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OF ARETÆUS, THE CAPPADOCIAN, ON THE CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF CHRONIC DISEASE
BOOK I.
[p. 295]
and distortion of the countenance take place; the eyes either
fixed intently like horns, or they are rolled inwardly to this
side or to that; vertigo, deep-seated pain of the eyes as far as
the meninges; irrestrainable sweat; sudden pain of the tendons,
as of one striking with a club; nausea; vomiting of
bilious matters; collapse of the patient; but, if the affection
be protracted, the patient will die; or, if more slight and not
deadly, it becomes chronic; there is much torpor, heaviness of
the head, anxiety, and ennui. For they flee the light; the
darkness soothes their disease: nor can they bear readily to
look upon or hear anything agreeable; their sense of smell is
vitiated, neither does anything agreeable to smell delight
them, and they have also an aversion to fetid things: the
patients, moreover, are weary of life, and wish to die.
The cause of these symptoms is coldness with dryness. But
if it be protracted and increase, as regards the pains, the affection
becomes Vertigo.
CHAPTER III. ON VERTIGO, OR SCOTOMA
IF darkness possess the eyes, and if the head be whirled round
with dizziness, and the ears ring as from the sound of rivers
rolling along with a great noise, or like the wind when it
roars among the sails, or like the clang of pipes or reeds, or
like the rattling of a carriage, we call the affection Scotoma
(or Vertigo); a bad complaint indeed, if a symptom of the
head, but bad likewise if the sequela of cephalæa, or whether
it arises of itself as a chronic disease. For, if these
symptoms do not pass off, but the vertigo persist, or if, in
course of time, from the want of any one to remedy, it is
