Book 1
16
ξυμπάντων ὁμοῦ παθέων καχεξίη τροπή. ἅπασαι γὰρ αἱ νοῦσοι τῆσδε ἀποτόκοι. ἀτὰρ καὶ ἥδε μούνη ἄνευθεν τῶν ἄλλων, φαρμάκων ἐπίδοσιν ἔχουσα πολλὴν, ἰλυώδεα κατὰ πρώτιστα γίγνεται πάθος.It appears to me most remarkable, that all the editors should have pronounced this passage thoroughly corrupt, and in particular that Ermerins should have gone the length of ejecting the greater part of the last clause altogether from the text. He reads thus: ἀτὰρ καὶ ἥδε μούνη ἄνευθεν τῶν ἄλλων κατὰ πρώτιστα γίγνεται πάθος. This is truly an heroical way of solving the Gordian knot! I flatter myself I have unravelled all the intricacies of the noose by a much more lenient process; namely, by merely shifting the accent of ἀπότοκοι to the penult syllable, as suggested by Petit, and placing the comma [,] before ἰλυώδεα, instead of after it, as it stood in the former editions, and putting a comma after ἄλλων, for which I have the authority of wigan. I do not hesitate to affirm, that φαρμάκων and the other words connected with it are indispensable to the full signification of the passage, as any one may be convinced who will compare the account of Cachexia given by other authors. Thus, among the causes of Cachexia enumerated by Caelius Aurelianus, we find item ex medicaminibus saepissime potatis — and curatione mala medicantis. Tard. Pass. iii. 6. And much in the same style Celsus, treating of Cachexia, says: quod fere fit, cum longo morbo vitiata corpora, etiamsi illo vacant, refectionem tamen non recipiunt; aut cum malis medicamentis corpus affectum est. iii. 22. καὶ ἕξις μὲν κακὴ σχέδιος ξυνὴ πάντων, καὶ ξυμπτώματα πολλὰ, καὶ οὔνομα τόδε ξύμβολον· ἰσχνότης δὲ ἢ ὦχρος ἢ οἷδος καὶ εἴ τι ἕτερον πρόσκαιρον ἀνὰ τὸ σῶμα· καχεξίη δὲ ἑνὸς μεγάλου πάθεος ἰδέη, καὶ τοῦδε τοὔνομα· ἡ γὰρ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐς τὰ πάντα εὐεξίη, καὶ ἡ ἐς πέψιν ἢ ἐς ἀνάδοσιν αἵματος γέννα· ἠδὲ πᾶν ἔργον φύσιος, ἐφʼ οἷσι εὔπνοια, εὐτονίη, εὐχροίη, τὸ πρόσθεν ὑγείη. ἢν δὲ ἐς ἀσθενίην κακοχυμίης ἡ φύσις τραπῇ, τόδε ἐστὶν ἡ καχεξίη.
