[p. liii]
might take place through any of the ordinary
means of evacuation--mouth, bowels, urine, pores--and
the evacuated matters were said to be concocted
(πέπονα), that is to say, they presented signs that
coction had taken place.
The chief signs of coction were greater consistency,
darker colour, and "ripeness" or "mellowness." |
But nature was not always able to use the
ordinary means of evacuation. In this case there
would be an abscession (ἀπόστασις). When the
morbid residue failed to be normally evacuated, it
was gathered together to one part of the body and
eliminated, sometimes as an eruption or inflammation,
sometimes as a gangrene or tumour, sometimes
as a swelling at the joints.
An abscession did not necessarily mean recovery ;
it might merely be a change from one disease to
another. The Hippocratic writers are not clear
about the point, but apparently the abscession might
fail to accomplish its purpose, and so the disease
continued in an altered form.
In other words there
was abscession without real crisis.
To trace the course of a disease through its various
stages, and to be able to see what is portended by
symptoms in different diseases and at different stages
of those diseases, was an art upon which Hippocrates
laid great stress. He called it πρόγνωσις, and it
included at least half of the physician's work.