[638] It is to be recollected that the rising of Arcturus marked the beginning of autumn, and the setting of the Pleiades the end of it. See above.
[639] The season of the Dog-star was immediately after the summer solstice, namely, when the sun enters the constellation Leo. The classical reader will readily bring to his recollection the lines of Horace, which are descriptive of this season:
“Jam Procyon furit;
Et stella vesani Leonis,
Sole dies referente siccos.”
[640] Galen, in his Commentary, remarks that the attacks of paraplegia (that is to say, of apoplexy) were brought on by the cold winds of the winter succeeding to a humid autumn.
[641] The causi or ardent fevers, it is worthy of remark, began this season in spring, but were not of a fatal character until autumn. In modern times the bilious remittent fever has uniformly been found to be most aggravated in autumn, and hence it has been named by some authorities the autumnal remittent fever. See the works of Sydenham, Pringle, Monro, and Cleghorn. Monro mentions that he seldom saw it in spring, but that it is common in the neighborhood of London towards the end of summer and beginning of autumn. All these authorities are agreed that it is of a highly bilious nature.
[642] Monro mentions epistaxis as occurring in the autumnal remittent fever; he says it did not prove a crisis in any case.
[643] The complication of the autumnal remittent fever with jaundice is noticed by Sir John Pringle (Obs. iii., 4), and by Monro (On Army Diseases, p. 161). Galen, in his Commentary, remarks that when nature is unable to evacuate the bile, it is collected in the skin, and occasions jaundice. He adds, that the occurrence of the jaundice in this case was unfavorable, owing to its taking place before the seventh day. When occurring on the seventh day, jaundice was reckoned a favorable symptom. See On Crises, 3; Aphorism, iv., 62, 64.
[644] The reader may feel interested to learn Galen’s hypothesis by which he accounts for the hemorrhage in this case. He says it is produced by the redundancy of yellow bile, which, being mixed up with the blood and heating it, is carried up to the head, where it produces rupture of the vessels and hemorrhage.