[p. 43]
PART 1
It appears to me a most excellent thing for the physician to cultivate
Prognosis; for by foreseeing and foretelling, in the presence of the
sick, the present, the past, and the future, and explaining the omissions
which patients have been guilty of, Galen, in his Commentary on this clause of the sentence, acutely remarks that patients are justly disposed to form a high opinion of a physician who points out to them symptoms of their complaint which they themselves had omitted to mention to him. And Staphanus further remarks that the patient naturally estimates highly the acumen of the physician who detects any errors in regimen which he has been guilty of, such as drinking water, or eating fruit when forbidden; (Ed. Dietz, p. 54;) or when he has some disease about him, such as bubo or inflammation, which he wishes to conceal. (Ibid., p. 63.) | he will be the more readily believed
to be acquainted with the circumstances of the sick; so that men will
have confidence to intrust themselves to such a physician. And he
will manage the cure best who has foreseen what is to happen from
the present state of matters. For it is impossible to make all the
sick well; this, indeed, would have been better than to be able to
foretell what is going to happen; but since men die, some even before
calling the physician, from the violence of the disease, and some
die immediately after calling him, having lived, perhaps, only one
day or a little longer, and before the physician could bring his art
to counteract the disease; it therefore becomes necessary to know
the nature of such affections, how far they are above the powers of
the constitution; and, moreover, if there be anything divine in the
diseases, and to learn a foreknowledge of this also. Thus a man will
be the more esteemed to be a good physician, for he will be the better
able to treat those aright who can be saved, having long
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