS, (DOGMATIBUS, BAS.) LIBRI NOVEM.

       OF THE DOGMAS, OR OPINIONS OF  HIPPOCRATES AND PLATO.

                           IN NINE  BOOKS.

                      J. CORNARIO, TRANSLATOR.

                            Bas. Ed. p. 880.

    The ensuing nine books are not less  deserving of notice than

    * " Holy Scripture containeth all things  necessary to salvation;  so that whatsoever
  is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that
  it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought necessary or requisite to
  salvation."—Sixth Art. of Religion of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
    Apply this to the subject of the soul. Can its character as to materiality or imma- 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                539

their associates.  They consist chiefly of criticisms and reviews of
the opinions of preceding writers on a variety of subjects ; of Aris-
totle, Erasistratus, Praxagoras, Chrysippus, the Stoics, and Peripa-
tetics.  Much is interspersed of metaphysics, which serves to eluci-
date many  opinions  of philosophers respecting  the mind,  whose
seat, according to some, was the heart.
                           BOOK  I.

   The four first chapters of this book appear to be lost, as it begins
 abruptly, with, apparently, an account of the same  case  that is
 noticed in the seventh De Anat. Administ.  It is here introduced, to
 prove, in opposition to Erasistratus, and his followers, that the cavi-
 ties of the heart in the living animal are filled with blood, and  not
 with  air.  By turning to the case in the place referred to, the par-
 ticulars  will  be  brought  to recollection.   The  sternum  being
 removed, and part of the putrefied pericardium, the heart became
 conspicuous, as  if in an animal  dissected for the purpose.  The
 patient recovered, which Galen  regards as by no means extraordi-
 nary, since the affection was attended  by no worse  consequences
 than  are daily observed in  contusions and other injuries  of  the
 thorax; the removal  of  the pericardium  could not  be  the source of
 any great danger (" tunica  cordi  obsita proprium  aliquod insigne
 periculum affert"), as Herophilus and many other physicians have
 before stated.   Occasional notice  is given to the blood-vessels  (p.
 884), indirectly bearing on the circulation; and he here opposes an
 opinion  of Erasistratus, that  the  arteries terminated in  nerves;
 proving  its error, by tracing the progress  of  the different arteries.
 Among these, he  mentions the carotids, (xapunSeg seu soporarias, ex
 Xap°s, sopor,) and points out the error of the name as  arising from
 ignorance in the successors of Hippocrates (p. 885).  " Cor cerebro
 tria vasorum genera connectunt, ex iis inquam  quae toti corpori
 communia habentur; venas, arterias,  nervi.   Venas quas jugulares
 appellantur, arteriasquas  carotides, quasi  tu soporarias dicas," &c.

teriality be  established by any thing we read in the Bible ?  If not, may not that
question be investigated, or either side adopted,  without giving offence, or at all influ-
encing  salvation ?  It is a subject that is  not determined by  Revelation, and  not
likely to be elucidated in this state of existence. 
540
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
He shows the source of the error, from the  experiment on which it
was founded.   In  it,  the nerve  was  tied up with the artery, the
animal was thereby rendered comatose, which was ascribed solely
to the ligature of the artery.  However, (adds Galen, setting thereby
a noble example to all who are perpetually changing names of long
continuance, and even if faulty, perfectly  understood,) however, the
artery has so long retained the name, that  I will  not  deprive it of
it, and  as at  present fixed, so  let it remain, (and  thus it  has
remained to the present time, an  evidence of the superior  judgment
of this great man.)   In other parts  he has  taken  up the  subject of
names, and  reprehends the folly of many  of them,  derived from
etymology and  supposition.  In the ninth chapter of this  book we
find several pertinent remarks on the subject.
                         BOOK  II.

  This  book is an intermixture of metaphysical and physiological
investigation as to the  seat of the soul or rational mind, in which
those who are fond of such inquiries will find much to interest them.
Throughout, expressions  appear,  which to me, nothing short of a
full belief of a circulation would at all justify; the whole sixth
chapter is of this description.  He  states the difference of cutting the
three species of vessels, (the nerves being then considered as tubular,)
viz., the immediate death, from the immoderate effusion of blood, by
dividing the jugular veins or  carotid arteries, unless prevented  by
tying them  up;  but by tying  or cutting the nerve, or by compress-
ing it, the animal merely  lost  his voice,


                  BOOKS  III., IV.,  V.

  These three books are nearly of the same character as the pre-
ceding.   Many quotations are given from  Homer and  Hesiod, as
advanced by Chrysippus to sustain his opinions.  They are opposed
by Galen, and we must here contend for Galen's prior claim to the
doctrines of phrenology, although since slumbering through many
centuries before their late resuscitation by Gall and Spurzheim, (p.
982.)  "Neque in una  tantum animas parte, neque in  una facultate
et judicia et affectus existere, ut Chrysippus sentit, sed plures esse, 
                    PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                54 j

 diversusque tum  facultates, tum partes."  The whole of the  fifth
 book is, indeed, metaphysical and phrenological, wherein the nature
 and importance of education are considered, as giving character to
 man.   Few phrenologists can be found, who could not readily and
 essentially strengthen their opinions by those of  Galen.


                          BOOK VI.

   This  is an  important book, and one which, if  duly translated,
 would greatly  aid in enabling us to judge of Galen's  real estimate
 and views  as to  the circulation.  A  favourite  opinion  is  here
 enlarged on, viz., the  important rank of  the liver in the animal
 economy ; perhaps  it is nowhere so fully and strongly insisted on,
 as in this book, which appears almost to have been written with the
 intent of proving, by reason and experiment, or dissection, that this
 viscus is the source of the veins, and of hasmatosis, and also of con-
 cupiscence (animas concupiscibilis). Many passages seem adequate
 to establish  the knowledge  and  views of  a circulation,—and a vin-
 dication is presented for Hippocrates against the  erroneous opinions
 attributed to him of four pair of vessels arising from the head.   His
 own opinion or hypothesis of the hepatic origin of the  veins, is very
 ingeniously  sustained  by reasons  principally derived  from Hippo-
 crates (p. 1010, Bas. ed. refers to his treatise, De Humoribus).  In
 considering the liver as the great organ of hasmatosis, he draws a
 distinction to  this  effect,—that a  procreative  faculty or power
 exists in it of forming  blood, and that it is, as it were, the feeder or
 nourisher of that faculty.   It seems that a belief was entertained by
 some, that the power of forming the  blood was derived from  the
 veins of the  heart, and the  materials from the liver.  All this specu-
 lation, ingenious to the full as any on the same subject at the present
 day, must nevertheless  be admitted to  be very much of a mystifica-
 tion.  Much close attention is required to comprehend it, if, indeed,
 it will not receive a  different meaning, in conformity to the previous
 impressions of the reader's mind !   He contends, however, that the
 heart is  not the commencing organ of the formation of the blood,
 but of the arteries only, and that this is conspicuous even in  the
 foetus, in which he opposes  Erasistratus, who maintained the heart
 to be the beginning of both arteries and veins.  He opposes Praxa-
goras and others,  who considered  the pulsation  of  the  arteries to 
   542                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

   depend solely on themselves, and he considers it proved, as he states
.   it, from the pulsation ceasing when the artery is divided.  The idea
   of  a  circulation  was  certainly common  amongst philosophers,
   although  differently  explained by  them, long before the time of
   Galen: even Plato suggests it in a manner no way obscure.  " Cor
   vero qui simul et venarum fons est, et etiam sanguinis qui in omnia
   membra vehementer  circumferatur, in satellitis apparatorisque sedem
   ac domicilium constituerunt," &c.   (Bas. ed. p. 1026, c.)


                           BOOK  VII.

     This book, in maintaining the origin of the nerves from the brain,
   and explaining how  sense and motion thence arise, falls  again into
   metaphysical disquisitions and criticisms, on the opinions of others.
   Some phrenology is  scattered  throughout  its pages, and  his ideas
   are  given as to the nature and structure of the nerves.  He  con-
   tends that sensation  and motion may be maintained,  even  when the
   ventricles  of the brain  are  wounded.   There  appears  also  an
   attempt to locate the mind.  A nervous  fluid is spoken of, and the
   difference  of the  optic  from other nerves  is pointed  out.   The
   humours of the eye, and the sense of smell, are treated of, and the
   opinions of Plato, Aristotle, and others, on these and other subjects,
   are  discussed and opposed.  He treats of the spinal marrow, its
   structure  and power, and he affirms  that Erasistratus in his old age
   was acquainted with the true origin of the nerves, but that Aristotle
   never was.


                          BOOK VIII.

     After a slight recapitulation of the preceding  seven books, this
   proceeds to consider the opinions of Hippocrates and Plato on the
   subject of the four  elements, and of the formation of bodies from
   them.   It then treats of respiration, and of the receptacles for food
   and drink.  From a deficiency or excess of those four elements, it
   was  commonly supposed that disease occurred.  In  admitting of
   four humours, their  influence in  health and disease  is upheld, and
   their modification by season, age, and other  causes,  is pointed out.
   Some of the differences of opinion between Hippocrates and Plato 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                543

are noticed, together with many errors of Erasistratus ; on which,
however, Galen correctly remarks, that they are by no means de-
serving of contempt, for that all that may be erroneous, is far from
being contemptible; dogmas  are uncertain, and  arguments that
may be  satisfactory to  many, may yet be  inconclusive to others,
and  such arguments are never wanting in support of our opinions.
Among other points considered, he adverts to an opinion maintained
by  some of the ancients, that  fluids, in drinking, passed into the
lungs, which he denies, and refutes in the last chapter.  (See Hippoc.
in irept ^apiW.)


                         BOOK  IX.

   This, the last of these books, is not less interesting than its prede-
cessors.  In some respects, it is even more so, as will be admitted,
when it is stated  to be an attempt to point out  the best method of
distinguishing truth from error.   Here, the opinions of Hippocrates
and Plato on the subject are compared,.and the necessity of unifor-
mity is pointed out; and consequently the great importance of such
comparisons as to the similarity or dissimilarity of subjects, if you
desire not to be deceived;—as  with respect  to the  face and counte-
nance of the sick, and  all those other  parte from which our judg-
ments may be deduced; and  he quotes largely from both writers.
He also discusses the intention of the physician in  his practice, and
takes notice of the great dissimilarity amongst the members of the
Profession in  this respect.  All, he tells us, propose to oppose dis-
ease; but some are actuated therein by humanity, some by ambition,
avarice, and  so  forth,  (p. 1090.)  In  an edition  of  Brown's Ele-
ments, by Beddoes, some years ago, we have in his preface a some-
what analogous generalization of physicians, which he drew up from
the medical characters  of Great Britain of his day.   It is probable
he was  led  to it by the example of Galen;  nor is it improbable that
the  same might not be done in every large city in all parts of the
world !   The importance of method in  investigating and in dividing
diseases, is noticed ; and the diversity of practice  arising from this,
is exemplified in  pleurisy; some employing bloodletting, others pur-
gatives, fomentations both wet and dry, &c, and  equally diversify-
ing their drinks and ptisans, &c.
   Dissensions among physicians are injurious, says Galen;  therein 
544
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
differing from contrary opinions among artisans, in which opposi-
tion tends to improvement.  He notices the  reasons of such philo-
sophic differences, and proposes sundry queries of utility to, or in-
jurious to physicians and philosophers.  Here we may perhaps dis-
cover a counterpart in the profession of our own times, in the pic-
ture he has drawn of men, who, in opposition  to common opinion,
most obstinately persist in their own, and feign to believe them im-
plicitly (p. 1100, A., &c), whilst others, denying the opinions of their
opponents, falsify in  the most  unblushing  manner!  Had  Galen
lived in our times, he  would not have wanted an ample harvest for
his  keen  and caustic pen.
  In considering, in a subsequent part of this book, the providence
of a Supreme Being, as exemplified in the structure of the body, he
hints at the folly of those who suppose it to be the work of chance;
and in a manner both brief and comprehensive he replies thereto, in
proof of its  extreme absurdity, by recapitulating  its wonderful
structure, the number of its parts, the uniformity of infinitely nume-
rous beings, the congruity and adaptation  of every part, whether
single or double, in organization; all proving a  divine Architect,
and the utter impossibility that a blind chance could have had any
influence in the formation of the universe.  He again quotes largely
from Plato's Timasus, on the subject  of the mind or soul and its fa-
culties, and thus concludes the last of these  most interesting  com-
mentaries on the Decreta  of  Hippocrates  and  Plato.   Much un-
questionably is speculative and  metaphysical; but is it  the  less in-
teresting from conveying to us the philosophy of the ancients as  to
the  mind and its operations?  Are the metaphysical dogmas of the
present day so absolutely certain  as to be  universally admitted?
If shadows, clouds, and darkness envelope  the metaphysical prin-
ciples of former  times, not less discrepancy of opinion  and wild
speculation as  to mind and its operations  will  be  found  in the
eighteenth and nineteenth century !   A comparison of both  would
possibly  lead to the  admission, that  the opinions of Hippocrates,
Plato, Aristotle, Galen, and such like  philosophers, of twenty cen-
turies'  standing, are as likely to be correct, as the  many-headed
monsters of the present period. 
PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.
545
  XXI.  GALENI, DE FACULTATIBUS NATURALIBUS,
                        LIBRI TRES.

           OF THE NATURAL FACULTIES, IN THREE BOOKS.

                    T. LINACRE, TRANSLATOR.

                        (  Bas. Ed. p. 1113.  ;

  The faculties (powers) are of three kinds, natural, vital, and animal.
 The first seems principally connected with the liver, and is distributed
 by the veins to  every part; the second is connected with the heart,
 and through the arteries, with all the  body; and the third with the
 brain, and through the nerves with the whole system.  Galen  here
 notices the difference of plants and animals, in the possession by the
 latter of sense  and motion.   He considers the difference of simple
 nature and  the soul; sense and voluntary motion being  the result of
 this last, whilst  augmentation and increase,  are the result of the
 former.  It is the soul that governs;  and in  order  to prevent  mis-
 representation, he  defines the words  he uses, and notices some of
 the opinions of the sophists respecting certain natural changes, such
 as that of food into blood, &c.; he considers that a certain faculty or
 power exists in different parts, by which those parts  are enabled to
 induce certain changes.  He notices four qualities in matter, two of
 which, hot and  cold, are active, and two, moist and dry, are passive.
 By the operations of  nature, we find  three  actions  or faculties
 awakened,  viz., a generative  or productive, an augmentative or in-
 ductive of growth,—and one of nutrition; all of which, with other
 interesting  subjects,  he separately  considers.   He opposes  the
 opinion of Asclepiades in relation to a direct passage of drinks  to
 the bladder, and relates  an experiment to refute  it, viz., that of tying
 the ureters, and thus examining, from absolute observation, the real
 mode  of transmission,  (p. 1125.)
  In giving an  explanation  of the ureters, (p. 1118,) considerable
light is  thrown  upon  the ancient views of different tubes in the
body; which, although intended for different purposes, had, never-
theless, the  common appellation of phlebs, or vein, given to them.
He tells us the ureters  are  not arteries,  since they neither pulsate,
nor do they consist of two coats; neither are they veins, since they
         J                   35 
546
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
contain no blood, nor do their coats resemble those of veins;  and
still less do they resemble nerves; and yet, adds he, every part of
the body  necessarily consists of an artery, vein,  and  nerve, or is
composed of them.   A  considerable part of this book involves the
consideration of attraction, as explanatory of many of the proposi-
tions assumed; such as with respect to the secretion of urine, &c.;
and he introduces Epicurus's explanation of the magnetic attraction
of iron, together  with his  disputes  against Asclepiades on  this
subject, (p. 1128.)   This seems a favourite subject, as he strongly
opposes both Erasistratus and Asclepiades.  In one part, his lan-
guage is of  a  strong character, asserting, that in  regard to the
attraction of the kidneys, Erasistratus was a dissembler, but that
Asclepiades was an absolute liar: " itaque Erasistratus dissimulavit,
Asclepiades mentitus  est," (p. 1135.)  The primary, nay, the exclu-
sive superiority of the arteries, veins, and nerves, in the opinion of
the ancients, is here well exemplified:  "Si namque  ex singulis
eorum instrumentorum, venas, nerves, et arterias exemeris, reliquum
corpus, quatenus sensu animadverti licet, simplex  elementareque
est,"  &c, (p. 1118.)  And  elsewhere  he says, that if we desire to
comprehend  the  universal  powers or  faculties of nature,  every
individual organ must be carefully considered.
  This  book is deserving of attention in  a variety of particulars;
and few will read it,  I imagine, without  admiration and  gratifica-
tion.  The same may be said of the  second and  third  books, in
which, with the author's own opinions on the subject of nutrition,
&c, we find, in his opposition to many of the  philosophical tenets
of contemporaries and  others, much of the physiology and specu-
lative views of the  then  existing and preceding  ages.  The  im-
portance of the humours or  fluids may be considered  as having
always  stood prominent in  the estimation of  the  ancients, since
they,  or some of them, counted up no less  than ten  different kinds,
besides  the blood, (p.  1159.)
  The third book treats rather more particularly of the retentive and
expulsive powers, as the preceding did of the attractive.  The  ne-
cessity of such powers is demonstrated in the stomach and uterus, and
also in the urinary and gall-bladder; all tending to a general proposi-
tion, that there are four faculties or powers in nature, viz.:  of appe-
tency, attraction, retention, and expulsion.  Towards the close of this
third book, Galen explains his reasons for writing them;  and they
differ but little from those which might now, with great propriety, be 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.               547

advocated by every honourable member of the Profession, viz., to op-
pose that sophistry, which, under the revered name of science, extends
its baneful influence to the younger and ingenuous student, before he
can possibly form a correct decision as to the doctrines that  are pro-
mulgated by his teachers; and by which he becomes bound in fetters,
from whose embrace he scarcely ever can effect an  escape.  This
particular chapter (ix. p. 1170,) is one of such importance to truth in
our researches, that  it is well deserving of general extension in our
medical  schools !—A chapter  of some interest (twelfth) is  given,
as to the means of exciting the expulsive powers to act.  In it, the
distention of the  uterus, bladder, &c, is considered, and a variety
of causes are stated, as  inducing abortion.  The same  channels, it
is said, are employed by nature, both for  attraction  and repulsion,
though  at different times;   thus, the oesophagus, in  swallowing
food, and in the  reverse case of nausea and vomiting; the gall-
bladder,  filled by regurgitation, and emptied by the  same duct.
The os uteri, regarded as the  passage by  which the  semen reaches
its destination, and that  of the expulsion of its foetal incumbrance.
   Several passages in this book, are strongly illustrative of Galen's
knowledge of a circulation, and of the strict and necessary com-
munion between the arteries and the veins  (see chap. xiii. p. 1180):
" Si enim multis  amplisque arteriis prascisis, jugulare per  eas ani-
mal velis; invenies ejus venas ceque  atque arterias vacuatas; quod
sane nunquam fieret, nisi inter se haberent altera in alteram ora re-
clL1Sa,"—and soon after, speaking of the pulmonary artery, he says
of the blood that passes into it, " manifestum est, quod in sinistrum
sinum  transmittitur."   The whole  chapter deserves transcribing;
and if translated,  would, with  numerous parts of his writings,
greatly surprise  the reader, to find  that  in almost every  part, the
wonderful  Greek had preceded, and pointed  out fully, the path,
which  has so incorrectly tended  to establish the undeserved claim
of Harvey to the discovery of  the circulation of the  blood !  whilst
the undoubted rights of Galen have  been trampled under foot, to
the disgrace of our profession, and  the false honour claimed  for
him by the British nation ! 
548
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
 XXII. GALENI,  DE MOTU MUSCULORUM, LIBRI DUO.

                      OF MUSCULAR MOTION.

                         IN TWO BOOKS.

                   N. LEONICENO, TRANSLATOR.

                          Bas. Ed. p. 1182.

   These two books on muscular motion  are, to say the least of
 them, equal  to any of  the lectures  delivered on the subject  to the
 London College, under the name of the Croonian Lecture.  Indeed,
 if we take into consideration the remote period at  which they were
 written, perhaps more praise might be claimed for Galen in their
 behalf.  Their general contents can alone be noticed.   They pre-
 sent a pretty full statement of every thing that is connected with the
 subject of which they treat.   Commencing with an  explanation of
 a  muscle  as the instrument of voluntary motion, it  considers the
 action, number, and mode of movement, with the difficulty of com-
 prehending it; its difference from tendon, ligament, nerve, &c.; ex-
 plains the  nature of these, their origin, connexion, &c.; notices the
 spinal marrow, and its difference from the marrow of the bones;
 the  communication  of the  brain  and  spinal  marrow  with  the
 muscles, through the medium of the nerves; and the  result of their
 division, or  injury from any cause, on motion and  sensation, &c.
 The extreme vascularity of the muscles is said to resemble a well-
 irrigated spot; this vascularity depends on its arteries and  veins,
 which, originating in the heart  and  liver, are widely distributed
 through the body of the muscle;—the difference of tendon from nerve
 and ligament; its mode of insertion in the bone; what muscles (as of
 the tongue) have no tendon ; the dissimilarity of the heart from the
 common muscles;  some  muscles, (as  of the mouth, &c.,) have no
 connexion with bone; the oesophagus, &c, the muscles of the rectum,
 the diaphragm, and olher parts, considered ; their peculiar actions, as
 distinct  from others accidental to them;—reference is made  to the
various peculiarities of muscles, and to their fourfold action, viz., of
 contraction, relaxation or extension, and variation as to these, or per-
manent  tension;  which leads to the consideration of  the  character 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                549

of swimming, flying, &c, and  to the nature of tetanus; reasons
assigned why, when a muscle is cut through, and it contracts most
powerfully, yet the part to which it is attached is not moved by it;
equality of power in opposite muscles, with remarks on Hippocrates'
writings respecting  the muscles.  In the second book, the high cha-
racter assigned by Galen  to the upper extremities, leads him  to a
minute detail as to the various muscles of those parts, and to some
views as to the exact character of the bones of the arm ; the motions
of extension  and flexion, of  pronation and supination, &c.;  of the
quiescence of muscles in sleep, drunkenness, fatigue, &c.; the  best
position for sleeping; sleeping whilst walking, of which he gives an
instance in his own  person; the almost constant tonic action  of the
temporal muscles; guardianship of the muscles of excretory organs
during sleep,  &c, except from some causes,  as inebriety, phrenitis,
&c.; and he  condemns those  who assert the  soul to be quiescent in
sleep, since they can feel, and speak, &c, yet all  their actions are
not natural.   Of voluntary, involuntary, and mixed motions;  singu-
lar case of delirium  during thirteen days, relieved and cured by a
sudden hemorrhage  from the nose, followed by sweat, and having no
recollection of his previous state. Galen's remarks thereon, and ana-
logous cases;—important character of muscles in relation to the re-
tention or expulsion of excrement; in the operations of respiration and
the voice, &c.; explanation of expiration and inspiration ; diaphragm
and other muscles subserving  respiration, &c.  Many other particu-
lars are noticed, which this scanty outline can scarcely afford a notice
of; yet  it is  probably, adequate to show the high estimate of the
subject in the mind of Galen; and that, although much is here un-
noticed, he himself has omitted  nothing, that directly, or by  impli-
cation, has connexion with it.


XXIII.  GALENI, DE  MOTU  THORACIS ET PULMONIS,
                      FRAGMENTUM.

           OF THE  MOTION OF THE THORAX AND LUNGS.

                         Bas. Ed. p. 1216.

  This short treatise, called a fragment, is stated to be found only
in  ancient translations, and is not in  the  Greek copies; does  not 
550                   THE WORKS OF GALEN.

constitute a part of the Venice editions. What is here given, is from
the Basil edition, but without the translator's name.   Its purpose is
to prove, that naturally, the lungs are devoid of motion, but depend
for it on the action of the thorax.  The want of connexion of the
lungs with the thorax, in which they are loosely suspended, is stated ;
and this is assigned as a principal cause of the  difficulty in afford-
ing an explanation; although it is certain,that no motion in them takes
place, unless simultaneously with that  of  the thorax.   Galen, how-
ever, if the  treatise  is his, endeavours manfully to meet the diffi-
culty, and solves the problem in a manner not very dissimilar from
that which is at present maintained, although perhaps not quite so
philosophically illustrated and expressed, (p. 1216.)  This great man
had not reached the absurdity of his successors in talking familiarly
of the  horror vacuce of nature; but confining himself to the simple
fact of water rising in a tube, if the air  be  drawn out of it, he
shows that the lungs, following the enlargement of the thorax, the
air passes down into them, and is expelled on its contraction; from
whence he  concludes that the thorax is the prime mover of the
lungs.  Now, as he  has elsewhere demonstrated the action of the
intercostals and diaphragm to be the cause of motion in the thorax,
so the chain of events is fully established  by him, if even we should
be disposed to disclaim his  hypothesis,  but which is  too closely
linked with his  data to be easily rejected.
   XXIV. GALENI,  QUOD ANIMI  MORES CORPORIS
             TEMPERATURAS  SEQUANTUR.


THAT THE QUALITIES OF THE  MIND DEPEND ON THE TEMPERAMENT OF
                           THE BODY.

                   B. SYLVANEUS, TRANSLATOR.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 1218.

  This  is a very interesting book at the  present period, from its
metaphysical and phrenological tendency in various  parts.  From
experience, not once or twice, but frequently, (scepius,)  he assures
us he had found it to be true, that the powers of the  mind (anima 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.               55I

facultates) are closely connected with the temperament (xpatfis) of
the body:  nor was this opinion confined to himself, but was sus-
tained by  teachers and  philosophers  after careful  inquiry.  The
affections  of  infancy  indicate great diversity both of  mind and
body in them: some are timid, some stupid, some generous, others
avaricious,—some are impudent  and others modest, with  many
other varieties.  Of  these  species he  notices three, as among the
most excellent faculties, according to Plato, and yet they appear to
act differently in different subjects; from whence Plato seems to have
imagined three  species or varieties of soul, located, the one in the
liver, another  in the heart, and a third in the brain.   On these de-
fects of Plato, in his consideration of the soul, Galen animadverts ;
as also on the opinions of Aristotle, the Stoics, and others as to the
substance  of  the  soul and its  immortality, who appear  to  have
ascribed  much  to certain qualities of heat,  cold,  humidity, and
dryness, &c,  and which leads Galen to ask if dryness is a cause of
prudence, and humidity of madness ; and  to inquire into the  peculiar
temperament of the body, the heart and  liver, and of other points
sustained by the philosophers.   The influence of the temperament
(jtpatfij) of the  body in inducing mental affections is considered, and
the  mind  is affirmed  to be  injured by bodily diseases,  such  as
vitiated humours, or a depraved state from any causes,—" Nemo
enim sponte malus est," (says he in the progress of his observa-
tions,  p. 1225,)  "sed ob  corporis pravum  habitum, rudemq: edu-
cationem fit malus."   Such even was  Plato's opinion, and it seems
to be  acceded to fully by Galen.   He agrees with  Aristotle, that
different faculties of the mind are influenced  by the temperament
of the blood ;  and that the character (animas temperatura) may be
learned from the physiognomy, as derived from the  forehead, eye-
brows, palpebras, eyes, and ears; and he proves from Hippocrates,
that a diversity of customs, studies,  and  arts, have their source in
the variety of climates and seasons.  The meaning of the  ancients
respecting the term vein  as applied  to arteries, is  adverted to, and
he explains that of the pulse, as distinctive of the arterial character,
and  how  used  by different  persons.   After  some metaphysical
enlargements  on  the subject of  virtue, he .considers seemingly the
questions of necessity  and free will, (p. 1233,) and of the attending
difficulties of each; also of  a threefold  cause of punishment, and
inculcates the suppression of vice, by education, study, and disci-
pline.  He wonders  at the Stoics for thinking all men to be born 
552                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

equally  disposed to virtue;  but  he admits that they become  per-
verted and depraved by their associations.  This, says he, could
not have been  the  case with the first man, who  had no prede-
cessors ; and he seems  thus to incline  to  the doctrine of original
sin; yet he lays  great  stress on discipline, diet,  and medicine, in
restraining  its consequences, which  he admits could scarcely be
depended on,  if  that doctrine,  (de infantium  corruptione) were
altogether true.
  I know not whether I have entirely succeeded in comprehending
his views;  but I am sure that phrenologists will here find abundant
matter for reflection as to that science,  as  well as  of physiognomy,
in the days of Galen; whilst the moralist  and  metaphysician  will
not be disappointed on the interesting topics of the origin of virtue
and of vice.
  XXV.  GALENI, DE  FCETUUM FORMATIONE LIBER.

                   OF THE FCETAL FORMATION.

                J. CORNARIO,  TRANSLATOR.

                          Bas. Ed., 1237.

  Galen  begins this book by stating, that from neglect of anatomi-
cal  research, both physicians  and philosophers had  erred  in their
doctrines, and differed from each other in their views of the foetal
formation, and had derived their opinions from an accidental abor-
tion.  He tells us that Hippocrates was the first who, founding his
remarks  on experience, wrote correctly on the subject.  Much of
what is here given, is necessarily speculative; yet not less probable
than the  hypotheses of the past and present times, on the mysterious
subject of generation, &c.  Galen proceeds to treat of the  vessels,
the  membranes, the urachus, and other parts; of the formation of
the  foetal skin;  of the formation and substance of the liver, which
he considers to be anterior to the heart;  of the  nourishment and
growth of the fcetus.  He  adverts to  the common application of
the  word vein by the  ancients, to both arteries and veins;  and he
assures us that in a fcetus of thirty days, the lirer, heart, and brain,
were distinctly  to be seen.  The dissection of  living animals  is 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.               553

 considered useful;  and the close and essential connexion of respi-
 ration with the motion of the heart, and with life, is particularly
 insisted  on.   The  sources by  which respiration  is  impeded are
 stated, such as suffocation from hanging, drowning,  inflammation of
 the fauces, &c, in  which  last may be discovered  many analogies
 to the circumstances of croup.   The extensive distribution of veins
 over  the  body; the mutual aid afforded by the brain, and heart,
 and liver; the importance of  which last viscus he  considers  as
 every where apparent.  On its account he deems  the urinary and
 gall-bladders to have been  made, and ingeniously speculates  on this
 point.  Explains the use of the double porta to the liver; speaks of
 the heart, its formation, and  its two ventricles; the  blood  in the
 left one being hotter than in the right; the inferior temperature of
 animals not  possessed of  red  blood.   Blood is  contained  in the
 arteries, though denied by Erasistratus; in many places expressions
 occur, that bear  apparently on  his views relative to a circulation,
 (p. 1243,  &c.)   This whole book  is full of interest, the latter part
 especially, wherein he speculates  on the  formative power  (causa
 formatrix—nisus  formativus of modern times)  of  the fcetus; the
 wisdom and art evinced in its construction, its numerous muscles
 and bones &c,—all tending to the infinite power and extent  of
 motion, and  of the ends  thereby  proposed  to  be  attained.  He
 notices, moreover, the beauty and  adaptation in the construction  of
 every other part;—the intentions  of each part, he says, would, if
 fully investigated, amount to thousands ; adequate, if properly appre-
 ciated,  alone, to  demonstrate  omnipotence  and infinite wisdom
 in its  construction ;  and he concludes with a remark that conveys
 a direct and  positive  assertion of  a circulation, if words have any
 meaning!  "Hoc  igitur solum de causa animalia ipsa formante,
 ut possibile me pronunciare  puto, nempe,  artem  et  sapientiam
 ipsam existere  maximam.   Quemadmodum  et hoc quod post for-
 mationem  corporis, ipsum universum  corpus per omnem  vitam
 tribus principiis motuum gubernetur; eo quod  ex cerebro est, per
 nervos  et  musculos;  quod ex corde,  per  arterias;   et quod  ex
 hepate,  per venas."   The remainder of the  book indicates the
 existing state of knowledge as to the soul; by which it  would
 appear,  that  materialism  and  immaterialism,  then, as now, had
their  respective  partisans; and it  may be safely  presumed that
the dogmas on this mysterious topic were equally  unsatisfactory,
as are those  of present  philosophers !   " Ex quibus  autem prin- 
554
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
cipiis hasc  fiant, hactenus non fui ausus palam confessa opinione
pronunciare, velut  in multis operibus  indicavi, et prassertim in eo
quo  de  animas speciebus  tracto, de animas substantia  nullatenus
sententiam  ferre confisus sum.   Neque enim  hactenus reperi ullum
aliquem, qui mathematicis et liniaribus  demonstrationibus uteretur
ad adstruendum, num  omnino incorporea  sit anima,  aut corporea,
aut prorsus sempiterna, aut corruptilis et interitura, quemadmodum
in  tractationede animas speciebus explicavi."—I cannot help adding
a few words,  when he is  noticing the order of the progressive
formation of the fcetus from the seminal fluid, as first calling into
play the vessels which  go to form  the  viscera, of which the heart
and liver may  be regarded  as the foundation of the house, or keel
of the ship, and as preparatory to  its  immediate connexion with
the uterus, and progressing  in addition  and increase of parts:
" Nequaquam igitur abaliorum opificio natura animalium formatrix
desistet, sed et  venas  et arterias semperfindens ad adnascendum
his alia viscera propellet, quemadmodum et hepar et cor  adnasci
dictum est, una cum hoc quod et figuram decentem, et positionem,
et  quascunque alia  hujusmodi  partes habere convenit, debito modo
operatur."
        XXVI.  GALENI  DE SEMINE,  LIBRI DUO.

                 OF THE SEMEN, IN TWO BOOKS.

                   J. CORNARIO, TRANSLATOR.

                          Bas. Ed. 1255.

  These books, speculative  in a high degree, are yet of great inte-
rest, both anatomically and  physiologically,  and which it would  be
impossible fully to elucidate in the short compass assigned to this ab-
stract.   They contain the opinions of his predecessors, Hippocrates,
Aristotle, and others, which he combats or maintains, as they agree
with his own.   The inquiring  and independent mind  of Galen, is
perhaps no where so well depicted  as by himself, in the very com-
mencement of the book,  in the  consideration of the question, " num
intus maneat semen eis quas sunt concepturas, an excernatur?"  In
replying to this, he tells us the  investigation  of it may be effected in 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.               555

three ways:—first, and most certainly, by a measure which he says
he often had pursued with respect to mares, dogs, asses, cows, goats,
and sheep; this was by observing, whether after coition, they retained,
or discharged the  semen.  He was told by those well skilled in these
affairs (ejusmodi rerum peritis), that  they had carefully remarked
that  when conception was to ensue, the semen was always retained.
But, says Galen, " although  I confess  the fault, and  may be repre-
hended for it, for throughout my  life I have  adhered to it, I never
confided in what others said, unless I  was satisfied of the same by
my own experience, so far as it was in my power." Hence, although
in the above case, all  seemed  uniformly to agree,  yet he was not
satisfied until, with his usual incredulity, he  had himself made the
experiment, and  thereby was convinced  of the truth.—Another
mode, was by close inquiry of females, and his  curiosity was am-
ply satisfied, as to  the fact being the same with them as with brutes.
The third mode was by consulting the works of all who had written
on the subject, and the same opinion  was sustained  by them.
  The progress of fcetation is followed up, and he sustains the idea of
the female seed, whose conjunction with that of the male, is essential
to the formation of the fcetus, but which idea seems to have  been
pretty sharply contested.   An explanation of the formation of its dif-
ferent parts is attempted, fully equal to any of present notoriety.  His
chief stress seems to be that of explaining  the formation of the
heart, the liver, biain, spinal  marrow, aorta, and vena  cava; and
he speaks of four periods in the foetal progress, viz., 1, as a  semi-
formal matter; 2, a fleshy-form;  3, the distinctive  though obscure
formation of the limbs; and, 4, their full perfection.  In each of these
periods, the rise of parts is respectively noticed ; as ossification, pelli-
cular covering, &c, and some views are given as to the origin of the
semen from the blood.  The testes and convolution of their vessels ;
the results of castration,  and various other  particulars  are noticed
in order; with the  influence  of the semen on the  animal economy.
  In the second book, he treats  more particularly of the female
testes: and opposition is made to some opinions of preceding writers.
In insisting on the existence of a  female seed, and  speculating on
the resemblance of children  to their parents, he lays much stress on
this,  and affirms that unless  possessed of testes and  a seminal fluid,
the venereal appetite would not be excited in females;  he proposes
sundry difficult  questions, as requiring an answer from those main-
taining an opposite opinion; refers to the eggs laid sometimes by 
556                   TIIE WORKS OF GALEN.

hens, and those of fish, without the male co-operation;—the similitude
of sex, is also mentioned, in a curious and interesting display of the
general difference between the outline and appearance  of the male
and female, among all classes of animals; by which they are at once
discriminated, even at  a distance, and before observing the more
immediately distinctive criteria of the genital organs; and that even
when  they materially differ among themselves.—The  semen being
supposed by many to be derived  from every part of the  body, it
would seem that it was imagined that the different parts in  concep-
tion, were constituted from that part of the semen derived from its
counterpart;  and hence, that the parts peculiar to either sex were
derived from  that  alone to which it belonged.   A comparison is
drawn between  the sexual organs, and they are presumed to be
nearly the same in both, differing chiefly in the location assigned to
them  by  nature, viz., externally in the,male, and internally in  the
female sex: their nourishment from the same arteries  and  veins, is
insisted on, and the similar origin  of their nerves.—The variety of
operation, in the works of nature as displayed in  animal life, is well
delineated.   The above is perhaps sufficient to excite to a desire of
further investigation of the treatise at large;  and it well  deserves
it.  Galen must always be his own and best commentator, for it is
uniformly seen (and here particularly,) that although  his opinions
were  the predominant doctrines for so many centuries, yet that he
never depended on those of others, when able to verify them him-
self,—asserting in the seventh aphorism of the sixth Epidemics, that
it is a tyranny for any person being constrained  to accede  to any
opinion, without the  clearest demonstration of its truth ;—and  the
same  is repeated in the seventeenth aphorism  of  the same  book.


 XXVII. AN OMNES PARTICULjE ANIMALIS  QUOD IN
               UTERO EST, SIMUL FIUNT.

    WHETHER ALL THE  PARTS OF AN ANIMAL ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY
                        CONSTITUTED ?

                    REGIO, TRANSLATOR.

                         Bas. Ed. p. 1303.

  This book,  consisting of a  single chapter, is  said not to be in the 
                   PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY, ETC.                557

 Greek copy.  Be it as it may, it is a curious little essay, that in the
 subject-matter has frequently been  discussed  since the  time of
 Galen, and yet probably not more accurately, or with greater inte-
 rest.  It is simply an inquiry whether all the parts in the foetal state
 are  formed  conjointly, or  in due  succession.1  The  conclusion
 adopted by Galen is, that they are not all constituted at  its first for-
 mation, for  the best reason, that nature does not want them; but
 that as she does nothing in vain, so she goes on  progressively with
 her  charge;  and,  as  the  architect, in building a house or  ship,
 begins with the foundation or  keel, and  makes his  additions as the
 various parts are required, so does nature call up the organs to com-
 plete the whole, in the direct order in which they are necessary.


  XXVIII.  AN ANIMAL SIT  ID,  QUOD  IN UTERO EST.

          IF WHAT IS FORMED IN THE WOMB, IS AN ANIMAL.

                      H. LIMAN, TRANSLATOR.

                           Bas. Ed. 1304.

   This is stated as being falsely attributed  to Galen, and to be the
 production of some " Iatrophist."  For the reasons  assigned, this
 may probably be the case;  and  yet, as affording  us  acquaintance
 with many speculative notions of the philosophers of Rome, it may
 be esteemed a choice morsel of curious inquiry, of which much may
 be said on both sides.   It is unnecessary to dwell upon it here; the
 nature of the  inquiry is explained by the title.  I shall merely add,
 that the writer, whoever he  be, seems to think the object  in question
 is an animal, and that  it is possessed of a soul and of reason; main-
 taining his opinions promptly, forcibly, and  with apparent good faith.
 He terminates the book with  the following apostrophe to the fcetus
 itself, which  the  translator treats as  ridiculous;—whether meant
 so by the writer,  is problematical!  " Sed jam  ad  fcetum  ipsum,
 tanquam animal id, ut  nihil ipsi quo minus homo sit, desit, formatum,

  * " Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book were all
my members written;
  "Which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."—Psalms
cxx.iix. 15, 16. 
558                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

nostra  vertatur oratio.  Prodite quasso e sinibus nihil timentes 6
foetus,  neque generis demissionem, neque charissimos  alienatos,
neque opes auferendas.  Non vos multorum calumnia, atque horum
qui naturam ipsam injuria afficiunt, excludit malignitas; qua propter
eos pcena vos afficietis, ut  Pericles,  ut  Pisistratus, ut Paris, illeque
Macedon Alexander, atque Hercules."


   XXIX.  GALENI, DE  SEPTIMESTRI  PARTU,  LIBER.

                 OF THE SEVENTH-MONTH BIRTH.

                   J. CORNARIO, TRANSLATOR.

   Much interest will be felt in this short treatise;—the subject of it
is  not  less important now than formerly.  Agreeing with Hippo-
crates, Galen  points  out  the common, minimum, and maximum
number of days that  go to constitute  a seventh-month  birth.  A
computation of the Greek  months is given, and  calculations as to
the days and division of the year.  The years  are all  equal, but
considerable  variation  appears in the  months  and  hours.  One
hundred and eighty-two days  is the period assigned to a seven-
month  birth, with some  slight variation.  Perhaps, under  some cir-
cumstances of a medico-legal investigation, embracing this subject,
reference might be usefully had to this treatise.
  This terminates the prima  classis of Galen's division.  The fol-
lowing is of scarcely inferior  interest, but will not occupy so large
a space. 
CLASS   II.
HYGIENE.
  This class appears to treat principally of the so-called non-natu-
rals.  The Venice (eighth) edition thus mentions it in the title page :
"Materiam  sanitatis  conservatricem  tradit;  quas circa  aerem,
cibum et potum, somnum  et vigiliam, motum et quietem, inaniti-
onem et repletionem, animi denique affectus versatur."
      INDEX OF THE VARIOUS BOOKS OF THIS SECOND CLASS.

                                                   TRANSLATOR.
 1. Galeni Hippocratis, aere, aquis, et locis libellus.  J. Cornario.
 2.       de Alimentorum facultatibus libri tres.  - M. Gregorio.
 3.       de cibis boni et mali succi liber.  -  -  - F. Balamio.
 4.       In librum de salubri diasta Commentarius. H. Cruserius.
 5.       de attenuante diasta liber......M. Gregorio.
 6.       de Ptisana liber.........J. Politic
 7.       de parvas pilas exercitio liber.  -  -  -  - J. Cornario.
 8.       de cognoscendis curandisque  animi mor-
            bis, quas perturbationes Latini  appel-
            lant, liber primus........B. Donato.
 9.       de cujusque animi peccatorum notitia  at-
            que medela,  liber secundus.  -  -  - J. P. Crassus.
10.       de Assuetudinibus liber.......N. Regio.
11.       de sanitate tuenda, libri sex.   -  -  -  - T. Linacre.
12.       Ars tuendas sanitatis num ad medicinalem
            artem spectet,  an  ad  exercitoriam,
            liber........-  -  -  - J. P. Crassus. 
560
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
  I. GALENI, IN HIPPOCRATEM  DE AERE, AQUIS, ET
                           LOCIS.

    THREE COMMENTARIES ON THE TREATISE OF AIR, WATERS, AND
                    LOCALITY, OF HIPPOCRATES.

                        Bas. Ed. tom. ii. p. 6.

   The Basil edition (1549), contains  merely the translation into
Latin, of  the  Greek text of this  work of Hippocrates.   That of
Venice, (8th,  1609,)  has three  commentaries  of Galen  thereon,
translated by M. Alatinus, a Jewish physician, which  supplies the
want  of  the Basil edition, and which   it acknowledges by saying,
" Galeni  commentaria  desiderantur."   Having, however,  pursued
the order of arrangement in the edition of Basil, I have not adverted
to these commentaries, farther than to notice where they may be
found; and especially as I have in the abstract of Hippocrates'writ-
ings given the translation of this book of his.  I  merely  remark,
that the first commentary is on the part that treats of the variation
of the air, and  diversity of situations, arising from the direction of
the winds in different places; the second treats of  the waters, their
nature, and influence on the  temperaments in different bodies, and
according to their respective character; and  the third, the salubrity
or insalubrity of different seasons; and how the temperies of the air
and condition  of the  heavens  influence the nature of the human
body; and how it is affected  by the influence of  society, according
to age,  sex, temperament, and season, &c. A  variety  of other
topics are incidentally treated of, some  of which  are of a singular
character, connected with the Scythians and their habits of life, &c. 
HYGIENE.
561
  II. GALENI, DE ALIMENTORUM FACULTATIBUS,
                      LIBRI  TRES.

           OF THE FACULTIES OR POWERS OF ALIMENTS.

                      IN THREE BOOKS.

                         Bas. Ed. p. 22.


                         BOOK  I.

  We are told that many  ancient writers had treated on the power
of aliment, but differed so greatly among themselves, that a new
work on the subject was demanded, founded on reason and experi-
ence, rather than on apparent demonstration, the great dependence
of Empiricism ; and  the opinions of  many are freely investigated
and criticised.   The  different effects, and facility of digesting the
same kind of food by different persons, are adverted to.  In succes-
sive chapters, we are presented with an account of numerous articles
of food, viz., that of wheat, and the various forms of food prepared
from it;  barley and its  preparations; oats, which  is said (previous
to Dr. Johnson)  to be the  food (jumentorum) of cattle, and  not of
man, except  in  cases  of extreme  hunger;  millet,  rice, beans,
vetches,  lupins, and many other articles, among which the seed of
the poppy is enumerated, as well as flaxseed and hempseed.


                        BOOK  II.

  In no less than seventy-one chapters,  we here find  enumerated
almost every kind of fruit, whether  derived from  trees or plants,
of the orchard, garden, &c, that is at present known; and also
vegetables of every description, there appears to have been no want
of choice.  Lettuce, among other  modes in  use, appears to have
been boiled, which, says Galen, " ego nunc, ex quo dentis mihi male
habent ccepi facere."—There seems to have been a dispute as to the
correct  mode of spelling  asparagus, whether  so, or asphargus!   I
                             36 
562                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

write it in  the former way, (adds Galen,) with those, whose  busi-
ness is to attend to health, and not to words.  The danger of some
of the fungi, is noticed.


                        BOOK III.

  Animal food is  considered  in  this book, and various articles
derived from them, as eggs, milk,  cheese, butter, blood, honey, &c.
One chapter is devoted to wine.   The animals  mentioned, are the
hog, the ox, &c. The flesh of hogs so much resembles that of man,
that, independently of dogs eating  the last without suspicion, it was
sometimes served up by dishonest tavern-keepers.  Castrated animals
most appropriate.  General rules are delivered; the female ass and
the mare were employed as food.   We are then presented with the
particular parts employed, among  which are enumerated the udder,
the thymus gland, the testes, which are considered inferior to the
teats or udders, especially when these last contain milk,—-the testes
of the bull, goat, and ram, seem,  however, to have been too much
even for a Roman stomach ;—the brain, the liver, spleen, lungs, &c,
stomach, uterus,* and intestines.   We have a catalogue of animals,
&c, derived from the fields, woods, waters, air, &c.  Milk and  its
various preparations; asses' milk.  A great variety of fish is men-
tioned; shell-fish, cartilaginous, scaly, and  others.   Salt provisions.
We have, in short, in these books, a Materia Alimentaria; consist-
ing chiefly, as may be presumed, of the facts of the day ; and which,
devoid of the remarks of Galen,  are not very interesting; yet, as
affording a table of contents for the feasts of the Romans, they are
not undeserving of attention.


 III. GALENI, DE CIBIS BONI ET MALI SUCCI, LIBER.

              OF THE  GOOD OR BAD JUICES OF FOOD.

                          Bas. Ed. p. 6.

  This book will to many appear  among the most interesting of the
writings of Galen.  Its intention seems to be chiefly that of pointing
* "Nil melius turdo, nil vulva pulchrius ampla."—Hor. 
                           HYGIENE.                        563

out the measures by which good and bad or vitiated humours are pro-
duced ; in other words, how the system may be supplied with the
former, and avoid the latter.   In  admitting a vitiated  state of the
humours, the claim of Galen stands pre-eminent, although the doc-
trine extends to the  earliest records of our profession.  We shall
readily perceive, however, that, although the medical men during a
long series  of  centuries,  too slavishly adopted all  his views, and
considered any departure from them as heretical; yet he himself
was the slave of no man,  nor«of any hypothesis of  whose truth he
was not fully satisfied; and in vindication of which  he was always
ready to give an answer to all of the faith that was in him; which
is more than the majority of our  medical  partisans can now do 1
Galen, rising above  the prejudices of  a single sect, was  truly an
Eclectic ; and, like the bee, quaffed honey from every flower ; sepa-
rating the dross from the ore, he adapted what he thus collected, in
its state of  refinement, to his own especial  views  and sentiments.
Hence we find  him an enlightened  Solidist, in conjunction with the
Humoralist; at least  I think this is truly the case; for it is under the
banner of this great man, that I have uniformly attempted to oppose
the paltry and contracted views of either, when exclusively promul-
gated in our schools!
  The chief interest  of this book, nevertheless, arises in my opinion
from other sources;  the first of which  is, the account it affords us
of a mighty famine  and  plague  in Rome,  (or  rather  extended
throughout the  world,) and continuing  for several years.   The re-
currence, from  extreme necessity, to unwholesome plants and herbs,
soon vitiated the fluids, and disposed the system to numerous  dis-
eases;  such  as  various affections of the skin, ulcers, erysipelas,
phlegmon, herpes, itch, and lepra, and others, accompanied with
fever, affecting  the intestines, &c,  with  dysentery, inflammation of
the viscera  and bladder, &c, and up to malignant  diseases of the
highest grade, with all their accompanying and frightful symptoms.
In the beginning of these,  some physicians bled their patients,  and
the blood, he tells us, was always bad, of a deeper and darker  hue
than natural, more watery and  acrimonious, and the incision heal-
ing with difficulty. Many, it appears, died from eating some of the
fungi, cicuta, and other noxious plants.  After some further remarks,
all tending to elucidate the  mode by  which the fluids may become
affected from the diet employed, he gives a detail of his own mode
of living, and of the  state of his health from childhood under the 
564
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
dietetic precepts of his father, whose knowledge and learning, and
infinite virtues, he most piously commemorates.  When, however,
he reached the state of adolescence, and pursued his studies apart
from his parent^ with extreme assiduity both day and night, even in
the dog-days, he largely lived on vegetables or fruit, and in conse-
quence was attacked with an acute autumnal fever, for which  he
was bled.   Changing this mode of  living  by his father's advice, he
escaped the following (his nineteenth) year; but  his father then
dying, he pursued his previous mode of life, and had a return of his
former complaint, which, annually, or  every second  year, attacked
him until his twenty-eighth  year, when he became apprehensive of
an  abscess in the  liver at  its connexion  with the diaphragm, and
discontinued all the fruits but grapes and figs, and finally overcame
his complaint, and enjoyed for many years exemption from disease.
He tells us he dwelt on these particulars, (and some others detailed,)
from their having some connexion with the subject before him.  It
is unnecessary to detail the particulars of this book, which is, indeed,
much of a like nature with the preceding; or, perhaps, rather a
kind of commentary  on every variety of food, both  general  and
particular.  There is, however, sufficient  difference to render it of
interest, even should the reader not coincide in all the premises of
the illustrious writer.   I shall only notice  that the use of woman's
milk in phthisis is particularly commended, and especially by actual
suction of the female,  as directed by Herodotus and others.  A good
deal is said respecting wines, in some  of the last chapters; the cele-
brated Falernian seems  to have been a  sweet wine.  Snow was
much used in cooling  wines and other liquids.  He  terminates the
book  by a  list of many diseases that are induced by  the influence of
vitiated humours.
 IV.  GALENI, IN  HIPPOCRATIS LIBRUM  DE SALUBRI
                DLETA, COMMENTARIUS.

     COMMENTARY ON HIPPOCRATES' BOOK OF A HEALTHY DIET.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 151.

  Here, under several heads, to  which as texts his  commentaries
are appended, Galen affords information, both for public and pri- 
                           HYGIENE.                       _P_
                                                          565
vate life, of the appropriate diet, as  connected with the variations
arising from season, habits, age, sex, &c, and  in which much  of
a useful character is to be found.  It cannot, however, be readily
abridged, and  little is  here noticed.   Vomiting during the winter
months is commended, and much is  said on the subject, which at
the present  period will not be approved of:—the treatise is deservedly
suspected, says Galen; some even regarding it  as  not  being the
production  of Polybius,  much  less  of Hippocrates.   With°such
impressions, it may be  considered extraordinary that Galen should
have taken the trouble  to comment on it.   Many remarks  by him,
are, however,  of importance.

   V. GALENI,  DE ATTENUANTE  VICTUS RATIONE
                           LIBER.

           OF THE RATIONALE OF AN ATTENUATED DIET.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 166.

   The utility of an attenuating diet in  the cure of many diseases,
or at least  in  mitigating them, is here  attempted to be explained ;
and different kinds and preparations of food, are here pointed out,
by which the humours  may be kept in a healthy state, and disease
obviated  or removed;  as in  cases  of gout, dyspnoea,  enlarged
spleen, and  scirrhous  liver; and it is  on the whole, deserving  of
attention in many cases of chronic  affection.  What  proves at-
tenuant, is partly learned from experience, and in part from reason.
Many articles are here  enumerated.   Poppy-seed,  appears  to
have been not  an  uncommon admixture to their bread and cakes.
The soporiferous  property of the seed of lettuce is noticed.   The
book is  in  fact, closely associated with those preceding it.  Con-
diments and salted food are noticed,  and wine  and honey are not
omitted.
          VI. GALENI,  DE PTISANA LIBER.

             ON THE PTISAN, OR BARLEY-WATER.

                       Bas. Ed., p. 181.

This book may in  general be regarded as  a treatise on barley- 
 566                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

 water,a—and  as  this is by no means an unimportant article in the
 sick-room, it  is  not  undeserving  of attention.  So much  was it
 regarded in  Roman  practice, that Broussais is but a mere  distant
 follower in their ranks.  The  ptisan was  not  used merely as a
 drink, as commonly imagined; it formed a part of their more solid
 nutriment.   There appears to have existed a difference of opinion
 as to the superiority of the whole, or of the shelled  (pearl) barley ;
 the latter of which Galen  seems to favour.  Of its mode of prepa-
 ration, of different strength to suit different  circumstances;  it was
 prescribed  with strict attention as to time and  quantity ;  and par-
 ticular circumstances are referred to, which precluded its use.


  VII. GALENI, DE EXERCITIO  PER PARVAM  PILAM.

               OF THE GAME OF FIVES, OR TENNIS.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 187.

  This book is connected with gymnastics;  and the game treated
of, which seems  equivalent to our  game of fives, would appear to
have been a favourite with Galen ; and he recommends it as supe-
rior  in many particulars to  various other gymnastic exercises, in
which more danger  of injury exists.  Many of them, too, are ex-
pensive, and require much time ;—this is prompt, and unexpensive?
requiring but trifling apparatus, and only a moment's  warning; and
in extent it may be pursued to each one's content.   It is, moreover,
useful in  the  exertion of every  part, whilst in other games, some
parts are unemployed, and others overpowered with  labour.  The
eyes and judgment are called into operation,—and other excellences
are detailed, accompanied  by a  corresponding display of the  incon-
veniences and hazards of various other  games and exercises; and
hence he concludes that this game is preferable to all others, and more
especially as being adapted to every age, and to the  weak as well  as
to the strong;  it   is devoid of danger, which is  so  common  in the
other gymnastic  games and  exercises.   It is well deserving of the
attention of physicians, who  are often puzzled to direct aright the
exercises of the convalescent state.
* Ptisana—a decoction of pearl barley, raisins, and liquorice. 
HYGIENE.
567
VIII.  GALENI,  LIBELLUS DE  COGNOSCENDIS CURAN-
  DISQUE  ANIMI  MORBIS,  QUAS  PERTURBATIONES
  LATINI APPELLANT.

       OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND CURE OF MENTAL AFFECTIONS.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 194.

  This book  is stated  to point out,  how every one may become
acquainted with and cure the  affections of the mind;  and that it
was composed in favour of a friend,  who had asked the opinion of
Galen respecting  a book of Antonius, an  Epicurean,  having  the
title of «* De Ephidria, propriorum affectuum,"—and in which the
word ephidria, or  subsidium,' was not  sufficiently explicit as to the
meaning he intended to give it; a fault, he remarks, that was com-
mon to all his writings.  Pursuing this train, in a kind of preface
to the  book,  Galen tells his  friend  that many philosophers had
written on the treatment of mental diseases, as Chrysippus, Aristotle,
and Plato; and he remarks,  that  faults,  and affections,  though
differing from one another, may yet  be regarded  under the com-
mon name of faults (peccata);  adding, that although reference
might be better made to the  above  authorities, yet, that in behalf
of a friend, he was induced to take the subject in hand.
  Entering on the subject, he  tell us, that all commit faults even
when  they think themselves free from them ; and  he  praises  the
saying of iEsop, that all men wear two cloaks, by means of which
our own faults are concealed from view, whilst we readily see  the
faults of others; and he dwells on the  extreme blindness exhibited
to our own faults respectively,—whilst so ready to point out to
others those which they possess.  The whole book is one of morals,
and well deserves  attention; the emotions and passions of the mind
are noticed, and their excess denounced; and a knowledge of one-
self, as far as possible, is strongly recommended.  He states  the
absurdities in  which, in youth, his anger plunged him, and his suc-
cessful endeavours  to amend, which gradually improved.   He re-
lates the effects of anger which he had  seen, one  of which was of
the  Emperor  Adrian,  and gives  some  rules against the  passions.
1 Subsidium—aid, or help. 
568                     THE WORKS OF GALEN.

He compares the passion of anger,  to the horse and dog; and con-
cupiscence, intemperance, and lust,  to the boar  and goat; accom-
panying all  his  views with many  sensible observations, praising
temperance in all things ;  he speaks of contention, ambition, envy,
&c, of the faults and depravities of youth, even by nature  as well
as from education, and the various ways in which exhibited; some
are naturally quarrelsome,  thieves,  gluttons, liars, &c,—and they
differ in manners as well as in diseases, in  their grades of modesty
and decorum, of memory, prompt to learn, or idleness, &c ;  and he
dwells on the importance of  a correct education, which is  analo-
gous to the culture of plants, yet not always able to overcome evils
of early establishment.
   In the course of this book he  gives an account of his excellent father,
as being " ab omni iracundia alienum, justissimum, humanissimum ;"
but his poor mother, like another Xantippe, must have sorely tried
this good man's patience; for she was, says Galen, " adeo iracundam,
ut etiam morderet interdum ancillas,  semper autem et vociferantur
et contenderet cum patre, et longe quidem odiosius quam  Xanthippe
ilia cum Socrate."   This extreme diversity in  his  parents appears
to have had a powerful  influence on his young mind, seeing  that
under no circumstances was the equanimity of the father disturbed,
whilst his mother was constantly suffering from the veriest trifle.
At fourteen years of age he began  to attend  on the lessons of some
of the philosophers, Stoics, and Platonists, and others ; and he states
his father's causing him also to pay attention to geometry, arithmetic,
architecture, and astronomy, with which  he himself was well  ac-
quainted; and his beneficial advice against becoming the  slave of
any sect: the advice is so beautifully  exhibited, that I am compelled
to give it in the  words of Galen, (p. 210 et seq.)a

   ■ " Ideirco inquit, oportet in tuis istis honestatis sapientiseque praeceptis, ne  mini-
mam ne quidam discrepantiam inveniri, qua ipsa a se ipsis discordent: quemadmo-
dum veteres quoque omnes in hisce artibus servavere, quarum geometria, arithmetica-
que principem obtinet locum.  Ut igitur non procacem aut prsecipitem esse oportet, ut
teipsum ab aliqua secta denomines, sed longissimi temporis spatio et discere illas, et
de Mis ferre judicium, sic omnes hominus comprobant, confitenturque etiam philosophi,
magno studio quserenda esse hsec: quare  nunc jam tibi  ea  sunt petenda gemulatione
quadam, et discenda, et digna quae a te augeantur existimanda, ut et justitiam, et modes-
tiam, et animi magnitudenem, et prudentiam ex illis conseqnare.  Laudant enim has
virtutes cuncti, tametsi sibi ipsis conscii sunt, nullam se habere: dant etiam operand
pro viribus ut aliis videantur el fortes et modesti, et justi et prudentes: unum illud
est quod et si aliis non videantur, tamen revera esse ipsi magno studio contendunt ut 
HYGIENE.
                                                           569
  Now, says Galen, " I say, that the precepts I received from my
father, I have, to this day, carefully followed; nor have I as yet al-
lowed myself to be called by any sect, which I have  studied with
all diligence; unmoved by the various and daily changes in life, I
renrain as my father recommended, esteeming of little importance,
honour, wealth, or fame." The whole of this part deserves publicity ;
but I am precluded  from further quotation.   He proceeds to paint
the folly of an insatiable desire for riches, and the happiness of mo-
deration and content; the former, if possessed beyond due bounds,
tends to many vices, such as avarice,  &c, and with  much  useful
truth, the book closes.
   IX.  GALENI, DE CUJUSQUE ANIMI  PECCATORUM
     NOTITIA  ATQUE MEDELA, LIBER SECUNDUS.

 OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND CURE OF MENTAL AFFECTIONS: BOOK SECOND.

                          Bas. Ed. p. 219.

   This book is,  to all appearance, a continuation of  the preceding;
 and it is called the second book, in the Basil edition; but in that of
 Venice, it is styled, libellus.  If the  former is deserving of notice, not
 less so is this; it is equally interesting and instructive, and that in many
 particulars, which the titles  would scarcely lead us to expect; thus,
 in one of the chapters the subject  of the clepsydra or water-clock,
 by which time was counted, is introduced, in order to demonstrate
 some of the positions assumed  in  this moral and ingenious  tract;
 and he is to be pitied  who can peruse it without benefit, even though
 not absolutely connected with the  subject of  medicine, to the same
 extent as are most of Galen's  other writings.   In  the preceding
 book, affections  of the mind  are  principally considered ; in  this, the
 faults or  vices of the mind  are taken  up,  and it is attempted  to
 show how contrary they are both  to judgment and to reason.   In
 the first chapter  we have the painful intelligence that, "multodesunt
 in codice graco /"  Some distinction is  drawn between faults and
 errors; and a state of doubt in  regard to this, is placed by many,
 we are told, between  virtue  and vice; a good deal of the reasoning
racerori8 videlicet omnis ac tristitise expertes sint;  quare huic a te  rei in primis stu-
dendum est, cui omnes utique homines student, praBque omnibus aliis virtutibus unum
hoe quaerendum." 
570                  THE VVORKS OF GALEN.

in this  book is deduced from the views taken of certain sciences,
as geometry, arithmetic, architecture,  &c, on  which much  useful
remark  is  bestowed.   The  errors  arising  from sectarian  adhe-
sion, or of hearing only one side of  a  question  in philosophy or
science, are pointed out, and reprobated; the contentions existing
at that  time on some of  these, are stated, as on  the  subject of
a vacuum,  &c, the importance of  demonstration,—yet liable to
error, from haste and precipitation ; which  are  always  to  be
guarded against, and  which he had  sedulously adhered to, from
youth upwards.  The ready credence in the assertions of others,
without duly weighing or  investigating the  subject, is  a frequent
source of error, and regret;  this arises frequently, from an unhappy
propensity to see more than others, and  to  attain it sooner; lead-
ing thus to  ignorance rather than to truth and knowledge.   Some
philosophers both teach and  dispute  rashly, and without demonstra-
tion.  Most men  are ignorant in respect to subjects, doubtful or
obscure; whilst our ("doxosophi,")  wiseacres, are only ignorant of
those that are  manifest.   The disputes  of the Stoics  and Epicu-
reans on a vacuum, both between themselves, and against the Peri-
patetics, are noticed, and ended, he  tells us, in mere probabilities;
whilst  they insisted on their being  absolute demonstrations.  We
may remark that  he  makes  an  allusion  to the  squaring of the
circle in one of his chapters  (p. 222).


        X.  GALENI, DE  CONSUETUDINE  LIBER.

                      OF  HABIT OR CUSTOM.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 235.

  The force or power of habit on the body  in various particulars,
both of  food, and exercise of  body  and  mind, is strongly set forth
in this book;  and it is declared to  constitute a curative indication
of high  importance; at the  same time that  other indications may
not be neglected !  The testimony of Hippocrates and Erasistratus
in relation to the power of habit was confirmed by most physicians.
The habits relating to food, drinks,  &c, are noticed.   Concoction
or digestion,—how, and what; diversity of power in different per-
sons, for the  same food,  &c.;  the variety of food  required  by 
                            HYGIENE.                        571

 different animals according to their genus, &c.  The difference of
 food in respect to its taste, and the fluids that are  prepared  from
 them.  The power of habit, from external  causes, as changes in
 the air; how  influenced; from  heat and cold,  &c,—exercise of
 body, and of mind ; Hippocrates' opinion as  to this ; moderation in
 both commended.   Evacuations  from  the body,  habitual;   not,
 however, so essential from habit,  but  from the necessity of pre-
 venting  the accumulation of noxious  matters.    Some remarks
 incidentally introduced on the plans of education  are then pursued.


         XI. GALENI, DE SANITATE, LIBRI  SEX.

                 OF THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH.

                        IN SIX BOOKS.
                           Bas. Ed., p. 246.

   To detail the full intentions of these six books, would be impossible
 in the limits  to which I am restricted.   The head or  argument of
 each book, will  show its importance, and  demonstrate that  the
 whole series  is deserving of the attention of medical men.


                           BOOK I.

   This book  purports to point  out  the reasons for  striving to  pre-
 serve the  health, even up to  old  age.   This constitutes an  art,
 consisting chiefly of two parts,  the one in the preserving of health,
 the other in opposing the powers  of disease.  The various circum-
 stances by  which life is sustained are adverted to, as air, and food,
 on which the author dwells, more especially from birth to the seventh
 year; giving many  important directions, both as to nursing  and
 subsequent  education ; strongly  prohibiting the use of wine,  and
 enforcing that of water.  He continues his remarks on education
 during the second and  third septenary, and in  its connexion with
 health;  adverts to  the regularity of  the  discharges,  as  affording
 much to the healthy state of the  organs which are  employed for
 the purpose; the causes of retention  of such discharges are noticed,
and  the  means to be  used to  rectify the  same.  Health, we  are
told, is to be  judged of by the natural functions; and he defines 
572                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

health as consisting in that state of the constitution, wherein all its
functions are  freely performed  without  any pain  or  uneasiness.
Milk, music, and  motion are the three means or remedies in child-
hood.  The various exercises  of body and mind  most appropriate
at different ages.   Pure water, and air, their respective signs.


                         BOOK II.

   Here, we have  pointed out the different  modes  and powers of
exercise, friction, &c, including gymnastics.  Nine kinds or varie-
ties of friction, under three heads, of dura, mollis, mediocris; each
of which is divided into pauca, multa, mediocris; with some signi-
fications of names employed. Frictions are employed as a remedy,
or to preserve the body in a healthy state, or as preparatory to
gymnastic exercises, and are therefore capable of much modifica-
tion;  and they will depend also on different circumstances, as to
region, locality of the gymnasium, and the period  of the year, or
time of day in which employed;  the various  gymnastic  kinds of
exercise are explained,  their powers and use.   Muscular  motion,
per se, or indirectly ; voluntary or involuntary; of the motion of
the heart and arteries, &c, and its perpetual necessity;  the  variety
of that of the pulse, and its causes.  Motion from external sources,
as from medicine, equitation;  regulation  of exercise to the state of
the system, moderation in.   General remarks  and conclusion of
the book, which seems  to be  intended to apply to the third septe-
nary of life, viz., from fourteen to twenty-one, as the first  was
connected with the period from birth to fourteen years.


                         BOOK III.

   A brief recapitulation of the two preceding books, followed  by a
continuation of the subject of exercise, especially of that of the gym-
nasium, the scope or intent of which is pointed out.   The measures
to be pursued in  order to  remove the debility of different parts,
induced  by various causes, are likewise  considered, and  are de-
rived from diet, as well as from exercise.  Frictions, dry, and with
oil, in preparing for the  gymnasium, are  duly dwelt  on; attention
is bestowed as to  the wind, that is respiration; the best means of 
                           HYGIENE.                        5.73

improving it, and the variety in the operation.  Bathing, cold  and
warm, their  effects.  Weariness or  fatigue,  or rather  debility, is
divided into seven different  kinds, which with their causes are ex-
plained, and  their cure  pointed out, as also the various evils inci-
dent to them.


                          BOOK  IV.

  The subject is still continued, and he enters  into some explana-
tions for his  treating of the ratio medendi of many morbid affec-
tions, in  a treatise on the  preservation of health; which, he tells  us
was expressly  to  defend  himself against the calumnies of the
Sophists;—of the means  of acquaintance with  the vitiation of the
fluids; the treatment of various forms of debility; some remarks
on Erasistratus, and his opposition to blood-letting; various reme-
dies spoken of, for various affections; amongst  which, is the oil of
savine :  the article wine,  is not forgotten.

                           BOOK  V.

   This book embraces principally  the dietetics of advanced life,  its
diseases, cure, exercise, &c.   The causes are  enumerated  which
tend to promote obesity or thinness, and other changes in the body.
The mode of living of two physicians, or grammarians, Antiochus
and Telephus,  is particularly  noticed, who  lived to a very  ad-
vanced  period.   The  nature  and influence  of  various wines  is
treated of, as respects their country,colour, body, and taste;—their
uses considered.  Certain  preparations of honey, with  pepper and
other articles, in old gouty, or calculous  persons.   The character
and quality of bread, for  different persons.  Milk, its use and injury
in  different  temperaments.  Goat and asses' milk, and  an excuse
for  treating on  these subjects.  An inquiry into  the state of the
bowels and urine in age,  and  remedies against  their morbid states.
The axiom is explained of " Contraria contrariorum remedia."


                         .BOOK  VI.

   A brief recapitulation  of the preceding  five books, is here given;
and the author adverts to the precepts that  are intended for pre- 
574                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

serving health, which, owing to the great diversity of constitutions,
must necessarily vary greatly.  Those enjoying liberty and a sound
temperament, must in this, differ much from  those  impelled  to
incessant labour, and who know not any certain time for nourish-
ment or exercise;  as well as  from  such  as are uniformly valetudi-
narians.  Organic variations, and  numerous other circumstances,
promote vast  differences  in  all these cases.  Of the  use of mild
vomition under certain circumstances.  Various temperaments and
intemperies noticed.  The state of servitude considered, and its
disposition .to disease.   All  disease  is  affirmed to be  produced,
either from redundant or vitiated humours; their removal noticed
on general precepts.   The author adverts  to the diseases arising
from intemperance ; promoting an accumulation of vitiated matters,
and even augmenting these, by their  unnatural feasts; gout, stone,
and  others, affecting them, or  acute diseases attacking  them
annually or every second year, or even twice a year, with other
remarks of analogous character.  In the course of his books he
treats of hiera picra and  its  uses,  and its triple preparation.  The
variousdefluxions and means of restraining them are touched upon;
and a variety of matters more or less connected with medicine, are
successively brought to our view.
  Much useful matter may  be  found spread throughout these six
books; it is, however, enveloped in a mass of chaff;  and yet they
will compel attention when we fairly engage in their perusal.
  XII. GALENI,  ARS  TUEND.E  SANITATIS, NUM  AD
    MEDICINALEM ARTEM  SPECTET, AN  AD EXER-
    CITATORIAM,  LIBER.

   THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH, WHETHER DOES IT DEPEND ON
                     MEDICINE OR  EXERCISE 1

                  ADDRESSED TO THRASYBULUS.

                        Bas. Ed., p. 402.
                                     1
  The occasion and reason for writing this book are afforded  in
a kind of preface, addressed  to Thrasybulus.  Who he was, we 
                            HYGIENE.                        5.75

are not  told.  In this  book, the author  states with accuracy, the
respective claims of medicine, exercise, and diet, to the honour of
preserving health ; and he concludes that all, constitute as it were,
links  of one great chain, not easily to be  separated; but which
conjointly, constitute or form  the science of medicine in  its fullest
extent.  In the course of his remarks, he takes occasion to enter into
an examination of the  modes of defining medicine, which is closely
and logically pursued in its different bearings; and  as to the end or
intention of this science, he alleges that seven arts are required in it,
in relation to the human body, the  scope of all being that of bodily
health.   In this view  he  enters into their consideration.  Health,
action, and beauty, in conjunction, form  the summum bonum of the
body; and what tends to this conjunction is by him-traced in the
particulars  of the air, wakefulness and rest, sleep, motion,  food,
and  drink ;  and the  influence of  moderation in   preserving un-
changed  a state of health,  is noticed.   Some good  remarks are
made on the folly of investigating names,  rather than  things,—and
an inquiry  is instituted as to when dietetics and  gymnastic and
athletic exercises were first  introduced.  Much  reference is  made
to  Hippocrates, Homer,  and others, and  his subject terminates
with an inquiry  into the reason of the name of physician (medicus)
as applied to the practitioner of medicine.  The book is certainly
ingenious and interesting in many particulars; and whilst evincing
the profound researches of -Galen on every point he treats of, yet,
I think the  subject has much of the mystification, that is not alto-
gether uncommon in various parts of his writings.
  This book is the concluding one, or end of those constituting the
Second  Class  of Galen's works.  We  proceed now to  the  Third
Class. 
                    CLASS   III.


                       .ETIOLOGY.


  Signa quibus tum dignoscere morbos, et  locos affectos, tum pras-
scire futura possimus, docet.—Eighth Venice Edition, 1609, Title.
  Complectens, cui  insunt quas de  morborum ac  symptomatum
causis  differentiisque; et reliqua hisce finitima materia per  artem
totam traduntur, una  cum commentariis in  libros Hippocratis, de
morbis vulgaribus.—Basil Edit.  1549, Title.


         INDEX OF THE VARIOUS  BOOKS IN THIS THIRD CLASS.

                                                   TRANSLATOR.
   1. Galeni, de differentiis Morborum,  &c, libri
                sex.  First and second,  -  -  -  Leonicenus.
                Third,  fourth, fifth, and sixth,  -  Linacre.
2.	de differentiis febrium, libri duo,	• N. Leonicenus,
3.	de inasquali intemperia liber, - -	T. Linacre.
4.	de Marasmo, sive Marcore liber, -	J. Cornario.
5.	de Comate, ex sententia Hippoc.	
		A. Gagaldinus.
6.	de Palpitatione, Tremore, Rigore,	
		J. Guinterius.
7.	de difficnltate respirationis, lib. tres,	J. Cornario.
8.		V. Trincaveliui
9.	detumoribus praster naturam liber,	H. Limanus.
10.	de Morborum temporibus liber,	J. Andernach.
 
^ETIOLOGY.
577
TRANSLATOR.
 11. Galeni, de totius morbi temporibus liber,  -  - J. Andernach
 12.      de Typis liber,.........j. Andernach!
 13.      ad eos qui de Typis scripserunt, vel  de
           Circuitibus, liber,.......j. Andernach.
 14.      de causis procatarcticis liber,   -  -  -  - N. Regio.
 15.      in primum Hippoc. de Morb. Vulg. librum,
           Comment, tres,........H. Cruserius.
*16.      in secundum H.  de  M. vulg. lib. Comm.
           secundus, novissime repertus.  -  -  - J. B. Rasarius.
 17.      in tertium H. de M. vulg. librum, Comm.
           tres>...........H. Cruserius.
 18.      in sextum  H. de M.  vulg. librum, Comm.
           sex»...........J.  P. Crassus.
'19.      in librum Hip. de Humoribus, Com. tres,  J.  B. Rasarius.
 I. GALENI, DE DIFFERENTIIS MORBORUM ET CAUSIS,

                   SYMPTOMATUMQUE.


     OF THE DIFFERENCE AND CAUSES OF DISEASES AND SYMPTOMS.


                        IN SIX BOOKS.

                          Bas. Ed. p. 6.

  These books, under a number of subdivisions, treat of the differ-
ences of diseases, of their causes, of their variety of symptoms, and
of the causes of those symptoms.  We notice them in the order pur-
sued in the Basil edition.

  * Numbers 16 and 19 do not appear in the Basil edition of 1549, but are introduced
into the eighth Venice edition of 1609, the former number is noticed as being "no-
nssime repertus."
                              37 
578
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                         BOOK  I.

        GALENI  DE DIFFERENTIIS MORBORUM.

                OF THE DIFFERENCE OF DISEASES.

  This  commences with propounding what  is meant by disease,
and what by health;  what are primary and  universal, and simple
diseases; and, lastly, what those diseases are  that arc compounded
of the former. It is that we may comprehend the  nature of disease,
that Galen first  takes a concise view of  its opposite, or the state of
health.  All men, says he, consider themselves well, when, by means
of the various parts of the body, the actions essential  to life are per-
fectly performed (sine aliquo vitio perfungi potuerint); and that  if
the operation of any part is painful (offensa  sit), that part must be
considered as in a state of disease (asgrotare).—If so, says he, then
health is to be sought for in two things,—viz., in  the natural func-
tions of the parts, and in the structure of the  organs (fabrica instru-
mentorum) by which those functions  are performed.   May we not
be permitted here to inquire, if, in these few words, we have  not a
concise, yet comprehensive view of all that has been lately enlarged
upon, in newfangled terms, as to organic and functional diseases'!
He goes on  to  say, with respect to disease, that  it must therefore
consist in " vel operationis, vel structura oblcesio,"  and we may defy
modern writers to  define in fewer words, the objects thus brought
to our notice.—To support his views, Galen  is at no loss; but we
cannot dwell on them.  Certainly the merit of the doctrine, if any,
belongs to him, but he has never been  quoted as authority for it,
that  I know of, proh pudor!—I shall only  remark, that he soon
after  adds, that, in order that any operation  may ensue, the struc-
ture  must be natural; if otherwise, it is productive of imperfect ope-
ration, or disease.
  In considering the nature of the body, Galen regards it as a com-
pound, and  not, as some imagined, constituted of only one kind of
matter; and he proceeds to state,that the composition and structure
of the animal frame is of a triple character; viz., 1, of  certain similar
parts, such  as  arteries, veins, nerves,  bones,  cartilages,  ligaments,
membranes,  flesh, &c.   (Quere?   What are these  but the  so-
called tissues of the present  day?)   2d, of various instruments  or 
                           ^ETIOLOGY.                      57g

organs, compounded of some or more of the above, as  the  brain,
heart, lungs, liver, stomach, spleen, kidneys, the eyes, &c.;—and of
3d, the full  and perfect body or animal system;—which thus is
found to be constituted of the above different instruments or organs;
and which, in like manner, are  themselves constituted of the more
simple, but similar parts, that are themselves formed by the conjunc-
tion of the primary or elementary matters.  Thus, in illustration,
he says, flesh, inasmuch as it is flesh, consists of the four primarv
elements;  but, inasmuch as it constitutes a part of an organ or in-
strument,  in its formation or  magnitude,  &c, a  discrimination
exists between them.
   It would be  impossible,  without enlarging greatly, to pursue the
views of  Galen on  this  subject further; what is thus  cursorily
noticed, will, perhaps, suffice to give some slight appreciation of what
is  omitted;  wherein he treats  of the diseases  incident to similar
parts; of those incident to organs or  instruments; of such as arise
from  defective formation, either natural or  accidental; and  of
various other divisions he has  thought  it expedient to make.   In
speaking of redundancy in size,  as constituting disease, he refers to
an individual whose  body augmented so greatly, that he could not
move, adding that it  was reported he was cured by Esculapius.


                         BOOK  II.

            GALENI, DE CAUSIS MORBORUM.

                   ON THE CAUSES OF DISEASE.

   In this book are considered, as causes of disease, heat, cold, food,
both as to quantity and quality ;  constipation, moisture, and dryness ;
—of  the causes of compound diseases of similar parts;—of those
connected with instruments or organs in various particulars;—and
of the causes of a solution of continuity, &c.  In one of the chapters
of this book, he strongly enforces the injury sustained by children,
from the careless or  injudicious manner of bandaging them by the
nurse; as well as subsequently,  in attempts to enlarge certain parts,
by pressure  on others,  by which spinal distortion ensues; so that the
system of corsets and  stays of the present period, appears to have
equally prevailed in the females of the time of Galen ; and from him
downwards. 
580
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                        BOOK  III.

    GALENI,  DE SYMPTOMATUM  DIFFERENTIIS.

                OF THE DIFFERENCE OF SYMPTOMS.

  Here he  commences  by defining or  explaining some terms,
which, though frequently confounded, have yet a difference, which
is pointed out; and many excellent remarks are made on the change
of names by authors, with the endless disputes thereby induced, and
which it would not be unreasonable to ask our perpetual innovators
in nomenclature  carefully to peruse.  " Litigando, (says he, speak-
ing of these modifiers  of well-established names, in order  to uphold
a favourite  doctrine,) litigando enim  de  nominibus totam  vitam
conterunt.   Quare ad finem artis attingere nunquam possint."  He
considers  in due  order what  a  symptom  is,  both common,  or
proper;—some  symptoms are  referred to affections of the  body;
some  to imperfect actions, and others to  the circumstances con-
nected with the excreta and retenta.  The actions that become in-
jured, are animal, natural, and vital; the  first is subdivided  under
three heads; in one of which, that of sensation, Galen  says  some-
thing  as  to the  five senses, and points out the symptoms arising
from their diseased action.  Symptoms are said to be of a fourfold
nature; some are  visible, some sensible to the  smell,  some  to the
taste,  and some to  the  touch.   Surely he ought to have  added a
fifth, that connected with hearing!   Who can recognise  the prin-
cipal symptom of cynanche trachealis, by  any better or more pecu-
liar, than by the characteristic sounds of breathing or of coughing?
And assuredly Galen was acquainted with this  disease, as various
references to the subject of angina, &c, may serve to testify.  He
does, indeed, say something on  the subject of sound as  a symptom,
both as  regards  the  voice, and of the  crepitus and  intestinal
rumbling, &c, denoting their varieties by particular terms;  which
renders it the more extraordinary that he does not divide his  symp-
toms by at least an equality of the senses. 
iETIOLOGY.
581
                         BOOK  IV.


         GALENI,  DE SYMPTOMATUM CAUSIS.

                  OF THE CAUSES OF SYMPTOMS.

  This book, subdivided into  three parts,  is highly interesting, in
following the learned author in his attempts to explain in  various
places the symptoms of diseases.
  1. The first of these books treats of the causes of the symptoms,
in the diseases  of the senses of sight, hearing,  smell, taste, and
touch, and of the causes of pleasure and pain in each of them; and
he seems to ascribe to  the venereal  orgasm a  species of sense or
sensation sui generis.    He treats  of the causes  of symptoms
arising from the stomach, appetite, hunger, thirst, &c, and in Chapter
V. he dwells much on the sympathy between it and other parts of
the system.3   He distinguishes between nerves of sense and motion,
and treats of the  causes of the symptoms  of the affections of the
brain, and of its faculties, &c, and he calls the brain  in one part
the " sensoriorum sensorium."  Some  phrenological remarks may
also here be noticed.
  2. The second of  these books embraces the investigation of the
causes of the symptoms of depraved motions, in  which the author
treats of paralysis, convulsions, tremors, palpitation, rigor,  cough,
sneezing, pandiculation, itching, and many other  vitiated motions.
He then  proceeds to consider the causes of the  principal animal
functions, in respect  to their motions; and treats of the motions of
the stomach, uterus, and other parts, both natural, and symptomatic
of a diseased  condition; of the causes of apoplexy, epilepsy, coma,
lethargy, delirium, loss of  memory, and  other  affections  of the
brain, &c.
  3. The  third book treats of the causes of the  symptoms of the
natural functions  and  faculties; of the causes of imperfect con-
coction in the  stomach, vessels, and each  particular member; of

  1 Forestalling  a similar doctrine of present date, though with more moderation;
and which might have been perhaps duly appreciated by an acquaintance with the
writings of Galen. 
5g2                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

the symptoms connected with distribution through the system, and
of its excretions; of imperfect  nutrition; unnatural excretions, as
of hemorrhages, vomiting, and purging, &c.; of symptoms apper-
taining to the urinary  organs; of sweating, fluxions from the head;
and  of  symptoms connected with  the uterus;  of priapism and
gonorrhoea, or rather involuntary seminal discharge; together with
the causes of the symptoms connected with several other parts, &c.
   These last three books terminate the  six  books embraced in the
first  book of this class, De differentiis Morborum.


 II. GALENI, DE DIFFERENTIIS FEBRIUM, LIBRI DUO.

          OF THE DIFFERENCE OF FEVERS: IN TWO BOOKS.

                          Bas. Ed. p. 113.

   In this book some principles are laid down  by  which the  dif-
ferences of the various  fevers  may be comprehended; of  their
general division and the symptoms distinguishing them ; the  foreign
causes of fever; of an ephemeral and  pestilential fever; objections
against those  who consider fever of  a  putrid nature;  and some
analogies and differences noticed between putrefaction, in and out
of the vessels;—of hectic fever and its varieties.   In pointing out
the principal differences  of fevers,  he  seems to consider a preter-
natural  heat as the essence of the disease; which heat is sometimes
most extreme  in the solids, at other  times  in  the fluids,  and
sometimes in the spirits; according to a subdivision of Hippocrates,
in some measure analogous to  a  theory of later times, of the
continens or solids, the contenta or fluids, and the impetum facientia
or spirits; the two last of which are  regarded  as  more generally
the  first invaded, and if  not soon resolved, the febrile  disposition
soon extends to the  solids also.  A long list of  causes is given of
the  preternatural heat that gives origin to  fever: such  as  fatigue,
anger,  &c.;  external heat and cold,  &c.; as  also a  pestilential
state of the  air.  In  the  course of  his  remarks, he  adverts to
ignorance, especially of  physicians, with  accompanying  reasons
for such remarks; and divides  such ignorant  physicians into  two
genera: the one, confiding in self-experience, affirms that by reason
alone,  we cannot find out the nature of any  thing;  the other, 
                           /ETIOLOGY.                        533

ascribing all knowledge to  themselves, whilst, in fact, quite as igno-
rant as the others; yet always watching to catch the passing ideas
of science.   The hardness  of the pulse in some diseases is taken
notice of, in opposition to Archigenes; and many excellent observa-
tions and  practical remarks abound throughout the  whole book.
The different  forms of fever  are adverted to, besides the  above:
intermittents,  simple, continued, quotidian,  tertian,  quartan.—Of
obstruction  in the vessels.—A  question  seems  to  have been the
subject of dispute, whether a  fever  in the blood occurred, and  is
considered by  Galen.   He  says he had  seen the state of rigor  in
quartans, without fever; and he presents  to us a variety of the old
names of febrile subdivisions, serving partly to illustrate the nosology
of that period.  The  intermixture of febrile  forms is  pointed  out;
and, taking the whole of these  two books into  consideration, we
shall be  led to  the   conclusion, that sixteen centuries ago, the
hypotheses and practical attainments as to the various  particulars
of fever  and its  symptoms, were as well cemented together, and
quite as well explained and illustrated, as  at the present enlightened
period of  medical science!  Nor can it be doubted, I think, that a
close perusal of  them, will  amply repay, both in pleasure and profit,
all who will take the  pains to examine them.


   III.  GALENI DE IN^QUALI  INTEMPERIE LIBER.

                  OF AN UNEQUAL INTEMPERIES.*

                           Bas. Ed. p. 162.

  By intemperies, Galen  apparently means  that unseasonable  or
unfit state of  some  individual part of the body, or of the whole
system, which predisposes to  disease, if  it be not actually disease
itself.  He makes four varieties of it,—simple, compound, equal, and
unequal.   A variety of affections  are   mentioned,  seemingly  as
coming within the scope of this division.  The modes of origin of
this unequal intemperies are described; a concise view of his  divi-
sion of the body is given;  and some particulars, as by what means

  1 Dyscrasia—Su;*/>*«*—significat intemperies;  et opponitur temperamento, sive
Kftt!U,—est autem intemperies duplex; alia sanitatis, alia morborum, &c—Castelli
Lexicon. 
5Q4                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

inflammation arises and terminates in any part.  Sundry anomalies
are explained of this temperament, such  as the  sense of heat and
cold at the same time, and of rigors not followed by fever, &c.


 IV.  GALENI, DE MARCORE  SIVE  MARASMO LIBER.

                   OF ATROPHY, OR MARASMUS.

                         Bas. Ed. p. 170.

  This state of the system is  defined to be a corruption of the living
body arising from dryness (siccitas).   Marasmus, the Greek term,
is that which is still used to signify a wasting away of the body;
and  has  some  analogy  with tabes.  An interesting subject it is
made in the hands of Galen,  who speaks  of the inevitable approach
of age, as one of the forms or states of marasmus; and he ridicules
the  folly of some Sophists who promised to make men immortal.
He treats  of it as affecting the whole,  or a part of the  body ; and
mentions one in his time, who wrote a book on the subject at the age
of forty; he reached that of  eighty, but was  then so shrivelled and
dried up, as to resemble the description given by Hippocrates in his
Prognostics (the facies Hippocratica) as the precursor of death, viz.,
sharp nose, hollow eye, collapsed  temples,  cold contracted ears,
with the lobes partially turned, the skin of the forehead, hard, tense,
and dry;—the picture indeed of death, under the name of the Hip-
pocratic countenance.
  Galen here investigates the causes leading to old age,  both in man
and animals; he  considers the usual comparison of life  to a fire
provided with fuel, and gradually becoming extinct by combustion,
as altogether incorrect, although maintained by all the physicians
and philosophers of the day.   Equally does he oppose the idea of a
similarity between the flame  of fire and animal heat; and he vindi-
cates Hippocrates from being  the author of a book in  which that
subject is  discussed.  He attempts to prove the necessity of growing
old, from  the nature of the elements constituting the animal struc-
ture; and shows, that although it cannot be avoided, yet it may be
hastened or anticipated.   The different varieties of marasmus are
in  turn presented to notice, with the means of relief, from diet,
bathing, drink, &c, together with much  useful matter of a practical
tendency, and well deserving attention. 
/ETIOLOGY.
585
      V.  GALENI,  DE COMATE, LIBELLUS  APUD
                      HIPPOCRATEM.

                           OF COMA.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 183.

  This is rather a commentary on the Hippocratic views of coma,
as exhibited in various parts of his works, (Prorrhetics, Epidemics,
&c.) He points out the opinions entertained on the subject by him,
and its connexion with cataphora; which last is considered as two-
fold, viz., somnolent and wakeful, (coma vigil.) and which becomes
in a measure a  distinction between lethargy and phrenitis.  Galen
is far from  agreeing to all  the views of Hippocrates, and argues
fairly when dissenting  from  him.  Attention to this book may prove
very useful  to the physician, in some cephalic affections; and so may
likewise attention to the succeeding book.


VI.  GALENI, DE TREMORE, PALPITATIONS, RIGORE,
               ET CONVULSIONE  LIBER.

         OF TREMOR, PALPITATION, RIGOR, AND CONVULSION.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 191.

  The  occasion of writing this book, appears to have been that of
rectifying the error of Praxagoras, otherwise so superior in medicine
and philosophy, in ascribing all the above, together with the  pulse,
to an affection of the arteries, differing only in  degree;  and  in  so
doing, Galen has presented us with  an excellent treatise, wherein
he points out the kind  and variety of motion, in tremor, convulsion,
rigor, and palpitation ;  he notices the locality, causes, and difference
of them.   In that part where he  treats particularly of palpitation,
much stress is laid, when  speaking of blood-letting, on the commu-
nion of the  vessels.  Adverting to the propriety  of bleeding in some
of these cases, which by many was much opposed,  he  notices the
statement of Hippocrates of his daring so to do, and his reasons
for so doing; and remarks on the locality from which blood should 
5g0                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

be drawn in certain  specified  cases.   Some remarks  are made,
tendino- to show a difference  between convulsions and tetanic affec-
tions.


  VII. GALENI, DE  DIFFICULTATE RESPIRATIONIS,
                        LIBRI  TRES.

                    OF  DIFFICULT RESPIRATION.

                        IN  THREE BOOKS.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 214.

   Few of the writings of Galen are, in my opinion, more  interest-
ing than these,  or.  which will  better  repay  the  attention of the
reader.  It is impossible to do justice to them, within the  compass
I have allotted to myself.  A full translation of them  would, I think,
prove acceptable to the Profession.  I shall barely state, that setting
off with  the term of difficultas respirandi, he considers it  to be the
same with the dyspnoea of the Greeks;—the  difference or variety
in which, are to be learned by attending to the respiration, and thus,
by comparison with that which is natural, judge of its existing state.
This was strictly attended to by the ancients, although the latter,
being as it were a  unit, and the former infinite in variety, the  diffi-
culty was by no means small.   The subject is largely pursued, in all
its relations; its causes,  natural and preternatural.  Natural respira-
tion by being either excessive or defective, becomes preternatural; the
names attached to the variations, both of inspiration and expiration;
of  quick or  slow,  &c.; the  mode of detecting  their respective
causes.   Of the proportion between  tJie pulse and  respiration  in
health, the attention seems to  have been  extended in a degree  of
 minuteness, that can scarcely be conceived of, to every particular
 connected with the function of respiration.  The difference of re-
 spiration and of the pulse in youth and age is  taken  notice of; the
 influence of sleep on; of fever, and of other agencies, such as cold,
 heat, pain, internal congestions or suppurations,  mental  emotions,
 &c.   The different varieties of respiration, as quick, slow, deep,  ir-
 regular, «fec, are  all investigated; and a  kind  of classification
 seems to be  attempted,  in which the intimate  connexion  of the 
                           ^ETIOLOGY.                       587

function with the pulse is strongly laid down; and towards the end
of the first book, the conclusion is drawn, that there are three ge-
nera of causes influencing, respiration, viz., faculty or power, utility,
and the essential instruments, which, separately, or conjointly, are
productive of  the changes, &c, which lead to its deterioration.
  Continuing his observations in the second book, much reference
is made to Hippocrates, as to what  he remarks of the breathing, in
his  first  and  third  Epidemics, in numerous cases  of  disease;  a
refutation of those  who  regarded respiration as  involuntary, re-
ferring to his  remarks in the second book, De Motu Musculorum.
The whole  book seems enthusiastic in praise of Hippocrates;  and
scarcely less so is the third book, wherein the other remaining books
on Epidemics, ascribed to him, are referred to, and their cases con-
sidered ; here, too, some inquiry is entered into, as to the authors of
those writings.  Not a little of the value of these books consists in
the analysis thus necessarily entered into by Galen, of the  writings
of Hippocrates.


      VIII. GALENI, DE  (PLENITUDINE, VEN.  ED.)
                    MULTITUDINE LIBER.

                        OF  PLETHORA.

                           Bas. Ed., p. 302.

   This book  opens with  a  statement of the  confused  opinions of
the  medical men  in  Galen's time, respecting  plethora."    These
various opinions he attacks, and  turns the arguments of his oppo-
nents against themselves;  indiscriminately urging his objections
 against the Rationalist and Empiric sects ;  against the Stoics, He-
rophilus,  Erasistratus, and  others.  Partial  and general  plethora
are noticed, and an inquiry is  pursued as to whether plethora con-
sists  in the  blood  alone; in which  many curious remarks on  that
fluid are  to be found, as  to its amount, &c, and not  undeserving
attention.   The general indications of a plethoric state  are pointed
out, as redness, tension, sense  of weight, pulsation, &c.

  » » Plethora, a-x»>S<*/>*; Lut. plenitudo, multitudo, copia. Accipitur  communiter in
foro medico pro humorum  omnium abundanlia; quamvis minus accurate; cum hac
ratione a cacochymia non recte possit distingui.  Plethora igitur proprie sanguinis
redundantiam significat," &c—Castelli Lexicon.                 , 
588
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
  IX. GALENI, DE  TUMOR1BUS PRATER  NATURAM
                          LIBER.

                OF PRETERNATURAL SWELLINGS.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 330.

  Explaining what he means  by a preternatural tumour, or  swell-
ing of a part, or of the whole body; he states  that it may be
sometimes caused by an excess, of that which  in itself is natural,
as in a great increase or augmentation of obesity; or of the natural
fluids of the cavities, &c.  He, however, principally treats of them,
as the product of actual disease;  beginning with inflammation or
phlegmon, whose  symptoms are  detailed and  explained, with as
much probability perhaps, as in the present day, its termination in
abscess is noticed, and  its various locations, inducing  empyema,
sinuous ulcers, fistulas, &c.  He then treats of atheroma and other en-
cysted tumours; of anthrax, cancer, erysipelas, herpes, oedema, scir-
rhus, ecchymosis, aneurism, scabies, lepra, elephantiasis;—speaks
of buboes, or swellings in the inguinal glands; of sarcocele, hydro-
cele, and many others ;—all indeed briefly,—and the whole of less
importance than many others of his writings.   It is  not  undeserv-
ing of a cursory examination, if only for the purpose  of noticing
the synonymes of many  diseases, now differently denominated.


   X. GALENI,  DE MORBORUM TEMPORIBUS  LIBER.

             OF THE PERIODS OR STAGES OF DISEASES.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 338.

   This is  an attempt to illustrate and  explain  the  progressive
periods of diseases, which he assimilates to the  regular  proo-ression
of the different stages of life, or  age,  in animals.  He considers
such  consecutive changes  in the progress  of disease,  as  partly
depending on the age of the  patient;  and  that a doubt may be
raised, whether any determinate point of time can be  fixed on, as
the beginning of disease,  Much curious speculation is pursued in 
                          ETIOLOGY.                      5Q9

the consideration of the subject, which  is not devoid of interest.
He concludes, however, in favour  of  a commencement;  and
opposes some opinions of Archigenes,  and gives the views of medi-
cal men,  anterior to the period of Archigenes.  He then takes
notice  of  the  different periods in intermittents, and the variety of
the class, interspersed with much useful observations  in  regard to
the accession, progress, and stages of these diseases ; together with
practical remarks on the state of  the pulse,  under these various
changes during the  paroxysm; and he  gives  us a division of the
paroxysm into six periods, viz., the beginning,  a  state  of  inequality
intermediate  between it  and the third  state of augmentation, or
increase; the fourth is that of vigour,or full strength, or acme; the
fifth is the declension, and the  sixth, the  state  of remission.   Here
he gives a digression, as to the abuse that had been made  of ancient
names, and the itch of coining new ones, which had  led to much
error and  confusion;  adding, that  some were so  prone  to it,
(quidam hujusmodi ingenio refractario sunt prasditi,) that they would
not have regarded Apollo or Esculapius, if giving them  advice to
the contrary.  He, moreover, adduces this fault, as a cause, and that
a  chief one, of their errors  and ignorance as  to the  difference of
diseases.  He proceeds to consider the  terms or names  applied to
the stages of an intermittent paroxysm, and  affords  a  variety of
particulars connected with  fever, and with the  opinion of Hippo-
crates on the subject.  The periods  or  stages of fever, non-inter-
mitting, (continued,) are next attended to, and of some of a mixed
character.
    XI. GALENI, DE TOTIUS MORBI TEMPORIBUS.

             OF THE PERIODS OF THE ENTIRE DISEASE.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 353.

  This book, it  is stated,  ought not to be separated  from the for-
mer, but should be considered as a part of it, and that Galen seems
so to have intended it to be.   Four times, or periods, are assigned
to disease ; the beginning, increase, acme, and decline.   These are
respectively considered; the  signs distinctive of each, pointed out;
the  variety in  each under different circumstances, and  other par- 
590
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
 ticulars.   He then notices the nature of  mortal diseases, their indi-
 cations and periods; and the diversity induced, when, at the same
 time, the patient is attacked with several  diseases; one  generally
 predominating.  Great stress is laid  by Galen on strict attention to
 three principal parts of the body, viz., the brain,  the heart, and  the
 liver,1  together  with the  vessels  that belong to them,  and their
 respective subdivisions—pointing out the utility of this knowledge,
 and of the stages of disease, as greatly assisting in their cure.


 XII. GALENI,  DE  TYPIS LIBER, VEL COMMENTARIUS.

                OF THE FORM OR ORDER OF DISEASES.

                           Bas. Ed,, p. 362,

   It has by some been supposed  that this is not  the  production of
 Galen,  inasmuch as much of what is herein  delivered, is in opposi-
 tion to  what is to be  found in his other writings.
   The  author sets off by stating, that many having largely treated
 of this subject, he thought an abbreviated  and  simpler statement
 might be  useful to beginners.  He  proceeds to  explain  what the
 term indicates, and  distinguishes  it from points with which it had
 been frequently confounded.   Many diseases, he tells us, have their
 types, especially fevers, with the exception of continued.  The type is
 the order in which the occurrences take place.  The period or cir-
 cuit is  the  time  employed therein.   He  notices the difference and
 division of types  ;—those of fevers, with their symptoms; and gives
 an explanation of those of double fevers, as the double quartan, ter-
 tian, and quotidian; and shows their numerous complications in a
 singularly  curious  and  terminating  chapter.  Some  have  short
 accessions and long  remissions; the opposite is  the case in other
 instances; and this leads to a twofold  division.   Some  occur  at
 stated periods, some precede, and  others are tardy.  A quintan and
 a  septan  type are  treated of;—the difference of  pulse under these
 varieties are mentioned.  A good deal of subtile distinction is  made
in all these particulars; yet, even admitting his divisions to be pro-
blematical, there  is considerable interest in the book.

  4 The lungs are equally entitled to the strictest attention, and it is extraordinary
that Galen should have overlooked them here.  "Aliquando dormitat." 
AETIOLOGY.
591
XIII. GALENI, AD  EOS QUI DE TYPIS  SCRIPSERUNT
                            LIBER.

             AN ADDRESS TO THE WRITERS ON TYPES.

                          Bas. Ed. p. 367.

  This may be considered as  subsidiary to the preceding book; in
it the author points out the error of those who confounded the types
or order  of diseases, with their period or circuit,—as well as in
other respects.   He  gives a curious table, in which all the types of
fevers  are designated, in  conformity  with those erroneous hypo-
theses; from that of the quotidian, embracing twenty-four hours, up
to one  called quinquegesimanus, of eleven hundred and seventy-six
hours, or forty-nine days;—which he says he formed at the request
of his friends,—and points to  the mistakes which such hypotheses
lead to; saying that  fools only would engage in such  pursuits, to the
total neglect of more important subjects.   The whole is sufficiently
interesting to demand perusal.


  XIV. GALENI, DE CAUSIS PROCATARCTICIS LIBER.'

                    OF PROCATARCTIC  CAUSES.

                             Bas. Ed.

   Galen begins by maintaining the pre-existing causes of disease to
have existence, and repels the sophistry of the older physicians. He
then explains the action of such causes, by the changes they induce
in the body; of which  he affords instances in point, in order  to
satisfy his friend Gorgias, to whom the treatise is  written.   We
have here a proof, that however sedulous in  his profession, yet that
he was not inattentive to  the poetic precept—

                  " Neque semper arcum tendit Apollo;"

for we find him referring to the  theatre as proving the truth of his

  * Procatarctica—7rpo>t*.'r*px.u>—antegredior, praeincipiens—est causa morborum pras-
existens, vel prffi-incipiens, una cum aliis agens, unde primo morbus producitur.—Blan-
card's Lexicon. 
592                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.
propositions ;—this resort of dissipation thus becoming in his hands
a place for observation !  Heu ! quam pauci!—Accordingly, like the
bee, culling from every variety of flower, so Galen draws important
deductions from this  locality, in speaking of Menander; in whom
he prognosticated a hemorrhage from the nose, which took place,
to the astonishment of those around him.  His remarks are levelled
principally at Erasistratus and  Herophilus ;  but others arc  noticed,
and we have thereby the means of attaining the opinions of several,
whose writings have not  reached us.   In the progress of this, he
introduces a  train of legal distinctions, and  an oratorical  piece of
imagery in defence  of Orestes as the murderer of Clytemnestra,
which is  given as  a reply to the sophisms of Erasistratus,  and
would not disgrace the  acutest member  of the bar.   Another of the
like nature, is the inquiry into the  cause of death in a person to
 whom medicine is given,—whether it be the physician, the nurse,
 or the apothecary!  all  in a strain of  mirth, yet accompanied with
 reason.

 XV. GALENI,  IN HIPPOCRATIS DE MORBIS VULGARI-
                    BUS, COMMENTARY

           I. COMMENTARIUS IN PRIMUM LIBRUM HIPP. PRIMUS.

           COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.

                           Bas. Ed. p. 400.

   As  commentaries upon  the  books of Epidemics,  it is scarcely
necessary to say  that a  rich  treat awaits all who will take  the
trouble to explore  them—far beyond that, which the simple text of
Hippocrates alone affords.
   In the  Basil edition of this  first  commentary, about a  page is
wanting, which appears in that of Venice. Three commentaries  are
given by Galen on  this first book, and three on the third. Both these
(the first and  third) books are regarded as the genuine productions
of Hippocrates; the others are at least problematical.  On the sixth
book of Hippocrates,  we have six commentaries, besides some addi-
tional ones, not appearing in the Basil edition, but are found in that
of Venice.  It would be impossible to analyze them—they are them-
selves a luminous analysis of Hippocrates, with the superaddition of 
^ETIOLOGY.                      egg
Galen s reflect.ons,-and which must suffer by any mutilation, as
they consist of nearly three hundred folio pages.  A translation of
them would, I should think, be acceptable to the whole profession.
   XVI. GALENI, IN LIBRUM SECUNDUM HIPP. DE
        MORBIS VULG: COMMENT. SECUNDUS.

     A SECOND COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.

                 Ven. Ed., p. 198—Novissime Repertus.

  It would seem that three commentaries on the second book of Hip-
pocrates' Epidemics were written by Galen, or, at least, once had
existence; but that this, the second commentary, has come to light
at a period not  very remote, (1609,) whilst the first is altogether
wanting, as far  as I can determine.  The  comments are pursued
upon the same plan with the preceding,—and a vast deal of impor-
tant practical and speculative matter is dispersed  throughout.  In
several parts of  these two commentaries, numerous lacunas are un-
happily supplied by stars, (* *), implying a loss or  destruction in
that part of the copy.
 XVIL GALENI, IN LIB. TERTIUM HIPPOC. DE MORB.
                VULG. COMMENT.  TRES.

     THREE COMMENTARIES ON THE THIRD BOOK OF EPIDEMICS.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 488.

  This is one of the books considered as legitimate.   It is on the
same plan as the others.  Some particular  cases of disease, men-
tioned pretty concisely by Hippocrates, are very largely commented
on by Galen, and are spread  through all the three commentaries.
The  first is  divided  under twenty-nine paragraphs or  sections, the
second  under nine, and the third under eighty-eight.
                              38 
594
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
  GALENI IN SEXTUM  II. DE MORB.  POPULARIBUS.
                       LIBRI SEX.

  Similar in arrangement, &c., to the preceding books.


 GALENI, RELIQUUM SEXTI COMMENTARII IN SEX-
             TUM DE MORB. POP.  LIBRUM.

                       Ven. Ed., p. 212.

  This was not printed in the former editions of the  commentary
on the sixth book; it is stated (Ven. eighth edit.) to be " nuper in
lucem prolatum," and is, as the title expresses, a continuation of the
sixth commentary of the sixth book.  It continues in the same style
as the preceding, and begins with the ninth paragraph of the sixth
book, and ends with the twenty-seventh.


GALENI IN  SEXTUM  HIPPOC. DE MORB. VULG.  COM-
               MENTARIUS  SEPTIMUS.
                       Ven. Ed., p. 215.

  This, which is not in the Basil edition, follows the preceding, in
that  of  Venice.  It   belongs properly  to the  consideration of
Epidemics;—and it gives a description of the pestilential state of
the  air, explaining the various and successive symptoms, &c, in
thirty-four paragraphs, accompanied with Galen's comments on
them.


   GALENI,  IN SEXTUM  HIPPOC.  DE  MORB. VULG.
             COMMENTARIUS OCTAVUS.
                       Ven. Ed., p. 220.

  As the preceding;—in forty-two paragraphs,  and accompany-
ing  comments.  In one of which  (seventh), the " continentia, con-
tenta, impetum facientia" of Hippocrates  are explained.
  The whole  of these Hippocratic tracts, de morbis vulgaribus, 
^ETIOLOGY.                       ,q.
occupy, with their accompanying commentaries, about two hundred
and fifty folio pages, and, certainly, are not undeserving of perusal,
both on account of the facts stated, and of the explanatory aid
afforded by Galen.
XIX. GALENI IN  LIB. HIPPOC. DE  HUMORIBUS, COM-
                     MENTARII TRES.

                          Ven. Ed., p. 225.

  These commentaries are not in the Basil edition, but they are in
that of Venice (eighth), with a remark  that they were not in the
preceding editions.  They are in  different paragraphs; concise, and
serving as texts on which Galen  has abundantly enlarged ; the three
containing nearly one hundred paragraphs, and several lacunas.
  This book created formerly much  dissension as to its paternity,
whether it was written by Hippocrates or  by his son Thessalus, or
son-in-law Polybius.  Galen  has his doubts, but inclines to Thes-
salus.  Be this as it may, it is deserving of attention, if only for the
purpose  of understanding the estimation in which the fluids were
held in ancient times; and the folly and presumption of those who
have at different, periods risked  the interests of medicine  by their
absurd attempts to do without them; explaining every thing by sym-
pathy, and associated motions, (which they cannot demonstrate, but
give upon trust) among the solids of the system alone !—It is not
intended to affirm that, all here said by the ancients is right, and all
of modern date is wrong: it is the want of  harmony and co-opera-
tion  that is to be regretted  in  these particulars; which,  by both
parties might easily be surmounted, and  a  more equitable estimate
had of every part of the system.  It is the defect of information as
to the real extent of the knowledge of our  forefathers, that renders
us so unjust to  their merits, whilst we plume our writings with  their
feathers.
  The third  class terminates with the above.  The fourth is now
to be noticed.   It is very much of the  character of the preceding
books, consisting chiefly of commentaries on particular parts of the
writings of Hippocrates.   All  interesting, and of  much value; yet
scarcely capable of being epitomized. 
CLASS  IV.
SEMEIOTICS.
  Galeni, librorum quarta classis, signa quibus tum dignoscere mor-
bos, et locos affectos, tum prasscire futura possimus, docet.  Eighth
Ven. Ed. Title, 1609.

        INDEX OF THE VARIOUS BOOKS IN THIS FOURTH CLASS.

                                                   TRANSLATOR.
1.  Galeni de locis affectis, libri sex,             G. Cope.
2.	de Pulsibus, ad Tyrones Libellus,	H. Cruserius.
3.	de Pulsuum differentiis, libri quatuor,	Idem.
4.	de dignotione Pulsuum, libri quatuor,	Idem.
5.	de causis Pulsuum, libri quatuor,	Idem.
6.	de prassagatione ex pulsibus, libri qua-	
	tuor, ...	Idem.
7.	Synopsis librorum sexdecem, de pul-	
	sibus, ...	A. Gagaldinus.
8.	de Urinis liber, (spurius, Bas. Ed.)	J. Struthius.
9.	de Crisibus, libri tres,	N. Leonicenus.
10.	de diebus decretoriis, libri tres, -	J. Andernacus.
11.	in primum Prorrhetici librum, com-	
	ment, tres, -	J. Vasasus.
12.	in Prognostica Hippoc. comment, tres.	, L. Laurentianu
13.	de Prassagiis ex insomniis Libellus,	A. Gagaldinus.
14.	de Prascognilione liber,	J. M. Rota.
 
SEMEIOTICS.
597
      I. GALENI, DE LOCIS AFFECTIS,  LIBRI SEX.

           SIX BOOKS ON THE PARTS AFFECTED BY DISEASE.

                        Bas. Ed., torn, iv., p. 5.

                          BOOK  I.

   This treatise, taken generally, is of much interest, and of great
 importance.  The very name may be considered as indicating this
 character.   It  consists of  a  general explanation of those various
 modes that had been adopted, in order to  become acquainted with
 the parts affected by disease; after which the subject  is taken up
 more in detail, that is, as to the affections of individual parts.  The
 whole is deserving of attention, but that is incompatible with our
 present object:  a few particulars from each book are  all that can
 be expected.
   This first  book sets off with affirming the  importance of a
 knowledge  of the  parts diseased, and of the necessity of anatomy
 in attaining that information.  Examples are afforded in proof of
 this; among which is to be found a reference to the discharge, by
 coughing, of the bronchial cells, or portions of them in  pulmonary
 ulcerations,  and of the intestinal  coats  in  dysentery,  &c.—No
 action or function  of a part, it is asserted, can be injured, unless
 from  an affection of that  part, although  it may be scarcely dis-
 criminated  at times, from its slightness,  but is only different  in
 degree from that of the highest character.   The different subjects
 adverted to are numerous; in that of retention of urine, the catheter
 is noticed, and some general divisions are given, in order to facilitate
 the distinction of affections, and of their causes; thus the obstructed
 actions of a part, lead to the notice  of the excreta, position, species
 of pain, and the appropriate  symptoms.   A distinction is  made
between  idiopathic  diseases  and those from sympathy; and  an
interesting case is related of distant affections removed by applica-
tions made  to the spine; and notice is taken of the occasional loss
of motion,  without the loss of sensation, and of the reverse of this;
with other circumstances of much interest. 
598
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                         BOOK  II.

  Three modes are stated as leading to a  knowledge of the parts
affected; one has reference to each individual part;  a second, to
the  causes and affections or disposition of the  parts; and  a third,
to the difference in the  accompanying symptoms.   Many of the
remarks in  relation to the different kinds of pain, are  directed
against Archigenes and  his observations,  and an  explanation of
that diversity is attempted; a great number are mentioned under
a specific nomenclature.   The mode and rationale of the means of
knowing the seat of a disease and its disposition, are  then pointed
out, and some cases of interest are occasionally referred to.


                        BOOK  III.

  The distinction of primary from sympathetic  affections constitutes
much of this book.   Archigenes is again attacked, and  his obser-
vations on  the  loss of memory are critically examined, and his
mode of treatment is pronounced to be absurd.  This leads to a
consideration of the origin  of  the nerves;  and  many of the
diseases  that are  dependent  on their  presence, as  convulsions,
epilepsy, and others, are cursorily noticed and  explained.


                         BOOK  IV.

  The affections of the  face and fauces, &c,  are here taken up,
and their distinctive marks; of those of the spinal marrow, in the
consideration of which, the subject  of  angina  is touched  on, one
species of which was  supposed to arise  from a luxation of the
cervical spine.   The  vitiation of  respiration, and of the  voice,
through the influence of spinal  affections: pulmonary affections,
hemorrhage from;  and a case of hemorrhage from swallowing a
leech,  is of  some  interest.  One also of Antipatrus,  a Roman
physician, who died suddenly, after a  long-continued irregularity
of the pulse, but without  much indisposition, or difficulty of respi-
ration, until a few days previous to that event.   Some cardiac and
thoracic affections are briefly noted. 
SEMEIOTICS.
599
                         BOOK  V.

  In this book are considered the affections of the heart, more
extensively than in the preceding; and those of the thorax, dia-
phragm, with somewhat on phrenitis; the affections of the throat
or gullet;  of the os ventriculi, and liver; with remarks  on dropsy
and jaundice.
  The palpitation of the heart and its danger, from  the  connexion
of that organ with every part, is particularly noticed; its other
peculiar diseases, and those of the pericardium.  In various parts,
the etymology of sundry organs, &c, is  given, and the  changes
thereof at different periods; stricture of the oesophagus is noticed, and
its causes, &c.  Some remarks allied to the pulmonary  circulation
may be found in this book.   The diaphragm, septum  transversum,
phrenes  vel  mediastinum, is said to  have  had the first name given
to it by Plato, from Sioxppassu, to limit or divide, as by a septum, the
irascible power of the  mind, supposed to be contained in the heart,
from that of appetite or desire that was located in the liver.  Such
are the fluctuations of  language, arising from fancy or hypothesis,
and by which perpetual difficulty is presented to the advance of
science.    The  os  ventriculi,  by which is now meant the upper
orifice of the stomach  opening into the oesophagus, was formerly
called cor; from whence its name of cardiac orifice; it also had the
name of stomachus, or rather, this term was applied to the oesopha-
gus itself,  subsequent to the  time of Aristotle; whilst  in Galen's
time it had received the name of gula, from whence our gullet.  It
is obvious  that infinite mistakes have arisen among medical writers
by inattention to these changes, in investigating the works of the
ancients,  and thereby  mistaking the  accurate meaning of their
terms!  This  ridiculous propensity  for  coining  new  names  in
every branch of science, in place of those well known and  long
employed, and more  especially in  medicine  and  its collateral
branches,  was  never  more extensive, (nor  more  absurdly con-
ducted,) than at the present period, when the " march of mind"
seems even  to  out-herod Herod  himself.—A few interesting cases
are to be found in this book. 
600
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                         BOOK  VI.
   Here we have  the consideration of affections of the  spleen,
 intestines, kidneys,  bladder, uterus, and penis;—among those men-
 tioned, we  find nephritis and its  various symptoms; diabetes, ap-
 parently a rare disease, since Galen seems to have met  with  but
 two  cases  of  it, (" eum  equidem ante hac,  bis  duntaxat videre
 potui.")  In speaking of uterine affections, much is said respecting
 seminal and menstrual  retention; and the question " num uterus
 animal,"  is duly considered and  its absurdity pointed out.  The
 subject of Hysteria, and its connexion with  that organ is mentioned,
 especially  as  appearing  in  widowhood;  and a  curious  trait  in
 Diogenes is related ; some  reference is made to  rabies,  which is
 affirmed to  be confined to dogs, though extended to man by means
 of their saliva.  In speaking of the diseases of the penis, &c, various
 passages present an analogy to some of those diseases that are now
 considered to be venereal.  From  this brief account of these books,
 some slight idea of their importance may be had.


  II.  GALENI, DE PULSIBUS LIBELLUS, AD  TYRONES.

         A  CONCISE  TREATISE ON THE PULSE, FOR STUDENTS.

                           Bas. Ed., p. 166.

   At No. xviii. of the prima classis of Galen's writings, (p. 491,) we
 have the treatise " de pulsuum usu;" and which, had I not fixed on
 the  arrangement of the Venice and Basil editions, I should have
 rather connected with the present  and  succeeding books, as a more
 appropriate location.  It  is  deserving  attention, from  having  so
 much in it,  of close connexion with the subject of the circulation of
 the blood; the few extracts given from it will perhaps serve to satisfy
 most persons,  desirous of truth, rather than  of being  considered
 "addicti jurare in  verba magistri."  Before  perusing the present
 treatise, it  may not be useless to refer back to the book  above-
 mentioned.
   The  outline of the present book is  here presented,  more in proof
 of Galen's ever active mind, than from any estimate  of its absolute
 correctness, or of  its practical utility; yet it contains  much  in-
teresting mat ter for reflection. 
                          SEMEIOTICS.                      601

  The heart and  arteries have  a  uniform  pulsation,  though not
equally sensible in all the arteries;  wherever it is capable of being
felt,  it is  equally  adapted for observation;  but  some parts are
superior to others, and of these  the  carpus is best.  The arteries
are extended in every dimension, viz., in length, breadth, and depth.
The quality of  the motion; the interval or time of rest;  equality
and inequality of.  Of a common and inordinate pulse; inequality
of one pulsation; of a compound inequality of pulsation ; vermicans,
fluctuosus, formicans, magnus, longus, latus, altus, vehemens,  mol-
lis,  celer,  frequens, asqualis, ordinatus.—A  threefold  difference in
the mutation of  the  pulse, viz.,  natural,  non-natural, and  preter-
natural.  Each one  may learn his own pulse by experience.—Of
the pulse in  men  and women in infancy, and in age, and at  in-
termediate  periods.   Modification  of pulse  according to  season,
country, &c.   Pulse  in pregnancy ; in sleep; on waking ;—changes
of, from habits, natural  or acquired ;  differences  in, from different
exercises, or  baths, or  food ; influence of wine, water, &c, on ; all
which, immoderately used, are prasternatural; their  action is ex-
plained by  the vital power, and the character of the pulse induced.
Of  the pulse  of syncopal affections; of anger, pleasure, grief, fear,
pain, and  its varieties;  of the pulse  of inflammation ;  its locality
and character,  as of the diaphragm,  in pleurisy, and its varieties;
in empyema, marasmus, the hectic  pulse  in  it, and  in phthisis;
pulse of peripneumony; of lethargy; phrenitis; catalepsy; catochos;
convulsions;  palsy;  epilepsy; angina ;  orthopnoea ;   hysteria ;—
the pulse, and its  diversity in various  affections of the stomach ; in
dropsy, and  its varieties;  in  elephantiasis, jaundice,  and in  those
who have taken hellebore, &c.
  We see  by this brief expose, to what an extent Galen  carried
his  observations on the pulse; can it  be possible he never dreamed
of, or elucidated the route of the circulation !
  In  the succeeding  books, the subject is very  minutely entered
upon.  These books, are thus denominated.
         De Pulsuum Differentiis.  Bas. Ed., p. 178.
         De Dignotione Pulsuum.
         De Causis  Pulsuum.
         De Pr.b:sagatione ex Pulsibus.
  Making  sixteen separate  treatises, and  all of greater  or less
interest. 
602
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
      III. GALENI DE  PULSUUM DIFFERENTIIS.
                      LIB. QUATUOR.

                 OF THE DIFFERENCE OF PULSES.

                        IN FOUR BOOKS.

                         BOOK  I.

  Galen begins with some good remarks as to the use of names.  In
themselves, they only facilitate the attainment of,  but add nothing
to the art. He animadverts on the perpetual changes made in them,
and on the useless commentaries and disputes on the subject.  These
seem to have been as numerous  as in our times; and to have no
less retarded the  progress of the  science.  He  then notices the
name of pulse, on which numerous commentaries appear to  have
been written, (omnes qui de pulsibus instituerunt commentari," Ven.
ed.)   Hippocrates seems first to have employed the term, whilst
others called it palpitation; and  this  was a common name both by
physicians and the  public.   Pie then notices the intention of this
book, and proceeds to consider the different genera, species, quali-
ties, or difference of pulses,  by all  which names they  have  been
called.  This leads him  on to the consideration  of them more in
detail; and he gives, in a tabular form, no less than twenty-seven
varieties, dependent  on the threefold  distinction of quick, slow, and
moderate; he next considers the quality of the stroke.—The  diffe-
rence of  sects, some of whom judge of the variety of pulse by the
distention of the artery, others by its contraction;—its state of qui-
escence, and the difference of it, and of the rhythm, which he ex-
plains;—also the  different inequalities of motion ;  with tables, &c,
he speaks here of various pulses, such as the undulating, vermicular,
formicans, vibrating, and convulsive, &c, and gives an explanation
of them, and of several others.


                         BOOK  II.

  This second book begins with an  explanation of its use.  Of the
use of names, and of definitions, in opposition to the sophists;  some 
                           SEMEIOTICS.                      (jQ3
 of whom he severely animadverts on, and  calls one of them atro-
 cious.   This is a highly amusing chapter; and his description of his
 arguing with them, and turning them into ridicule,  would form an
 admirable appendage to some of the writings of La  Sage or Queve-
 do.  He takes occasion to dwell on the opposition of Archigenes
 to himself (Archigenes) in his nomenclature.   He then states how
 he discovered the differences of pulses, with reasons for distinguish-
 ing the common genera;  and alternately lashes his opponents for
 their opinions, and their nomenclature.


                         BOOK  III.

  In this book Galen takes notice of several varieties of pulse ; the
 vehement and languid, &c, refers many  of the difficulties  and con-
 trarieties on the subject, to the intermixture  of terms, and  improper
 definitions.  Archigenes, who is again the subject of his attack, errs
 greatly in even his definition of a vehement pulse ; and the  perpetual
 disputation about names, he tells us, had been more than useless, and
 that they have  filled immense  volumes  with such  follies as are
 undeserving of pardon ;  for since the subjects are obscure, if man's
 life was tripled, even then we should  have  but imperfect  acquaint-
 ance  with them.—Much  more  to  this  effect he says,  that is de-
 serving of consideration ; and calls up for castigation various au-
 thors  besides Archigenes, as Magnus, Herophilus,  Athenasus, As-
 clepiades, &c, and points out their contradictions and intricacies;
 he especially speaks of  Archigenes and  his  followers, as  " imperi-
 tissimi et pertinacissimi,"  and of their entire ignorance, abuse, and
 obscurity in their names, when they speak of heavy, light,  impeded,
 and repressed pulses. He gives a laughable interview  and conver-
 sation with an old man  of ninety years;  and shows himself a deep
 critic in nomenclature  and etymology, in adverting to the  word
 goi£u<5>]<; as improperly employed  by Archigenes, meaning as it does,
 poetically, stridulus,  which will not apply to the pulse in question.
  It may be a question at  present, whether this same term  stridulus
 is properly applied to discriminate the peculiar sound in croup, as
 in different writers.—Objections are made  to  other definitions of
Archigenes;  and the host  of hard names employed by him to ex-
plain the  different pulses, are considered by Galen as being both
obscure and  useless. In  this he was unquestionably right, if we
may judge from  those he has adduced, of which the following few 
(504                    THE WORKS OF GALEN.

are samples, as difficult of pronunciation as  any Polish or  Indian
words, in the softly-flowing Greek :  apokekroumnismenos, extctham-
boumenos, apopepougos, engkaluptomenos, ukopleptomenos,  &cc, 6fC
The Latin translations are not a jot behind, either  in obscurity or
in utility, as  applied to the  pulse, and  which they could  scarcely
be  divested of, in an  English  dress, though possibly they  might
befit the unpronounceable  dialects of Wales or Poland.  Galen has
well bestowed on this wretched host the epithet "id genus nomi-
num immensus numerus."   Alone, and  separate, adds Galen, these
words have some meaning, but they have no appropriate connexion
with the pulse.  He affords some idea of his  own views of a  vehe-
ment pulse ; opposes the  Pneumatists in their explanation of  a full
and empty  pulse, and gives some reasons for changing those  names.
He states what he thinks  to  be  the  proper signification of  a hard
and soft pulse, and the deception of the Pneumatists in respect to
them."
                           BOOK  IV.


  In this book, we find Galen still  sedulous in repelling the ancient
definitions, by which  each  partisan  thought  fit to  transmit the
notions of the pulse  peculiar to his sect.   He assigns some reasons
whereby he was compelled to combat the shadows of the Pneuma-


  1 It may be here remarked, as of some interest, that in this book, Galen evidences
his acquaintance with the writings of both the Old and the New Testament.  He is
speaking of the difficulty of divesting one'self of sectarianism in  medicine, and re-
peats from some writer,
  " Ut ligna tortuosa nunquam corrigas, virides nee arbor vetus, alio si transferas,
produxerit stolonep," &c.  He then adds,
  "Citiusenim Moysi  asseclai et  Christi decedant de sua disciplina, quam qui sectis
sunt addicti et consecrati, Medici et Philosophi."—Basil Edit. 1549, as translated by
Cruserius.
  In an early edition  of the Venice copy, the translation by Cruserius  is  given as
above.  But in the sixth Venice edition, it is thus changed :—
  " Potius enim alii omnes decedant de sua disciplina, quam qui sectis," &c.—Now,
why  this change?  In the  Greek edition of Basle, 1538, the original words are
Mcevsov k*i xpHsm.  It apparently can arise only from the Basil copies being from a
Protestant press; whilst the Venice primary editions,  being detected in these obnoxious
references of Pagan origin, must  have been altered  in the subsequent copies, by au-
thority from Rome ! There, however, stands the original text in Greek, as  given by
Galen, and helps to strengthen our views of the universality of his researches. 
                         SEMEIOTICS.                       005
tists;  and explains his opinion of what the pulse  properly is; and
from what he says, it appears that young physicians, then, as now,
gave publicity to their lucubrations, (" non requirunt multa verba,
quibus scatent juniorum  medicorum  libri.")   He  speaks  of the
various definitions of the pulse by the ancients,  and  the disputes
thereon,  apparently,  as  numerous as in  later periods.   It is  a
curious chapter, (ii.)  and quite as well  deserving of attention as
any of the speculative treatises of Parry, Hillier, and others.  Some
defined the pulse, as the motion of the  arteries; to this, some super-
added  that of the heart; others say it is  that of only the arterial
part of the heart, or  ventricle.  Further disputes  sprung up, as to
whether the arteries pulsated  by their own accord (sponte sua,) or
by that of the heart,  &c, and although  he freely  criticises, he yet
seems to admire Aristotle.  He notices the different structure of an
artery and vein,  and  regards the  pulse as a peculiar motion or
action, especially (prascipue) of the heart, and then  of the arteries,
which, by a vital faculty are excited to distension  and contraction,
and whereby a degree of native heat is maintained.  From Galen's
statement, it would  seem that the labour would  be immense, and
useless, to  pursue all  that had been said on  the  subject.  That it
was a  favourite  one, we  cannot doubt; for he tells us, the pupils of
Herophilus were the principal  leaders of this  curiosity, (hujus
curiositatis),  to whom several of the family of Erasistratus suc-
ceeded ; and to  these, many Pneumatists and Methodists.
  In the succeeding  chapter, (iii.) he  gives the description of the
pulse, by Heraclides  of  Tarentum, Alexander, Demosthenes, Bac-
chius, Aristoxenes, Chryserneus, another Heraclides of Erythrea,
Agathimus, Archigenes, Magnus, Athenasus, Asclepiades and his
followers,  Moschion,  Erasistratus and  his  followers; many  of
whom  may be  recognised  as writers quoted by  authors  of the
present day.   We  must suppose,  therefore, that  the pulse  has
always been a subject of great  interest, and that  among so  many
learned men,  and  anatomists,  had their  writings and  observa-
tions  reached us, in  full,  we should probably  find  more  than
mere conjecture and  distant probabilities, of a well understood and
acknowledged circulation.  As to  Erasistratus and his followers,
since they disagreed amongst  themselves, as much as they did with
other sects, we are led to wonder, says Galen, not so  much at the
diversity of medical sects, as that they differed the most, who were
the  disciples of the same  master! 
606
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
   IV. GALENI, DE  DIGNOSCENDI  PULSIBUS.   LIBRI
                         QUATUOR.

                          BOOK  I.

         ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PULSE, FOUR BOOKS.

  In  this  book,  Galen remarks on  the  difficulty  of attaining a
knowledge of the pulse; and previously recapitulates his division of
his books on the  pulse, pointing out which are most connected with
medicine, and which with philosophy.   The first he considers com-
mon to both, (de differentiis.)  The  second and fourth (de diagno-
scendis  et prassagitione,)  to the physician, and  the third  to  the
philosopher, (de causis.) Of particulars to be considered in the dis-
tension  and contraction of the pulse, and  in various  other  points;
how to feel the pulse.  He lays  down four principles for  knowing
the pulse.  Investigates the disputes as to whether  the contraction
of the pulse is felt;—how to apply the hand  to the artery,  to per-
ceive the  contraction;  prognosticating by the  pulse, and some
cautions, &c.


                         BOOK  II.

  Here, he notices the quick and slow pulse, and  compares them
with the moderate pulse, to which reference is always to be made
in becoming acquainted with any other variety.  He  animadverts
on Herophilus and his followers, for being so careless and negligent
respecting the pulse.


                         BOOK  III.

  Galen defines  a quick and slow pulse, and  points out how they
are to be known; referring to his previous remarks respecting the
intervals of motion, and the force of strength, and, keeping in view
the moderate pulse, the state of  distension, &c.  He points  out the
attainment  of the difference  of the  pulse in regard  to  length, 
                          SEMEIOTICS.                       607

breadth, and depth, (longitudo, latitudo, profunditas), or the quality of
the motion; he  then  notices the mode of acquiring a  knowledge
of the rhythmus,4 (interval of stroke, &c, Qu.?) giving a tabular
view of his ideas, in two columns, representing the states of disten-
sion and contraction of the pulse;—the commencement of this scale
is that of quick  (celer) in both, and the ending of it is (tarda)  slow
in both; moderata in both, constitutes the  mean of the scale, and
the intervening degrees  are filled with varieties  in  combination  of
these three terms.
                         BOOK  IV.

  Here  we have the hard  and full pulse; and his opposition to
Archigenes and other ancients, as to their knowledge of the pulse.
He describes  how we are to  know the stroke (ictus) of the pulse.
A great (magnus) pulse, by some judged of, from its vehemence;
by others, from its hardness.   Of a full and empty (vacuo)  pulse;
some did not distinguish a vehement from a full pulse;  and Hero-
philus and his followers did not know it; whilst Archigenes has
written obscurely and erroneously respecting it, and others equally
so.  Galen then explains a  full pulse; full, being first  considered
as of three kinds.   Much interesting and useful matter may be
found interspersed through these four books.
 V. GALENI DE  CAUSIS PULSUUM. LIBRI QUATUOR.

                  ON THE CAUSES OF THE PULSE.

                         IN FOUR BOOKS.


                          BOOK  I.

  The causes giving rise to the pulse, are here generally adverted
to, and are very ingeniously treated of under three heads or genera;
—some arising from the nature of the instruments or organs; others

  » Rhythmus— pvBuoi—proportio pulsuum  prions cum  subsequentibus.   Castelli,
Lexicon. 
608                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

generated,  as  it were.  He then speaks of these separately;  the
instrument  or  artery,  and foreign agencies, as heat, emotions, pas-
sions of the mind, eating, drinking, exercise, and so forth.   The in-
fluence  of  age, as in  infancy, &c.  The inequality  and  other
changes of pulse, from these and other causes, are noticed.


                          BOOK  II.

  As the causes of the  pulse generally constitute  the principal in-
tention of the  former  book, so those  inductive of inequality in  the
pulse, are here considered.   Of the causes of inequality in a single
pulse,—of the  vibratory, and many other varieties of pulse;—all,
probably, as fully and as well explained  as by any later  writer.


                        BOOK  III.

  This may be in a measure considered as explaining the operation
of the so-called non-naturals, in promoting  the action and  changes
of the pulse:—of the pulses of man and woman,—of those of warm
temperament,—of thin  persons;—of its changes  by age, season,
climate, and state of air,—of pregnancy,—in sleep, and waking,—
from artificial habits  or temperaments,—exercise,—hot baths and
cold,—food and wine.  It  is a book replete with interest, indepen-
dent of  its  more immediate connexion with the pulse.


                         BOOK  IV.

  Preternatural causes are here noticed as productive of modifica-
tions of the pulse ;—anger, joy, sorrow,  fear, grief, pain;—the pulse
of inflammation, of pleurisy, suppuration, decay, consumption, peri-
pneumony, and a host of other diseases, are here noted; and, assur-
edly, in many, with a precision not  inferior to any writer on the
pulse of the present period. 
SEMEIOTICS.
G09
   VI. GALENI, DE  PRvESAGATIONE EX PULSIBUS,
                    LIBRI  QUATUOR.


          OF PREDICTION FROM THE PULSE, IN FOUR BOOKS.

                         BOOK  I.

  Some general remarks on prognostication ;—on that from a large
and small pulse; from a  quick and slow one; strong and weak, hard
and soft pulse.  In this consideration, the state of the pulse is to be
connected with the  particular disease,  and not  simply estimated
from itself.   The previous books on  the pulse should  be consulted
before  reading this.- Various  pulses noticed, and their changes;
privation of pulse; of the long,  short, broad, narrow, low and high
pulses,  from  whose varied  combinations twenty-seven  different
pulses  originate, &c.  Four general differences  in distention;
causes  increasing and oppressing strength; what external causes
produce a hard pulse, and a soft one, &c.


                         BOOK   II.

  After noticing four differences of pulse according to the  contrac-
tion of the arteries, similar to those derived from distention, he pro-
ceeds to note the prognosis from a frequent and  rare (raritate)
pulse, by the  rhythm, from  inequality in, from  intermission,  &c.
Signification  of rhythm, and inequality, &c.  What pulse affords
two  strokes in one distention.  Signification of certain pulses, as
caprizans, dicrotus, and  others.  What is  presaged by order in the
pulse, and what by its disturbance.   An intermitting pulse in  age
and in childhood less to  be dreaded than in youth.—Many  of these
terms have  maintained their standing in some of the treatises on the
pulse in later times.

                        BOOK III.

  In this book, the peculiar  pulse in the  different diseases of the
heart is noticed, and the appropriate pulses of different fevers.  He
                             39 
610
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
is very precise in defining his terms; thus he says, that he is about
to treat of those pulses that  axe peculiar to affections (affectionibus)
or diseases ;  and he calls  that an  affection that is preternatural,
(praster naturam), and the pulse peculiar to each one, that which
perpetually attends it, or most frequently.  He then proceeds to the
different cardiac and other affections arising from heat or cold ; with
some observations as to the pulse in pestilential fevers, and on other
sources of prognosticating, in which he seems to have observed the
heat about the prascordia greatly increased, whilst other parts were
cold;—of the pulse in such states.—A very useful chapter follows, on
the  proper signification of names and metaphors, and its connexion
in regard to the pulse is pointed out.  The general character of the
pulse in fever, and the individual character in some particular kinds,
explained.  Changes in the  pulse, from certain causes acting on the
heart and arteries.


                        BOOK  IV.

  Presages drawn from the pulse, as modified by affections of other
parts, especially those of respiration, nutrition,  the head, &c.   He
notices the pulse, thus  created  by affections of the lungs, thorax,
liver, diaphragm, pleura, stomach,  and other  digestive  organs;
and those of various other parts, as inducing sympathetic action.
  Thus, then, the sixteen books  on the pulse are concluded; but we
find, immediately succeeding to  them, one entitled, (at least in the
Ven. edit.), Synopsis librorum sexdecim de pulsibus, or  Synopsis of
the  sixteen books on the pulse.


     VII. GALENI, SYNOPSIS LIBRORUM  SUORUM,
                SEXDECIM,  DE PULSIBUS.

                          Ven. Ed., p. 123.

  The following preliminary remarks to this book, under the name
of " Censura" may not be  unacceptable to the reader, as showing
that Galen had been induced to write such an epitome of his sixteen
books on the  pulse, that it might be more correct than if committed 
                          SEMEIOTICS.                       611
to  another person; and  he commences  by a recommendation  to
read his larger work first, as then, a few  words of the synopsis, by
association, would recal  much to mind.
  Galen, at the close of his book " de arte medicinali," thus writes
"It is my intention to write another book, in form of Epitome of
all my sixteen books  on the pulse, which  I  shall entitle  Isagoge,
Synopsis, or Epitome !" But in his book, " de librispropriis," chapter
five, he  says, " I  have written  one other book, a synopsis of the
abovementioned  sixteen  books on the pulse."  Now this must  be
that  book abovementioned by Galen, for  both the doctrine, and the
reasons  assigned  for writing it evidently prove  it.   The  author
refers the reader frequently to the treatise on the pulse addressed to
beginners, (Tyrones), and which he sometimes calls Isogogic; also
to the larger work in sixteen  books, and  not unfrequently to the
books " de Crisibus," and  some others.   Now as all those are de-
clared by him to be his, this  is found  conformable to them; and he
often declares that much will be gained by a previous acquaintance
with the larger work, which he inculcates in the eleventh chapter of
the present tract.
   He then reminds the reader of the fourfold division of the work,
 viz.,
   1. Of  the difference of pulse, and mode  of distinction.
   2. Of  the knowledge  of the  pulse, and how  the distinction is
made.
   3. Of  the causes, &c, of  different pulses.
   4. Of the prognosis of the pulse, and which he  considers as the
manifest point for which the whole  was written.  The  danger of
attending to names, rather  than  to facts, is  strongly re-enforced.
" Often," says Galen, "one word has various significations,and very
often the same thing has different appellations, not always or equally
appropriate, or of  indiscriminate application.   There is, therefore,
a great chance of some equivocal meaning being bestowed by those
who are  not fully masters of a language, or of its  various idioms,"
&c, and he therefore  strongly urges the absolute necessity of giving
to things their correct appellation.
   The diastole (dilatation) and systole (contraction) of the arteries
have received the name of pulse, to which two things or circum-
stances  have  relation, viz.,  the space through  which  the  artery
moves, and  the time of that motion.   He then assumes the  position
that  four generic differences  are to be considered in the diastole ot 
612                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

the artery, viz.,  as  to  quantity,  time, tenor, and  the body of  the
vessel itself.  He hereby distinguishes twenty-seven  special varie-
ties  in  the pulse, though  limited by others to a  smaller number.
Varieties further  arise, in relation to the length, breadth, and depth
of motion,  &c.  He  attempts to prove, that no other than  the above
four  named  generic differences  can  be  found in the diastole, by
impugning the opinions of  those who have explained a diversity of
pulse, from the nature or character of the article conveyed (re in-
fusa)  through  the  artery; it  being  a  question, if arteries were
devoid of blood,  or  contained  both it and spirits; also, as to  the
blood, whether it be serous and thin, thick and viscid, or interme-
diate  between both.
   He adverts to many absurdities advanced respecting the pulse;
as of ihe full pulse, making three  varieties, and confounding names,
&c.  He then proceeds to  notice  the different  speculations on  the
systole of the artery ; considered by some as sensible, by  others, as
insensible, and states the division  of pulses founded thereon.  After
this he adverts to  the hypothesis respecting the rhythmus, or interval
between the diastole and systole,  as to the equality or inequality of
time,  inductive of variation in  the pulse with  respect to strength,
continuity, or interruption, &c.;  then points out the mode of esti-
mating the quantity of the diastole and systole; and  says that  the
volume  or  srnallness of the pulse, with its other variations, should
be attended to in  the systole.  This is followed by noticing a triple
genus of causes  of the pulse,  designated  by the  terms continent,
antecedent, and procalarctic.   This being explained, he points out
the uses of diastole and systole;  and remarks,  that when those are
augmented, such  and such  pulses are induced.  He  now proceeds
to a consideration of the pulse in health, as leading to the knowledge
of that which is preternatural or  unhealthy; and examines the pro-
positions of Herophilus on the subjects of diastole, systole and rhyth-
mus ; says that systole can scarcely be known in new-born children;
but that as age advances, the  four times  or differences augment;
and he then directs the reader to  the mode of acquantance wilh  the
systole and diastole, both in febrile invasion, and in putrescence of
the humours.  Diastole, he says, relates to inspiration, systole to  ex-
piration;  and by comparing these,  the extent of  lesion may be
judged  of.  He then notices some  pulses,  in which  the rhythmus
varies;  the difference  of natural  pulses,  as induced  by  sex, age,
season, &c, and takes a glance at those natural things or circum- 
                          SEMEIOTICS.                       613
stances in sickness  (symptoms) by which accurate information of
the affection may be attained; next speaks of the signs of febrile
invasion, and of those which Themison regarded as  absolute and
certain.   He now proceeds to consider  the causes of inequality in
the pulse, and reckons up nine orders of such inequality in one
pulse; says that the inequality in one pulsation is not in the softness
or hardness of the artery ; and that if it be in several pulsations, it
will generally be in frequency or in slowness.   He observes that a
conjunction of inequalities in one pulse, will enable us to judge which
concur in promoting a good or bad  crisis; mentions what pulses
should be considered in the  diastole of  the artery; what  affection
is  peculiar to each,  and what prognosis  may be drawn from  them.
He then describes a great variety of pulses, under the names of vi-
brating, waving, undulating,  vermicular,  formicans, &c,  and pro-
ceeds to notice  some, that in one  diastole, have an  inequality in
different  parts of the artery ; explains sundry occasional phenomena
apparent in the pulse ; speaks of the knowledge attained  of  fever,
by means of  the pulse; of the different  forms of fever,  and of the
pulse  peculiar to each, and of the indications of crises to be de-
rived  from it.  He now  proceeds  to speak  of the pulse peculiar
to various diseased states,  as pulmonic  and thoracic  affections,
of the diaphragm,  liver,  spleen, stomach, bladder, uterus and  its
membranes,  muscles, testes, &c,  and then takes notice of the
diagnostics of those causes (external) by which  the pulse is altered
in magnitude or diminution, such as baths, frictions, exercise, &c,
—what indications  are deducible from  slow, frequent, intermitting,
intercurrent and other pulses; and speaks of  inequality as  con-
sisting either in the situation or the motion of the parts.   In  a sy-
noptic view of the whole  subject in his  last chapter, Galen collects
what has been said, and teaches how to prognosticate the termina-
tion of disease in health or in death; the time of recovery  or death,
and the  mode of each; embracing  in this consideration the rules
for knowing whether  the vis  vitalis is weakened by its  own exer-
tions, or  is overpowered by a host of foreign agencies; and con-
cludes vvith  some  remarks on the  termination  of  future crises in
various  modes.
   This hasty summary of the different  books on the pulse, occupy-
ing nearly two hundred folio pages, imperfect as it is, is sufficient,
I should judge, to impress on every medical man, an opinion highly
favourable to the illustrious author of these ancient views, had even 
614                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

nothing further of his writings reached us.  Upon the whole, on
reviewing the sixteen  books of Galen, on the  pulse at large, or his
condensed  synopsis, and other  treatises on the  subject; I appre-
hend we may safely conclude that there is full as much good sense
and reason in  his  speculations, as in  any of  those that have since
his  time been  promulgated by Solano, Bordeau, Nihill, Falconer,
and others, down to the later period of Hillier, Parry, and  many
more in Great Britain, and  elsewhere.  A comparison of his state-
ments will  establish the  correctness of  many of his propositions;
and we  may be  inclined to  doubt, whether  a man, who here so
fully proves his powers,  and the resources of his art, could possibly
have drawn his explanations and deductions on the pulse, from dis-
sections and observations of  the  monkey alone; or  that one who
observed so cautiously  and  extensively, could  be deficient  in a
knowledge of the circulation in most, or  all of those  particulars,
which have been so pertinaciously awarded to Harvey !  The loss
of some of his writings has  unquestionably  thrown difficulties in
the  way of knowing the full extent of his information on this, and
some  other subjects;  but enough is here said, in  connexion with
other  parts of his works, to render  such opinion not even tenable.
I have largely discussed  this subject elsewhere,* and shall only add,
that so many authors are alluded to, whose  works and opinions are
known to us  through Galen  alone, as to give a high  character to
his  extensive research  and erudition ;  and  our regret must  be
strengthened, that  so  much# actual information of ancient science,
especially that of medicine, should have been  lost, in the conflagra-
tion of  the Alexandrine and other libraries, before the general
extension of  printing had rendered such an  event of comparative
insignificance.


       VIII. GALENI,  DE URINIS, LIBER SPURIUS.

                        ON  URINES.
                          Bas. Ed., p. 474.

  It seems doubtful whether  this be the production of Galen, al-
though he did write one  on the urines, as  he  mentions  in his first
commentary on the humours.  That the ancients generally thought

                   * Refutation of Harvey's claims. 
                            SEMEIOTICS.                        g15

more on the subject of  this discharge, and attended to it more uni-
formly and critically than  is now  done, cannot be doubted; and
that many indications,  &c, framed  on the discharge, either  as  to
colour,  density,  or tenuity, and other  points, were well  founded.
It must be  admitted  that we fail  greatly, by our almost  total re-
linquishment of  its inspection,  whilst we sedulously attend  to the
discharges from  the bowels, the stomach, lungs, &c.   If these are
required,1 why not  also, in  a greater degree the  inspection of that
fluid, which comes  freighted with so large an amount of saline and
other matters secreted  from the blood, and  freeing that important
fluid from some of  its most  injurious contents.   Why has this oc-
curred?   And from what  period  may this solecism be dated?  It
may be difficult to respond  to these questions.  Possibly, the dignity
of  the Profession was  humbled, by the  empiric extension of this
subject of inquiry, in the hands  of  the so-called  water doctors, who
regarded the urine as the sole register to be examined in respect to
the patient!   In  laughing those rogueish medicasters out of counte-
nance, the regular members have occasionally received some rubs,
which seem  to have  caused a  perfect  obliviscence that the  urine
was a secretion from the blood ; and an excrement whose discharge
from  the system  was of infinite consequence.   Its saturation and
super-saturation  with saline matter, that could find no exit  from the
circulation except through  the  kidneys;  and the evil to be appre-
hended  from its  retention, to the system  at large, or to particular
parts; conspire to prove that  it was deservedly considered  of the
highest  importance by  our patient and indefatigable forefathers in
medicine !  and that, although they may have overdrawn  the  sub-
ject, it is not the less deserving  of our favour and protection.11
  * Which are chiefly the mere excrementitious parts of the food taken in; is  it
possible that the urine coming by secretion from the interior of the system, can be
justly neglected ?
  b Water doctors.—It is well known that within a very few years, some European
practitioners acquired large sums by prescribing after simply inspecting the urine of
their patient, by which they became fully acquainted with his disorder;—hence their
common appellation was that of water doctors.  At present our intention in adverting
to the fact is merely to introduce ajeu d'esprit, applied, it would seem, to the celebrated
Doctors Mead  and Sloane.  Whether  either of those gentlemen, in their examina-
tion of the urine, went further than mere inspection, as was mostly the case, we
know not.  It is,  however, a good hit—and ought not to be lost;—we can join in a
laugh  on the profession, although members of it; for we well know it is often well
deserved.  It does not, however, at all diminish our  respect  for the science, nor for 
616
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
  The author of this treatise, whoever he may be, has presented in
successive ,chapters, all  that apparently  was then known on  the
subject;  and  no  doubt,  accurate observation on  our part, would
fully substantiate  the  truth  of many particulars  laid  down in this
and  other  writings connected  with  the  subject.    The  treatise
scarcely admits of abridgment.  The importance of urine, as a
critical discharge, is considered in the following treatise.
         IX.  GALENI, DE  CRISIBUS, LIBRI TRES.


                    OF CRISES:--IN THREE  BOOKS.


                           Bas. Ed., p. 482.

   The doctrine of crises, it is well known, has at all times  been a
favourite and plausible one among the most learned members of our
science,  until within a short period; but even now, when  it  is con-
sidered as having been  greatly exaggerated  and  overdone, in by-
gone times, there is not  a doubt, that we still  look, (with  half assu-
rance of its truth) for the same events, under equal circumstances,
as are detailed in the pages of Hippocrates and Galen.
   By the term crisis, the ancients understood a sudden and rapid
change in disease, tending to recovery or to death.  In this struggle

those great and able members  who have helped to rescue it from that general ridicule
bestowed on it by Le Sage, Quevedo and others, but which might have been legitimately
and advantageously administered in particular cases.

             " AN OLD WOMAN'S FUN ; OR, THE DOCTORS OUTWITTED.

           Two able physicians as e'er prescribed  physic,
           Were sent for in haste to repair down to Chyswick,
           Each took my lord's water, viewed, tasted and smelt it,
           Then apply'd to his pulse, and immediately felt it.
           Quoth  Mead, " I'd let blood, as his lordship's red water
           Denotes an high fever,—and a bolus soon after."
           " You are right brother Mead, and (to this, added Sloane,)
           He that voided this water must needs have the stone;"
           —You are out {quoth the nurse) and have both of you miss'd,
           For it was not my lord, but my lady that----"
                                               Gent. Mag. 35, p. 478. 
                          SEMEIOTICS.                      617
 of  Nature, if she prevailed, the patient  was saved;  but  if she
 succumbed, the tendency was to death.  In a more limited applica-
 tion, the term  was sometimes used to signify a secretion of some  of
 the humours, through which the semina morbi might be evacuated,
 and health restored.
   Great allowance  is to be made for the difference to be perceived,
 as to the facts themselves of the doctrine of crises, as abundantly
 set forth by former observers, when we consider the numerous alte-
 rations in the habits of life in  almost every particular, from those
 of former times ; each in its turn, no doubt, exercising some influ-
 ence on the regular operations of the living system.  Thus, the in-
 troduction  of  many articles  of immense  consumption,  employed
 primarily perhaps as merely luxuries, but subsequently becoming  of
 absolute and  universal  necessity.   Is it  possible such  an  entire
 change  of  habits should be unaccompanied  by modifications in the
 human constitution, and thereby greatly  tend  to  alter the natural
 actions of  foreign agencies, whether of an  healthy or morbid influ-
 ence?   Need we mention the articles of tea, coffee, punch,  spirit-
 uous liquors of every description! the narcotic influence of tobacco
 amongst the nations of Europe and America, and of opium among
 the Eastern population, where wine is altogether prohibited !  May
 we not  to these superadd the extension  of commerce, and  the
 gradual increase of, and facilities in  travelling, alike productive  of
 infinite changes in  the long established customs and habits of former
 ages?   Changes, moreover, among a large proportion of mankind,
 arising out of the numerous modifications of religious and sectarian
 pursuits, that have sprung into existence since  the reformation; by
 which those salutary habits of restriction  in diet, by temperance
 and fasting, have been nearly abolished, or at least most imperfectly
 conformed to!—and latterly, the powerful influence of liberty, both
 of mind and body; which, originating principally through our revo-
 lutionary struggles,  is still advancing, and must continue to advance,
 until the  whole human race shall  taste  of that  (to many, still  for-
 bidden) fruit!  Consider the invigorated operations of the mind since
 printing  shed  its influence abroad; and which was in truth,  the
 principal agency in advancing into  broader day, what had before
 been merely dim and  feeble  glimmerings, amidst the Cimmerian
darkness of the middle ages!   Let us, I repeat, advert to these and
other circumstances which will present themselves to the mind ; and
we shall  probably discover sufficient causes for those discrepancies 
618                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.
that are to be found in the critical observations of the ancients and
moderns.
  Physicians formerly regarded themselves as merely the ministers
of nature,—and  acting under this impression, seldom interfered to
restrain her operations.   In the rapid advance of science, and the
march of mind, fancy has not been idle!  and  the former humble
follower  of nature,  has  ventured to take the lead; and  amid the
revolutions of the world, the physician has assumed the privilege of
enforcing, or of counteracting the laws of nature, by means of the
adventitious and  partial  knowledge, that he has  (or thinks he has)
acquired !  But,  as the poet says of this mighty power,
             " Natura si furca expellas, tamen usque recurrit."
  And hence she strives  continually to maintain that supremacy, to
which she is so justly entitled !  Shackled and enchained however
by her ruthless  tyrants,  what can she, for the  most part, effect,
save abortive attempts;  by which too frequently injury is produced,
rather than the benefit that might have otherwise been anticipated!
Under all the circumstances thus presented for reflection, it will be
readily  perceived that it would be unnecessary to enter further into
the subject; and  yet, very much of a practical  nature might  be at-
tained from  a correct  translation of  the  books in question,  and
many acknowledged truths would be admitted by the reader,
 X. GALENI, DE DIEBUS DECRETORIIS, LIBRI TRES.


               OF CRITICAL DAYS : IN THREE BOOKS.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 558.

  In the commencement of the first of these three books, Galen ex-
plains what is intended by crisis, and critical days, in a  very satis-
factory manner; and opposes those who deny the  existence of the
latter.  He then enters on the consideration of the doctrine of these
days, and  that of each in particular; and  minutely considers the
subject under all its bearings.
  In the second book the subject is continued, and that of astral in-
fluence is taken up, especially of the  sun and moon. Hippocrates 
                         SEMEIOTICS.                       619
is largely referred to, and, indeed, the whole may be regarded as in
a great measure a commentary on that great physician. The com-
parison  is made between the sun and  the  moon, the changes of
the  atmosphere from the influence of the latter in its occultation,
&c, together with much of a meteorological nature.   This is fur-
ther extended in the third book, the beginning of which is chiefly a
recapitulation of the preceding.   The sol-lunar influence is  as fully
unfolded as by Balfour and others of later date.   The changes of
weather and of the winds, &c, as derived from  the appearance of
the  moon, are  given, in the quotation of some  Latin hexameters
from Aratus, which Galen says are correct; and  he gives us his
reason for writing this third book on the subject of critical days;
which was, a vehement call on  him from  many  friends, to carry
it into effect, and he concludes  by affording an explanation  of what
is  meant by an acute and  chronic, a short and a prolonged dis-
ease, &c.
  And here we may ask, why  the heavenly bodies, or  planets,
should not possess some  influence on  the living system both of ani-
mals and vegetables, when that influence is admitted on mere brute
matter.   The production of the  tides is  attributed to the influence
of the moon, although the quo modo is  not  uniformly established.
How far it is really true, is hard  to say.   Our highly-gifted Frank-
lin  doubts its  correctness in  an  interesting essay or letter on the
subject!  Much may be urged  on either side,  and whether it be
possible to arrive at a perfect solution, may  well be doubted.

   XI. GALENI, IN PRIMUM PRORRHETICI LIBRUM
                HIPPOC.  COMMENT. TRES.

  THREE COMMENTARIES ON THE  FIRST BOOK OF THE PRORRHETICS OF
                        HIPPOCRATES.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 616.

  There have been  doubts as to the first book of Prorrhetics having
been written by Hippocrates.  However this be, the predictions,
(170 in number,) with the commentaries upon  them, are  not  un-
deserving of attention.   They can scarcely be abbreviated: all
that need be stated,  is, that afier  pointing out, why predictions  are
necessarv to  the physician, we  have several of the  symptoms or
sio-ns, by "which  predictions are deduced; such as those derived from 
620                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

the eyes, tongue, mode of lying in bed, and all such as are enume-
rated in the book of prognostics; and, as it seems to me, they should
be conjointly studied, as  affording  mutual and  great assistance.
Like all the brief sentences  or aphorisms of Hippocrates, they
require the able comments of Galen, fully to appreciate them.  Like
isolated texts, without an  explanation, they are  very unimportant
and incomprehensible, if not inconsistent;  a position admitted  by
Galen  himself, who, in  the beginning of the second  commentary,
says, " Multa quidem in libro toto carent perspicuitate."—I may here
remark, that this is one of the Hippocratic writings  that has been
translated by Moffatt, and printed 1788, with " large annotations,
critical and explanatory."  They serve,  however, rather to whet
the appetite, and thereby prepare it for the far more extended com-
mentaries of Galen.


    XII.  GALENI, IN PROGNOSTICA HIPPOCRATIS,
                    COMMENT.  TRES.

     THREE COMMENTARIES  ON THE PROGNOSTICS OF HIPPOCRATES.
                          Bas. Ed., p. 726.

   This book of Prognostics is likewise  translated by Moffatt,  but
it is of the text alone of Hippocrates, and  unattended by any notes
or commentaries, save  a few at the foot of a page.  Galen has been
diffuse in his commentaries.   This, like the preceding, can scarcely
be abridged; and I could  but repeat, what is there remarked. Cer-
tainly  the comments of Galen in a good translation, would be well
calculated to promote reflection; for they are on subjects of much
interest and importance.  In the Venice edition  there appear to be
one hundred and fifty-eight sections or texts, whilst in that of Basil,
they are made  to amount  to one hundred and sixty-four.


     XIII.  GALENI, DE DIGNOTIONE EX  INSOMNIIS
                         LIBELLUS.

                   OF INDICATION FROM DREAMS.

                          Bas. Ed., p. 820.

   In this short treatise of scarcely a page, Galen has given us much 
                          SEMEIOTICS.                       621
on the indications derivable  from  dreams; and  undoubtedly the
state of the body must, and does influence that of the mind'on many
occasions ; so that a judicious physician will be  enabled occasionally
to call to his assistance even  the " visions of the  nisht"  in aid of
his  opinion.  His speculations as to the state or looation of the
mind (anima,) during dreams,  and sundry  speculations  as to the
causes, &c, are plausible at least as any that can be now advanced ;
and although this production  is of no great importance,  it yet af-
fords additional proof of the  indefatigable attention paid  by Galen,
to investigate his patient's  complaints by every means that would
afford him a probable assistance in attempting his cure!


       XIV. GALENI, DE  PR^COGNITIONE  LIBER.

                         ON PROGNOSIS.

                          Bas. Ed., p. 822.

  This book, addressed to  Posthumus, maintains  the  capability of
the physician to predict what is about to happen to  each patient.
In doing this, the writer informs  his friend that he  had offended
many physicians on his first settling at Rome by the predictions he
made on several occasions.   He depicts the habits of the medical
men, at that  period  residing in Rome; by which it  appears that
professional animosity was as high  then in that city, as it has been
elsewhere, at any time;  and  he comes to the  following conclusion
in relation to them, "Ergo, ut apud nos sibi latrones parcunt, et in
facienda injuria, mutuo conveniunt, ita medici Romas nunc habi-
tantes faciunt, hocque solo a latronibus differunt, quod in urbibus,
non  in montibus scelera perpetrant."—In animadverting on the igno-
rance and malice of these men, he speaks of patients cured  by himself
after they had been deserted by them ;—of his detecting by the pulse
the love and anxiety of a female for a man; together with  other
cases of considerable interest; and finally mentions his retreat from
Rome to his native country;  and his  recall by the Emperors Anto-
ninus and Commodus ;—then recurring to the subject of predictions,
he states other instances of much merit, finishing thus the book;—and
with it terminates the fourth  class. 
CLASS   V.
                  OF  PHARMACY.


  Galeni Librorum quinta Classis earn medicinas partem, quas ad
Pharmaciam spectat, exponens;  simplicium medicamentorum, sub-
stitutorum,  purgantium, antidotorum,  componendorum  tam  per
locos  quam per genera medicamentorum,  ponderum denique, ac
mensurarum doctrinam comprehendit.—Venice Ed. 1609.

      INDEX OF THE VARIOUS BOOKS CONTAINED IN THIS CLASS.

                                               TRANSLATOR.
1. Galeni de simplicium medicamentorum facul-
	tatibus, libri undecim,.....	T. G. Gaud ano.
2.	de substitutis medicinis liber, - - - -	J. M. Rota.
3.	de Purgantium medicamentorum facul-	
		Idem.
4.	Quos purgare conveniat, quibus medica-	
	mentis, et quo tempore, ....	Idem.
5.	de Theriaca, ad Pisonem liber, - - -	Idem.
6.	de usu Theriacas, ad Pamphilianum liber,	Idem.
7.		Idem.
8.	de compositione medicamentorum se-	
	cundum locos, libri decern, - - -	J. Cornarius.
9.	de compositione medicamentorum per	
		J. Andernach.
10.	de ponderibus et mensuris, liber, - -	Idem.
 
                          PHARMACY.                       623

  These books, or fifth class, are of interest sufficient to engage the
attention of all who are desirous to investigate the theoretic opinions
of Galen and others, as to the asserted faculties or powers of simple
medicines.  It is impossible to abridge them;  yet  they  are full of
facts and  practical matter  ; and, to the teacher, they open a wide
field of information as to  the Materia Medica of the day  ; and thus
enable him to compare its present, with its past extent; and to find
not a little, that in later days has been given to the world  as altoge-
ther novel!
I. GALENI, DE SIMPL. MEDICAMENT. FACULTATIBUS,
                     LIBRI UNDECIM.

              OF THE POWERS OF SIMPLE REMEDIES.

                    IN  ELEVEN  BOOKS.

                          Bas. Ed., p. 5.


                          BOOK I.

  Among the many subjects of this book we find water pretty fully
noticed: and in the course of its consideration, reference is made to
mineral waters;  and even artificial mineral waters seem  to have
been known.  After mentioning saline, nitrous, sulphurous and bitu-
minous waters, Galen adds, "Imitari autem potes  sicut marinam,
sic aliarum quamlibet," &c.   Connected with the subject, we find
a speculation as to the cause of thirst, and of tastes, &c.  Vinegar
also is considered.


                        BOOK  II.

  In this book, he attacks the opinions of the Sophists who refused
to confide in the senses, and confutes their  demonstrations.  Here
the subject of  oil  is largely considered, in the course of his  argu-
ments against  Archidamus. Other practical remarks occur through-
out, of a pharmaceutic character. 
624
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                        BOOK  III.

  Repeating the outlines of the preceding books, the subject is dis-
cussed of hot, cold, moist and dry; and something is said respecting
the  necessity of experience, in order to know and properly estimate
the  powers of  medicines; and this is made to diverge  in a variety
of particulars,  much of which is speculative, and arising out of the
hypothesis adopted by Galen.


                          BOOK  IV.

  The consideration of some individual articles and preparations is
here further pursued.  Astringents, bitters, and other  divisions  of
the  Materia Medica are elucidated; and  the  various tastes, &c,
are  considered as to their essence and existence.
                          BOOK  V.

  The uses of medicines are pointed to;  such as  refrigerate or
moisten, and heat or dry the system;—in connexion with  some of
which the production of pus, of scirrhus and some other affections,
&c, is explained; likewise purgation, diuresis, &c,  and some other
discharges.


                   BOOKS  VI.   TO  IX.

  These books embrace the  consideration of all the individual arti-
cles, chiefly in alphabetical order, of the vegetable kingdom.


                          BOOK X.

  The powers of medicines as derived from  the animal kingdom
are here treated of; chiefly,  however,  of the excrementitious parts,
beo-inning with the blood of  various animals; then follow, milk and
its preparations, bile, sweat,  urine, saliva, &c.—excrements  of man, 
                          PHARMACY.                      625
of the dog, and many other animals, with their differences; and the
sordes of the ears and skin !

                         BOOK  XI.
  The animals themselves, and their different  parts,  are herein
mentioned.   Thus, we have the viper, fox, hyena,  weasel, frog,
grasshopper, earthworm, bugs, cantharides, and many more.  Notice
is paid  to the fat, lard, marrow, heads, bones, horns, liver, nails,
skin, and other parts.   Cobweb is also mentioned;—oysters, eggs,
snails, crabs, swallows, sponge, and  so  forth.   Several  hundred
articles are thus treated of in these eleven books, derived from the
different kingdoms of nature, that appear to have been employed in
the practice of medicine.   Some few of these have reached us, and
continue, under different indications, to augment the list of the pre-
sent day.


   II. GALENI  DE  SUBSTITUTE MEDICINIS LIBER.

                   OF MEDICINAL SUBSTITUTES.

                          Bas. Ed., p. 322.

   Galen tells us that as Dioscorides and others, had written some-
what on this subject  of succedania,  or a quid pro quo; he also
deemed it right to state what, in  case of need, might be substituted
for an article intended, and informs  us  by what  means he was
induced to  follow it up.   Alphabetically arranged, we  have a list
of two hundred  and fifty  articles and more, whose  place may be
supplied by others; and from those enumerated, it would seem of
little  importance which of them were employed; as for the most
part they might be adopted at random.


  III.  GALENI,  DE  PURGANTIUM MEDICAMENTORUM
                       FACULTATE.

        OF THE FACULTY OR POWER OF PURGATIVE REMEDIES.
                          Bas. Ed., p. 328.

   In  this treatise, Galen attempts to show, in opposition to Erasis-
tratus and Asclepiades, that every purgative possesses the power of
                              40 
626
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
attracting and discharging an appropriate  humour; and  that by
this means the blood is purified.   Not that the humours are capable
of transmuting the medicine into themselves, nor is any humour
indiscriminately discharged by  any purgative.  Bloodletting, in-
asmuch as all the  humours are conjoined together in  the vessels,
promotes the discharge of all  alike; and  such is the  case  also,
when by the operation of a violent remedy, blood is evacuated by
stool; otherwise the remedy given,  first purges off the  humour to
which its affinity is greatest, and then one of the others may follow.
Some useful facts are  dispersed throughout  the treatise,  which,
founded on what are  now regarded as erroneous  data, is, never-
theless not unskilfully  managed in the superstructure.
  IV. GALENI, QUOS PURGARE CONVENIAT,  QUIBUS
      MED1CAMENTIS,  ET QUO TEMPORE, LIBER.

 WHOM, WITH WHICH, AND AT WHAT TIME, PURGATION IS APPROPRIATE.

                        Bas. Ed., p. 340.

  This book is by some asserted to be the production of Oribasius,
made up from  the writings of Galen.  It is probably the case, for
it is at best, a  trifling work, and cannot add to the reputation  of
Galen.  Some  good remarks are made as to the occasional diffi-
culty of exciting purgation, from the  compact and  hardened state
of the fasces; under which circumstances enemata should  precede
the administration of the remedy.
   V. GALENI, DE THERIACA,  AD PISONEM, LIBER.

                      OF THE THERIACA.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 340.

  The subject of this book seems to have been  a favourite with
Galen, who pursues it in all its bearings ; and he explains what led
physicians to the formation of so  compound a remedy.  A long
list of the articles  entering into the composition  of the theriaca 
                          PHARMACY.                      627
forms perhaps the chief value of the book at the present day; and
notice is taken as to numerous variations that had been introduced
into its formation; its uses, doses, and other particulars find their
respective places, both in prose and in verse.


VI. GALENI, DE USU THERIACA, AD PAMPHILIANUM,
                           LIBER.

                 OF THE USE OF THE THERIACA.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 372.

  This is  considered  a  doubtful  production.   It is of little im-
portance in the present day, when its sixty or eighty ingredients
have been  cut  down to fifteen or twenty.  It may be regarded as
a continuation of the  preceding, and as deserving about the same
degree of attention.
        VII.  GALENI, DE ANTIDOTIS, LIBRI DUO.

                    TWO BOOKS ON ANTIDOTES.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 378,


                         BOOK  I.

  In this first book, explanation is  afforded of what is understood
by an antidote, viz., that it is  a medicine, which taken internally,
cures the evil  affections  (malas  affectiones) of the  body.  The
author proceeds to mention a  great variety of such remedies, and
particularly notices the Mithridate, and the Theriaca Andromachi,
between  which a comparison is drawn, and their preparation is
unfolded, and the various frauds therein  poipted out.  The choice
of the various articles  is explained, and  the different instruments
and  manipulations described.   The  preparation  of the theriaca
of the elder Andromachus is given afterwards  in verse, its uses,
and in what diseases, &c, and  also of the theriaca of Damocrates. 
628
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                          BOOK  II.

   The subject is here continued ; and a great number of antidotes
from different authorities are described, many of them in Latin ver-
sification.  Among the antidotes are many against the bite of a mad-
dog, most of which have had their ups and down, in perpetual fluc-
tuation  of recommendation and  contempt,  which it  is scarcely
necessary to copy.  I shall  only state that  amongst them we find
the alyssus, trifolium, crabs-claws, and others that are occasionally
still made to appear under the sanction of some quack.   As giving
us some slight acquaintance with the remedies at that time employed,
a  cursory glance may prove  useful; and  whilst laughing at the
polypharmacy of past ages,  let us not omit to consider,  whether in
our own time, this folly is not still  too prevalent  both  in our pre-
scriptions, and in our drug-stores; and equally so in the schools of
medicine."


VIII. GALENI, DE COMPOSITIONE MEDICAMENTORUM
                 LOCALIUM,  LIBRI DECEM.

              OF THE COMPOSITION OF LOCAL REMEDIES.

                          IN TEN BOOKS.

                          Bas. Ed., p. 450.

   Ten books on the subject of remedies appropriate for different parts
and their respective diseases !!  Specifics and panaceas, no doubt!
yet amidst all this work of  supererogation, there  is to  be found a
good deal of useful matter, in the description of many of the diseases
peculiar to the different parts or organs.

  a A principal advantage of homoeopathic practice consists in their " infinitesimal"
doses;—for assuredly, if they do no good, they at least can do no harm; which is more
than can be said of the large and repeated doses of the most powerful remedies in the
allopathic practice.  Nature being, after all, the real practitioner in the human system,
she is less liable to he disturbed in her operations by homoeopathy; whilst she is too
often entirely put out of her way, by the ill-judged, and ill-timed practice of those who
view her in the light of a servant, whose province it is implicitly to obey the extrava-
gances of theoretic practice, in which they have been indoctrinated. 
PHARMACY.
629
                          BOOK I.

  In this we are first presented with the indications of cure, and
the general preparation of remedies;  followed by  an account of
the various affections of the hair of different parts of the body, and
the different prescriptions at different times  proposed.   Alopecia  is
largely considered, and the means  of prevention ;  as also for the
growth of the hair;  in which Cleopatra figures as a candidate, for
the honour of preventing the necessity  of a wig!  Tinging or co-
louring the hair is largely expounded; and some treatises on this
subject and  on general ornamenting of the body, as collected  by
Crito, who appears to have embraced the whole art and manipulation
of cosmetics and their congenera; his four  books on which, the de-
light of the female sex, Galen tells us were in every one's possession.
Our present perfumers and venders of arcana, sink into nothing be-
fore him; and if his books could  be attained, they would indeed
prove a treasure!  Galen gives the heads of  the chapters of each
book, but the particulars are unnoticed, probably for the reasons
above.  One of the chapters is headed " Quas conservant virgini-
tatem!"—Perfumes,  unguents, and other  personal and domestic
applications are numerous, whether for gratification or the removal
of disease.   Galen concludes the  list,  by  saying, "In his quatuor
libris Crito diligentissime omnia ferme exornatoria pharmaca scrip-
sit, appositis etiam comptoriis quas spuriam  pulchritudinem non ve-
ram inducunt, quapropter  etiam  ego  ea  relinquam."  He  does,
however, notice a few articles " quas pulchritudinem secundum na-
turam conservant."  A chapter on Phthiriasis affords numerous
articles for its cure.

                         BOOK II.

  Headache from  numerous  causes is  treated of in this book, its
contusions, ulcers,  &c, and the appropriate remedies, including
amulets, epithemeta, &c, from  various authorities.

                        BOOK  III.

  The various  affections of the ears and nostrils are  here consi-
dered, and their treatment given. 
630
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
                         BOOK  IV.

  Here the diseases of the eyes and lids, &c, and remedies are
noticed; and the multitude of both, would not disgrace our present
authorities!

                          BOOK V.

  Continues the subject;  and  to  it succeed the affections of the
chin and face, and those of the teeth and gums;—dentistry seems
nearly at as high  a state  as at present; Archigenes,  Appollonius,
Asclepiades and others have forestalled us in preventing the loosening
and fcetor of the teeth; or removing them without pain ; and den-
tifrices were abundant.  Crito  is  equally at  home here, as in the
first book.  Galen's own prescriptions, which he mentions  as " ex-
periment comprobata" if  we  could readily  verify all the articles
mentioned, are here found.

                         BOOK  VI.

  Affections of the mouth follow.  Many remedies are stated, and
their preparation;  and many authorities noticed.  In  this  book is
also  noticed the removal  of the uvula  by incision, and as recom-
mended by Hippocrates;  an operation  supposed by some of our
confraternity to be of recent origin, and ignorantly ascribed to a
late celebrated Professor ; although it is mentioned by almost every
writer from Hippocrates down ; and by some of whom even a pic-
ture is given of the instruments by which it was to be executed !


                       BOOK  VII.

  Affections of the respiratory organs  are here given.   Dyspnoea,
and  other difficulties  of breathing; haemoptysis, phthisis,  &c,—
remedies, &c.!

                      BOOK  VIII.

  This book is occupied with the remedies adapted to affections of 
                           PHARMACY.                       6„.

the stomach and liver.  The various modes of preparing the Hiera
are again given;  volvulus, singultus, &c.   Liver and its affections.
BOOK  IX.
  The liver and its affections continued ; icterus.  The spleen and
its complaints, and  remedies from various sources.  Dropsy, colic,
dysentery,  affections  of the  rectum and  anus, hemorrhoids, pro-
lapsus, affections of  the pudenda,  and of  the  uterus, especially
hysteria.
                          BOOK  X.

  Here the remedies adapted to affections of the kidneys, bladder,
and joints are  noticed;  nephritis, sciatica, gout, &c, as  described
by different authors.
  These books have  some  interest,  as containing the remedial
measures of many physicians, whose  names  are not unknown to
us; and some amusement may be found in the descriptions given of
them, partly in  prose and partly poetical.4
 IX. GALENI, DE  COMPOSITIONE MEDICAMENTORUM
               PER  GENERA, LIBRI SEPTEM.

 OF THE COMPOUNDING OF REMEDIES IN  RELATION WITH THEIR GENERA.
                         IN SEVEN BOOKS.

                           Bas. Ed., p. 788.

   Galen, in a  kind  of preface to  these books, informs us that he
 had previously completed  the two  first, but that  they were  un-
 fortunately destroyed in a fire, which burned down  the Temple of
 Peace,b and the vast  libraries (ingentes bibliothecas)  belonging to

  * Perhaps but little use can be made of these books, or of those that succeed, amid
the infinite changes of pharmacy and chemistry.  They will at any rate serve to point
out the groundwork of several of our present preparations, and to present to the Pro-
fession, proof of the indefatigable industry of their illustrious author.
  b Vide "de Anatom. Administ. Lib. 1." 
632                   THE WORKS OF GALEN.

the palace.  Several other of his writings shared their fate, and he
was compelled, from the want of another copy, to renew his labour
at the solicitation of his friends.   He points out the previous attain-
ments necessary for those who desire faithfully to compound medi-
cines, and reproves those  who maintain  that in such compounds,
the powers  of the simple medicines are  preserved;  telling  them
they do not distinguish between proper, and acquired powers.  He
then states what is the use of compound remedies; and treats of a
great variety of  plasters, and of  the  principles that enter into their
formation, and uses.


                        BOOK  III.

   Here, remedies  are classed together  that are employed in the
affections  of the nerves, from wounds, punctures,  contusions; and
he prides himself on being the first to pursue the plan, which differed
greatly from that before adopted, and which was generally  fatal.
Many  useful practical preliminary remarks occur, relating to the
subject; and the history is  given of the first invention by him of
his mode of cure.  Several other  histories of cases  are interspersed,
pointing out the difference  of,  and danger of  mistaking nerves,
tendons, and ligaments for each  other; and the equal folly of sup-
posing that all kinds of wounds, ulcers,  &c, were curable by one
and the same remedy.   The remedies of different  physicians in
such cases are enumerated by him from time to time.


                     BOOKS  IV.,  V.

   Remedies  useful  in putrid, malignant and other  ulcers,  are here
treated of;  many plasters  of the elder physicians described.   And
such is the case in the fifth  book, derived  from  every source, and
certainly, in number, sufficient for every emergency.


                        BOOK  VI.

   This book, consists chiefly of plasters  and  the like;  dignified
with  the  adjunct of many  virtues,  (De emplastris  polychrestis), 
                          PHARMACY.                      633
which they certainly possessed, if only of half the amount attributed
to them.


                       BOOK  VII.

  Emollient, relaxing, discutient, and  other like remedies are here
treated of, still closely united with plasters;  but differing a little in
name, viz., malagmata, acopa, et alia.


     X.  GALENI, DE PONDERIBUS ET MENSURIS
                  LIBELLUS—SPURIUS.

                  OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

                        Bas. Ed., p. 1046.

  This book is  of importance in  determining  the value  of the
weights and measures employed in medicine, in  the time of Galen.
It is obvious, however, that  it cannot be abbreviated;  and  that it
requires close  attention  in  all who may be  interested in the con-
sideration of the  subject.  If not the production of Galen, it may be
esteemed  as correct,  until at least the contrary is proved.
With this ends the fifth class of Galen's wrorks. 
                     CLASS  VI.


   OF THE INSTRUMENTS OF CLINICAL  PRACTICE."


   Galeni librorum sexta  classis de Cucurbitulis, Scarificationibus,
Hirudinibus, et Phlebotomia  prascipuo artis remedio tradit.—Ven.
Ed. 1609.                                      #

       INDEX OF THE VARIOUS BOOKS CONTAINED IN THIS CLASS.

                                                 TRANSLATOR.
  1. Galeni,  de Hirudinibus, revulsione, cucurbitula,
             scarificatione,  ac  Venas  incisione
             libellus,.........J.  Cornarius.
  2.       de Venassectione, adversus Erasistratum,
             liber,..........J. Tectander.
  3.       de Venassectione, adversus Erasistratasos,
             qui Romas degebant,.....Idem.
  4.       de  curandi  ratione per  sanguinis  mis-
             sionem liber,........T. Gaudanus.

   This sixth class, although the shortest, is yet, all things considered,
one of, if not the most interesting of Galen's works, whether as tend-
ing to show his  great  promptitude in bloodletting,  his  excellent
judgment in relation thereto, or in connexion with his admirable de-
fence of it against Erasistratus and his followers.  In most instances
his rules  are excellent, and some particulars may afford us instruc-
tion in several cases of a doubtful nature.   If we admit that  Galen
did not fully comprehend  the circulation as now (yet imperfectly)
taught, we cannot doubt that  the existence  of such a function was
strongly  and uniformly present in  his mind, and  that he compre-
" Opyttta. Kf Hkivathv. 
           OF THE INSTRUMENTS OF CLINICAL PRACTICE.       635

hended its necessity, and acknowledged its importance, in his regu-
lations for derivation and revulsion !  A man who judges so correctly
of venesection, and points out so minutely all its details and its prac-
tical utility, surely cannot be deemed ignorant of its existence uni-
versally; and in acknowledging the possibility of death from loss of
blood from a single vessel, from the anastomosis of them in every part;
surely, no great superiority over this information, can be strictly or
justly ascribed to the assumed discoveries awarded to Harvey.
  I. GALENI, DE HIRUDINIBUS, REVULSIONE, CUCUR-
              BITULA ET SCARIFICATIONE.

         OF LEECHES, REVULSION, CUPS AND SCARIFICATION.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 1053.

   In the first chapter of this book, he briefly notices  the multiplied
 uses of leeches, with the  means of insuring  their biting, in which
 ablution of the part is particularly insisted on; and even preparing
 the leech for  the operation, by  putting it in warm water, and  re-
 moving the sordes from their surface by soft sponge, &c.—if applied
 to the hands or feet, those parts are to be  immersed in the water
 with them. Snipping off their tail, to keep up the flow of the blood,
 is mentioned; and the subsequent application of cups, if necessary
 to continue it.   Several measures are given for stopping the bleed-
 ing when it continues beyond our wishes, amongst which are burnt
 galls, and heated pitch.   He regards the action of this species of
 bloodletting  as confined to  the blood of the  superficial skin and
 flesh, and  that they are simple  substitutes for cupping, and  are to
 be removed when half the amount  is abstracted, in order  (it is to
 be presumed) to give place to the cups.
   In treating of revulsion in the  second  chapter, some useful prac-
 tical facts are afforded, even if dissatisfied with his doctrines.  Thus,
 in promoting revulsion from the  chest or belly, the application is to
 be made to the hand; and to the lower parts, when the revulsion
 is to be  made from the stomach to  arrest vomition;  acrid  glysters
 are recommended for a like intent.  The application  of cups to the
breasts (mammas) is spoken of;  and to the prascordia, in epistaxis,
or in uterine haemorrhage, and other particulars are laid down. 
636                 TnE WORKS OF GALEN.

  In respect  to cups, (third chapter,) evacuations are previously
recommended;  and plethora seems to be regarded as opposed to
their employment;  for which cause they are not to be used in the
beginning of  inflammation  of the brain  and membranes, or other
parts; but rather after all due evacuations are had recourse to. The
effects of cupping  are to abstract  matter, allay pain, diminish  in-
flammation, discuss swellings, induce appetite, restore  energy to a
weakened stomach, to cut short deliquium, translate morbid afflux
from parts deep seated, restrain haemorrhage, and benefit menstrua-
tion.
  The subject of  scarification is then taken up, and " multum in
parvo" may be said of  it; the when, and the where,  are  briefly
pointed out to the reader.
  Immediately following  this book is a short one, in the Venice
edition, called a  discourse (sermo), by Oribasius;  it  is on nearly
the same subjects, and taken  from his seventh and eighth books, as
by him  abstracted from  Galen,  Antyllus,  Herodotus, Apollonius,
and Menamachus ; and in so far as epitomizing several preceding
writers,  it is by no means devoid of interest.  Not  belonging to my
subject, I, however, pass it by, merely staling that different kinds of
cups are mentioned, such as glass, horn, and brass :—this last being
most commonly employed ;  and  the glass  is commended from its
enabling us to see the amount of blood discharged.  The operation
is effected with the glass or brass cups, by aid of heat; with the
horn, by forcible suction  through an  aperture.  On the  subject of
phlebotomy, Apollonius, who is  very favourable  to  scarification,
says, however, that no one will suspect him of thereby exploding
it, for he never omits  it in the most dangerous diseases ; in which it
is requisite to employ it speedily and largely, in proportion to their
violence.

     II.  GALENI, DE  VEN^SECTIONE  ADVERSUS
                 ERASISTRATUM LIBER.

         OF VENISECTION, IN OPPOSITION TO ERASISTRATUS.

                        Bas. Ed., p. 1057.

  Erasistratus appears  to have  been the prototype of old  Van 
           OF THE INSTRUMENTS OF CLINICAL PRACTICE.        637
Helmont  in  his enmity to  bloodletting; and severely  has  Galen
animadverted on him and his disciples.  He commences this book
by saying he deemed it worthy of inquiry, why, whilst Erasistratus
had in relation  to many trifling remedies, written most minutely,
even as to their  most insignificant points, as in  the  manipulations
of a poultice, he had been altogether silent  respecting bloodletting;
even studiously  so,  whilst  many  celebrated ancient writers  had
fully treated of it before his time; and  he tells  us, that in all  his
writings, the word venassection only once  is to be found.   This
anomaly  Galen attempts to  elucidate, and  gives us the  opinions of
Erasistratus in respect to the origin of fever and inflammation, and
their conjunction;  and then inquires, why he preferred  abstinence
to bloodletting, seeing it was so tardy in its effects, when the latter
was  prompt and  immediate.   Galen  remarks  on  the universal
evacuation from bloodletting,  its  rapid influence, and even  the
example of nature herself, who was so  much esteemed by Erasis-
tratus.   The whole book is  a satirical review of his opinions  and
conduct.   Neither Dogmatist  nor  Empiric  rejected phlebotomy;
and physicians themselves uniting  in its employment, only differed
as to the  amount, the precise period, and  the part from which its
abstraction was to be  made;  which points, he  briefly treats  on.
He adverts to the facility of stopping the discharge at pleasure, and
of the  judgment that may be formed as to  the  amount from  the
change of colour in  the blood as  it flows.—Other remedies, after
being taken, are no  longer under  our control, whether  they work
for  good  or evil; and this  remark extends even to the aliment
employed.   He  ridicules those who call themselves after Erasis-
tratus,  and tells  them,  they did not comprehend  him.   That  their
master had  only three modes of evacuation,—baths, exercise, and
the negative one of diminished diet; which  last, he adds, is longer
in promoting its effects, and is more injurious to  the whole system
than venassection; which is more  prompt,  and safer, and not un-
frequently prevents a rupture of some vessel.  On these and other
points,  much is  said, and he  repeats that  Erasistratus  makes  no
reference to venassection. 
638
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
III.  GALENI,  DE VEN^SECTIONE  ADVERSUS  ERA-
        STSTRATiEOS QUI ROMiE DEGEBANT.

  OF VENISECTION, IN OPPOSITION TO THE  ERASISTRATEANS OF ROME.

                        Bas. Ed., p. 1074.

  It is probable that the preceding book had  called down the in-
dignation of the followers of Erasistratus; and that Galen wrote
this, in reply to their affirmations in behalf of their master.  He
tells  us that at first settling at Rome,  he found many physicians
who  so totally  repugned  venassection, that they would not  bleed in
cases of the greatest emergency; some of which cases he mentions,
and their fatal issue.  He affirms that they even mistook the opinions
of their master, and fell into subterfuges on the subject. In evidence
of this, he analyses  in a masterly manner, several  of these cases,
which had evidently proved fatal, from a neglect of this evacuation;
their errors are largely dwelt on, and combatted ;  and the practice
pursued by them, is justly censured!  The  reasons assigned by
them  and  their masters, for  the  omission,  are considered;  and
some judicious remarks are made as to the use of this evacuation, or
its omission.   In one part of the book we find the unacceptable
remark, that "Desiderantur hoc loco non pauca."


IV. GALENI,  DE  CURANDI RATIONE  PER  SANGUINIS
                   MISSIONEM LIBER.

              OF THE RATIONALE OF BLOODLETTING.

                        Bas. Ed., p. 1099.

  This book may be considered  as a full account of every thing
connected  with bloodletting;  such as the mode of operating, and
the preliminary considerations  leading thereto;   what affections
chiefly require it,  and  wherefore;  the locality   to be  selected,
whether of an  artery or vein, the amount, and other particulars.  It
is as a whole an admirable book, and deserves to be studied for its 
           OF THE INSTRUMENTS OF CLINICAL PRACTICE.       639

merits as practically elucidating the benefits of venassection.  Un-
questionably much useless  speculation exists, but this ought not to
preclude us from the information to be derived from other parts.
The boldness of his  practice is  conspicuous  throughout; his judg-
ment not less so; neither of which are reconcilable to an ignorance
or doubt of a circulation, even if some error may be ascribed to his
demonstrations, so  repeatedly enforced in order to enhance  the
merits of Harvey.   No one  has a right to judge in this, who has
neglected or omitted to read the writings of both Galen and Harvey;
and yet deems himself adequate, on mere second-hand authority,
(too often itself removed alike from actual  investigation,) to call in
question the knowledge of the former, and  to crown with laurel the
head of the latter!   If Harvey has actually discovered any indivi-
dual parts of the circulation or its structural  adaptations, unknown
to Galen, or to any anterior to the period of his own elucidations,
let them be  clearly advanced in his behalf;  but that such can be
done by his warmest  admirers, we have great doubts ! for even now,
all the mysteries of that wonderful contrivance  are far from being
fully comprehended,  or universally admitted.
  In this book, Galen again  animadverts on the falsehoods of the
Erasistrateans as to  venassection, telling them very plainly, that sub-
tile as they are in their wicked sophistry, they well knew that they
were lying at the time (mentiri se sciant), in striving to prove it a
novelty.  Whereas,  many ancient writers,  some of whom he men-
tions, had extolled it as  first on the  list of remedial agents.  He
affirms that on every question, reason or experience, or both united,
must decide; and refers the reader to his treatise "de plenitudine"
as a proper subject, previously to- reading this book.  He points out
some of the circumstances that indicate the propriety of bloodletting,
and others forbidding it;  together with the general views to be con-
sidered when  about  to prescribe it, and the  indications by which
its propriety may be  judged of.  He speaks of its use in gout, and
of his cures by it in the spring, as well as by purging; both of which
are usually injurious  in cases  of intemperance, whether in eating or
in drinking.   He makes a remark of importance to show the con-
jectural character of medicine, as deduced  from  the different  doses
of medicine required  ; and points out, what  cannot be too often  re-
peated, as a guard to presumption in our doses, that such exhibition
if erroneous, admits not of correction; whilst venassection is superior
io this respect, since  we can at once arrest  it; its efficacy is imme- 
640                   THE WORKS OF GALEN.

diate, when from plethora, &c, a violent and acute fever  requires
to be arrested, by bleeding ad deliquium, yet  at the same time with
proper caution."  He says he remembers thus having drawn off six
cotylab (about one lb. troy each) at once; with other instances of a
like kind, being at  the same time governed by the indications drawn
from the pulse, the spissitude or tenuity of the blood, and its improved
hue from  a dark  colour;  which last, he tells us, was Hippocrates'
rule for bleeding in pleurisy, and he gives various cautions for our
benefit.   The pulse,  he tells us, he particularly attended to, as  the
blood was flowing, lest, when least expected, death might ensue in-
stead of syncope, as happened in the practice of three  physicians.
He  inculcates what practically we  find erroneous,  not to  bleed
(with some exceptions) under  fourteen  years of age, nor beyond
seventy, to which  he seems to have been led  by some of his specu-
lations on the subject of plethora.  A case is recorded  of  ophthal-
mia, in the steward of a rich Roman, attended by a physician of the
sect  of Erasistratus;  that is, one who was an  enemy to bloodletting;
and  who had  been under his hands for twenty days.  By a little
finesse, Galen obtained the chance of prescribing for him at his own
(Galen's)  house for  three  days, at which he was directed to call.
" Venit  autem, (says  Galen,) circiter horam  quintam: ac prima
protinus  delractione, tres sanguinis libras exhausi,  deinde,  hora
nona, aliam,"—and by this treatment, and some topical  application,
on the third  day, he sent  him back to his master,  nearly  or  quite
restored.   The other physician seems finally  to have received from
the master, the appellative or nickname of ai|xa<po/3ov  or sanguifugus.
   Galen speaks very decidedly as to bleeding  in inflammation  of
the throat and windpipe;  and reprobates those physicians who limit
blood-letting  to the  first  days of the  disease;  some, he says,  not

  * It may be here added, the carelessness of physicians too often in writing their pre-
scriptions so illegibly that mistakes are not unfrequent; committed, as they not uncom-
monly are, to some ignorant assistant.  We have heard of death from  the  mistake of
aqua  fortis for aqua fontis, and others of a similar description; and wc have  lately seen
a "Correction" publicly given, calling on the  proprietors of a medical formulary to
correct a typographical error as respected the symbol of quantity in so  highly danger-
ous an article as prussic acid, in which an ounce (3i.) is prescribed instead of a drachm
(3i.)   Typographical or not, the proof reader and the printer are both reprehensible,
and should not have the charge of a publication, in which the lives of the community
may be said to be hazarded.
  b " Cotyla Attica, pendet uncias novem, ut Hemina Italica. Cotyla  Italica vero est
libra  mensuralis unciarum xii."   Blancard's Lexicon. 
           OF THE INSTRUMENTS OF CLINICAL PRACTICE.       641

daring to extend it beyond the third, and others the fourth  as  the
extreme; but he adds, we must bleed even on the  twentieth  day, if
strength permits, and forbear even on the second, should prostration
ensue.   He  laughs  equally  at the presumed hour of the day, on
which some fixed the operation, as at  five or six  in  the morning,
&c.  Night or day, says he, makes no odds;—giving at the same
time some cautions on the subject; and concluding this interesting
book with some remarks on arteriotomy, its dangers and  advan-
tages;  the danger of aneurism, and even death from not being  ac-
quainted with the vessels by dissection; and declaring the necessity
of tying up  the artery with  a ligature,  when unhappily wounded,
(necesse enim hie est  laqueo vasculum  constringere).   He seems
not to have omitted arteriotomy in different  parts, on many occa-
sions;  and notices the  circumstance of the ancients having called
arteries by the name of veins, as being elsewhere treated of by him.
   With this book the sixth class is brought to a termination.
41 
CLASS  VII.
THERAPEUTICS.
  Galeni librorum septima classis curativam methodum tum diffuse
tum breviter descriptam,  victus rationem in  morbis acutis, singu-
lorum morborum facile paranda remedia, privatam quorundam mor-
borum curationem, chirurgias constitutionem, fracturarum ac  luxa-
tionum sanationem, fasciarum  denique  et laqueorum, et machina-
mentorum tractatum continet.—Venice  Ed. 1609.

       INDEX OF THE VARIOUS BOOKS CONTAINED IN THIS CLASS.

                                             TRANSLATOR.
 1.  Galeni,  Methodi  Medendi,  i. e.,  de morbis
             curandis L. quatuordecem, -  -  - T. Linacre.
 2.       de  arte curativa,  Lib.  duo,   -  - N. Leonicenus.
 3.       in libros Hippoc. de Vict. rat.  in Morb.
             acut. Com. quatuor,.....J. Vasseus.
 4.       de remediis paratu facilibus, liber, -  - H. Barlandus.
 5.       de remediis paratu facilibus, ad Solo-
             nem,—spurius,......J. P. Crassus.
 6.       de rem. paratu facil. liber tertius,—spu-
             rius, ..........Idem.
 7.       Documentum de puero epileptico, -  -  N. L. Thomceus.
 8.       de incantatione  et amuletis  et  colli
             suspensione,—spurius,   -   -  -  -    incertus.
 9.          Commentarius in  lib.  duabus de
            natura humana,......V. Trincavellius.
10.       de Oculis Therapeuticon,—spurius,  - Demetrius, Grac.
11.       de renum affectuum  dignotione atque
             medela,—spurius,.....C. Heyl. 
                        THERAPEUTICS.                     643
12.  Galeni  in lib. Hippocratis de officina medici,
             Com- l»"es,.......V. Vidius.
13.       inlib.Hippoc.de Fracturis, Comment.
             tres>..........Idem.
14.       in lib. Hippoc. de Articulis, Comment:
             quatuor,........i(jem>
15.       de Fasciis, liber,.....Ven. Idem.
16.  Oribasius de Laqueis, ex Heracle,  - Ven. Idem.
17.  Idem,deMachinamentis ex Heliodoro, Ven. Idem.
  In the Venice edition, the following notice appears, " Hos sex li-
bros, quos Vidius olim  converterat, nunc idem etiam diligenter re-
cognovit."  The last three are not in the Basil edition.
 I. GALENI, DE MEDENDI METHODO, SEU DE MORB.
          CURANDIS, LIBRI QUATUOR-DECEM.

               OF THE METHOD OF CURING DISEASES.

                        Bas. Ed., torn, vi., p. 6.

   This treatise in nearly two hundred folio pages, may be regarded
 as a partial consideration of Galen's Practice of Physic, so far  as
 medicine is concerned ; for his whole writings point out how greatly
 he depended on diet.  It would be impossible to give even a faint
 outline of this extensive work within the short limits to which I am
 restricted.  A complete translation would not be useless at the pre-
 sent period.
  The first book is a severe castigation of Thessalus (the prince of
 the Methodists) and of his sect; his principles he inveighs against,
 and  overturns the foundations; pointing out the arrogance of the
 man, and the injury science had received through him.  Some in-
 sight is afforded of the follies and vices of Rome, and ascribing the
delay of  his own writings  to  the  idleness  and debauchery every
where surrounding him.  Addressing himself to his beloved  Hiero,
he reminds  him  that he, and  many friends, had exhorted him  to
write on the Practice of Physic; which, he adds, "I truly desire to 
644                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.
do, both to gratify him, and to benefit posterity.  Yet, I always de-
layed, and that on many  accounts;  the  chief of which was, that  I
feared I should write in vain, since scarcely any at this period paid
attention to the seeking after truth.  Money, civil power, and volup-
tuousness, alone took the lead ; and all who pursued knowledge were
regarded as madmen!"   He  complains  greatly of ignorance in re-
spect to the science of medicine, and of several other sciences at
that era ; and informs us  that Thessalus  boasted that he would teach
his pupils-the profession, in six months ; so that, says Galen, it is the
fact, that now,  cobblers, dyers, carpenters, and blacksmiths, forsak-
ing their respective occupations, at once jump into the Practice of
Physic!  and the  mere compounders of  mixtures for painters or
perfumers  do  the  same.   Hence, says  Galen, I feel  compelled to
detail the methodus medendi, so  successfully begun by the ancients,
and which their successors endeavoured to perfect.
   Can we  not  here see,  as  in a glass, the features of that period
reflected  amongst  us, when bookbinders and  others, forgetting the
precept of " ne  sutor ultra crepidam," and  recommended,  moreover,
by the fathers (!) of our science, quit their trades, in order to engage
in the practice  of physic; and by the assumption of some nostrum,
under their patronage, realize fortunes,  whilst the regular student,
after taking his degree, starves in his professional career!
   This man, Thessalus, rendered thus immortal by the castigation
of Galen, who, noting his excessive  vanity, and his envy of his pre-
decessors, has  likened him to Zoilus, who flagellated  the statue of
Homer, and to  Salmoneus, who  attempted to  imitate the thunder of
Jupiter; and also to a host of other  miscreants, who feared neither
men nor gods;  this man, he adds, was nevertheless the leader of a
sect, that upheld the doctrine of  a Jluxum et  clausum, (a prototype
of  another  subsequently  maintained  under  the  denomination of
strictum et laxum.)  Thus goes the world; old things  become new,
by the  magic  of a few  unmeaning words,  and by  a  change of
nomenclature.  The authors are forgotten,  and arrogance joined
with usurpation,  or literary plagiarism of former doctrines,  too
often gives repute to the asserted novelties of  present times !
   The original  modes of  framing names for diseases are  explained
in the  second  book.  The distinction of pain  and  disease,  and
several other particulars of  interest to  the medical reader.   The
third book is chiefly taken up with the consideration of ulcers and 
                        THERAPEUTICS.                     645
their treatment, both simple, and when complicated with other dis-
eases.—The fourth  continues  the subject of ulcers of a malignant
character,  explains  theg nature, treatment, difference of in form,
locality, &c, and this is extended into the fifth book,—all connected
with many interesting practical remarks, and observations  on  the
remedies and  diet required.   The sixth book  notices the mode of
treatment in injuries of the  nerves and tendons, in those  of  the
bones, and  of wounds of the  peritoneum.  The seventh has  refer-
ence to  the stomach and  its  affections.   The  eighth  embraces
fevers,  and has numerous dietetic remarks, which  are continued in
the ninth, together with remarks as to the indications of cure, and
on  some of the remedial measures, as venassection, &c.  Hectic
fever is considered  in the tenth  book, together with its  treatment;
and putrid fevers in  the eleventh.   The twelfth  inquires into the
nature  of a symptom ; one or two in  particular, as syncope, &c,
are especially noticed.   Tumours of  various kinds, phlegmonous
especially, are considered in the thirteenth book; the rise of inflam-
mation, its  causes, and  variation, according to the parts affected;
treatment of, both remedial and dietetic. Several  particular cases,
as phrenitis, &c, referred to, and many interesting observations are
largely dispersed  throughout.  Complicated tumours and swellings
occupy the fourteenth book.   Erysipelas, oedema, scirrhus, cancer,
anthrax,  scrofula, and many others; together with  some remarks
on affections of the hair and of the eyes.
  In concluding this hasty and imperfect sketch, 1  must repeat that
I think a translation of these fourteen books would  prove an  accep-
table present to every intelligent physician ; an agreeable bon-bouche
to all who can  divest themselves of prejudices early instilled into
their minds,  by self-opiniated teachers, both  public and private,
against  the ancient writers,  of  whom, in fact  they  know little
or nothing.  It is time that our medical youth should be led to know
and to believe, that " all the talents"  are not confined to a few plau-
sible theorists of present times;  but  that with common diligence,
wheat in abundance may be winnowed from the chaff of ancient
lore, to their own advantage;  and to a conviction that the science,
perhaps even the practice of  medicine, was as well comprehended
and pursued, with far inferior advantages, in the time of Galen as
at the present  period of the " march of mind."   It  is  devoutly to
be wished that a revulsion in  favour  of the ancients could fully and
firmly be accomplished; which would  be the case, if a translation 
646                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

should be made of their writings, for who, now studies them in their
original dress!—what if there be trash among them! is none apparent
in the boasted productions of the present da^v ?  Can none, in theory
or practice be pointed out, in the syllabi, and essays from our Pro-
fessorial chairs?—who is it  leads the student to believe that nought
but trash exists within the musty folios of  antiquity?  who? why
usually some pretender, who mystifies his hearers, and  through
their means the world at large, by assuming as his own, the opinions
and views  of others who  have long preceded him; and but for
which, his ignorance or idleness would have precluded his attaining.
Desirous of shrouding the sources of his borrowed plumes, it is ne-
cessary to blind those who depend upon him for information, by the
assertion that nothing good can " come out of Gallilee!"  What!
is there no pleasure even in  contemplating the embodied trash of the
early promulgators of science, if only to ascertain how high we have
ascended beyond them in the  route  they had  begun to  trace?   If
the folios of old, exceed in  magnitude, the octavos of  our times;
these last excel in  number, and in rapidity of emission, that by no
means compensate the contents of the larger proportion !


   II. GALENI,  DE ARTE CURATIVA, SEU RATIONE
                  MEDENDI, LIBRI DUO.

              OF THE METHOD OF CURING DISEASES.

                          Bas. Ed., p. 366.

  These books, addressed to Glaucus, may be considered as the
continuation of the preceding, and  might without  impropriety rank
as the fifteenth and sixteenth books;  and  from these too, may be
abundantly gleaned a copious mass  of information.   The first book
teaches us the reasons  leading man to acquire  information gene-
rally, and that of  medicine  particularly, as arising  out  of it.  To
illustrate this, the subject of fever is selected,  and  the causes and
symptoms of the various  kinds of fever are successively brought
to view,  viz., ephemeral, putrid, tertian, quartan,  quotidian, con-
tinued, &c, affections  of  the  head from various causes;  crises,
critical days, and  numerous particulars connected therewith.
  The second book embraces very fully the  subject of inflammation, 
                         THERAPEUTICS.                     647
its varieties, causes, &c, and the indication of cure, by general and
topical means;  cedema, abscesses, ulcers of different  kinds, and
morbid swellings of every description, are brought into view; and
much practical information is every where to be found.
  In these and other writings of former ages, we must  be content
to take them as#we marry, for better and worse.—He must be fasti-
dious in the extreme who cannot find something good ; he that  an-
ticipates no error in  them is a blockhead.  In reading them we must
" be to their faults a little blind"—at the same time remembering the
centuries that  have elapsed since they were penned, compare them
candidly with  those of the present  period, and judge  thereby of
their extraordinary merits.  No one will regret the loss of time in
their perusal, for infinitely more is squandered away in the attention
paid to the voluminous and reiterated repetitions in the successive
volumes that now issue from the press.*
  In the writings of Galen, much practical  matter will repay his
perusal, even  when we  maybe inclined  to reject his doctrines;
doctrines, however,  in  which the germs  of, I believe, most of late
or present notoriety may be discovered.  Remember  him as  a
writer of sixteen  centuries  past!  The author of more numerous
works than any  who preceded or  followed him;  and  admitted
chiefly as his genuine productions; besides that of many that have
unfortunately  been lost,—and  of numerous commentaries  on  the
Hippocratic writings; to say nothing of those deemed to be spurious,
or merely philosophical,  without  having any very  close connexion
with the science of medicine!—Is such a  man undeserving of notice
by his medical posterity ?  Is it  possible we can be satisfied to know
him by name alone?  It is high time such apathy  should cease for
sentiments of a more generous  character;  and delight would result
from pursuing the train of thought that has been illuminated by the
midnight taper of the greatest  man that our science  can  boast of.
The prince (or tyrant if so he must be called,) of the medical pro-
fession for one thousand years,  if he is not worthy of consideration,
I really know not who is, now !  If the giants  of medicine, who,
during so long a period entered  the nets of his disposing, were  too

  * Our medical works (with few exceptions)  of the present period,  are  dull re-
petitions of some earlier author, enriched with a few scattered notes, "to make up  a
show."__a " repetatur haustus" of professional dexterity. 
648                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

readily seduced to devour indiscriminately all that they contained;
those of the  present day  are  precluded  from the same; for the
passages have been obstructed  by every  possible means, that in-
terested motives could induce.

  In the Venice edition, at the end of this book, we  are  told, that
here ought to be placed that book which appears in the fifth class,
under the title of " Quos, et  Quando, et  Quibus Medicamentis
purgare conveniat."
III. GALENI, IN LIBRUM HIPPOC. DE VICTUS RATIONE
         IN MORB. ACUTIS, COMM. QUATUOR.

OF THE RATIONALE OF FOOD IN ACUTE DISEASES.—FOUR COMMENTARIES.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 585.

  To epitomize  these commentaries  is scarcely possible.  Galen
has divided the  four books of Hippocrates on  the subject  stated,
each into short sections or paragraphs, as texts, on which to build
his remarks.
  The first consists  of forty-seven paragraphs; the  argument  of
the book, in the Venice eighth edition  is as follows, and  sufficiently
exhibits its  contents.
  Pertractat de iis, quas veteribus  medicis in acutorum morborum
victu controversa erant; ac in primo quidem libro agit de Ptisana."
  The second consists of  fifty-five paragraphs, thus indicated:
  " Exemplo doloris  lateris agit de vi ac usu fomentorum,  deinde
de repentina tum in  victu, tum in reliquis  rebus mutatione;  fuse"
lateque pertractat."
  The third embracing sixty-two paragraphs, is thus headed:
  " Exponit vini, mulsas, oxymelitis,  aquas, et balneorum faculta-
tem."
  The fourth contains one hundred and twenty-three paragraphs;
headed as follows:
  " Liber a quopiam ex  Hippocratis  discipulis, multis diversisque 
                       THERAPEUTICS.                     g4g

theorematis, inordinateque  dispositis, conflatus, quorum plurima ad
acutos morbos videntur pertinere."
  The reader is  referred to the subject by Hippocrates,  in the
preceding part of this volume.
  Following the preceding, in the Venice eighth edition we have a
short book, itself imperfect in the beginning, entitled,—
 GALENI, DE DI^TA HIPPOCRATIS IN MORBIS ACUTIS.

           ON THE HIPPOCRATIC DIET IN ACUTE DISEASES.

   From a note given, it  appears  doubtful  whether this work on
 which Galen  discourses, is the production of Hippocrates;  but the
 remark is made, that whoever was  the author, he was well ac-
 quainted with the doctrine of Hippocrates.   Much other matter is
 contained in it than what appertains solely to diet, yet all connected
 with  medicine, and deserving at least of a cursory perusal, but
 scarcely admitting of an abstract.



    IV. GALENI, DE REMEDIIS  PARATU FACILIBUS
                         LIBELLUS.

               OF REMEDIES OF EASY PREPARATION.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 419.

  This  is a  kind of  domestic  dispensatory or  pharmacopoeia,
affording receipts for the  preparation of different remedies  for an
extensive set  of diseases; having  a  preface explanatory  of  the
treatise, as being written  for  the use of country people, travellers,
and persons  living at a distance from medical assistance.   It con-
sists of one hundred and thirty-one short  divisions or chapters,—
in  some  of which, the  precepts of  other  physicians  are  given. 
650                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

Many of the prescriptions might subserve the interests of Charla-
tanism, by introducing some novelties to their notice.  Much of it
is praiseworthy, and  fully equal  to Buchan and his  commentators
on domestic medicine; superior indeed, in one  particular, that of
brevity!
  We may connect with the above, the two succeeding books, for
they are of precisely the same character, and seem as if they were
the contents of Galen's common place-book of recipes, &c, derived
from all quarters; they altogether form a curious, and  not  uninte-
resting part of the works of Galen, or of that age.


   V.  LIBER DE MEDICINIS  FACILE PARABILIBUS,
        GALENO ASCRIPTUS,  LIB. SECUNDUS.

              OF MEDICINES OF EASY PREPARATION.

                        Bas. Ed., p. 447.

  This is addressed or inscribed "ad  Solonem,  medicorum prin-
pem,"—and contains nearly one hundred and fifty recipes for sundry
complaints and other intentions; some are connected with cosmetics,
others for aphrodisiacal uses, &c,  " Ad conceptum  usum."  " Ut
mulier  marem generet," &c, &c.  Some promoting, others to pre-
vent abortion, &c.  " Aliquando dormitat bonus (Galenus)  Home-
rus."


 VI. LIBER DE  MEDICINIS FACILE PARAB.  GALENO
              ASCRIPTUS.   LIB. TERTIUS.

                       Bas. Ed., p. 483.

  This third book is called also by the title of " De  medicamentis
quas ad manum sunt" (off-hand  remedies), and consists of nearly
three hundred prescriptions! in omnes fere morbos, et quibusdem
alios! 
                        THERAPEUTICS.                    651

  In these three books may be discovered the originals of many of
the panaceas, and receipts of the present age, for Hydrophobia, and
the " thousand ills that flesh is heir to."  They constitute a kind of
romance in the domains of prescription!


VII. GALENI DOCUMENTUM DE PUERO EPILEPTICO.

                 ADVICE FOR AN EPILEPTIC BOY.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 518.

  This is a letter of advice from Galen to Cascilianus, who had con-
sulted him respecting his son; in which he enters prettyextensivelv
into the treatment, both remedial and dietetic,  which he deemed
proper to be pursued, and gives his reasons for the same;—althouch
not  capable of being epitomised, it will by its perusal  afford infor-
mation.
VIII. GALENO ASCRIPTUS  LIBER  DE INCANTATIONE,
           ADJURATIONE, ET  SUSPENSIONS

            ON INCANTATION, ADJURATION, AND CHARMS.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 526.

  This book on charms, amulets and the like, is ascribed to Con-
stantinus Africanus, in  whose writings it appears;  why it  should
have been attributed to Galen, does not appear.  It commences by
an address to Constantine's child (fili charissime), who seems to have
inquired as  to the utility of the objects in view; and whether any-
thing had been written on the subject  by the Greeks or Indians?
To this inquiry, the treatise is a reply;  and Galen is referred to in
more than one  part.  Much curious matter is spread  over it,—and
the influence of the  mind or imagination  on  many occasions is
pointed  out, and its utility in practice is sustained.  The  folly of
some of the notions then entertained, and which have come down
nearly to our times, is pointed out, and the statements of some of the
physicians of anterior period, as  to charms, &c, are enumerated; 
652
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
and although he seems to doubt them, further  than as operating on
the imagination ; yet he acknowledges  the difficulty of coming to
certain conclusions, where not personally present; adding, that as
we would doubt the attraction of iron by the magnet, if we had not
seen  it, so many things may be  true, which we cannot comprehend.


    IX.  GALENI  IN  LIB.  DE  NATURA  HUMANA,
              COMMENTARIUS SECUNDUS.

     A SECOND COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK DE NATURA HUMANA.

                       Venice Ed., p. 180.

  This book " de Natura Humana," is not acknowledged by Galen
as one of Hippocrates, (class l,no. 3.)  This  second commentary
is on that part  of  the treatise regarded by Galen as spurious, and
which he attributes to Polybius.  He divides  it  under  twenty-two
paragraphs,  as texts for his comments.  The operation  of  some
common  cause in producing an  epidemic  is affirmed.  The origin
of four pair of vessels from the  head  is properly criticised, and
some useful remarks are spread throughout the whole.


X. GALENI,  DE OCULIS THERAPEUTICON.—SPURIUS.

         OF THE TREATMENT OF OPHTHALMIC AFFECTIONS.

                        Bas. Ed., p. 530.

  This treatise, stated to be  spurious, gives an account of the eyes,
their construction, their tunics,  humours, muscles, nerves, &c, the
mode in which vision is accomplished,  and other particulars  relat-
ing thereto.   Then, after some observations on  the primary inten-
tions of medicine in general, in relation  to diseases, their causes and
symptoms ;  the affections of  the eyes, and of their respective parts,
are considered, and the remedial measures to be adopted for their
removal.  An immense assortment of collyria is presented, headed
" de collyriis multis ad oculorum asgritudines," and the  patient must
be hard to please who cannot find one for his  purpose. 
THERAPEUTICS.
653
 XL GALENO ASCRIPTUS LIBER DE RENUM AFFEC-
        TUUM DIGNOTIONE  ET MEDICATIONE.

       OF DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS, AND THEIR TREATMENT.

                          Bas. Ed., p. 566.

  The kidneys are here described, as to substance, situation, parts,
and  uses.  Nephritis, calculus, and other renal and  vesical affec-
tions, are duly treated of.  The causes of calculus, symptoms, &c.,
and of those impacted in the urethra.  Difference of calculi in size,
situation, figure and colour.  Cure of, and relief, by various  means,
of a general character;  followed by those adapted to particular
cases.  The latter part of the treatise is especially intended for, and
is  addressed to an individual  labouring under calculus.  Another
tract upon the subject is partly promised.


     XII. GALENI,  IN HIPPOCRATEM DE  OFFICINA
                  MEDICI.—COM. TRES.

  THREE COMMENTARIES ON THE HIPPOC. TREATISE OF THE OFFICE OF
                        THE  PHYSICIAN.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 746.

  There seems some doubt with Galen, whether this  treatise is not
the production of Thessalus, one of  the sons of Hippocrates, and
intended by  him simply as hints for remembrance.  The commen-
taries on each paragraph are  pretty  extensive, and many of much
interest.  Indeed the  treatise is itself far too  brief to be properly
comprehended now,  without  the  aid of  Galen.   The  second  of
Galen's commentaries commences with that part of Hippocrates'
treatise that  treats  on bandages, and  the right indication for their
employment. In the Venice eighth edition we are presented with
a series of engravings of the various bandages affixed  to different
parts of the head, body and extremities, with copious remarks.  The
subject is continued in the third commentary, and not  a little is said 
654                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

on fractures and luxations, which is, however, more fully pursued
in the succeeding book.


 XIII. GALENI IN LIB.  HIPPOCRATIS DE FRACTURIS,
                    COMMENT.  TRES.

 THREE COMMENTARIES ON THE BOOK OF FRACTURES BY HIPPOCRATES.

                         Bas. Ed., p. 840.

  In these  three commentaries  the subject of fractures is  largely
discussed.  After  some preliminary observations as to the  general
nature of fractures, and the indications of treatment, they are indi-
vidually considered, and some rude plates are given as  explanatory
of some  parts, in the Venice edition.  Luxations of sundry joints
are treated  of, as those of the femur,  knee,  ankle and  others; and
figures of some of the machines  for extension in reducing them, are
also afforded; some of which, probably, might be occasionally use-
ful where at present pullies are employed, but which are not always
to be  had in the country at a moment's warning.  Compound frac-
tures, &c,  constitute the subject of the last  or third commentary,
with some accessory observations on bandages, luxations, &c. Some
of the cuts  given, look considerably like splints, &c, that have given
celebrity to later writers!


    XIV.  GALENI, IN LIB.  HIPPOC. DE ARTICULIS,
                  COMMENT. QUATUOR.

      FOUR  COMMENTARIES ON THE BOOK OF HIP. ON LUXATIONS.

                          Bas. Ed., p. 944.

  As  the preceding book, though nominally appropriated  to frac-
tures, contains much on the subject of luxations, so this, which is
connected chiefly with luxations, has much respecting fractures. In
the Venice  edition we have a considerable number of cuts, explana-
tory of the  processes pursued in  the reduction of different luxations,
especially of the humerus; the symptoms of each are  pointed out, 
                        THERAPEUTICS.                     655
and the rationale of the process pursued.   As  in the former, so in
this, it would be impossible to give an epitome of the contents.  The
subjects are copiously handled, and especially some of the  most
important; thus, on the luxation of the femur, we have it treated of,
under the following heads.

  De Femore ex coxa prolapsa; divided under four varieties.
  De capite Femoris in exteriorem partem luxato.
  De Femoris capite in partem priorem luxato.
  De Femoris capite in partem interiorem luxato.
  De Femoris capite in partem posteriorem luxato.

  There is a good  deal of very singular and heels-over-head  busi-
ness in these books; for, under some circumstances, the reduction is
made by hanging the patient by the legs, head-downwards, as  de-
scribed, and exemplified by engravings, and probably, in practice,
not unavailing.  Should  curiosity lead  any one to  peruse  these
commentaries, some pearls  may be found  amongst a good deal of
rubbish.
               XV. GALENUS  DE FASCIIS.

                         ON BANDAGES.

                         Ven. Ed., p. 293.

   The  Latin  translator  (Vidus  Vidius,) of this, which does not
appear in the Basil edition, in an  address to the reader, informs him
that this is one  of  the  three treatises  on  bandages, by Galen,
Soranus, and Heliodorus; of which he gives  only this, of Galen,
since whoever knows it, will be masters of the other two.  Satisfied
that this is Galen's,  he  remarks that it is the very book he  pro-
mised, in the second commentary: " De Officina  Medici."  As
some few  things  are  wanting  that  are found  in  Soranus  and
Heliodorus, he has here inserted them.  Some further  information of
not much importance, is  added, and the treatise itself immediately
succeeds.
  Various bandages  (and many  plates) for the head are described
from different authorities, seventy in number;—followed by others 
656                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

for the luxation of the  extremities;  fracture of the clavicle; sus-
pensory and  other bandages,  all  derived  apparently  from other
writers;  and  some  not  undeserving  of present  notice.   Some
indeed are in use amongst us.


    XVI. ORIBASIUS,  DE LAQUEIS,  EX HERACLE.

                    OF A NOOSE OR LIGATURE.

                         Ven. Ed., p. 306.

  This treatise introduced into the Venice  edition, is  only noticed
here from that  circumstance.   It  is, says  the  Translator Vidius,
praised  by Galen in  his  book on bandages (de Fasciis), and is
elsewhere noticed by him, yet in  the Greek copy, he adds, it is
referred to Oribasius.  However this be, he further remarks, there
are many things in it necessary to the elucidation of medicine.
The subject matter is that of ligatures, of various  kinds, for tying
up bandages or dressings, extension in the reducing of fractures,
&c.   Cuts are given  of these, nearly twenty in number.


      XVIL  ORIBASIUS, DE MACHINAMENTIS, EX
                        HELIODORO.

             ON SURGICAL MACHINERY, OR APPARATUS.

                         Ven. Ed., p. 309.

  What is said above, will apply to  this treatise on the machinery
employed.  It appears to  be a  collection made by Oribasius, from
Hippocrates, Galen, and other authors—giving the description and
use of such machinery, with the rationale of its employment.  It is
accompanied by figures.
This concludes the seventh class. 
            ADDITIONAL   CLASS.-


   Galeni extra  ordinem Classium Libri, in quibus  breves rerum
 determinationes traduntur, quarum perceptio, superiorum librorum
 lectionem requiret.—Venice edition, 1609.

                 INDEX OF THIS ADDITIONAL CLASS.

  1. Galeni  in  Aphorismos Hippoc :   Comment;
               Septem.........
  2.         adversus Lycum, in Aphor.: Hippoc.
  3.         contra  ea quas a Juliano in  Hipp.:
               Aphor.: dicta sunt......
  4.         explanatio  linguarum  obsoletarum
               Hippocratis........

   The aphorisms of Hippocrates are  in the hands of most physi-
cians.   They  have been much  read,  and much commented  on.
They are in fact, almost the  only part  of his  writings that  are
familiar  to  the Profession; and  with  much to  be admired,  and
admitted as truth, contain not a little  error.  The commentaries
of Galen  are, in  many parts interesting, and much  practical  use
may be acquired  from their perusal.  An abstract of them is  im-
possible.   The aphorisms  are  singly  taken, as texts, on  which
Galen  very  learnedly expatiates.  All  the three  first  numbers of
this class, are of the same character.  The latter (No. iv.), though
united  with  these aphoristic books, is  merely an  explanation of
obsolete words in the  Hippocratic writings,  and of consequence

                         * To AQopisrtKov.
                             42
  TRANSLATOR.

N. Leonicenus.
J. Alexandrine

Idem.

J. Cornario. 
658
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
forms a kind  of lexicon in alphabetical order.  The second num-  '
ber is a contradiction of the opinion of Lycus, in respect to a cer-
tain  aphorism (fourteenth) of Hippocrates ;  and the third in like
manner opposes some  of  the assertions of Julianus relating to the
aphorisms.
   We leave this  class, and proceed to mention, what are in the
Venice edition  denominated " Spurii  Libri," and in that of Basil,
" Libri Galeno  ascripti." 
   SPURII  GALENO  ASCRIPTI  LIBRI/


   "Qui variam artis medicas farraginem ex variis auctoribus  ex-
cerptam  continentes, optimo, quo fieri potuit, ordine sunt  dispositi,
et in unum corpus redacti."—Venice Ed. 1609.

   These  contain, as above stated, a  vast medley of the medical  art,
extracted from numerous sources; disposed of in the best mode that
could be  devised, and brought  thus into a compact form.   A mere
enumeration of the titles must suffice to show their  respective cha-
racter.  There is, however, contained in them an abundant harvest
of interesting  and curious matter,  deserving the attention of  the
philosopher and physician.


   I. GALENI LIBER DE HISTORIA PHILOSOPHICA.

                OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY.

                    J. M. ROTA, TRANSLATOR.

   This is very interesting.  It begins with an account of the origin
of philosophy, both  moral and natural,  prior  to Socrates, the suc-
cession of the  philosophers, sects, denominations, &c. &c.   Meta-
physics are largely dwelt on.  God, the soul, necessity, fate, and an
infinite number of topics of much interest, are successively consi-
dered.  It would exhibit a curious outline of the different ideas of
the philosophers of successive ages to the time of Galen, if clothed
in a modern language !
1 TaNsSa, 
660
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
  II. PROGNOSTICA DE INFIRMORUM DECUBITU,  EX
               MATHEMATICA SCIENTIA.

    MATHEMATICAL PROGNOSTICS ON THE DECUBITUS OF THE SICK.

  This is a most singular production, and probably was highly in-
strumental in introducing  astrology into medicine. Under the name
of mathematics, which is here highly extolled, astrology seems  to
be intended; and  its utility to medicine is  insisted  on, from the
authority of Hippocrates and Diodes.  The figure (configuratio)  of
the moon is run through all the signs of the Zodiac, and the effects
in disease, &c, largely enumerated  and predicted.


      III.  GALENI, DE PARTIBUS ARTIS  MEDICvE.

                OF THE  DIVISIONS OF MEDICINE.

                  N. R.  CALABRI, TRANSLATOR.

  The divisions of the science as made by different men, are enu-
merated and criticised ; after which the author gives his own.  The
translator says of this book, " Qui nisi Galeni fuerit, eo tamen auc-
tore dignus videtur."


  III. GALENO ATTRIBUTUS LIBER DE DYNAMIDIIS.

  Desideratur principium.


      IV. GALENO ATTRIBUTUS LIBER  ALTER DE
                      DYNAMIDIIS.

  What is spoken of in the first of these tracts, is stated to be more
fully detailed " In libris facultatum medicamentorum simplicium."
The greater part of the  latter is said to be derived from  Aetius.
The term dynamis seems to imply, that the treatise is a store-house
or assemblage of remedial means, and which are here noticed. 
SPURIOUS TRACTS
661
   V. GALENO ASCRIPTUS LIBER DE  SPERMATE.

                        ON THE SEED.

  This treats of  the male and female seed, and of its product the
fcetus; with  the  influence of the seed, as  to the greater or less
amount of either, in  determining the sex  and its  qualities, &c,
according as conception is produced under the influence of the san-
guine, choleric, phlegmatic or other temperament; or as connected
with the state of  the humours of the body, of the heavenly bodies,
planets,  &c.  Some  remarks appear to be connected  with  the
planetary influence on disease, &c.


VI. DE NATURA ET ORDINE CUJUSLIBET CORPORIS.

  Treats of the nature and effects of the four humours constituting
the body of  man.  Of the fcetus in utero, in the  disposition of its
formation.  A slight sketch is given of the anatomical structure of
man.  The book  is correctly said to be " ordine et judicio carens."


  VII. DE ANATOMIA PARVA.  ASCRIPTUS GALENO.

                  ON COMPARATIVE ANATOMY.

  This assigns some reason  for Galen and others dissecting brutes.
It points out  the mode, and gives the anatomy of the hog,  which in
its internal structure is said to be closely allied to  that of  man.  A
most ridiculous description is given of the  anatomy of the  uterus
and of the brain.   The book is properly stated to be " maxime  de-
ridendus."


             VIII. DE  ANATOMIA VIVORUM.

              OF THE ANATOMY OF LIVING SUBJECTS.

  The body  is divided into simple and compound  parts, which are 
562                 TIIE WORKS OF GALEN.

respectively treated in detail.  The book is said to contain  much
that is correct and worthy of Galen, but much also that is the re-
verse of this.


            IX.  DE ANATOMIA OCULORUM.

                 OF THE ANATOMY OF THE EYES.

                    N. REGIUS, TRANSLATOR.

  A concise description of these organs, their coats, humours, &c.


X.  DE COMPAGINE  MEMBRORUM, SIVE  DE NATURA
                         HUMANA.

  •' Aliqua et hie vera, aliqua deridenda," says the editor.   The
book is partly anatomical, in part physiological.  We  have here a
speck of phrenological location  of the admitted faculties of  the
mind, when speaking of the  brain  and its division of parts.  " Intra
quam sunt divisiones tres, prima dicitur phantasia : secunda rationa-
lis: tertia memorialis. Inter phantasiam et rationalem est pannus
quidam  frigidus et siccus," &c, &c.—" Ex memoriali vero  proce-
dure duo canales tenues et humidi, qui penetrant per totam compa-
ginem, et veniunt usque ad  phantasies  cellulam, per quos possit
phantasticus spiritus et rationalis commendari memoriae, et iterum
memorialis  duci ad rationem et  phantasiam."  The faculties, it
would appear, then belonged to the peripatetic  school! and  were
not permanently attached to one habitation.


      XI.   DE VIRTUTIBUS NOSTRUM  CORPUS
                    DISPENSANTIBUS.

  " Ex veris Galeni libris fragmentum," says the editor.
  The powers or faculties (virtutes) have their origin in three sources,
viz., the  heart, the head, and  the liver ;—the influence or effects aris-
ing therefrom.   Animal and vital  spirits.  Generation  is under the
influence of all three. 
SPURIOUS TRACTS.
663
     XII. DE VOCE ET ANHELITU.   TRACTATUS
                        QUATUOR.

  Of the  voice and the organs producing it.  How effected, impeded
or lost.  Diversity of, in gravity, or acuteness, &c.   Injuries of the
medulla spinalis,  how affecting  the voice and breathing.  Natural
breathing, if voluntary.


         XIII.  DE UTILITATE RESPIRATIONIS.

  Many  of the things  in this book, the editor says, are correct, but
for the most part  are taken from  Aristotle.   The consideration  is
interesting, from  the facts and speculations found in it.


             XIV. COMPENDIUM PULSUUM.

  " Liber jejunus, sed  non omnino rejiciendus," says the editor.


     XV. DE MOTIBUS MANIFESTIS ET OBSCURIS.
                                                    «
  This treatise attributed to Galen, is stated to have been translated
 from the Greek into Arabic by Johannitius ; and from  the Arabic
 into Latin, by Marcus.  By such  repeated  translations, several er-
 rors have been introduced.  Galen mentions this book  in several
 places; nor is it undeserving of attention.  It may afford a  slight
 idea of its  contents to state that in ten short chapters the following
 subjects  are embraced.  Of the faculty or power of motion in  diffe-
 rent parts, its causes, &c.  Of the motion in respiration, and of the
 difference of opinion as to its  being  voluntary or involuntary.  A
 comparison drawn between  such  involuntary, or non-manifest mo-
 tions, and the intestine motion of some fluids, &c.; of the motion of
 the penis; of the tongue; of the  motions of vomiting and swallowing;
 of the motion of the eyelids; of the  motions excited in coughing,
 laughing, and sneezing,  &c. 
664
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
     XVI.  DE DISSOLUTIONE  CONTINUA  CORPORIS
                          HUMANI.

   Many parts of this treatise are derived from Galen's books," De
 alimentis et cibis boni et mali succi," and it is supposed to have been
 written by some  one long after him.  It  consists principally of a
 statement of the nature of the food,  with which the body is supplied,
 to make up the deficiences arising from the discharges.


     XVIL   DE AQUIS, EX GALENO, ET ALIIS PRtE-
                 STANTISSIMIS MEDICIS.

                  A. GADALDINUS, TRANSLATOR.

   The Venice eighth edition says that this book is entitled in the pre-
 vious editions " De Bonitate Aquas," and is greatly mutilated. It here
 consists of  six chapters, derived from Oribasius, who has  extracted
 them from different sources, as Galen, Rufus, Diodes, Athenasus, &c.


            XVIIL  DE  VINIS. EX  GALENO.

                  A. GADALDINUS, TRANSLATOR.

  From the medical tracts of Oribasius.


  XIX.  PR^SAGIUM EXPERIENTIA CONFIRMATUM.

                     G. VALLA, TRANSLATOR.

  An imitation of  some of Galen's books, but trifling in execution.
It treats of prassages, in general, and of the signs  indicative of fu-
ture fever.   Something is said on sweat, and bloodletting, on which
last, evidence of bold and  energetic practice is apparent, and is ex-
tracted from Galen. 
SPURIOUS TRACTS.
665
  XX.  DE URIN.E SIGNIFICATIONE, EX HIPPOCRATE.

                     G. VALLA, TRANSLATOR.


       XXI.  DE SIMPLICIBUS MEDICAMINIBUS.

  A short description of a long catalogue of remedies, addressed to
a friend, whose diligence and  skill he warmly praises.  They are
arranged in alphabetic order.  It will serve for reference.
           XXII. DE  VIRTUTE CENTAURE^E.

  A book, says the editor, which though probably not from Galen,
yet much is to be found  in it not devoid of reason.   It contains an
account of two species of centaury, their powers, preparation, and
use in disease.


                XXIII. DE CATHARTICIS.

  An  incorrect  (corruptus)  book, says  the  editor,  and  to be
cautiously compared with the true writings of Galen.  Cathartics
are here intended to apply to other evacuants than mere  purgatives.
In this book are therefore considered, not only such, but those also
that cause vomition, a discharge of tears, or from the ears, nostrils,
lungs, and thorax, liver, spleen, kidneys, and uterus, &c.  Some
useful hints may be derived from its perusal.


   XXIV. DE  GYN^CEIS, ID EST, DE PASSIONIBUS
                       MULIERUM.

                   N.  RHEG1US, TRANSLATOR.

  A trifling treatise according to the  editor.  It consists of various
prescriptions, for numerous female affections. 
666
THE WTORKS OF GALEN
               XXV. LIBER SECRETORUM.

                   ADDRESSED TO MONTEUS.

  Although these secrets are not  from Galen, yet, says the editor,
something may be derived from their perusal.  They consist of
prescriptions, with an occasional  record  of some case in  point,
somewhat as a puff direct.   An ingenious quack might here find
arrows for his quiver!  as well as advertisements for the public.
Some of the prescriptions have so many ingredients, that the disease
must be fastidious, that could not pick out  some one for its benefit.
 XXVI. DE  MEDICINIS EXPERT1S, VEL MEDICINALIS
                   EXPERIMENTATIO.

  This is rather a singular treatise, and  may possibly be  correctly
ascribed to Galen, judging from  its beginning.  " The  lightning,
says the author, which struck the  altar, burnt up the King's books,
and together with them, many medical works;  many books of my
own were  destroyed,  some of them complete, and some merely
commenced.  I do not so much regret them, as I do the loss of many
experiments in medicine contained in them, which I had  obtained
from several  excellent experimenters;  for some  of which thus
obtained, I  returned  perhaps several, or  purchased them for cash."
It would seem, however, that copies must have been kept of many
of them, for at the close of the  preface, we are told that he com-
posed this book, from medicines he had himself tried, and acquired
from good physicians;  and adds, that here  are to be found not the
remedies of universal note, but such, as for the most part were un-
known to  all.  " If hereafter I acquire more, I will write another
book respecting them."   He then proceeds to give prescriptions for
these remedies, received from sundry Empirics, and other physicians
and philosophers, whose names  are  stated ;  concluding with some,
which  " multoties experti sumus."  The whole is a curious farrago
and as a curiosity may deserve inspection. 
SPURIOUS TRACTS.
667
  XXVII.  DE MELANCHOLIA, EX GALENO, RUFO, ET
         POSSIDONIO, AB AETK> CONSCRIPTA.

                    J. CORNARIO, TRANSLATOR.

  This disease seems  to have had as many vagaries formerly  as
at present, and to have been equally difficult of cure.  The rationale
of some of these  vagaries is attempted, such as of those who con-
sidered themselves  to be an earthen  pipkin, (vas fictile.)  Another
who thought he had no head." The observations are in many parts
judicious; and the treatment  is  perhaps fully as correct  as any
now pursued.


                XXVIII. DE CURA ICTERI.

  Much herein,  says  the editor, is  true, and derived from high
authority.  Phlebotomy and evacuations both up and down, with
topical applications are urged,   such  as  cataplasms, cups, &c.
Baths,  diet,  &c, are not  omitted,  and  various medicines are
enumerated for particular indications.
                XXIX. DE CURA LAPIDIS.

  If judiciously perused, says the editor, something useful may be
obtained.  The treatise is regarded  as of Arabian origin.  Much
utility is ascribed  to diet  and certain remedies in destroying the
stone;  and several prescriptions are interspersed, most of which
seem to be of the order of diuretics.   Some directions are given for
the cure of incontinence of urine.
 XXX. QU.ESITA ASCRIPTA GALENO, IN HIPPOC.
                      DE URINIS.

These appear to be inquiries (to be pursued) as to certain points

        * Lib. 6. cap 9.
        b And girls turned bottles, call aloud for corks."—Pope. 
ggg                 THE WORKS OF GALEN.

on the subject of urine in the Prognostics and Aphorisms of Hippo-
crates.


             XXXI. LIBER DE HUMORIBUS.

                  A. GADALDINUS, TRANSLATOR.

  Probably short minutes of the larger treatise on this subject, under
class third.   Of little importance.  Not found in the Basil edition.


   XXXII. DE PLANTIS. TRANSLATUS DE ARABICO.

  This appears to be a glossary of Humain, an Arabian, on several
plants, &c, mentioned by Galen, possessing certain occult qualities,
not fully investigated or proved, and which Humain  undertakes to
explain and illustrate under  forty-six  heads.—Not  in the  Basil
edition.
        XXXIII. DE CLYSTERIBUS ET  COLICA.

  This would  seem to be also from the hand of Humain, and  is
stated to have been translated into Arabic from  the Greek, and from
the Arabic  into Hebrew:  the  Latin Translator is not  mentioned.
Some good remarks occur as  to glysters, and  numerous prescrip-
tions, adapted to various ends, especially in cases of colic.
  With this, the Libri Spurii terminate, and a short series called
Fragments, bring the writings of Galen to a conclusion.  These are
merely enumerated.   They do not appear in the Basil edition. 
FRAGMENTS.
   Galeni, operum quorundam, quas aliquo modo mutilata  ad nos
 pervenere, Fragmenta, ad varias medicinas partes  attinentia, quas
 proximae tantum ante hanc editionesevulgaverant.—Ven. Ed. 1609.

  1. Galeni, Commentaria quatuor in lib. Hippoc. de Alimento.
  2.        Fragmentum comment,  in duo lib. Epidem. Hippocratis.
  3.        Brevis Denotatio Dogmatum Hippocratis, &c.
  4.        Fragmentum ex  quatuor comment,  quos ipse inscripsit
             de iis quas medice dicta sunt in Platonis Timceo.
  5.        Fragmentum de Motu Thoracis et Pulmonis.
  6.        Vocalium Instrumentorum Dissectio.
  7.        Fragmentum de substantia facultatum naturalium.
  8.        Frag, exiguum, ac mendosum Galeno ascriptus, cujus
              Tjtulus est Sermo adversus Empiricos Medicos.
  9.        Fragmenta ex Aphorismis Rabbi Moysis collecta.
 10.        Fragmenta ex Rasis lib.  contin. collecta.
 11-        Coena Philosophica, ex Athenceo.
 12.        Ex libro Nemesii de anima, cap. duo.
 13.        De morsu, qui in asgritudine percipitur :—ex incerto.
 14.        Ex Themistio, in Paraphrasi quarti de naturah ausculta-
             tione, cap. quadriginta tres.
 15.        Ex Simplicio, in quartum de Natur. Auscult. Aristotelis.
             comm. quatuor-decem.
 16.        Ex Averroe libro priorum Aristot. primo, Cap. octo.

  All the above  are of slight importance, further than as complet-
ing from every  quarter all  that  relates  to Galen and his works.
The  whole of the writings thus  noticed briefly in  the foregoing
sheets, occupy several hundred folio pages, spread through  six or 
670
THE WORKS OF GALEN
 seven volumes in the Latin, and five in the Greek.  A new edition
 in  the  present  style of typography had  been long  wanting/ for
 numerous difficulties attend the perusal of the older copies, and are
 sufficient in the present day to preclude most persons  from making
 the  attempt.  A few of  these  I  shall notice.   They consist  of
 numerous contractions, omission of complete syllables, and often of
 the hyphen  at the close of a line, in the division of the syllables of a
 word.  The extreme closeness of many  words to each  other, at
 times nearly running into one another, as though but one.  The use
 of one letter for another, asj in place of /, (thus ijs for Us, v for u,
 and reversely.)   Of which the  following are examples.

         uictus for victus,                 uero  for vero,
         vrina  "  urina,                 uua    "  uva,
         cauam "  cavam,               apvd   "  apud,
         vlcus  "  ulcus,

                       Contractions, &c.
         oes   for omnes,             errates  "  errantes,
         oia     "  omnia,             solet    "  solent,
         aute   "  autem,             profluuia " profluvia,
         scdm   "  secundum,          vuula   "  uvulam,
         tuc    "  tunc,                  &c, &c, &c.

  All these, and  many others—together  with a want of stops  at
 times;  at others, a full stop, followed by a small letter—render the
 reading  very far from desirable.   In the days of those  editions,
 such contractions and other particulars enumerated, were  fully un-
 derstood, and were  productive of neither  mistake  nor  difficulty.
 Not so now, especially since the Latin language has become much
 less  familiar.  Now, these are  not of merely rare  occurrence; but
 occur by scores in every page, and as they are not uniformly main-
 tained, the labour is much augmented.
  At the end of Le Clerc's " Histoire de la Medecine," he has given
 us an apology for the condensed view he has afforded of  the  wri-
 tings of  Galen, which will serve with equal force  in behalf of the

  1 This has been effected by the assiduity of the learned Gottlob Ktthn, Professor of
Physiology and Pathology in the University of Leipsic, in 1832, but whose  edition did
not come into my possession, until the  preceding abstract was completed.  It would
have saved me much trouble had it reached me at the period of its publication. 
                     LISTE DES LIVRES DES GALIEN.             671

editor of  this volume; and which the editor begs  to  place  before
his readers with a like intention.
   " Si l'on avoit voulu entrer dans un detail qui eut renferme tout
cela,  ii auroit fallu faire un gros livre; a moins de quoi il auroit ete
impossible de rendre exactement raison de tout ce qu'il y a de remarq-
uable dans six volumes in folio que nous avons de Galien."
  This apology is  followed by a  list of the writings of Galen, de-
rived from the edition given by Chartier, the  most full  and perfect
of any edition that  had been given to the world previous to that of
Kiihns.  It may not be unacceptable to the  reader, and I give it
therefore as it appears in Le Clerc.—Ed.
Liste des Livres de Galien, three de Vedition de Chartier.
La lettre L, qui est ajoutee a la fin de quelques-uns des titres des livres de Galien,
  marque que ces livres ne se trouvent qu'en Latin.  Monsieur Chartier donne une
  autre liste des livres de Galien, qu'on n'a plus ni en Grec ni en Latin, ou qui sont
  cachez dans quelques Bibliotheques, & qui ne sont connus que par le titre.  La plus
  grande partie de ces livrns ne regardent pas la Medecine.
Galien, de ses propres livres, i.
        De l'ordre de ses livres, i.
        Harangue de Galien  de  Pergame, Paraphraste, fils de
          Menodotus, pour exhorter a apprendre  les beaux arts. i.
          77 est visible que c'est un autre Galien.
        De la meillure Doctrine, i.
        De l'Histoire  Philosophique, i.
        Fragment de Galien, tire de Jean le Grammairien.  Livre
          attribue a  Galien, intitule, Que  les qualitez sont incorpo-
          relles, i.
        Fragment de Galien, tire* de Simplicius.
        Autre, tire d'Averrhoes.
        Notes de Galien sur Hippocrate, tirees de  Stobee.
        Des  Sophismes dans les  mots, i. 
g«2                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

Galien,  Explication des  vieux mots d'Hippocrate, i.
        De l'etablissement de l'art de la Medecine, i.
        L'Art de la Medecine, i.
        Definitions Medicinales, i.
        Des parties de la Medecine, i. L.
        Des Sectes, a ceux qui commencent a etudier, i.
        De la meilleure  Secte, i.
        Discours contre  les  Empiriques, Fragment  attribue  a
          Galien.  L.
        Exposition du Systeme des Empiriques. L.
        Qu'un bon Medecin doit aussi etre Philosophe, i.
        Introduction a la Medecine,  ou le Medecin, livre attribue a
          Galien, i.
        Des Elemens, selon Hippocrate, ii.
        Des Temperamens, iii.
        Commentaires sur deux livres d'Hippocrate.  De la nature
          de l'homme, ii.
        Des Humeurs, i.
        S'il y a  naturellement du sang dans les arteres? i.
        De la Bile noire, i.
        De la Semence, iii.  De la semence petit livre; L.
        Des os, a ceux qui apprennent l'Anatomie, i.
        Des Administrations Anatomiques, ix.
        De l'Anatomie des Corps vivans,  attribue a Galien, i. L.
        De la petite Anatomie, attribue a Galien, i. L.
        Dissection des organes de la voix, i.  L.
        De l'Anatomie des Yeux,  attribue a Galien, i.  L.
        De la Dissection des Veines, & des Arteres, i.
        De la Dissection des Nerfs,  i.
        Des Muscles, tire  des livres  d'Oribase, i.
        De la Dissection de la Matrice, i.
        De l'Usage des parties, xvii.
        De l'Ame, Fragment tire du livre de Nemesius, intitule"  de
          la nature de l'homme.
        Autre Fragment  tire du  chap. xx.  du  meme Nemesius,
          touchant la Peur.
        De la substance des facultez Naturelles, fragment.
        Des Facultez qui gouvernent notre corps, attribue a Galien,
          i. L.
        Des Facultez Naturelles, iii. 
                  LISTE DES LIVRES DE GALIEN.              673

Galien,  Des sentimens d'Hippocrate, & de Platon, ix.
        Fragment sur le Timee de Platon. L.
        De la formation du fcetus, i.
        Si  toutes  les  parties  de  l'animal  se forment  en  meme
          temps ? L.
        De la nature, & de l'ordre de  chaque corps, attribue a
          Galien, i. L.
        De la liaison des parties, ou de la Nature de l'homme,
          attribue' a Galien, i. L.
        Si ce qui est dans la matrice est un animal? i.
        De l'Enfant qui nait le septieme mois, i.
        De l'organe de l'odorat, i.
        Du Mouvement des Muscles, ii.
        Des Mouvemens manifestes, & obscurs, attribue a Galien,
         i. L.
        Fragment, tire de  cette meme paraphrase  du quatrieme
         livre de Physica auscultatione.
        Autre Fragment, tire de cette meme paraphrase.
        Autre, tire du livre des Songes, de Michel Ephesien.
        Du Mouvement de la poitrine, & du Poumon, Fragment. L.
        De l'Usage de la respiration, attribue a Galien, i. L.
        De l'Usage de la respiration, reconnu pour etre de Galien, i.
        Des causes de la  respiration, i.
        De  la Voix, & de la respiration, attribue a Galien, i. L.
        De  l'Usage des Pouls, i.
        Que les  qualitez de I'esprit suivent le temperament du
         corps, i.
       De la bonne Constitution du corps, i.
       De l'Embonpoint, i.
       Si l'Art qui regie l'usage des choses qui regardent la Sante,
         depend de la Medecine, ou de la Gymnastique? i.
       De la Conservation de la Sante, vi.
       Des Facultez des Alimens, iii.
       Du flux continuel de la substance du corps; ou Quatrieme
         livre des alimens, attribue' a Galien, i. L.
       De la Maniere de vivre attenuante, i. L.
       Des bons, & des mauvais Sues des alimens, i.
       Preceptes touchant la constitution du corps; touchant  la
         diete convenable dans les quatres saisons, & dans les
         douze mois de l'annee, i.
                           43 
674
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
Galien, De l'Usage des choses liquides, i.
       De la maniere de vivre de ceux qui se portent bien, iii.
       Des Eaux, Fragment tire de Galien, Oribase, &c.
       Des Vins, autre Fragment tire" d'Oribase.
       Autre Fragment sur le meme sujet, tire" du meme.
       Autre Fragment sur le meme  sujet, tire d'Athenee.
       Du Pain, Fragment tire d'Athenee.
       De la Ptisane, i.
       De l'Exercice de la petite paume, i.
       De l'Acte Venerien, Fragment.
       De la connoissance des maladies tiree des Songes, i.
       De la connoissance, & de la cure des passions de I'ame, i.
       Autre livre dont le titre est presque semblable.
       De la Coutume, i. L.
       Des Differences des Maladies, i.
       Des Causes des Maladies, i.
       Des Differences des Symptomes, i.
       Des Causes des Symptomes, iii.
       Des Differences des Fievres, ii.
       De lTntempene Inegale, i.
       Du Marasme, ou de la Consomption, i.
       Des Tumeurs contre nature, i.
       De la Plenitude, i.
       Des Causes Procatarctiques, i. L.
       Du Tremblement, de la Palpitation, de la Convulsion, du
          Frisson, i.
       Du Coma, i.
       De la Difficult©" de respirer, iii.
       Des Temps des Maladies, i.
       Des Caracteres des Fievres, i.
       Contre ceux qui ont ecrit des  Caracteres des Fhwres, i.
        De la Soif, Fragment.
        De la Fievre Hemitrilee, i.
        Des Parties affect&ss, vi.
       Des Maladies des Femmes, i.
       Des Maladies des  Femmes, Fragment. L.
        Des Pouls. a ceux qui commencent d'dtudier, i.
        Des Differences des Pouls, iv.
        De la connoissance des Pouls, iv,
        Des Causes des Pouls, iv. 
                  LISTE DES LIVRES DE GALIEN.              675
Galien,  Des Presages tirez des Pouls, iv.
        Abrege des seize livres des Pouls, i. L,
        Abrege des Pouls, attribue a Galien, i.
        Des Pouls, petit livre, addresse au Philosophe Antoine.
        Des Urines, attribue a Galien, i.
        Abrege' des Urines, i.
        Petit livre des Urines, tire  d'Hippocrate, de Galien, & de
          quelque autres.
        Des Crises, iii.
        Des Jours Critiques, iii.
        Trois  Commentaires sur le livre d'Hippocrate, des  Hu-
          meurs. L.
        Trois Commentaires sur les Prognostiques d'Hippocrate.
        Trois Commentaires sur les Predictions d'Hippocrate.
        Du Prognostique, a Posthumus, i.
        Du Prognostique., petit livre.
        Vrai, & experiment^ Prognostique.
        De La Saignee, Fragment.
        Prognostique sur la maniere dont un  malade  est couche\
          tire" des Mathematiques, i.
        Comment on de'couvre ceux qui feignent une maladie, i.
        Questions sur Hippocrate, attributes a Galien, i. L.
        Trois  Commentaires sur Je  premier  des  Epidemiques
          d'Hippocrate.
        Un Commentaire sur le second des Epidemiques.
       Fragment de Commentaire sur le meme livre.
        Trois Commentaires sur le troisieme des Epidemiques.
        Six Commentaires sur le sixieme des Epidemiques.
        Sept Commentaires sur les Aphorismes d'Hippocrate.
       Qu'Hippocrate n'a point erre dans 1'Aphorisme, qui com-
          mence ainsi; Ceux qui croissent ont le plus  de chaleur
          naturelle,  contre Lycus.
       Contre ce que Julien  a ecrit contre les Aphorismes d'Hip-
          pocrate.
       Fragmens de  Galien,  tirez  des Aphorismes  de  Rabbi
          Moiise.
       Fragment tire' de Rhases.
       De la Methode de traiter les maladies, xiv.
       L'Art de guenr les maladies, addresse a Glauq, ii.
       De la Saignee,  contre Erasistrate, i. 
(.jq                  THE WORKS OF GALEN.

Galien.  De la Saignee, contre les Sectateurs d'Erasistrate qui sont
          a Rome, i.
        De la maniere de guerir par la Saignee, i.
        Des Sansues,  de la Revulsion, des Ventouses, & de la Sca-
          rification, i. L.
        Des Facultez  des medicamens purgatifs, i.
        Des medicamens purgatifs, attribue a Galien, i. L.
        Qui sont ceux que l'on doit purger, par quels medicamens,
          & quand on le doit faire.
        Conseil pour un jeune gargon Epileptique.
        De la Melancholie, Fragment tire d'Aetius.
        Des Yeux, attribue a Galien, i. L.
        De la Colique, i. L.
        De la Jaunisse, attribue a Galien, i. L.
        Des maladies  des Reins, livre suppose.
        De la Pierre,  attribue a Galien. L.
        De la Sciatique, & de la Goutte, i.
        Des Remedes  experimentez, attribue a Galien, i. L,
        Livre des Secrets, a Monteus, attribue a Galien, i. L.
        De l'lncantation, de l'Adjuration,  & de  la Suspension,
          attribue a Galien, i. L.
        De la cure Homerique, Fragment tire de Trallian.
        Des remedes aissez a faire, i.
        Des remedes  aissez a faire, addresse a  Solon, Chef des
          Medecins, suppose, i.
        De Dynamidiis, c'est a dire, des facultez des medicamens,
          ou des medicamens efficaces, attribue a Galien. On croit
          que ce livre est de Gariopontus, L.
        Quatre Commentaires sur le livre d'Hippocrate de la Diete
          dans les maladies aigues.
        De la Diete dans les maladies agues, petit livre. L.
        Trois Commentaries sur le livre d'Hippocrate, de la Bou-
          tique du Medecin.
        Trois  Commentaires sur le livre d'Hippocrate, des  Frac-
          tures.
        Quatre Commentaires sur le livre d'Hippocrate, des Arti-
          culations.
        Des Bandages.
        Des  Facultez, &  Temperamens  des  Medicamens sim-
          ples, xi. 
             LISTE DES LIVRES DE GALIEN.               077

i, De la Composition des Medicamens, considered par rapport
     aux parties du corps, x.
  De la Composition des Medicamens, considered par rapport
     a leurs genres, vii.
  Des Antidotes, ii.
  De la Theriaque, a Pison, i. Ce livre paroit a. quelques-uns
     suppose.
  De la Theriaque, a Pamphilianus, attribue a Galien.
  Des Medieamens Succedanees, i.
  Des Poids,  & des Mesures, i.
  Des   Medicamens   simples,  a  Paternianus,  attribue  a
     Galien. L.
  Des Plantes, attribue a Galien. L.
  Des Facultez de la Centauree, attribue a Galien. L.
  Des Clysteres, i. L.
  Trois Commentaires sur le livre d'Hippocrate, de l'Air, des
     Lieux, & des Eaux. L.
  De l'anatomie des Museles, a ceux qui apprennent, i. L.
   Kiihn, in the preface to his edition of Galen, has exhibited a deter-
mination, that could alone have enabled him to undertake and com-
plete a task so  herculean.  He presumes that many, on seeing  the
first volume of  the work, will  accuse him of temerity, considering
its magnitude and the uncertainty of life, &c, yet still he could  not
be deterred from it, but was incited more courageously (acrius)  to
continue the work, in hopes that even should he not live to effect it,
it would still be happily accomplished.  After full deliberation on
the subject, he  adds his hopes that no one who knows him will
accuse him of levity in not sufficiently weighing the difficulty of the
task, or taking into consideration his unfitness to bear such a burden
as he assigned to himself.  He  nobly, in determining to fulfil it, thus
expresses himself:   m
  " Cassarem igitur imitatus,  qui cum ad  Rubiconem dubius, an
flumen trajiceret, nee  ne, aliquamdiu stetisset, subito exclamans.
Jacta alea esto! exercitum Rubiconem transire  jussit, bono animo
hujus editionis curandas laborem aggressus sum." 
678
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
   He proceeds then  to consider  the imperfections of preceding
 editions, arising from  the ignorance of  transcribers, and want of
 care in obviating errors in manuscripts, &c.—that at the beginning
 of the sixteenth century, the number was so great, that the life of a
 man would have been  inadequate,  though  daily employed, to com-
 pare them with the text of the Basil or Charterian copies.  Other
 difficulties are enumerated, which not being able to overcome fully,
 he accomplished what  was in  his power, by consulting  all the edi-
 tions he could  obtain   the use of;  a list  of which  he enumerates,
 animadverting  on  the defects of many, and acknowledging his obli-
 gations to several  friends for aid in his researches, and hoping his
 undertaking may be happily brought to a completion.
  After  this  preface,  he proceeds  to give  the literary  history of
Galen, embraced in nearly two hundred and fifty pages.   Of this I
give  the  catalogue of  the writings, which  is  more extended  than
those I have already introduced; but it appears so  much  more  per-
fect, owing to additional discoveries, that I feel assured  it will not
be unacceptable to the  Profession at large.
HISTORIA LITERARIA  CLAUDII GALENI.
    I. Vita Galeni.
   II. Galeni in  medicinalem  scientiam
        merita generatim.
  III. Medicinse status iis temporibus, qui-
        bus Galenus universam ejus sci-
        entiam mutabat.
  IV. Quid in singulis medicinalis scientiae
        disciplinis invenerit Galenus rec-
        tiusque dixerit.
   V. Systema Galeni medicum.
  VI. Libri a Galeno conscripti.  Eorum
        ratio.
 VII. Classes, ordo librorum Galeni.
VIII.  Institutum in ordine librorum Galeni
        a me servatum.
  IX.  Singulorum librorum Galeni, et qui-
        dem genuinorum, recensio.
    1. De sectis ad eos, qui introducuntur.
    2. De optima  secta ad Thrasybulum.
    3. De optima doctrina.
    4. De sophismatis seu captionibus pe-
       nes  dictionem.            t
 5. Quod optimus medicus sit quoque
    philosophus.
 6. Suasoria ad artes oratio.
 7. De constitutione artis medicae ad
    Patrophilum.
 8. De dementis ex Hippocrate lib. ii.
 9. De temperamcntis libri iii.
 10. De atra bile.
 11. De insequali intemperie.
 12. De optima corporis nostri consti-
    tutione.
 13. De bono habitu.
 14. De facultatibus naturalibus, lib. iii.
 15. De substantia facultatum natura-
    lium.
 16. De anatomicis  administrationibus
    libri %-.
 17. De ossibus ad tirones.
 18. De venarum arteriarumque dissec-
    tione.
19. De nervorum dissectione.
20. De musculorum dissectione. 
                     HISTORIA LITEE

21. De uteri dissectione.
22. An  in  arteriis natura  sanguis con-
    tineatur.
23. De motu muscnlorum libri ii.
24. Vocalium instrumentorum dissectio.
25. De caussis respirationis.
2C. De Hippocratis et Platonis decretis,
    libri ix.
27. Fragmentum in Timseum Platonis,
    vel ex iv. commentariis, quos inscrip-
    sit:  De iis, qua  medice dicta sunt
    in Platonis Timseo.
28. De semine libri ii.
29. De usu partium corporis humani lib.
    xvii.
30. De instrumento odoratus.
31. Da locis adfectis libri vi.
32. De differentiis febrium  libri ii.
33. De morborum temporibus.
34. De respirationis usu.
35. De usu pulsuum.
36. De pulsibus libellus ad tirones.
37. De pulsuum differentiis libri iv.
38. De dignoscendis pulsibus libri iv.
39. De caussis pulsuum libri iv.
40. De praesagitione ex pulsibus  libri iv.
41. Synopsis librorum  suorum  xvi. de
    pulsibus.
42. De diebus decretoriis libri iii.
43. De crisibus libri iii.
44. De difficultate respirationis libri iii.
45. De caussis procatarcticis.
46. De plenitudine.
47. De tumoribus praeter naturam.
48. De tremore, palpitatione, convulsione
    et rigore.
49. De simplicium medicamentorum tem-
    peramentis et facultatibus libri xi.
50. Ars medica.
51. De differentiis morborum.
52. De morborum caussis.
53. De differentia symptomatum, libri iii.
54. De  compositione  medicamentorum
    secundum locos libri x.
55. De  compositione  medicamentorum
    secundum genera libri vii.
56. Methodus medendi libri xiv.
57. Ad Glauconeni de medendi methodo
    libri ii.
58. De venassectione adversus Erasistra.
    tum.
                                     679

   59. De venassectione adversus Erasistra-
        teos, Roma? degentes.
   60. De curandi ratione per venaesectio-
        nem.
   61. De marasmo.
   62. Pro puero epileptico consilium.
   63. Ad Thrasybulum liber, utrum medi-
        cina? sit, vel gymnastices hygieine.
   64. De attenuante victus ratione.
   65. De tuenda sanitate libri vi.
   66. De alimentorum facultatibus libri iii.
   67. De  probis  pravisque  alimentorum
        succis.
   68. Quod animi mores corporis tempera-
        menta sequantur.
   69. Linguarum, seu  dictionum exoleta-
        rum Hippocratis explicatio.
   70. De septimestri partu.
   71. De libris propriis.
   72. De ordine librorum suorum ad Euge-
        nianum.
   73. De Ptisana.
   74. De parvae piles exercitio.
   75. De hirudinibus, revulsione, cucurbi-
        tula, incisione et scarificatione.
   76. Quomodo morbum simulantes sint
        deprehendendi.
   77. De dignotione ex insomniis.
   78. De propriorum animi  cuj usque ad-
        fectuum dignotione et curatione.
   79. De cujuslibet animi peccatorum dig-
        notione atque medela.
   80. De praenotione ad Epigenem.
   81. De antidotis libri ii.
   82. De foetuum formatione.
X. Libri suspectce originis.
   83. Introductio s. medicus.
   84. De subfiguratione empirica.
   85. De voce et anhelitu.
   86. De respirationis usu.
   87. An animal sit, quod in utero est.
   88. An omnes partes animalis, quod pro-
        creatur, fiant simul.
   89. De consuetudinibus.
   90. De motu thoracis et pulmonis.
   91. De totius morbi temporibus.
   92. De typis.
   93. Adversus eos, qui de typis scripserunt.
   94. De comate secundum Hippocratem.
   95. De victus ratione in morbis  acutis ex
        Hippocratis sententia.
^RIA DE GALENI. 
680
THE WORKS OF GALEN.
   96. De purgantium medicamentorum fa.
        cultate.
   97. De remediis paratu facilibus libri iii.
   98. De theriaca ad Pisonem.
   99. De theriaca ad Pamphilianum.
  100. De fasciis.
XI. Libri manifeste spurii.
  101. De historia philosophica.
  102. Definitiones medicae.
  103. De partibus artis medicae.
  104. De anatomia vivorum.
  105. De compage membrorum sive de na-
       tura humana.
  106. De natura et ordine  cujuslibet cor-
       poris.
  107. Quod qualitates incorporeae sint.
  108. De motibus manifestis et obscuris.
  109. De facultatibus corpus nostrum dis-
       pensantibus.
  110. De dissolutione continua, s.  de ali-
       mentorum facultatibus.
  111. Prasceptum de  humani corporis con-
       stitutione,  de  diasta quatuor  anni
       tempestatum et duodecim mensium.
  112. De humoribus.
  113. De praenotione.
  114. Omnino vera expertaque praesagitio.
  115. De venaesectione.
  116. Prognostica de  decubitu ex mathe-
       matica scientia.
  117. De urinis.
  118. De urinis compendium.
  119. De urinis ex Hippocrate, Galeno et
       aliis  quibusdam.
  120. Qusesita in Hippocratem de urinis.
  121. De pulsibus ad Antoninum.
  122. Compendium pulsuum.
  123. De adfectuum  renibus insidentium
       dignotione et curatione.
  124. De colico dolore.
  125. Introductorius liber, varias morborum
       curas complectens.
  126. De cura icteri.
  127. De melancholia ex Galeno, Rufo, et
       Marcello Sicamii Aetii libellus.
  128. De oculis.
  129. De pica, vitioso appetitu.
  130. De gynaeceis.
  131. De cura lapidis.
  132. Liber secretorum ad Monteum.
  133. De medicinis expertis.
   134. De incantatione,  adjuratione et sus-
        pensione.
   135. Fragmentum libri de dunamidiis.
   136. Liber secundus de dunamidiis.
   137. De ponderibus et  mensuris.
   138. De succedaneis.
   139. De simplicibus medicamentis.
   140. De plantis.
   141. De virtutibus centaureae.
   142. De clysteribus.
   143. De catharticis.
   144. De peste.

XII. Fragmenta.
     1. De aquis.
     2. De vinis.
     3. De vinis.
     4. De pane.
     5. De aquarum natura et de balneis.
     6. Sermo adversus empiricos medicos.
     7. De morsu, qui in aegritudine preci-
        pitur.
     8. De venereis.
     9. Ex libris de demonstratione.
   10. Ex commentariis  Simplicii.
   11. Ex Averroe.
   12. Galeni notae in Hippocratem e Sto-
        baeo.
   13. Fragmenta ex Nemesio.
   14. Ex Themistio.
   15. Ex Michaele Ephesio.
   16. Ex Moyse Maimonide.
   17. Ex Rhase.
   18. Quos,  quibus  purgantibus medica-
        mentis et quando  purgare oporteat.
   19. Fragmentum  de  Homerica medica-
        tione.
XIII. Commentarii Galeni in  Hippocratis
        libros.
     1. In  Librum  Hippocratis  de natura
        humana commentarii ii.
     2. In  Hippocratem  de salubri diaetas
        ratione privatorum.
     3. In Hippocratem de afire, aquis et lo-
        cis commentarii iii.
     4. In  Hippocratem  de  alimento  com-
        mentarii iv.
    5. In Hippocratem de humoribus com-
       mentarii iii.
     6. In  Hippocratis prognosticon  com-
       mentarii iii. 
HISTORIA L1TERARIA DE GALENI.
681
  7. In Hippocr. praedictionum  libr. i.
     commentarii iii.
  8. In Hippocr. de morb. popular, libr. i.
     commentarii iii.
  9. In Hippocr. de morb. popul. libr. ii.
     comment.
  10. In Hippocr. de morb. popul. libr. iii.
     commentarii iii.
  11. In Hippocr. de morb. popul. libr. vi.
     comment, vi.
  12. In Hippocr. aphorism, lib. vii. com-
     ment vii.
  13. Galeni adversus Lycum liber.
  14. Galeni  contra ea, quae  a Juliano in
     aph. Hippocr. dicta sunt.
  15. In Hippocr. de diasta  acutor.  libr.
     comment, iv.
  16. In Hippocr.  de officina medici librum
     comment, iii.
  17. In Hippocr. libr. de fracturis com-
     ment, iii.
  18. In Hippocr. libr. de articulis com-
     ment iv.
XIV. Libri, qui sub Galeni nomine in bib-
     liothecis latent, nondum typis exeusi.
   XV.  Libri Galeni medicinales, qui interi-
        erunt.
  XVI.  Libri Galeni, ad alias disciplinas per-
        tinentes, deperditi.
 XVIL  Codices MSS.  operum Galeni omni-
        um, aut librorum plurium Graeci et
        Latini.
XVIIL Editiones  operum Galeni  omnium,
        Grascee, GraBeo-Latinae, Latinae.
  XIX.  Collectiones librorum  Galeni, at non
        omnium,  Graecas, Graeco-Latinae, et
        Latinae.
   XX.  Galenus in epitomen redactus. Spe-
        cula Galeni, Theatrum, Indices.
  XXI.  Index auctorum, qui Galeno edendo,
        interpretando,  illustrando  operam
        dederunt.  Commentarii  in plures
        Galeni libros.
 XXII.  Libri, in quibus Galenus defenditur,
        confutatur, in quibus loca quaedam
        Galeni explicantur.
XXIII.  Editiones  operum  Galeni,  Graecae,
        Graeco-Latinae et Latinae, quae lucem
        non viderunt.
  Having brought to a termination the proposed epitome of the writings
of Hippocrates and Galen, it is respectfully offered to the Medical Pro-
fession, with a fervent desire that it may awaken an interest in favour
of our Great Predecessors, and eventually lead  to a full and complete
translation  of their works.   Should  such prove  to be the  case,  my
warmest wishes will be gratified.
                                                     John Redman Coxe.
  Philadelphia, September 16th, 1846.
THE END. 
 
 
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