Book 1
2
THE patient ought to be laid in a house of moderate size, and mild temperature—in a warm situation, if winter, and in one that is cool and humid, if summer; in spring and autumn, to be regulated according to the season. Then the patient himself, and all those in the house, are to be ordered to preserve quiet; for persons in phrensy are sharp of hearing, are sensitive to noise, and easily become delirious. The walls should be smooth, level, without projections, not adorned with friezeThe Greek word ἄχναι would appear to have been applied like frieze in English, both to the nap on woollen cloth, and in architecture, to ornaments of sculpture on a flat face. Our author evidently uses it in the latter sense; but I suspect the translators fail to recognise it. For the former meaning, see Erotian, and Föes Œc. Hippocr. Modern lexicographers do not seem acquainted with this use of the term. See Liddel and Scott’s; and Dunbar’s Lexicons. or paintings; for painting on a wall is an excitant. And, moreover, they catch at certain false appearances before their eyes, and grope about things which are not projecting, as if they were so; and any unreal occasion may be a cause sufficient to make them raise their hands. Length and breadth of the couch moderate, so that the patient may neither toss about in a broad one, nor fall out of a narrow bed. In plain bed clothes, so that there may be no inducement to pick at their nap. But on a soft bed, for a hard one is offensive to the nerves; as in phrenitics, above all others, the nerves especially suffer, for they are subject to convulsions. Access of their dearest friends is to be permitted; stories and conversation not of an exciting character; for they ought to be gratified in everything, especially in cases where the delirium tends to anger. Whether they are to be laid in darkness or in light must be determined by the nature of the attack; for if they are exasperated by the light, and see things which exist not, and represent to themselves things not present, or confound one thing with another, or if strange images obtrude themselves upon them; and, in a word, if they are frightened at the light, and the things in the light, darkness must be chosen; but if not, the opposite state. It is a good symptom, too, when they become of a sound mind, and their delirium abates, on exposure to the light. Abstinence from food should not be prolonged; food should be rather liquid, scanty, and frequently administered, for food soothes the soul: the proper time for giving it is during the remissions, both of the fever and of the delirium. But if they have become delirious from want of food, and if the fever do not remit, we are to give food that does not do much harm in fever. It is a favourable circumstance, when the fever and the delirium agree both as to the paroxysms and intermissions.
