Book 2
5
The season of summer, then, engenders this affection; next autumn; spring, less frequently; winter, least of all. With regard to the ages, then, those of young persons and adults; old age least of all; children more frequently than these, but their complaints are not of a deadly nature.
CHAPTER VI. ON ILEUS
6
AN inflammation takes place in the intestines, creating a deadly pain, for many die of intense tormina; but there is also formed a cold dull flatus (pneuma), which cannot readily pass either upwards or downwards, but remains, for the most part rolled up in the small convolutions of the upper intestines, and hence the disease has got the appellation of Ileus (or Volvulus). But if in addition to the tormina, there be compression and softening of the intestines, and the abdomen protrude greatly, it is called Chordapsus, from the Greek word ἕψησις, which signifies softening, and χορδὴ, which is a name for the intestines; and hence the Mesentery, which contains all the nerves, vessels, and membranes that support the intestines, was called ἐπιχορδὶς by the ancients.Both Petit and Ermerins have animadverted on this singular derivation of the term χορδαψός. As Petit remarks, the true derivation is no doubt from ἅπτεσθαι, and χορδή. The Greeks, it is well known, were very fanciful etymologists, of which we have striking proofs in the Cratylus of Plato.
