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OF ARETÆUS, THE CAPPADOCIAN. CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF ACUTE DISEASE
BOOK I.
[p. 255]
namely, the water of the Nile, and the sort of ale prepared
from barley. Syria also, and more especially Cœlosyria, engenders
these diseases, and hence they have been named
Egyptian and Syrian ulcers.
The manner of death is most piteous; pain sharp and hot
as from carbuncle;
The term in the original,
ἄνθραξ, may either signify "a live
coal," or the disease "Carbuncle."
See Paulus Ægineta, iv. 25. It is
somewhat doubtful to which of
these significations our author applies
it here; indeed, the former
would be the more emphatic.
respiration bad, for their breath smells
strongly of putrefaction, as they constantly inhale the same
again into their chest; they are in so loathsome a state that
they cannot endure the smell of themselves; countenance pale
or livid; fever acute, thirst is if from fire, and yet they do not
desire drink for fear of the pains it would occasion; for they
become sick if it compress the tonsils, or if it return by the
nostrils; and if they lie down they rise up again as not being
able to endure the recumbent position, and, if they rise up,
they are forced in their distress to lie down again; they mostly
walk about erect, for in their inability to obtain relief they
flee from rest, as if wishing to dispel one pain by another.
Inspiration large, as desiring cold air for the purpose of refrigeration,
but expiration small, for the ulceration, as if produced
by burning, is inflamed by the heat of the respiration.
Hoarseness, loss of speech supervene; and these symptoms
hurry on from bad to worse, until suddenly falling to the
ground they expire.
CHAPTER X. ON PLEURISY
UNDER the ribs, the spine, and the internal part of the thorax
as far as the clavicles, there is stretched a thin strong membrane,
