[p. 249]
An inhuman calamity! an unseemly sight! a spectacle painful
even to the beholder! an incurable malady! owing to the
distortion, not to be recognised by the dearest friends; and
hence the prayer of the spectators, which formerly would have
been reckoned not pious, now becomes good, that the patient
may depart from life, as being a deliverance from the pains
and unseemly evils attendant on it. But neither can the
physician, though present and looking on, furnish any assistance,
as regards life, relief from pain or from deformity. For
if he should wish to straighten the limbs, he can only do so
by cutting and breaking those of a living man. With them,
then, who are overpowered by the disease, he can merely sympathise.
This is the great misfortune of the physician.
CHAPTER VII. ON ANGINA, OR QUINSEY
ANGINA is indeed a very acute affection, for it is a compression
of the respiration. But there are two species of it; for it is
either an inflammation of the organs of respiration, or an
affection of the spirit (pneuma) alone, which contains the cause
of the disease in itself.
The organs affected are, the tonsils, epiglottis, pharynx,
uvula, top of the trachea; and, if the inflammation spread, the
tongue also, and internal part of the fauces, when they protrude
the tongue outside the teeth, owing to its abnormal size;
for it fills the whole of the mouth, and the protuberance
thereof extends beyond the teeth. This species is called
Cynanche, either from its being a common affection of those
animals, or from its being a customary practice for dogs to
protrude the tongue even in health.
