Hippocrates on Epidemics, Book 1

Galen's Commentary

...and coldness overcome its mixture original Greek: "κράσει" (krassei). This refers to the specific blend of hot, cold, moist, and dry qualities in the body or environment.. As I mentioned earlier, a particular humor humor: one of the four bodily fluids—blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile—that determine health and temperament becomes excessive during each of these seasons.

In addition to these points, a third and fourth principle were taught in those same books. In the treatise On the Nature of Man, it is shown that the surrounding air is the cause of epidemic diseases. In the Prognostic, the author teaches the signs used for medical predictions. These signs show the power of a disease based on its quality and its magnitude.

I ask you, the reader of this current study, to keep all these previous lessons ready in your memory. This will help you follow my upcoming explanations more easily. Most of all, I want you to have read the work On Airs, Waters, and Places. There you will see what Hippocrates himself wrote. I will then be able to confirm that the types of diseases I have categorized are consistent with those divided by Hippocrates. He clearly identifies the air as the cause of epidemic diseases. Indeed, in the book On the Nature of Man, he writes the following:

"Diseases arise either from our daily regimen original Greek: "διαιτημάτων" (diaitēmatōn). This refers to a patient's diet, exercise, and general lifestyle. or from the breath original Greek: "πνεύματος" (pneumatos); Latin: "spiritu." In this context, it refers specifically to the atmospheric air we inhale to stay alive. that we draw in to live."

But the distinction between the two...