Of Medicine, in Eight BooksCelsus, Aulus Cornelius
History
Of Medicine, in Eight Books
Celsus, Aulus Cornelius
Medicine, Greek and Roman
Having then mentioned those signs, which belong to diseases in general,
I shall now proceed to point out those marks, which may attend the
particular kinds of them. Now there are some of these, which happen
before, and others in the time of fevers, which discover either the
state of the internal parts, or what is likely to follow. Before
fevers, if the head be heavy, or there be a dimness in the eyes after
sleep, or there be frequent sneezings, some disorder from phlegm about
the head may be feared. If a person abound with blood, or be very hot,
the consequence is, that there may be an hæmorrhage from some part.
If any person is emaciated without an evident cause, he is in danger
of falling into a bad habit of body. If the præcordia are pained, or
there is a troublesome flatulency, or if the urine is discharged the
whole day unconcocted, ’tis plain there is a crudity. Such as have a
bad colour for a long time without a jaundice, are either distressed
with pains of the head, or labour under a malacia. Those, whose faces
long continue pale and swelled, have disorders either of the head,
or bowels, or belly. If a boy in a continued fever has no passage in
his belly, and his colour is changed and he is deprived of sleep, and
is constantly bemoaning, himself, convulsions are to be apprehended.
A frequent catarrh in a slender body and tall, gives ground to fear
a consumption. When for several days there is no stool, it portends
either a sudden purging, or a slight fever. When the feet swell,
and there is a long continued purging, or pain in the bottom of the
belly and hips, a dropsical disorder is impending: but this kind of
distemper commonly arises from the ilia. Those also are exposed to
the same danger, whose belly, discharges nothing, when they have a
stimulus, unless with difficulty, and the excrements hard. When there
is a swelling in the feet, and when the like tumour, sometimes in the
right, sometimes in the left side of the belly alternately rises and
falls, that disorder seems to arise from the liver. It is a mark of the
same distemper, when the intestines about the navel are pained, which
the Greeks call strophos[AU], and pains of the hip continue without
being relieved either by time or remedies. If a pain of the joints,
for instance in the feet or hands, or in any other part, be attended
with a contraction of the nerves there; or if any limb fatigued by
slight exercise, is equally distressed by heat and cold, we may expect
the gout either in the feet or hands, or that there will be a disease
in that joint, where the pain is felt. Such as have had hæmorrhages
from the nose, while they were children, which afterwards ceased, must
either be afflicted with pains of the head, or have some troublesome
exulcerations in their joints, or fall into some languishing distemper.
Women, whose menses are suppressed, will be subject to excruciating
pains of the head, or a disorder in some other part. And those are
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