Etymologies & Works 4

1. ON MEDICINE. Medicine is that which either guards or restores the health of the body; its subject-matter is concerned with diseases and wounds. To it, therefore, belong not only those things which the art of those properly called physicians provides, but also food and drink, clothing and covering. In short, every defense and fortification by which our sound body is preserved against external blows and mischances. 2. ON ITS NAME. The name Medicine is thought to be imposed from 'modus,' that is, moderation, so that it should be applied not to excess but little by little. For nature is grieved by much, but rejoices in a moderate amount. Hence those who have drunk drugs and antidotes to excess or continually are afflicted. For all immoderation brings not health but danger. 3.

ON THE DISCOVERERS OF MEDICINE. The author and discoverer of the art of medicine is said among the Greeks to be Apollo. His son Aesculapius enlarged it in fame and in work. But after Aesculapius perished by a stroke of lightning, the care of healing is said to have been forbidden; and the art failed together with its author, and lay hidden for almost five hundred years, until the time of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians. Then Hippocrates, begotten of a father named Asclepius on the island of Cos, called it back into the light. 4. ON THE THREE SCHOOLS OF PHYSICIANS. These three men, then, invented as many schools. The first, the Methodic, was invented by Apollo, which follows remedies and incantations.

The second, the Empiric, that is, the most experiential, was invented by Aesculapius, which rests not on the signs of indications, but on experiments alone. The third, the Logical, that is, the rational, was invented by Hippocrates. For he, having examined the qualities of ages, regions, and diseases, rationally investigated the treatment of the art, so that by applying reason he might investigate the causes of infirmities. For the Empirics follow experience alone; the Logicians add reason to experience; the Methodics observe neither the reason of the elements, nor the seasons, nor ages, nor causes, but only the substances of the diseases. 5. ON THE FOUR HUMORS OF THE BODY.

Health (sanitas) is the integrity of the body and the tempering of nature from the hot and the moist, which is blood; whence health is called as it were the 'state of the blood' (sanguinis status). Under the general term 'diseases' (morbi) are contained all afflictions of the body; and the ancients named disease 'morbus' from this, that by the very name they might indicate the force of death (mors) which is born from it. Between health and disease is the intermediate 'treatment' (curatio), which, unless it suits the disease, does not lead to health. All diseases arise from the four humors, that is, from blood and bile, black bile (melancholy) and phlegm. [For by these the healthy are governed, by these the sick are harmed.

For when they have grown beyond the course of nature, they cause sicknesses.] Now just as there are four elements, so also there are four humors, and each humor imitates its element: blood imitates air, choler [yellow bile] fire, melancholy earth, phlegm water. And there are four humors, just as there are four elements, which preserve our bodies. Blood (sanguis) took its name from a Greek etymology, because it is quickened and sustained and lives. The Greeks named choler because it is bounded within the space of a single day; whence also cholera, that is, a 'little gall' (fellicula), is named, that is, an outpouring of gall. For the Greeks call gall 'cholē.' Melancholy is so called because it comes from the dregs of black blood mixed with an abundance of gall.

For the Greeks call black 'melan,' and gall they call 'cholē.' Blood is called in Latin 'sanguis' because it is sweet (suavis), whence men in whom blood predominates are sweet and gentle. Phlegm they so named because it is cold. For the Greeks call chill 'phlegmonē.' By these four humors the healthy are governed, by these the sick are harmed. For when they grow beyond the course of nature, they cause sicknesses. From blood and gall arise acute afflictions, which the Greeks call 'oxea.' But from phlegm and melancholy proceed old [chronic] maladies, which the Greeks call 'chronia.' 6. ON ACUTE DISEASES. Oxeia is an acute disease which either passes quickly or kills more swiftly, like pleurisy and phrenitis.

For 'oxy' among the Greeks means both sharp and swift. Chronia is a prolonged disease of the body which lingers for a long time, like gout and phthisis [consumption]. For 'chronos' among the Greeks means time. Now certain afflictions took their names from their own causes. Fever (febris) is named from heat (fervor); for it is an abundance of heat. Phrenitis is named either from the impediment of the mind—for the Greeks call the mind 'phrenes'—or because the sufferers gnash with their teeth. For 'frendere' is to grind the teeth. It is a disturbance with agitation and madness produced from a choleric force. 'Cardiaca' took its name from the heart, when one is affected by some fear or pain. For the Greeks call the heart 'kardia.' For it is an affliction of the heart with fearful dread.

Lethargy (lethargia) is named from sleep. For it is an oppression of the brain with forgetfulness and continual sleep, as of one snoring. Synanche is named from the constriction of the breath and choking. For the Greeks say 'synanchein' for to constrict. For those who labor under this defect are choked by a pain of the throat. Phlegmon is an inflammation of the stomach with distension and pain [or: phlegmonē is an unrest with redness and pain and tension and hardness and swelling]. When it begins to occur, fever also follows. Whence it is called phlegmonē, 'apo phlegei,' that is, inflaming. For thus it is felt, and thence it received its name. Pleurisy (pleurisis) is an acute pain of the side with fever and bloody sputum. For the side in Greek is called 'pleura,' whence the pleuritic affliction received its name.

Peripneumonia is a disease of the lungs with vehement pain and gasping. For the Greeks call the lung 'pleumon,' whence the malady too is named. Apoplexy is a sudden outpouring of blood, by which the suffocated perish. It is called apoplexia because a sudden collapse comes about from a lethal stroke. For the Greeks call a stroke 'apoplexis.' Spasm (spasmus) is in Latin a sudden contraction of parts or of sinews with vehement pain. This affliction they said was named from the heart, which holds the chief seat of vigor in us. It occurs in two ways, either from repletion or from depletion. Tetanus is a greater contraction of the sinews from the neck to the back. 'Telum' [the dart] is a pain of the side. It is so called by physicians because it pierces the body through with pain, like a sword.

Ileus is a pain of the intestines: whence they too are named. For in Greek 'ilios' means to wrap around, because the intestines wrap themselves up on account of the pain. These are also called 'turminosi,' from the torment of the intestines. Hydrophobia, that is, the fear of water. For the Greeks call water 'hydor' and fear 'phobon,' whence the Latins also call this disease, from the fear of water, 'lymphaticus.' It comes about either from the bite of a rabid dog, or from foam cast upon the ground from the air, which, if a man or a beast should touch it, he is either filled with madness or turned into rabid frenzy. The carbuncle is so called because at its onset it is red, like fire, and afterward black, like an extinguished coal. Pestilence is a contagion which, when it has seized upon one, quickly passes to many.

For it is engendered from corrupted air, and fixes itself by penetrating into the inner organs. And although this mostly comes about through the powers of the air, yet it never comes about at all without the will of Almighty God. It is called 'pestilentia' as if 'pastulentia,' because it feeds upon the body like a conflagration, as Virgil says (Aen. 5.683): 'Through the whole body the plague descends.' The same is also called 'contagium' from touching (contingendo), because whomever it touches, it pollutes. It is also called 'inguina' from the striking of the groins (inguina). The same is also called 'lues' from ruin (labes) and grief (luctus), which is so acute that it has no interval of time in which either life or death may be hoped for, but a sudden faintness comes at the same moment as death. 7. ON CHRONIC DISEASES. Chronia is a prolonged disease which lingers for a long time, like gout and phthisis.

For 'chronos' among the Greeks means time. Cephalaea has its name from its cause. For it is an affliction of the head, and the Greeks call the head 'kephalē.' Scotomia took its name from a symptom, because it brings sudden darkness upon the eyes together with a dizziness of the head. Now vertigo is whenever a wind arises and sends the earth into a whirl. Thus also in the crown of a man's head the arteries and veins engender windiness from dissolved moisture, and make a whirl in the eyes. Whence too it is called vertigo. Epilepsy (epilemsia) took its name because, seizing the mind, it likewise also possesses the body. For the Greeks call a seizure 'epilepsia.' It comes about from the melancholic humor, whenever it has grown excessive and been turned toward the brain.

This affliction is also called 'caduca' [the falling sickness], because the sick person, falling, suffers spasms. These the common folk also call 'lunatics,' because through the course of the moon the treachery of demons accompanies them. Likewise they are called 'larvatici' [haunted by specters]. It is also the 'morbus comitialis,' that is, the greater and divine disease, by which epileptics are held. Its force is so great that a strong man falls down and foams. It is called 'comitialis' because among the heathen, when it befell anyone on the day of the assemblies (comitia), the assemblies were dismissed. Now among the Romans the solemn day of the assemblies was on the Kalends of January. Mania is named from insanity or frenzy. For the ancients of the Greeks called frenzy 'manikē,' whether from wickedness, which the Greeks called 'mania,' or from divination, because to divine in Greek is called 'manein.'

Melancholy is so called from black bile. For the Greeks call black MELAN, and they call bile CHOLE. Epilepsy arises in the imagination, melancholy in the reason, mania in the memory. The typoi are recurrent chill-fevers, which are called typi by a misuse of the word, from a plant that grows in water. In Latin it is called 'form' and 'state,' for it is a cycle of attacks and remissions returning at fixed intervals of time. Rheum in Greek is in Latin called 'eruption' or 'flux.' A catarrh is a constant flux of rheum from the nostrils; when it reaches the throat it is called BRANCHOS, and when it reaches the chest or lung it is called PTYSIS. Coryza occurs whenever a discharge from the head descends into the bones of the nostrils and provokes sneezing; and from this coryza took its name.

Branchos is a choking of the throat caused by a cold humour. For the Greeks call the throat BRANCHOS, around which lie the fauces, which we corruptly call branciae. Hoarseness is a cutting-off of the voice. It is also called arteriasis, because it renders the voice hoarse and closed through an injury of the arteries (windpipes). Asthma took its name because it is a difficulty of breathing, which the Greeks call DYSPNOIA, that is, a choking. Peripneumonia takes its name from the lungs; for it is a swelling of the lung together with a discharge of bloody foam. Haemoptysis is an emission of blood through the mouth, whence it also took its name, for HAIMA means blood. Phthisis is an ulceration and swelling in the lungs, which is wont to come more readily upon the young.

Phthisis is so called among the Greeks because it is a wasting away of the whole body. Cough (tussis) in Greek is named from depth, because it comes from the depth of the chest. Its opposite is the higher cough in the throat, where the uvula tickles. An abscess (apostema) took its name from 'gathering'; for the Greeks call gatherings apostemata. Empyema is named from an abscess forming within, whether in the side or in the stomach, accompanied by pain, fevers, cough, and abundant foam and pus. The hepatic disease took its name from the affliction of the liver; for the Greeks call the liver HEPAR. Lienosis took its name from the spleen; for the Greeks call the spleen SPLEN. Dropsy took its name from a watery humour of the skin; for the Greeks called water HYDOR.

For it is a subcutaneous humour with a distending swelling and a foul breath. Nephritis took its name from the ailing of the kidneys; for the Greeks call the kidneys NEPHROI. Paralysis is so called from an unhinging of the body, produced by great chilling, either in the whole body or in a part. Cachexia took its name from an injury [or condition] of the body; for the Greeks called an evil affliction KACHEXIA. This ailment arises from the intemperance of the sick person, or from bad treatment with medicine, or from a slow recovery after illness. Atrophy took its name from the diminution of the body; for the Greeks call the ceasing of nourishment ATROPHIA. It is a wasting of the body from hidden causes that gain strength little by little.

Sarcia is a superfluous increase of flesh, by which bodies are fattened beyond measure; for the Greeks call flesh SARX. Sciatica is named from the part of the body which it torments; for the Greeks call ISCHIA the vertebral bones whose top ends at the beginning of the hips. It arises from phlegm whenever this descends into the straight bones and there produces a gluing. The Greeks say that gout (podagra) is named from the seizing of the feet and from its cruel pain; for indeed whatever is savage we loosely call 'wild.' The arthritic disease took its name from the affliction of the joints. A stone (calculus) is a hardness that forms in the bladder, whence it also took its name; and it is engendered from phlegmatic matter. Strangury is so called because it constrains a difficulty of urination.

Satyriasis is a continual craving for sexual intercourse with an extension of the natural parts; the ailment is named after the Satyrs. Diarrhoea is a continual running of the bowels without vomiting. Dysentery is a breaking of continuity, that is, an ulceration of the intestine; for DYS means a division, and ENTERA the intestines. It arises from a preceding flux, which the Greeks call DIARRHOIA. Lientery is so called because it makes the food slip through as if through smooth intestines, with nothing hindering it. The colic ailment took its name from the intestine which the Greeks call KOLON. Fissures (ragadiae) are so called because they are clefts gathered in wrinkles around the orifice. These are also called haemorrhoids from the flux of blood; for the Greeks call blood HAIMA. VIII. ON THE DISEASES THAT APPEAR ON THE SURFACE OF THE BODY.

Alopecia is a falling of the hair with the remaining hairs left tawny and having the quality of copper; it is called by this name from its likeness to the little beast the fox, which the Greeks call ALOPEX. Parotids are hardnesses or gatherings which, arising from fevers or from some other cause, form in the neighbourhood of the ears, whence they are called PAROTIDES; for OTOS in Greek means the ear. Freckle (lentigo) is small traces of spots formed in a round shape, named from the appearance of the lentil (lenticula). Erysipelas is what the Latins call 'sacred fire,' that is, 'to be execrated,' by antiphrasis; for the skin reddens on the surface with a flame-like redness. Then by a mutual redness the neighbouring places are invaded as if by fire, so that even a fever is stirred up.

Serpedo is a redness of the skin with a protrusion of pustules, and it took its name from 'creeping' (serpere), because it creeps over the limbs. Impetigo is a dry scab standing out from the body with roughness and a round shape; the common people call it sarna. Prurigo is named from burning (perurere) and blazing. Nyctalopia is an ailment in which sight is denied by day though the eyes are open, and is restored when the darkness of night rushes in; or, the other way round, as most hold, it is restored by day and denied by night. Warts (verrucae) are one thing, satyriasis another: warts occur singly, but the satyriasis is one that is stronger, and around it several more are found. Scabies (mange) and leprosy: each ailment is a roughness of the skin with itching and scaliness, but scabies is a slight roughness and scaling.

Hence indeed it took its name, because it sheds off, as it were, refuse; for scabies is as though 'squamies' (scaliness). Leprosy, however, is a scaly roughness of the skin resembling the lichen-plant (lepis), whence it took its name; its colour turns now to blackness, now to whiteness, now to redness. Leprosy is discerned on the human body thus: if a different colour appears here and there among the sound parts of the skin, or if it spreads itself everywhere so as to make everything of one colour, though a false one. The disease called elephantiasis is named from its likeness to the elephant, whose naturally hard and rough hide gave the name to the disease in men; because it makes the surface of the body like the hide of elephants, or because it is a huge affliction, like the very animal from which it derives its name.

The Greeks call it icterus, from the name of a certain animal that is of a bilious colour. This disease the Latins call 'the arched' (arcuatus), from its likeness to the rainbow of heaven. Varro says it is called aurigo from the colour of gold (aurum). They reckon it was called the 'royal disease' (morbus regius) because it is more easily cured by good wine and royal foods. Cancer is named from its likeness to the sea-animal (the crab). It is a wound, as physicians say, curable by no medicines. And so a limb is wont to be cut off from the body where it arises, that the person may live somewhat longer; yet even so death will come from it, however more slowly. A furuncle (boil) is a swelling rising to a point, so called because it burns (fervere), as it were a 'fervunculus'; whence in Greek too it is called ANTHRAX, because it is fiery.

A stye (hordeolum) is a very small and purulent gathering set on the hairs of the eyelids, broad in the middle and drawn to a point at each end, resembling a grain of barley (hordeum), whence it took its name. Oscedo is that by which the mouths of infants are ulcerated, named from the languor of those who yawn (oscitare). Frenusculi are ulcers around the opening of the mouth, similar to those which happen to draught-animals from the roughness of the bridles (freni). An ulcer is the putrefaction itself; a wound (vulnus) is what is made by iron, as though by force (vis). And an ulcer, because it smells (olere), is as though 'olcus,' whence also 'ulcera.' A pustule is a swelling on the surface of the body, like a gathering. A pimple (papula) is a very small raising of the skin, circumscribed and reddened; and so papula is as though 'pupula.' Fistula (syringio). Gore (sanies) is so named because it arises from blood; for when the heat of a wound is roused, blood turns into gore.

For gore does not form in any place except where blood has come; because everything that putrefies cannot putrefy unless it is warm and moist, which blood is. But gore (sanies) and corruption (tabes) differ from each other: for to flow with gore belongs to the living, but with corruption to the dead. A scar (cicatrix) is the covering-over of a wound, preserving the natural colour to the parts; so called because it covers over (obducere) and hides wounds. IX. ON REMEDIES AND MEDICINES. The treatment of medicine is not to be despised. For we recall that Isaiah prescribed something medicinal to the ailing Hezekiah, and the Apostle Paul said to Timothy that a little wine was beneficial. Now the treatment of diseases consists of three kinds: Pharmacy, which the Latins call 'medicines' (medicamina);

Surgery, which the Latins call 'the working of hands'; for among the Greeks the hand is called CHEIR: Diet, which the Latins call 'the rule' (regula); for it is the observance of law and of life. Now there are three kinds of every treatment: the first kind is dietetic, the second pharmaceutic, the third surgical. Diet is the observance of law and of life. Pharmacy is treatment by medicines. Surgery is cutting with instruments; for what has not felt the healing of medicines is cut out with iron. The more ancient medicine was of herbs and juices only; for such was the beginning of the practice of healing, and then came iron and the other medicines. Now every treatment is applied either from contraries or from likes: from contraries, as cold to hot, or dry to moist;

just as in man too pride cannot be cured except by being healed with humility. But from likes, as when a round bandage is applied to a round wound, or an oblong one to an oblong wound; for the very binding is not the same for all limbs and wounds, but like is fitted to like, and these two aids also signify their own natures by their names. For antidote in Greek means, in Latin, something given from the contrary; for contraries are cured by contraries according to the principle of medicine. But on the other hand, from a like, as PIKRA, which is rendered 'bitter,' because its taste is bitter. It took its name from fitness, because the bitterness of a disease is wont to be dissolved by bitterness. Now all medicines have their names from their own proper causes. For 'hiera' is so called as though 'divine' (divina).

Arteriaca are so called because they are suited to the passage of the throat, and soothe swellings of the fauces and of the windpipes. Theriac (tiriaca) is a serpentine antidote by which poisons are driven out, so that pestilence may be dissolved by pestilence. Cathartics in Greek are in Latin called 'purgatives.' Catapotia (pills) are so called because a little is drunk, or swallowed down. Diamoron took its name from the juice of the mulberry (morum) from which it is made; as diacodion, because it is made from the codia, that is, from the poppy; and diaspermaton, because it is composed of seeds (sperma). An electuary is so called because it is soft when sipped. A troche (trociscus) is so called because it is shaped in the manner of a little wheel; for TROCHOS in Greek means a wheel. Collyria have a Latin sound, because they wipe away defects of the eyes. Epithema is so called because it is placed over other aids already applied.

A cataplasm (poultice) is so called because it is merely a laying-on. A plaster (implastrum) is so called because it is laid on. An emollient (malagma) is so called because it is softened and compounded without fire. Enema in Greek is in Latin called 'relaxation.' Pessaries are so called because they are cast in within. The medicine of draught-animals was invented by a certain Greek, Chiron; hence he is painted half man, half horse. He was called Chiron APO TOU CHEIRIZESTHAI (from 'handling'), because he was a surgeon. Physicians call certain days 'critical' (critici), to which, I believe, this name was given from the judgement of the illness, because they judge the man, as it were, and by their sentence either punish or set free. X. ON MEDICAL BOOKS. An aphorism is a brief saying, writing down the whole sense of the matter proposed. Prognostics are a foreseeing of illnesses, so called from foreknowing (praenoscere).

For a physician must recognize things past, know things present, and foresee things future. Dynamidia is the power of herbs, that is, their force and capacity; for in the treatment by herbs the force itself is called DYNAMIS, whence it is called dynamidia, the book in which their medicines are written. The 'botanicum' of herbs is so called because in it the herbs are noted. XI. ON THE INSTRUMENTS OF PHYSICIANS. The enchiridion is so called because it is grasped by the hand, since it holds many instruments; for CHEIR in Greek means the hand. The phlebotome (lancet) is named from cutting (incisio); for cutting in Greek is called TOME. Similaria. Angistrum (hook). Spatomele (probe). Guva, which is called by the Latins a 'gourd' (cucurbita) from its likeness, and a 'cupping-vessel' (ventosa) from the suction.

Finally, animated with breath by means of a little flame, and then set upon the incised body, it draws up to the surface everything that seethes beneath the skin or deeper, whether humour or blood. Clyster (syringe). The mortar (pila) is named from pounding (pisere) seeds, that is, from grinding. Hence too pigments (pigmenta), because they are worked in the mortar (pila) and with the pestle (pilum), as though 'piligmenta.' For the mortar is a hollow vessel suited to the use of physicians, in which barley-water is properly made and pigments cut up. Varro relates that there was a certain Pilumnus in Italy who was in charge of pounding the fields, whence come 'pilumni' and 'pistores' (millers). From him, therefore, were invented the pestle (pilum) and the mortar (pila) with which grain is pounded, and from his name they were so called. The pestle (pilum) is that with which whatever is put in the mortar is pounded.

The mortar (mortarium) is so named because in it the seeds, now reduced to powder and 'dead' (mortua), are stored. The coticula (grinding-slab) is that on which collyria are dissolved by being rubbed round; it must be smooth, for a rough one makes the collyrium break rather than dissolve. XII. ON PERFUMES AND OINTMENTS. Odour is named from the air (aer). Thymiama is called by a Greek word, because it is fragrant; for thyme (thymum) is called the flower that gives off a scent. Of it Virgil says (Georg. 4.169): 'And they are fragrant with thyme.' Incense is so called because it is consumed by fire (ignis) when it is offered. Tetraidos are figures of incense extended in length, which are made from four pigments; for four in Greek is TETTARA, and figure is called EIDOS. Stacte is an incense that flows from pressing, called by the Greeks PARA TO STAZEIN STAKTE, that is, 'crushed.'

Myrobalanum is so called because it is made from a fragrant nut (glans). Of it Horace says (Odes 3.29.4): 'And the balanus pressed for your hair.' Oil is that which is pure and mixed with nothing. But an ointment (unguentum) is everything which, made from common oil, is augmented by the admixture of other kinds, taking on a pleasantness of scent and giving off fragrance farther. Now certain ointments are named from places, like telinum, which Julius Caesar mentions, saying: 'And we anoint the body with sweet telinum.' This was made on the island of Telos, which is one of the Cyclades. There are also some named from the name of their inventors, like amaracinum; for some relate that a certain royal boy named Amaracus, carrying several kinds of ointments, chanced to slip and fall, and created a greater fragrance from the mixture.

Whence now the best ointments are called amaracina; and they are of the class of flowers. Likewise there are others named from the quality of their material, like rosaceum from the rose (rosa), and quiprinum from the flower quiprum; whence they also give off the scent of their own material. Of these some are simple ointments, which consist of only one kind, whence they also give forth the scent of their own name, like anetinum; for it is pure, made only from oil and dill (anetum). But compound ointments are those made with several things mixed in; whence they do not have the scent of their own name, because, with the other things that are mixed in prevailing, they take on an uncertain scent. Cerotum (wax-salve). Calasticum. Marciatum. XIII. ON THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE. It is asked by some why, among the other liberal disciplines, the art of Medicine is not included.

The reason is that those disciplines embrace particular subjects, but this one embraces the subjects of all. For a physician must know Grammar, that he may be able to understand and expound what he reads. Likewise Rhetoric, that he may be able to define with truthful arguments the things he treats of. Also Dialectic, in order that the causes of illnesses may be investigated and cured by applying reason. So too Arithmetic, on account of the number of hours in the attacks and periods of days. Geometry, likewise, on account of the qualities of regions and the situations of places, in which it teaches what each person ought to observe. Moreover Music will not be unknown to him, for there are many things recorded to have been done through this discipline for sick men;

just as it is read of David, who by the art of playing delivered Saul from the unclean spirit. The physician Asclepiades also restored a certain frenzied man to his former health by means of harmony. Lastly, he will also have Astronomy familiar to him, through which he may contemplate the reason of the stars and the changing of the seasons; for, as one of the physicians says, our bodies too are altered together with their qualities. Hence it is that Medicine is called the Second Philosophy. For each discipline claims the whole man for itself: for as the soul is cured through the one, so the body is cured through the other.