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OF ARETÆUS, THE CAPPADOCIAN, ON THE CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF ACUTE DISEASE
BOOK II.
[p. 273]
humours; even the bones, being dissolved, run off; and from
all parts, as in a river, there is a current outwards.
As to the state of the soul, every sense is pure, the intellect
acute, the gnostic powers prophetic; for they prognosticate to
themselves, in the first place, their own departure from life;
then they foretell what will afterwards take place to those present,
who fancy sometimes that they are delirious; but these
persons wonder at the result of what has been said. Others,
also, talk to certain of the dead, perchance they alone perceiving
them to be present, in virtue of their acute and pure sense,
or perchance from their soul seeing beforehand, and announcing
the men with whom they are about to associate. For
formerly they were immersed in humours, as if in mud and
darkness; but when the disease has drained these off, and
taken away the mist from their eyes, they perceive those
things which are in the air, and with the naked soul become
true prophets. But those who have attained such a degree of
refinement in their humours and understanding will scarcely
recover, the vital power having been already evaporated into
air.
CHAPTER V. ON CHOLERA
CHOLERA is a retrograde movement of the materiel in the
whole body on the stomach, the belly, and the intestines; a
most acute illness. Those matters, then, which collect in the
stomach, rush upwards by vomiting; but those humours in the
belly, and intestines, by the passages downwards. With regard
to appearance, then, those things which are first discharged
by vomiting, are watery; but those by the anus, liquid and
