Kitap 1
3
With regard to the depletion of lethargics this should be known:—If the obliviousness be the sequela of another disease, such as phrenitis, we must not open a vein, nor make a great evacuation of blood in any way, but inject the belly, not solely for the evacuation of its contents, but in order to produce revulsion from above, and to determine from the head: there should be a good deal of salts and natron in it, and it answers very well if you add a sprinkling of castor to the clyster; for in lethargics the lower intestine is cold, and dead, as it were, to evacuation. But, if the lethargy is not the consequence of another disease, but is the original affection, and if the patient appear to be plethoric, provided it be with blood, we must open a vein at the elbow; but, if with a watery phlegm, or other humours, we must purge by means of cneorosDaphne Cneorum L. with the ptisan, or by black hellebore with honeyed-water, in the beginning, if you wish to do so moderately; but if to a greater extent, you must give to the patient when fasting of the medicine called Hiera, to the extent of two drams with three cupfuls of honeyed-water; and, having waited until it purges, then give food, if it be the proper season; but otherwise nourishment is to be given the next day. It will be seasonable then to give in the evening a dram of the hiera, dissolved either in two cupfuls of water or of honeyed-water.
