Kitap 1
5
. . . . . should indeed the apoplexy be severe, for by all means the patients are, as it were, dead men whenever one is old, to whom this affection is congenial, and they cannot survive the greatness of the illness, combined with the misery of advanced life. It has been formerly stated by me, how the magnitude of the disease is to be estimated. If the patient be young, and the attack of apoplexy weak, it is still no easy matter to effect a cure; it must, however, be attempted. The equivalent remedy, then, as being the great assistance in a a great disease, is venesection, provided there be no mistake as to quantity; but the amount is difficult to determine, since if you take a little too much, you despatch the patient at once; for to them a little blood is most potent, as being that which imparts the vital heat to the frame itself, and to the food. But, if the quantity be inferior to the cause, you do little good with this the great remedy, for the cause still remains. But it is better to err on the side of smallness; for, if it should seem to have been deficient, and the appearance of the eyes, as seen from below, be favourable, we can open a vein again. We must open the vein at the hollow of the elbow, for the blood flows readily from it in the left arm. But in smaller attacks of apoplexy, it is necessary to consider whether the paralytic seizure be on the left side or the right. In a word, the abstraction is to be made from the healthy parts, for there the blood flows more freely, and thither the revulsion is made from the parts affected. When, therefore, the patient is seized with apoplexy without any obvious cause, we should decide thus concerning the abstraction of the blood. But if the attack happen from a blow, a fall from a high place, or compression, there must be no procrastination, for in certain cases this alone is sufficient for the cure and to save life.
