sinews, and separates from the bone, and the fleshy parts fall
away from their foundation and leave the sinews bare and full of
brine, and the flesh again gets into the circulation of the blood
and makes the previously-mentioned disorders still greater. And
if these bodily affections be severe, still worse are the prior
disorders; as when the bone itself, by reason of the density of
the flesh, does not obtain sufficient air, but becomes mouldy and
hot and gangrened and receives no nutriment, and the natural
process is inverted, and the bone crumbling passes into the food,
and the food into the flesh, and the flesh again falling into the
blood makes all maladies that may occur more virulent than those
already mentioned. But the worst case of all is when the marrow
is diseased, either from excess or defect; and this is the cause
of the very greatest and most fatal disorders, in which the whole
course of the body is reversed.
There is a third class of diseases which may be conceived of as
arising in three ways; for they are produced sometimes by wind,
and sometimes by phlegm, and sometimes by bile. When the lung,
which is the dispenser of the air to the body, is obstructed by
rheums and its passages are not free, some of them not acting,
while through others too much air enters, then the parts which
are unrefreshed by air corrode, while in other parts the excess
of air forcing its way through the veins distorts them and
decomposing the body is enclosed in the midst of it and occupies
the midriff; thus numberless painful diseases are produced,
accompanied by copious sweats. And oftentimes when the flesh is
dissolved in the body, wind, generated within and unable to
escape, is the source of quite as much pain as the air coming in
from without; but the greatest pain is felt when the wind gets
about the sinews and the veins of the shoulders, and swells them
up, and so twists back the great tendons and the sinews which are
connected with them. These disorders are called tetanus and
opisthotonus, by reason of the tension which accompanies them.
The cure of them is difficult; relief is in most cases given by
fever supervening. The white phlegm, though dangerous when
detained within by reason of the air-bubbles, yet if it can
communicate with the outside air, is less severe, and only
discolours the body, generating leprous eruptions and similar
diseases. When it is mingled with black bile and dispersed about
the courses of the head, which are the divinest part of us, the
attack if coming on in sleep, is not so severe; but when
assailing those who are awake it is hard to be got rid of, and
being an affection of a sacred part, is most justly called
sacred.