[233] Specific attraction; cf. Book I., chap. [xiv].
[236] Prevention better than cure.
[237] e.g. Anaxagoras; cf. p. 7, [note 5]; p. 20, [note 3].
[238] Lit. haematosis.
[240] Erasistratus held the spleen to be useless, cf. p. [143].
[241] Induration: Gk. skirros, Lat. scirrhus. The condition is now commonly known by Laënnec’s term cirrhosis, from Gk. kirros, meaning yellow or tawny. Here again we have an example of Erasistratus’s bias towards anatomical or structural rather than functional explanations of disease, cf. p. 124, [note 1].
[242] On the risks which were supposed to attend the checking of habitual bleeding from piles cf. Celsus (De Re Med. VI. xviii. 9), “Atque in quibusdam parum tuto supprimitur, qui sanguinis profluvio imbecilliores non fiunt; habent enim purgationem hanc, non morbum.” (i.e. the habit was to be looked on as a periodical cleansing, not as a disease.)