The prescriptions of Serapion contain liquorice, sweet almonds, tragacanth, and the like. (De Antidotis, vii, 17.) Those of Haly Abbas are very similar. (Pract. iii, 22.)
A receipt is given by Rhases for cough pills, the principal ingredients of which are tragacanth, sweet almonds, poppy seed, gum Arabic, and Armenian bole. (Divis. i, 52.) Many such receipts are given by Myrepsus.
SECT. XLIX.—ON SNEEZING.
Sneezing frequently occurring in fevers is troublesome, for it determines to the head and weakens the strength, and, in some cases, it produces a discharge of blood. Such are the bad effects of sneezing, which ought therefore, to be contended against. It is restrained by rubbing the nose, forehead, and eyes; by yawning, frequent friction of the roof of the mouth, eructation, stretching of the loins, raising the head, turning to the side, gently chafing the extremities, anointing the masseter muscles, pouring hot oil into the ears, applying a warm cushion under the chin. It is proper to avoid being roused suddenly from sleep, and also smoke, dust, acrid smells, pepper, castor, mustard, and mint. The smell of apples and polenta is proper, for it blunts the desire of sneezing. The empty sea-sponges do the same. When there is a frequent desire of sneezing without the ability, let the lips be composed, let the patient smell to acrid substances, and let the mind be relaxed.
Commentary. Galen explains that sneezing is a still more violent effort of nature than coughing, and that its intention is to remove irritating matters from the parts about the nose. (De Caus. Sympt. ii, 4.)
Avicenna gives ample directions for the treatment of sneezing; but they are evidently copied from our author. (iv, 1, 2.) The same may be said of Haly Abbas. (Pract. iii, 22.) Rhases recommends us to give warm gruel internally, to pour warm water on the head, and to apply oil of gourd, of roses, and the like, to the nostrils. (Cont. xxxi.)
Cassius Medicus discusses the question why rubbing the nose and eyes stops sneezing. He supposes that it is by occasioning a discharge from these parts, whereby the exciting cause is removed. (Probl. 45.)
SECT. L.—ON LOSS OF APPETITE.
When loss of appetite is occasioned by depraved humours, we must give those kinds of food and drink which will either clear away such humours by vomiting, or downwards by the bowels, or those that by dilution will render them better. You have the materials of these things treated of in the [First Book] of this work. Should the loss of appetite be occasioned by debility, since all debility is owing to an intemperament of the parts, we must cure the species of intemperament by its contraries. Wherefore we will give a more particular account of loss of appetite in treating of stomach complaints in the [Third Book]. But in fevers we must straightway endeavour to bring back the appetite with aromatics, more particularly by giving polenta moistened with water, or oxycrate, or diluted wine, or a decoction of some of the fragrant and astringent fruits; by gentle unction and moderate friction of the whole body, by chafing, by bathing the face, and swallowing a small quantity of water; and, by putting the fingers down the throat, the stomach has been roused to bring up the food, more especially if the fluid discharged be bilious or acid. After the first days, cataplasms of dates, of apples, of the wild wine, of wormwood, and of aloes, ought to be applied over the stomach. Let a variety of simple food be prepared, and from grain, having some difference from the common articles, but not very different from those used in fevers; and among them those fruits which do not readily turn acid, nor are very sweet, but are ripe; however, they are not to be eaten to satiety, but only so as to whet the appetite for other food. While they are eating, the most delicious articles ought to be present, which may have the power to provoke and incite the desire. After the fever is gone, should the want of appetite continue during the recovery, yellow parsnip boiled with oxymel, and lettuces, and pickled olives, and capers, and pickles, the bulbi, and every other stomachic should be thought of; and, in particular, those things should be recollected in which the patient delighted most when in good health. Walking, gestation, vociferation, calefacient plasters, frictions, and exercises ought to be had recourse to. And drinking the propoma from wormwood, or from aloes, or swallowing the vinegar of squills to the amount of a mystrum, have proved excellent remedies.
Commentary. Galen’s explanation of the philosophy of the sense of appetite is very interesting. He remarks that the appetite is a refined species of touch, the seat of which is the mouth of the stomach, which, therefore, is supplied with nerves direct from the brain. He goes on to remark, that the earth is to plants what the stomach is to animals, supplying them with abundance of food as long as it is moistened by seasonable rains; but, when it becomes parched with drought, the plants in like manner are dried up for want of nutriment. (This comparison is borrowed without acknowledgment from Aristotle.) To animals, then, as not being fixed to the earth (with a few exceptions), nature bestowed a stomach which is to them a repository of food, such as the earth is to plants, and she further gave them a sense of want by which they have the desire of being filled with food and drink in due season. This desire of being filled is called the appetite, which arises from a sense of want, when the veins of the stomach absorb, and, as it were, suck from it, whereby a painful feeling is excited, the proper cure of which is a supply of food. The sensation then of sucking constitutes hunger. The loss of appetite may arise either from the sense of the sucking being lost, or from the process of sucking (absorption?) not taking place, or from the body not being evacuated. (De Causis Sympt. i, 7.) He treats of stomach affections very fully in his work ‘De Med. sec. Locos.’ (viii.)