Book 1
4
If, then, it seize on the head, it settles there; to it, therefore, we are to do those things which have been described by me under cephalæa, regarding the abstraction of blood (and also the purgings) from the veins at the elbow, the straight vein at the forehead, and by cupping; but the abstraction is not to be carried the length of deliquium animi; for deliquium has a tendency to induce the disease; we are to open all the ordinary arteries before and behind the ears, and we are also to practise purgings, which are more potent than all these things, by the purgative hiera and those medicines which draw off phlegm from the head; but the medicines should be particularly powerful, for the habit of such persons renders them tolerant of pains, and their goodness of spirits and good hopes render them strong in endurance. It is necessary, also, to apply heat to the head, for it is effectual. In the first place, we must perforate the bone as far as the diploe, and then use cerates and cataplasms until the meninx separate from the bone. The exposed bones are to be perforated with the trepan if still any small portion prevent its spontaneous removal, when the meninx there is found black and thickened; and when, having gone through the process of putrefaction and cleansing under the bold treatment of the physician, the wound comes to complete cicatrization, the patients escape from the disease. In all cases we are to use rubefacient applications to the head; namely, the common ones, as described by me formerly; and a still more powerful one is that from cantharides, but for three days before using it the patient must drink milk as a protection of the bladder, for cantharides are very injurious to the bladder. These are the remedies when the head is the part affected.
