Book 3
15
Twentieth day. Much rambling followed by recovery of reason; speechless; respiration short.
15
Twenty-first day. Death.
15
The respiration of this patient throughout was rare and large; took no notice of anything; she constantly wrapped herself up; either much rambling or silence throughout.In many ways this case, though one of the most picturesque, is also one of the most carelessly written. Galen points out that διὰ Χπόνον is ambiguous, and that its possible meanings are inconsistent with the rest of the description. How can the respiration be ἀραιόν throughout, when on both the fourteenth and the twentieth days the patient was βραχύπνοος? It is strange that the writer specifies the fourteenth day as the day when the respiration was rare and large, seeing that it had these characteristics throughout. A similar remark applies to ἀναισθήτως εἰχε πάντων of the seventeenth day. Further, ἀεὶ σιγῶσα of the second sentence becomes strangely ἣ λόγοι χολλοὶ ἣ σιγῶσα διὰ τέλεος in the last. I conclude that this medical history was hastily written and never revised. A slight revision could easily have cleared away the inconsistencies, which are, as Galen seems to have seen, more apparent than real.
CASE XVI
16
In Meliboea a youth took to his bed after being for a long time heated by drunkenness and sexual indulgence. He had shivering fits, nausea, sleeplessness, but no thirst.
16
First day. Copious, solid stools passed in abundance of fluid, and on the following days the excreta were copious, watery and of a greenish yellow. Urine thin, scanty and of no colour; respiration rare and large with long intervals; tension, soft underneath, of the hypochondrium,See note, p. 188. extending out to either side; continual throbbing throughout of the epigastrium;So Littré, following Galen. Perhaps, however, it means heart, i. e. there was violent palpitation. urine oily.
