[p. 215]
Now the first character, as I said, is always the
letter II with the intersecting line, meaning in all
cases "probable." At the end we see written either
Υ or Θ, meaning "recovery" and "death" respectively.
Before them is the number of the days
at the end of which the patient recovered or died.
The characters in the middle are in all cases (except
the delta with a mark below it) the letters indicating
the elements of the word. That is, each middle character except one
is a letter of
the alphabet, and that letter is significant, being the initial
of a word, or of several alternative words. | I will now state the
meaning of each. Remember that the last character
was said to signify recovery or death, and the last
but one the number of the days, and I will now give
a list of the others written between the number and
the beginning. A signifies "miscarriage," "destruction";
Γ "urine like semen"; the letter with the
mark underneath,The text is probably mutilated, but the general
meaning
is clear. | written thus Δ, means "evacuations
by sweats," "diarrhoea" and "perspiration,"Surely this is wrong.
Littré's suggestion ("stools")
may possibly be correct. |
and in general any evacuation ; Ε "retention,"
"seat"; Ζ "object of search"; Θ "death," as I
said before ; Ι "sweat"; Κ "crisis" or "condition
of the bowels"; Μ "madness" or "womb"; Ν
"youth" or "mortification"; Ξ "yellow bile,"
"something strange and rare," "irritation," "dryness";
Ο "pains" or "urine," though some say it
means urine only when it has the Υ placed above,
written as the word οὕτως2 is generally written ; Π
means "abundance," "sputum," "wheat,"This again can surely not be
correct. Littré's emendation
is unconvincing. | "fever,"
|