Kitap 1
11
And, in addition to these means, now also should be the time of cupping; but it is best after the seventh day: before this you should not be urgent with it, for the diseases are not of a favourable character which require cupping before the seventh day. Let the instrument be large, broad every way, and sufficient to comprehend the place which is pained; for the pain does not penetrate inwardly, but spreads in width. There should be plenty of heat below the cupping-instrument, so as not only to attract, but also to warm before the extinction of the fire. And after the extinction, having scarified, we are to abstract as much blood as the strength will permit; much more than if you had to take away blood from the hypochondria for any other cause. For the benefit from cupping is most marked in cases of Pleurisy. But salts or natron are to be sprinkled on the scarifications, a pungent and painful practice indeed, but yet a healthful one. But we must estimate the powers and habits of the patient. For if strong in mind and robust in body, we must sprinkle some of the salts, not indeed so as to come into immediate contact with the wounds themselves, but they are to be sprinkled on a piece of linen-cloth damped with oil, and it is to be spread over the place; for the brine which runs from the melting of the salts is less stimulant than the salts themselves. We must also pour in much of the oil, that by its soothing properties it may obtund the pain occasioned by the acrimony of the other. On the second day it will be a very good rule to apply the cupping-instrument again, so as that a thin sanies may be abstracted from the wounds. This, indeed, is much more effectual than the previous cupping, and much less calculated to impair the strength; for it is not blood, the nutriment of the body, but sanies that runs off. This then you are to do after having made a previous estimate of the strength. On the third day we are to apply cerate with the ointments of privet and of rue. But if the sputa still require purging, we are to melt into the cerates some resin, or mix some native sulphur therewith, and again the part is to have a fomentation. With regard to the form of the cupping-instrument, it should either be an earthen vessel, light, and adapted to the side, and capacious; or, of bronze, flat at the lips, so as to comprehend the parts affected with pain; and we are to place below it much fire along with oil, so that it may keep alive for a considerable time. But we must not apply the lips close to the skin, but allow access to the air, so that the heat may not be extinguished. And we must allow it to burn a long while, for the heat within it, indeed, is a very good fomentation, and a good provocative of perspirations.
