TIMAEU [40]
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, 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. An acid and salt phlegm, again, is the source of all
those diseases which take the form of catarrh, but they have many
names because the places into which they flow are manifold.
Inflammations of the body come from burnings and inflamings, and all
of them originate in bile. When bile finds a means of discharge, it
boils up and sends forth all sorts of tumours; but when imprisoned
within, it generates many inflammatory diseases, above all when
mingled with pure blood; since it then displaces the fibres which
are scattered about in the blood and are designed to maintain the
balance of rare and dense, in order that the blood may not be so
liquefied by heat as to exude from the pores of the body, nor again
become too dense and thus find a difficulty in circulating through the
veins. The fibres are so constituted as to maintain this balance;
and if any one brings them all together when the blood is dead and
in process of cooling, then the blood which remains becomes fluid, but
if they are left alone, they soon congeal by reason of the surrounding
cold. The fibres having this power over the blood, bile, which is only
stale blood, and which from being flesh is dissolved again into blood,
at the first influx coming in little by little, hot and liquid, is
congealed by the power of the fibres; and so congealing and made to
cool, it produces internal cold and shuddering. When it enters with
more of a flood and overcomes the fibres by its heat, and boiling up
throws them into disorder, if it have power enough to maintain its
supremacy, it penetrates the marrow and burns up what may be termed
the cables of the soul, and sets her free; but when there is not so
much of it, and the body though wasted still holds out, the bile is
itself mastered, and is either utterly banished, or is thrust
through the veins into the lower or upper-belly, and is driven out
of the body like an exile from a state in which there has been civil
war; whence arise diarrhoeas and dysenteries, and all such
disorders. When the constitution is disordered by excess of fire,
continuous heat and fever are the result; when excess of air is the
cause, then the fever is quotidian; when of water, which is a more
sluggish element than either fire or air, then the fever is a tertian;
when of earth, which is the most sluggish of the four, and is only
purged away in a four-fold period, the result is a quartan fever,
which
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, 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. An acid and salt phlegm, again, is the source of all
those diseases which take the form of catarrh, but they have many
names because the places into which they flow are manifold.
Inflammations of the body come from burnings and inflamings, and all
of them originate in bile. When bile finds a means of discharge, it
boils up and sends forth all sorts of tumours; but when imprisoned
within, it generates many inflammatory diseases, above all when
mingled with pure blood; since it then displaces the fibres which
are scattered about in the blood and are designed to maintain the
balance of rare and dense, in order that the blood may not be so
liquefied by heat as to exude from the pores of the body, nor again
become too dense and thus find a difficulty in circulating through the
veins. The fibres are so constituted as to maintain this balance;
and if any one brings them all together when the blood is dead and
in process of cooling, then the blood which remains becomes fluid, but
if they are left alone, they soon congeal by reason of the surrounding
cold. The fibres having this power over the blood, bile, which is only
stale blood, and which from being flesh is dissolved again into blood,
at the first influx coming in little by little, hot and liquid, is
congealed by the power of the fibres; and so congealing and made to
cool, it produces internal cold and shuddering. When it enters with
more of a flood and overcomes the fibres by its heat, and boiling up
throws them into disorder, if it have power enough to maintain its
supremacy, it penetrates the marrow and burns up what may be termed
the cables of the soul, and sets her free; but when there is not so
much of it, and the body though wasted still holds out, the bile is
itself mastered, and is either utterly banished, or is thrust
through the veins into the lower or upper-belly, and is driven out
of the body like an exile from a state in which there has been civil
war; whence arise diarrhoeas and dysenteries, and all such
disorders. When the constitution is disordered by excess of fire,
continuous heat and fever are the result; when excess of air is the
cause, then the fever is quotidian; when of water, which is a more
sluggish element than either fire or air, then the fever is a tertian;
when of earth, which is the most sluggish of the four, and is only
purged away in a four-fold period, the result is a quartan fever,
which