[p. 47]swelling has
not subsided, it turns to a suppuration.| The author evidently alluded to hepatitis ending in abscess. This would seem to have been a very common termination of inflammation of the liver in Greece, as it is often described in the ancient medical works. Se PAULUS AEGINETA, B. III., 46, and the authorities quoted there in the Sydenham Society's edition. |
A discharge of blood from
the nose occurs to such in the first period, and proves very useful;
but inquiry should be made if they have headache or indistinct vision;
for if there be such, the disease will be determined thither. The
discharge of blood is rather to be expected in those who are younger
than thirty-five years. Such swellings as are soft, free from pain,
and yield to the finger, occasion more protracted crises, and are
less dangerous than the others. But if the fever continue beyond sixty
days, without any subsidence of the swelling, it indicates that empyema
is about to take place; and a swelling in any other part of the cavity
will terminate in like manner. Such, then, as are painful, hard, and
large, indicate danger of speedy death; but such as are soft, free
of pain, and yield when pressed with the finger, are more chronic
than these. Swellings in the belly less frequently form abscesses
than those in the hypochondrium; and seldomest of all, those below
the navel are converted into suppuration; but you may rather expect
a hemorrhage from the upper parts. But the suppuration of all protracted
swellings about these parts is to be anticipated. The collections
of matter there are to be thus judged of: such as are determined outwards
are the best when they are small, when they protrude very much, and
swell to a point; such as are large and broad, and which do not swell
out to a sharp point, are the worst. Of such as break internally,
the best are those which have no external communication, but are covered
and indolent; and when the whole place is free from discoloration.
That pus is best which is white, homogeneous, smooth, and not at all
fetid; the contrary to this is the worst.
PART 8
All dropsies arising from acute diseases are bad; for they do not
remove the fever, and are very painful and fatal. The most of them
commence from the flanks and loins, but some from the liver; in those
which derive their origin from the flanks and loins the feet swell,
protracted diarrhoeas supervene, which neither
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