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OF ARETÆUS, THE CAPPADOCIAN, ON THE CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF ACUTE DISEASE
BOOK II.
CHAPTER I. ON PNEUMONIA
ANIMALS live by two principal things, food and breath (spirit,
pneuma); of these by far the most important is the respiration,
for if it be stopped, the man will not endure long, but immediately
dies. The organs of it are many, the commencement
being the nostrils; the passage, the trachea; the containing
vessel, the lungs; the protection and receptacle of the lungs,
the thorax. But the other parts, indeed, minister only as instruments
to the animal; but the lungs also contain the cause
of attraction, for in the midst of them is seated a hot organ,
the heart, which is the origin of life and respiration. It
imparts to the lungs the desire of drawing in cold air, for it
raises a heat in them; but it is the heart which attracts. If,
therefore, the heart suffer primarily, death is not far off.
But if the lungs be affected, from a slight cause there is
difficulty of breathing; the patient lives miserably, and death
is the issue, unless some one effects a cure. But in a great
affection, such as inflammation, there is a sense of suffocation,
