Galen's Commentaries on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates

...[salub]rity and a healthy safety. But raw and unconcocted matters, and those which are converted into evil abscesses, signify an absence of crises, or pains, or protracted durations, or deaths, or relapses. Thus indeed he commended, in general, the concoction of a disease. In the book, however, which is entitled Prognostics, he teaches its signs in detail in this manner: "Urine is best when the sediment is white, light, and uniform, throughout the whole time until the disease is terminated." For it signifies a healthy safety, and that the disease will endure for a short time. Thus again he praised urine showing concoction in the venomous class of diseases. Again, when he says that the excrement of the bowel is best which is soft, consistent, and excreted at the hour it is accustomed to be when health is present, he simultaneously commends and teaches the signs of the concoctions of the belly. Thus also, simultaneously commending and teaching the concoction which occurs in the members serving respiration, he writes in this manner: "Sputum, in all pains that infest the lungs and ribs, ought to be spat out quickly and easily, and a yellowness strongly mixed with the sputum should appear."

Therefore, signs of concoction are always good, but signs of crisis are not always so. Thus he says that crisima signs—that is, judicial ones, not [necessarily] judging [favorably]—some portend death, others a difficult crisis. And indeed, when he says that those which judge for the better do not appear immediately, he puts forth the same opinion through these words. For signs of concoction are good at whatever time they appear, for their whole kind is always best. Therefore, what was just said—that in pleurisy sputum appears immediately—does not conflict with that other saying, that signs judging for the better do not appear immediately; for judicial signs sometimes become bad, but no sign of concoction was ever bad, but all are always best, and they show that the patient will recover health all the sooner, the sooner they appear. Let it suffice to have said these things by way of a summary, as far as pertains to the present passage. We have explained the whole opinion of the ancient master regarding these things in the book On Crises.

But so that the discourse I just gave concerning the second division may be held perfect—how they differ from what has been said, and which signs are called "significative of the affection" and which "attendant"—I now wish to proceed, bringing forth one affection in the midst as an example, namely this very one which Hippocrates named. In pleurisy, therefore, an acute fever, together with difficulty breathing, and a cough, and a pungent pain in the side at the same time, are called signs significative of the affection. But whether the pain reaches to the flanks or to the collarbone is called "attendant," just as the fact that the patient lay more easily on the affected side than on the other belongs to the same class of attendant signs. Praxagoras also wrote two volumes to Nicander concerning attendant signs. Concerning those which supervene, another [work exists], as if it were titled "On things appearing soon." Therefore, Hippocrates says these things appearing soon show both a good and a bad crisis of the disease, and whether the disease will be long or short. Moreover, he mentions not only sputum, but also urine and excrements of the belly and sweats—namely, those things which are written in the book Prognostics, submitting them to us as examples, which it would be superfluous to transfer to this place; for we have spoken of these in the book On Crises and in the commentaries on the Prognostics, in which we have explained the ancient master's opinion even further.

Ornamental drop cap 'S' with floral/scrollwork background.

O LD men bear fasting most easily; in second place, those who are of a settled age; less so, adolescents; least of all, children, especially those among them who are more lively.

Ornamental drop cap 'D' with floral/scrollwork background.

T HE difference of ages also contributes something to the determination of the regimen of diet. Old men indeed bear hunger easily, children with difficulty. Facility consists in not craving and sustaining no harm therefrom; difficulty arises from the opposite.