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night very severely from burning and tingling when
they come into a warm place and wrap up ; in some
cases blisters arise like those caused by burning in
fire. But it is not until they are warmed that they
experience these symptoms. So ready is cold to pass
into heat and heat into cold. I could give a multitude
of other proofs. But in the case of sick folk, is it
not those who have suffered from shivering in whom
breaks out the most acute fever? And not only is it
not powerful, but after a while does it not subside,
generally without doing harm all the time it remains,
hot as it is? And passing through all the body it
ends in most cases in the feet, where the shivering
and chill were most violent and lasted unusually long.
Again, when the fever disappears with the breaking
out of the perspiration, it cools the patient so that
he is far colder than if he had never been attacked at
all. What important or serious consequence, therefore,
could come from that thing on which quickly
supervenes in this way its exact opposite, spontaneously
annulling its effect? Or what need has it of
elaborate treatment?
PART 17
XVII. An opponent may retort, "But patients
whose fever comes from ardent fevers, |
καῦσοσ2 was almost certainly a form of remittent malaria.
See my Malaria and Greek Histσry (index). |
pneumonia,
or other virulent disease, do not quickly get rid of
their feverishness, and in these cases the heat and
cold no longer alternate." Now I consider that
herein lies my strongest evidence that men are not
feverish merely through heat, and that it could not be
the sole cause of the harm ; the truth being that one
and the same thing is both bitter and hot, or acid and
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