On Humors — First Draft Translation

ON HUMORS. The color of the chymoi (bodily fluids) — in cases where there is no ebb of the chymoi — is like that of flowers. To be led: where it inclines, through the fitting regions, except where the concoctions come from the course of time; the concoctions incline outward or inward, or in whatever other direction is necessary. 1 Caution; inexperience; difficulty of experience; falling of hair; emptiness of the viscera — for those below, fullness; for those above, nourishment; tendency upward, tendency downward; spontaneous movements upward and downward, which help and which harm; innate constitution, region, habit, age, season, state of the disease, excess, deficiency — in whom, how much is lacking, or not; purging and emptying, remedies; deflection; diversion either toward the head or to the sides, where it most inclines; or counter-drawing — for conditions above, downward; for those below, upward; or drying; or cases in which the lower parts are flushed out, or the upper, or cases in which it will be soothed; do not shut off what has been poured out as chymos, but dry up the passages. Disturbance, flooding, rinsing — cases in which there will be a settling toward a seat, whence it is drawn off: whether a drug, or a sore, or some chymos that has congealed, or a growth, or wind, or food, or a creature, or heat, or some other affliction. These must be examined: things that cease on their own, or such as the blisters raised by burns — in what conditions such things harm or help; postures, movement, elevation, resettling, sleep, wakefulness, restlessness, yawning, shivering — as things to be produced or to be prevented; to anticipate. 2 Training regarding vomiting, downward passage, spitting, mucus, coughing, belching, hiccupping, wind, urine, sneezing, tears, scratchings, pluckings, touchings, thirst, hunger, fullness, sleep, labors, freedom from labor, body, mind, learning, memory, voice, silence. For the uterine [condition]: catharses — things breaking loose from above and twisting — oily, unmixed, frothy, hot, biting, verdigris-colored, varied, scrapings-like, lees-like, blood-tinged, without wind, raw, cooked, dry — whatever flows around; observing whether there is easy bearing or difficult bearing, before there is danger: such things one must not stop. 3 Pepsis (concoction / ripening); descent of the lower things; floating up of the upper things; and what comes from the womb; and the dirt in the ears; ripeness, opening, emptying, warming, cooling — from within, from without — of some parts, not of others. Whenever the twisting is below the navel, the twisting is slow and mild; when it is the reverse, the opposite holds. The things passing through — where they incline: frothless, concocted, raw, cold, foul-smelling, dry, moist. 4 [Note on those not burning with fever:] Thirst not previously present — and no heat, and no other occasion; urine; moistening of the nose. The throwing about, the wasting, the lack of collapse, the turbid pneuma (breath / moving air); the hypochondrium; the extremities; the eyes growing worse; change of color; pulses; chills; palpitations; hardening of skin, sinews, joints, voice, mind; voluntary posture; hair; nails — ease of bearing, or its absence — such things as are necessary. These are signs: odors of skin, mouth, ear, stool, wind, urine, sore, sweat, spit, nose; skin that is briny, or spit, or nose, or tear, or other chymoi; what helps and what harms are alike in every respect. Dreams — what sort the patient sees — and during sleep what he does; if he hears sharply and is eager to learn, in his reasoning the more numerous and stronger things are greater, timely, preserving; if not timely, belonging to the other category. If they perceive with every sense all things and can bear them — such as odors, words, garments, postures — such things are borne easily; whatever appears spontaneously helps; and whenever such things bring about a crisis, and so many and such things — as for instance wind, urine, of what kind, how much, and when. As many things as are contrary, one must turn away from them, fight against them. The parts nearest and most shared with the sufferings are the first and most harmed. The state of the disease must be observed from what is separated out from the very first beginnings, from what the urine is like and what sort of collapse occurs, change of complexion, diminution of pneuma, and the other things along with these. 5 Whether the outgoing matter is similar — one must know the passages: urine, through the womb, spit, through the nose, eyes, sweat, from swellings, or wounds, or eruptions — how many spontaneous, how many by art — because all the things that judge, and those that help, and those that harm, and those that resolve are alike to one another; so that the one must avoid and turn away from some, and call and lead and receive others. And in the same way with the rest: of skin, extremities, hypochondria, joints, eye, mouth, postures, sleep — what sort of things judge, and when such things must be contrived. And further, as many depositions of this sort as occur that are beneficial — by foods, drinks, odors, sights, sounds, thoughts, passages, warming, cooling, by moist things, dry things, to moisten, to dry; with ointments, with rubbed-in ointments, with spread-on plasters, with molded plasters, with dusted-on applications, with bandagings, with applications; postures, rubbing down, treatment, labor, rest, sleep, sleeplessness; pneumata from above, from below, common, particular, artificial — not during paroxysms that are present or impending, nor during cooling of the feet, but when the disease is declining. During paroxysms in the cycles, do not give the additions nor force them, but rather subtract from the additions before the crises. 6 What is being judged and what has been judged completely, do not disturb, do not introduce change, neither by drug-treatments nor by other provocations, but let it be. What judges for the better — do not let it appear at once. Treat and move what is concocted, not what is raw, nor at the beginnings, unless it is ripe and urgent; most often it is not urgent. What must be led — wherever it most inclines through the fitting channels — lead it in that way. Do not judge the passages by their quantity, but whether they pass as they ought and the patient bears them with ease; where it is necessary to cause weakness or faintness, until this has been accomplished for the sake of which it is done; if something else is then needed, to turn to something else — to dry, or to moisten, or to draw back, if the sick person is strong enough. By these things make judgment: dry things will be warm, moist things cool; things that promote passage are the contrary — for the most part these things hold. In odd-numbered days, upward — if the cycles and the state of the paroxysms are of this kind; but most things happen downward on even-numbered days; for thus too they help spontaneously, if the cycles make the paroxysms on even days. In cases not of this kind, on even days upward, on odd days downward; few cases are of this latter kind, and such states of the disease are harder to judge. And indeed those that have advanced further in time necessarily follow this pattern — such as the thirteenth-day and fourteenth-day cases: on the thirteenth, downward; on the fourteenth, upward (for in view of the crisis-day this is the fitting course); and those that are twenty-day cases, except those that go downward. Many things require purging, but not so close to the crisis, rather further off; one must seldom lead much in acute cases. In those worn with fatigue overall, in fevers, depositions occur most often in the joints and beside the jaws, near the point of each person's labor — more toward the upper part and overall. If the disease is sluggish and declining, the depositions too are downward; most of all, warm feet below are a sign of downward movement, cold feet above. 7 In those who have risen from diseases and have immediately labored with hands or feet, depositions occur in these parts; and if something was previously labored before the illness, the deposition settles there — as also with those in Perinthus who had coughs and quinsy; for coughs too produce depositions, just as fevers do; these things come about by the same reasoning either from chymoi or from dissolution of body and psyche (living principle / life-force). One must know the chymoi: in what seasons they flourish, what diseases they produce in each season, and what sufferings they produce in each disease. 8 As for the rest of the body — toward what disease the nature most inclines; such as an enlarged spleen produces — such too does the nature; roughly speaking, also worse colors, and it withers bodies, and whatever else — these things must be thoroughly understood. Of the psyche: lack of restraint in drinking and eating, sleep, waking — or through certain desires, such as those for dice; or through arts or through necessities — endurance of labors, of whatever kind, ordered or disordered; the changes from what sort of conditions to what sort. 9 From the habits: love of labor of the psyche, whether in seeking, or practicing, or seeing, or speaking, or anything else — such as griefs, fits of anger, desires; the griefs of mind that come from chance encounters, whether through the eyes or through hearing. What bodies do: when a millstone is ground against itself, the teeth are set on edge; when one passes beside a hollow, the legs tremble; when with the hands one lifts what one has no need to lift, the hands themselves tremble; a snake seen suddenly produced paleness. Fears, shame, grief, pleasure, anger — and other such things — thus each fitting part of the body obeys the action: in these come sweats, pounding of the heart, and such things of the powers. Things helping or harming from outside: anointing, affusion, smearing, plastering, bandaging with wool and such things — and what is inside obeys these in like manner, just as what is outside obeys what is applied within; and further these things: resting in unwashed woolens, and what is called cumin at the court of the king — for those who see it, who smell it; whatever things draw to the head, disturbing things, words, voice, and such; breasts, seed, womb — these are signs in the ages of life, and in suffocations, and in coughs — the things relating to the testicle. 11 Just as the earth is to trees, so the belly is to living creatures: it both nourishes and warms and cools — it cools when emptied, warms when filled; just as earth manured in winter is warm, so too the belly. Trees have thin, dry bark, and within are dry-fleshed, healthy, resistant to rot, long-lived; and among animals, likewise — such as tortoises and whatever is of that sort. Living things are alike to ages, seasons, years; they are not worn down; used moderately they grow better; just as a new water-pipe leaks and as it ages holds tight, so too the belly lets nourishment pass through and holds sediment like a vessel. The modes of diseases: the hereditary ones are to be known by inquiry, and those from the region (for most people dwell there, so more of them know), while those from the body, and from diaita (regimen / way of living), and from the state of the disease, or from the seasons. 12 Regions unfavorably situated with respect to the seasons give rise to diseases like the season in question, in similar fashion — for instance, uneven heat or cold within the same day, when it produces such conditions, the diseases in that region are autumnal; and in the other seasons, proportionally. Some diseases arise from foul or marshy odors; others from waters — producing stone, spleen conditions, and such; such things from winds both beneficial and harmful. What the diseases and states of the season will be can be judged from the following: if the seasons proceed seasonally, in orderly fashion, they produce diseases with clear crises; the diseases native to each season are evident as to their character; whatever the season alters, the diseases will be similar or dissimilar to those that normally arise in that season; if it proceeds similarly, diseases will be of such character and drawn toward such ends — for example, autumnal jaundice; for chills follow heats, and heat follows chills; and if the summer has been bilious and, having increased, is left behind, there are also conditions of the spleen. 13 Whenever spring proceeds in this way too, jaundices also occur in spring; for this movement is closest to the season in respect to this particular character. When summer becomes like spring, there are sweats in fevers, and the patients are of good disposition, and not intensely acute, nor with very dry tongues. When spring becomes wintry and there is a late return of winter, the diseases are also wintry — with coughs, pneumonia-like conditions, and quinsy-like conditions. And in autumn, if it does not become wintry in season and suddenly, it does not continuously produce such diseases — because it did not begin in season — but irregular things occur; for this reason the seasons too become indeterminate and unstable, just as the diseases also do, if they break out prematurely, or are judged prematurely, or are left behind; for the seasons too become prone to relapse, producing disease in this way. One must therefore reckon what condition the bodies are in when the seasons take them over. South winds: heaviness of hearing, cloudiness of sight, heaviness of head, sluggishness, dissolution; when this one prevails, patients suffer in this manner in all their diseases; sores that cause hair-loss — most of all in the mouth, the genitals, and the rest. 14 If it is a north wind: coughs, throats, harder bowels, shivering dysuria, pains in the sides and chest; when this one prevails, such diseases are to be expected more. If it prevails more extensively, fevers follow upon droughts and rains — depending on what sort of excesses there have been shifts, and on what condition the bodies are in when they are taken over from the other season, and on whatever kind of chymos prevails in the body. But there are also droughts — southerly and northerly; for in other respects too the difference holds; this is great as well; each wind is great in a different season and region — for example, summer is bile-producing, spring is blood-rich, and the rest each in its own way. Changes most of all give birth to diseases, and the greatest changes most of all; and in the seasons the great changes, and in other things too. Those that come about by gradual approach — these seasons are the most safe, just as diaita and cold and heat are safest especially by gradual approach, and ages of life changing in this way too. 16 Natures as regards the seasons: some are by nature well or ill suited to summer, others to winter; others to regions, ages, diaitai, and other disease states — different natures are well or ill suited to different things; and ages are well or ill suited to seasons, regions, diaitai, and disease states. And in the seasons, diaitai and foods and drinks — for winter is idle in its labors, and what comes in is concocted and simple; this too is significant. The fruit-harvest seasons are laborious, with much sun, the drinks taken frequently, foods unstable, wines, tree-fruits. Just as from the seasons one can judge the diseases, sometimes also from the diseases one can foreknow waters and winds and droughts — for instance northerly, southerly; for it is possible for one who has learned well and rightly, from what one must examine — for instance, some skin scalings and pains about the joints are itchy when rain is about to come, and other such things. 18 And of rains — what kind, whether on every third day or every day, or in other intervals — and those that are continuous; and of winds — some blow for many days and blow against each other, others through shorter intervals, some even themselves according to a cycle; these bear resemblances to disease states, but shorter in duration for such things. And if the year, being of such a character for a longer time, produced a state of such a kind, then the diseases too are of such a kind for a longer time and more severe, and the greatest diseases arose thus and were most widespread and for the longest time. From the first rains, when rain is about to come after a long drought, one can foretell about dropsies; and when other small signs appear in calm, in change — one must gather together: as many diseases as give signs upon what sort of waters or winds, and one must listen if anyone knows — given such a winter having come before — what spring or summer will be. The colors are not the same in the seasons, nor in northerly and southerly conditions, nor is the same person the same as himself in the different ages of life, nor is one person like any other at all. 19 One must examine from what we know, both from what is present and from what is at rest, concerning complexions; and that the ages of life resemble the seasons both in complexion and in character. Those who have hemorrhoids are attacked neither by pleurisy, nor by pneumonia-like disease, nor by spreading sore, nor by boils, nor by swellings; nor perhaps even by skin scalings, nor perhaps by white skin-patches; when treated unseasonably, however, many have been attacked by such things not slowly, and fatally so. And as many other depositions as there are — such as fistulas — are remedies for others; as many things as, when they occur, save from the conditions on which they supervene, if they occur beforehand are preventive obstacles; the suspicious regions, having received stress, weight, or something else, are thereby saved; in others, the shared connections; because of the inclination, blood no longer comes, but according to the kinship of the chymos such things are spat up; in some, letting blood is timely in such conditions; in others, as in these, this is not fitting — a hindrance; and for those who spit blood-tinged matter, the fitting time, pleurisy, bile. 20 Swellings beside the ear that arise around a crisis and do not suppurate — when these are evacuated, relapse occurs; and in proportion to the nature of relapses, when relapse has occurred, the condition rises again and persists, just as relapses of fevers do in a similar cycle; in these cases there is hope of deposition in the joints. Thick white urine — such as that of Antigenes' patient — sometimes comes in fatiguing quartan cases, and saves from the deposition; and if in addition to this there is also sufficient nosebleed, even more so. The patient whose intestine on the right side had been affected by a joint condition — he was quieter; but when this was treated, he was in greater pain.