The Canon of Medicine (Canon Medicinae), Vol. II

d B. contained.
e —— B.
f † B. ignited with extraneous heat; the first inflammation is that which, when cooled, is extinguished, and is cooled, and approaches, and
g B. itself.
h B. existing.
i B. which.
k a in the bellows.
l B. in the pot.

containment of that which is in them regarding the humors and spirits, whose comparison is the comparison of the walls of a bath: and the moisture is d recondita hidden/stored; and its comparison is the comparison of the bath water, and the animal, vital, and natural spirits, and the vapors poured forth, and the comparison of them is the comparison of the air of the bath, and of the e air of the bath f when that which is near it is cooled, it is not necessary that g it itself be extinguished, rather it is possible that it remain, and return, and heat that which is near to it h similarly is one of these three genera, outside i of which a corporeal genus is not found in man. For if fever is ignited in the radical members with a primary ignition, just as burning is ignited, for example, in the walls of a bath, or k by the bellows of a blacksmith, or l by the pot of a cook, then that genus of fevers is named hectic fever. And if fever is ignited by a primary ignition in the humors, and then is ignited from them in the members, just as it happens that hot water is poured into a bath, and its bricks are ignited because of it, or hot broth in a pot, and the pot is ignited because of it, then that genus of fevers is named humoral fever. And if fever is ignited by a primary ignition in the spirits and vapors, and then is ignited from them in the members and humors, just as it happens that air reaches the bath m which is ignited in it, and heats its air, and reaches the water and the walls, then that genus of fever is named ephemeral fever, since it is ignited in a subtle thing, which is resolved with speed, and rarely passes the day with its night, unless it is converted to another genus of fevers. This division of fevers is therefore by a manner near to the division occurring through differences. And fevers are divided in another way. For it is said that among fevers, some are acute, and some are not acute. And of them some are chronic, and some are not chronic. And of them some are nocturnal, and some are diurnal. And of them some are wholesome and direct, and others have horrible accidents. And of them some are intermittent, and others are inseparable; and of the inseparable ones, some have n remissions, and some have intensifications, and some have tortions [severe twistings/spasms]. and some are similar. o and of them some are cold, having shivering or gooseflesh. And of them some are simple, and some are composite.

m † a. heat or.
n B. intensifications and remissions or tepors. Another text: intensifications and tortions.
o † B. and of them some are hot.
Ch. 2.
Ch. 3.
Ch. 1.
Com. 14. & 16.
Text 18.

ANNOTATIONS.

Fever is an extraneous heat, etc. Fever, says Galen in his book On the Causes of Diseases, is a certain immoderate heat of the whole body. The same author in his first book On the Differences of Fevers asserts it to be one of the number of intemperatures, when a certain heat generated beyond nature occurs in the heart. And in the 8th Method of Medicine, he says it is one of the diseases that occur through intemperance: when heat is so immoderately increased that it both offends the human being and damages operations. In the first Aphorism, however, he writes that it is natural heat converted into igneous heat: which also Averroes discusses in his first book On the Reason of Diet in Acute Diseases and elsewhere.

Ch. 3.

3. collects that it is heat composed of natural heat and extraneous putrefactive heat, sent from the heart to the whole body, which damages all operations and passions. Avicenna defines it differently in this place, as is evident. Since various things are brought forth concerning the nature of fever, the moderns disagree among themselves, both about the genus of fever and about the offense to operations, which was said to be caused by fever. Regarding the genus, some think it is natural heat converted into igneous heat, and that this substance itself is fever, which Galen also seems to believe in his Aphorisms and in his Commentary On the Reason of Diet in Acute Diseases, which Averroes also seems to intend when he says that heat is natural heat mixed with preternatural heat. Others think that the genus of fever is merely the quality of innate heat increased and deflecting from its natural state. Others still believe it is not heat beyond nature, but rather a hot intemperature: for some say if you call it heat, you are naming the cause of the disease, not the disease itself. Finally, others say it is not pure heat, but heat joined to dryness. Thus they also disagree about the operations: some assert that all functions of the body are offended, others say not all. In such discord, we often admire the studies of the men of our time, which are now concerned not with things themselves, but only with words and the authorities of writers. Although Galen says fever is innate heat converted into igneous heat, who yet would be so imprudent as to assert that fever is natural heat or substance? Since he himself elsewhere wishes it to be one of the number of intemperatures; and elsewhere calls it a hot intemperature; and in the book On the Differences of Fevers, he affirms that the name of a quantity is certainly improperly ascribed to a quality, which is of the genus of qualities: yet it is said that there is a great and small fever, as with a thousand other things that subsist in quality. Add also that these people make a disease a substance. Nor should the words of Averroes delay us, since he says he understands by "heat with composite" the change of heat moved in quantity and quality, operating in the body non-natural operations, or in non-natural matter; by which words it is clear he understands not a substance, but a quality—namely, an excess in quality and quantity. But in truth, whether heat beyond nature is fever itself, or, as others wish, a hot intemperature, is a matter that recalls the nature of diseases, which is not the place to discuss here. But by heat beyond nature, the learned understand nothing other than a hot intemperature, by which operations are damaged without a medium, nor can any heat of the body that is immoderately increased take the name of a morbific cause, since the heat itself is not the cause of the hot intemperature, but rather the heating cause, or the body being hotter, or putrefaction, and others of that kind. Whether fever is only a hot intemperature, or also a dry one, is a debate derived promiscuously from Galen: namely, that he says in his first On the Reason of Diet in Acute Diseases and in the first On Preserving Health that the disease is hot and dry: but in the book On the Causes of Diseases and On the Differences of Diseases, he says it is only hot. But that from which operations are damaged in every fever is immoderate heat, both in ephemeral, and in putrid, and in hectic fevers: to this, because it is immoderate, dryness succeeds, which although it sometimes damages operations, it does not always do so. So that both our author and Galen properly define fever by heat, and not also by dryness, and Hippocrates also in the first Aphorism gives moist wine to all those suffering from fever, an indication taken not from the fever itself, but from that which is mostly joined to the fever. But if someone should object again that fever cannot be defined by heat, since in it the extremities often grow cold, and pulses become small and slow, and sometimes cold exhalation is returned, which Hippocrates writes in the first Prognostics threatens destruction in fevers, it is permitted to respond that in the beginning of fevers, innate heat is recalled inward, for which reason the extremities and external parts deprived of it become cold, at which time of the period small pulses are emitted, even if because of the inward drawing

Ch. 1.
Text 18. & 45.
Ch. 7. Ch. 5.
Ch. 6.
Text 24.