The Extant Works of Aretaeus, The Cappadocian.

The Extant Works of Aretaeus, The Cappadocian.
By Aretaeus
Edited by: Francis Adams LL.D. (trans.)

Boston Milford House Inc. 1972 (Republication of the 1856 edition).


Digital Hippocrates Collection Table of Contents



OF ARETÆUS, THE CAPPADOCIAN. CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF ACUTE DISEASE
   BOOK I.

OF ARETÆUS, THE CAPPADOCIAN, ON THE CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF ACUTE DISEASE
   BOOK II.

OF ARETÆUS, THE CAPPADOCIAN, ON THE CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF CHRONIC DISEASE
   BOOK I.


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OF ARETÆUS, THE CAPPADOCIAN, ON THE CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF ACUTE DISEASE

BOOK II.

CHAPTER II. ON THE BRINGING UP OF BLOOD

 [p. 264]

or from the mouth, it is no longer called a bringing up, but either the same, or a spitting, or a hemorrhage. But if it ascend from the chest, and the viscera there, the lungs, aspera arteria, the parts about the spine, the discharge from these is not called a spitting, but a bringing up (in Greek, ἀναγωγή, the name being expressive of its coming upwards).
Cælius Aurelianus, under the head of "Sanguinis fluor," thus explains the term:--"Improprium est enim fluorem vocare id quod ascensu quodam non lapsu fertur. Sed hæc Græci versa vice posuerunt, derivationem nominis intuentes. Hi enim anagogen vocant quod magis ex inferioribus ad superiora fluorem significat.'--Tard. pass. iii. 9. We are at a loss for a proper vocable in English to express this term. It is usually translated rejectio in Latin, which, however, is not sufficiently expressive. The most suitable in English, which I can think of, is "a bringing up."

The symptoms of both are partly common, small and few in number, such as the seat of them, in which there is a coincidence between the bringing up and the spitting. But the peculiarities of each are great, many, and of vital importance, by which it is easy to distinguish either of them from the other. If, therefore, it came from the head, with a large discharge of blood, greater and more numerous symptoms will arise, but scanty from a slight and small spitting; in these cases, there is heaviness of the head, pain, noises of the ears, redness of countenance, distension of the veins, vertigo; and these are preceded by some obvious cause, such as a blow, exposure to cold, or heat, or intoxication; for drinking of wine speedily fills the head, and speedily empties it, by the bursting of a vessel; but from a slight intoxication there may be spitting, proceeding from rarefaction. Occasionally an habitual hemorrhage from the nostrils is stopped, and being diverted to the palate, produces the semblance of a bringing up of blood. If, therefore, it be from the head, there is titillation of the palate, frequent hawking, and with it a copious spitting takes place; a desire supervenes, and they readily cough. But if it flow into the aspera