COMMENTARY. Hippocrates declares that profuse bleeding at the nose indicates a disposition to convulsions, which venesection is calculated to remove. (Prædict. i, 21.) Galen, in his Commentary, remarks that the convulsions are brought on by the unseasonable use of cold applications to stop the hemorrhage. He strongly recommends bleeding from the arm of the side from which the blood flows. In another place, he states that epistaxis in acute fevers is an unfavorable symptom. (In iii, Epidem. Comment.) Aëtius mentions that Hippocrates had declared a bleeding from the nose on the fourth day of a fever to be a very bad symptom. He recommends encouraging the bleeding by irritating the nostrils with a stalk of grass. Our author, it will be observed, directs this operation to be performed until the _typha_, a species of grain several times mentioned by Theophrastus (Hist. Plant.); by Galen (de Aliment. i, 13); and by Alexander Trallian (vii, 5.) Sprengel makes it to be a species of secale or rye; but Stackhouse, the English editor of Theophrastus, is of opinion that it was the _triticum spelta_, or spelt. When it is judged proper to restrain the hemorrhage, Avicenna recommends ligatures to the extremities and cold and styptic applications to the nose and adjoining parts, (iv, i, 2, 14, and iii, v, 1.) Serapion agrees with most of the ancient authorities in commending a mixture of frankincense and aloes, when applied on the down of a hare. He also directs us to apply a sponge soaked in cold water to the temples and forehead. (ii, 13.) When bleeding at the nose occurs in a fever, Rhases forbids us to stop it, unless it prove excessive; in which case, he directs us to apply a cupping instrument, without scarification, to the hypochondrium; to tie ligatures about the testicles; to pour cold water on the head; and to drink cold water. (Divis. 40.) Considering how full and accurate our author and the others are in treating of the complications of fever, it is singular that they should all have passed by a profuse discharge of blood per anum, although it had been noticed by Hippocrates. In one of his Aphorisms he says: “When, in cases of fever, there is a quantity of blood discharged, the bowels get into a loose state.” His commentators Theophilus and Damascius say, in explanation, that the natural heat of the intestines being wasted by the discharge of blood, they lose their power of retention. (Ed. Dietz, ii, 401.) SECT. LX.—ON DELIQUIUM ANIMI OR SWOONING.