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THE head, inasmuch as it is necessary towards life, so is it also very dangerous in disease. And the onset of diseases about it is quite tolerable, being attended with slight pain, noises in the ears, and heaviness; but if they acquire increase, they become fatal at last. Wherefore even slight pains should not be overlooked, and, in certain cases, they have been cured by slight remedies. But if prolonged for a longer space, as greater sufferings supervene, we must open the vein at the elbow. But, for two days previous, the patient must get wine to drink, and the quantity of blood abstracted must be regulated by the strength; and it is best not to make the whole evacuation at once, so that the strength may bear the amount thereof; and the disease is rather removed by the repetition of the means. The same rule applies to all chronic diseases. During an interval of three or four days, a fuller diet is to be given, and then the purgative hiera is to be taken in a draught; for it, in an especial manner, draws the pabulum of the disease from the head. The quantity of the medicine given is to be to the amount of four or five drams. And if well purged, we are to administer the bath, give wine, and improve the strength. Then again we are to open the straight vein (temporal?) on the forehead, for abstraction by it is most efficacious; the amount, about a hemina (half-pint?) or a little more. But we must not evacuate further, for we must avoid emptying the vessels. Then, having removed the hair with a razor, we are first to apply one cupping-instrument to the vertex, and another between the scapulæ, without drawing blood; but along with the instrument applied to the vertex, we are to scarify unsparingly, for the purpose of attracting the redundant fluid and of making an incision in the deep-seated parts. For remedial means applied even to the bones are beneficial in cephalæa. When the wounds are cicatrised, we are to excise a portion of the arteries;See Paulus Ægineta, b. vi. 5. (of these there are two, one behind the ears, at a little distance from them, being obvious from their pulsations; the others in front of the ear, and close to it, for they lie close to the antitragus; and these also are discovered by their pulsations); we are to incise the larger ones at the bones, for they afford relief. Adjacent to them are others, very slender, which there is no benefit from excising. The mode of operating has been described under operative surgery. This is the great remedy in cephalæa, epilepsy, vertigo, and, in fine, in all the diseases of the head.
