A catalogue of Arabic manuscripts on medicine and science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library / by A.Z. Iskandar.

  • Wellcome Historical Medical Library
Date:
1967
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: A catalogue of Arabic manuscripts on medicine and science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library / by A.Z. Iskandar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    humours by using corrective diets. Whenever possible, prefer [food] before drugs in the treatment of illnesses. Have immediate resort to drugs if you fear that a disease may worsen and, by reducing superfluities, your action should precede their movement. Do not rashly evacuate humours before the occurrence of coction. The treatment of patients attacked by chronic diseases should commence at the beginning of seasons in order to have enough time left to repeat the application of drugs. When you want to evacuate in the presence of corrupt humours, choose a cathartic drug which modifies these humours. If you cannot find one, use the cathartic drug which results in a temperament you can modify. 1 Cathartic drugs should not be administered repeatedly. Enough time should be allowed between each two consecutive evacuations until the patient regains his strength. 2 Do not confront Nature with a strong medicine which may prevent it from making the distinction between benign and corrupt humours. Drugs which convert the humours should be persistently used. If effective there is no need to increase their quantities. But if ineffective, quantities determined by those originally used could be increased, provided you are certain of having another drug to counteract their effect. Diarrhoea is more dangerous in hot seasons than in cold seasons. Vomiting is more dangerous in cold seasons than in hot seasons. 3 Any cathartic drug known to evacuate a certain humour will evacuate more of phlegm than of that particular humour. This is due to the abundance and widespread distribu tion of phlegm throughout the body. Further, excessive evacuation leads to diseases caused by dryness. Emaciated patients, particularly those whose temperament is hot, should abstain from evacuations especially in hot places. 4 Blood-letting should be instantly used in the onset of hot diseases, if the face is flushed, the eyes are red, the temples increased, 5 and the [nasal] sinuses are swollen. A skilful physician can diagnose a disease and estimate the patient's strength after the occurrence of a single crisis. An incomplete crisis modifies the periods of the disease and makes physicians unaware of their bodily effect. Have no confidence in a sound treatment if the air is corrupt. Corrupt air causes more deterioration of the patient's health than you can manage to cure. The action of air is continuous, while your treatment is temporary. 6 Diseases may depart or attacks may abate, merely by transferring patients from their homes to other places with contrary airs. The air surrounding patients suffering from hot diseases should be cold and moist. 7 Transfer patients from cold places if you believe that crisis will occur through sweats; if the occurrence will be by any other means, do not transfer them. 8 1 Cf. Iskandar, 'Rhazes' K. al-Murshid . . 5 Temporal arteries dilated? p. I02 (n. 318). 6 Cf. Iskandar, 'Rhazes' K. al-Murshid . . .', 2 Cf. ibid., p. 103 (n. 320). p. 104 (n. 327). 3 Cf. ibid., p. 54 (n. 140). 7 Cf. ibid., p. 105 (n. 331). 4 Cf. ibid., p. 104 (n. 325). 8 Cf. ibid., p. 105 (n. 330).
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