[519] It has excited a great deal of discussion and difference of opinion to determine what our author means by specifying these three places; but the explanation given by Galen in his Commentary seems to me quite satisfactory. According to him, the meaning of our author is that good and bad symptoms tell the same in all places, in the hot regions of Libya, the cold of Scythia, and the temperate of Delos. It is further to be borne in mind that Odessus in Scythia, and Cyrene in Libya, were the extremities of the Grecian world, whilst Delos may be regarded as its centre. It is proper to remark, however, that by the three places mentioned, Erotian understands the three quarters of the earth—Africa, Asia, and Europe. See under Λιβύη.
[520] The meaning of this last sentence has been supposed to be somewhat ambiguous; but to me it appears evidently to be this, that the rules of prognosis, as laid down above, apply to all diseases of an acute character, whether their names happen to be mentioned in the course of this work or not, so that it should not be considered a defect in the work that any one is omitted.
[521] See Epidem., i., and iii.
[522] Empyema is treated of in the Prognostics, the first book of Prorrhetics, the Coacæ Prænotiones, and the work De Morbis. Which of these is here alluded to cannot be determined for certain; it seems probable, however, that it is to the preceding book of Prorrhetics.
[523] This important observation is thus rendered by Celsus: “Quæ in latere linguæ ulcera nascuntur diutissimè durant. Videndumque est, num contra dens aliquis acutior sit, qui sanescere sæpe ulcus eo loco non sinit, ideoque limandus est.” (vi., 12.)
[524] Allusion seems to be made to herpes exedens.
[525] See Paulus Ægineta, B. III., 25.
[526] Foës inclines to think that the proper reading in this place is νοὔσος φοινικίη, and not φθινικὴ, and that Galen alludes to this passage in his Exegesis under the former of these terms, where he says that by φοινικίη νοῡσος was probably meant elephantiasis. The other reading, however, would seem quite applicable, for I have known phthisis and leprosy combined in the same case.
[527] The phrenitis of Sydenham in like manner was an epidemical fever, and not an idiopathic inflammation of the brain. See Opera, p. 56; ed. Syd. Soc. That Hippocrates regarded phrenitis as a variety of causus, attended with determination to the brain, is obvious from Epidem. i. See Op. Galen., tom. v., p. 371; ed. Basil.
[528] Horace, Serm. i., 2.