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OF ARETÆUS, THE CAPPADOCIAN. CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF ACUTE DISEASE
BOOK I.
[p. 253]
Fimbria. This affection arises spontaneously from a defluxion,
like the others, but also from an oblique incision when the
surgeon leaves the membrane at one side.
Our author alludes here to
the surgical operation, excision of
the tonsils, described by Paulus
Ægineta, vi. 30.
But if the organ
(uvula) become bifid with two membranes hanging on this
side and on that, it has no distinct appellation, but it is an
easy matter for any one who sees it to recognise the nature of
the disease.
A sense of suffocation accompanies all these affections, and
they can by no means swallow with freedom. There is cough
in all the varieties, but especially in those named lorum and
fimbria. For a titillation of the trachea is produced by the
membrane, and in some cases it secretly instils some liquid
into the windpipe, whence they cough. But in uva and
columella there is still more dyspnœa and very difficult
deglutition; for, in these cases, the fluid is squeezed up to the
nostrils, from sympathy of the tonsils. The columella is
common in old persons, the uva in the young and in adults;
for they abound in blood, and are of a more inflammatory
nature. The affections of the membranes are common in
puberty and infancy. It is safe to apply the knife in all
these varieties; but in the uva, while still red, hemorrhage,
pains, and increase of inflammation supervene.
CHAPTER IX. ON ULCERATIONS ABOUT THE TONSILS
ULCERS occur on the tonsils; some, indeed, of an ordinary
nature, mild and innocuous; but others of an unusual kind,
pestilential, and fatal. Such as are clean, small, superficial,
without inflammation and without pain, are mild; but such as
