Malaria : a neglected factor in the history of Greece and Rome / by W.H.S. Jones ; with an introduction by Sir R. Ross ; a concluding chapter by G.G. Ellett.

  • W. H. S. Jones
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Malaria : a neglected factor in the history of Greece and Rome / by W.H.S. Jones ; with an introduction by Sir R. Ross ; a concluding chapter by G.G. Ellett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    38/124 (page 26)
    The evidence that enlargement of the spleen was common is copious, but practically confined to professional works. This is only to be expected, especially as the Greeks had the excellent sense not to talk overmuch about their ailments. In a curious passage of the Timaeus1 Plato describes the spleen as a receptacle for the purgations of the liver, and accounts in this way for splenic enlargement. When it is remembered that the Greeks held that tertians and quartans were caused by bile, the words of Plato at once become full of meaning. Hippocrates says that men who drink marsh water get enlarged spleens.2 The phenomenon Hippocrates really observed was that dwellers by marshy places suffer from enlarged spleens. His interpretation of this phenomenon is incorrect. The enlargement was in all probability caused by malaria conveyed from one person to another by mosquitoes bred in the marshes. Splenic enlargement is also caused by typhoid, and it may be remarked in passing that there is a tendency among modern 1 72 C : did dtj Kdl tWav rivds dKadapaiai ylyvuvrai did v6<rovs crcfymTos irepi r6 fjirap, iravra rj crirXyvbs Kdda'ipovcra atird 5^xercu pavoTys, fire koLXov Kai dvaLfiov vrfravdtvTos’ oOev irXypoijjdevos tuv diroKadaipophuv p.£yas Kdl virouXos av^dverai, Kdl iraXiv, 6rav KadapOy to <jQpa, raireivodpievos eis ravrov %vvL$ei. Compare with this Galen, irepi xu/iwi', Kuhn, XVI. 385, (nrXrjves peydXoi did ttjv toD peXayxoXikov xuAt0^ irepiovalav. The full import of the latter passage will be discussed later. 2irepi depuv k.t.X., Kuhn, I. 533: Tola 1 dd irivovcri [sc. vdara eXudea Kdi GTaGipa Kdi Xipvaia] airXijvas pdv aiel peydXovs elvat.