COMMENTARY. After what we have said in the preceding section, and in the section on Ephemerals, it will be unnecessary to enter into any detailed account of the ancient opinions with regard to the nature of synochus. It is to be distinctly recollected, however, that all the authorities from Hippocrates to Actuarius held, with Galen, that the synochi are produced either by an ebullition of the blood, as in the case of neglected ephemerals, or from putrefaction of this fluid. (See Meth. Med. ix.) In other parts of his works Galen seems, indeed, to hold that these fevers are connected with corruptions of the bile, and we shall not attempt to defend him from the charges of inconsistence and contradiction with which he is assailed by Avicenna and Averrhoes. His treatment is well deserving of our attention. He inculcates with becoming earnestness that the great remedies for synochous fevers are bleeding and cold drink. He approves of bleeding _ad deliquium animi_, and relates an interesting case of its good effects. (Meth. Med. ix.) When the pulse is large and firm, he insists that no considerations of age, strength, or any other circumstance, ought to deter the physician from abstracting blood freely. He directs the apartments of the sick to be kept cool and well ventilated, and to have the floors sprinkled and rendered fragrant by means of suitable flowers. The diet is to be of a light and diluent nature, especially at the acme of the fever. (Therap. ad Glauc. i.) He forbids the bath when inflammation is present. (Hyg.)