§1## ΓΑΛΗΝΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΧΡΕΙΑΣ ΣΦΥΓΜΩΝ ΒΙΒΛΙΟΝ.
Τίς ἡ χρεία τῶν σφυγμῶν;
GALEN'S BOOK ON THE USE OF THE PULSES. What is the use of the pulses?
ἆρά γε ἥπερ καὶ τῆς ἀναπνοῆς, ὡς σχεδὸν ἅπασιν ἰατροῖς τε καὶ φιλοσόφοις ἔδοξεν, ἤ τις ἑτέρα παρὰ ταύτην;
Is it indeed the same as that of respiration, as it seemed to almost all physicians and philosophers, or some other besides this?
οὐ γὰρ δὴ ἀβασανίστως πειστέον αὐτοῖς, ἐναντιοῦσθαι δοκούντων ἄλλων τέ τινων οὐκ ὀλίγων φαινομένων, καὶ τοῦ νῦν εἰρῆσθαι μέλλοντος οὐχ ἥκιστα.
For we must not believe them without examination, since certain other not few phenomena seem to oppose them, and not least what is now about to be said.
στερηθέντες μὲν γὰρ τῆς ἀναπνοῆς εὐθέως ἀποθνήσκομεν, ἄσφυκτα δ’ ἀπεργάσῃ πολλὰ τῶν μορίων ἄνευ μεγάλης βλάβης.
For while we die immediately if deprived of respiration, you can render many of the parts pulseless without great harm.
εἰ γοῦν ἐθελήσῃς ἢ τὰς διὰ τῶν βουβώνων ἐπὶ τὰ σκέλη καθηκούσας ἀρτηρίας, ἢ τὰς διὰ τῶν μασχαλῶν εἰς τὰς χεῖρας βρόχῳ διαλαβεῖν, ἀσφύκτους μὲν εὐθέως ἐργάσῃ τὰς ἐν τοῖς κώλοις ἁπάσας, οὐ μὴν παραλύσεις ταῦτα τῆς καθ’ ὁρμὴν κινήσεως, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τῆς αἰσθήσεως.
If, for instance, you should wish to constrict with a ligature either the arteries that descend through the groins to the legs, or those that pass through the armpits into the hands, you will immediately render all the arteries in the limbs pulseless, yet you will not paralyze these parts with respect to voluntary motion, nor indeed with respect to sensation.
εἰ δ’ ἐν τῷ χρόνῳ ναρκώδη τε καὶ ψυχρὰ καὶ ὠχρὰ καὶ ἄτροφα γίνεται, τάχ’ ἂν τοῦτο κατὰ συμπάθειαν μᾶλλον ἢ τὴν τῶν σφυγμῶν ἀπώλειαν συμβαίνοι.
And if in time they become numb and cold and pale and wasted, this would perhaps happen through sympathy rather than through the loss of the pulses.
εἰ δὲ τὰ νεῦρα βρόχοις διαλάβοις, ἀκίνητά τε παντελῶς καὶ ἀναίσθητα παραχρῆμα ποιήσεις τὰ μόρια.
But if you should constrict the nerves with ligatures, you will immediately render the parts completely motionless and insensate.
ἐχρῆν οὖν καὶ τὰς ἀρτηρίας ὁμοίως τοῖς νεύροις κακωθείσας, εἰς ἅπερ ἔμπροσθεν ὠφέλουν ἕκαστον τῶν μορίων, εἰς ταῦτα καὶ βλάπτειν εὐθέως.
Therefore, the arteries too, when damaged in the same way as the nerves, ought to have immediately caused harm in those very respects in which they previously benefited each of the parts.
τὸ δὲ δὴ πάντων ἀτοπώτατον, εἰ τὰς κατὰ τὸν τράχηλον ἀρτηρίας βρόχοις διαλάβοις, οὐδὲν σαφὲς βλάψεις τὸ ζῶον, καίτοι συνάπτουσιν αὗται καρδίαν ἐγκεφάλῳ, τὸ κυριώτατον τῶν ζωτικῶν ὄργανον τῷ κυριωτάτῳ τῶν ψυχικῶν.
But what is strangest of all, if you should constrict the arteries along the neck with ligatures, you will cause no obvious harm to the animal, although these connect the heart with the brain, the most sovereign organ of the vital forces with the most sovereign of the psychic forces.
εἴπερ οὖν τῶν οὕτως ἐπικαίρων ἀρτηριῶν ἡ βλάβη μηδὲν σαφὲς ἀδικεῖ τὸ ζῶον, σχολῇ γ’ ἂν τῶν ἄλλων τις ἀδικήσειεν.
If, then, the injury to such vital arteries does no obvious harm to the animal, it is hardly likely that any of the others would do so.
εἰ δ’ οὐδὲν βλάπτουσιν παθοῦσαι, παντί που δῆλον, ὡς οὐδ’ ὠφελοῦσιν, οὐδ’ ἂν ἐῤῥωμέναι τύχωσιν.
And if they cause no harm when affected, it is surely clear to everyone that they do no good either, even when they happen to be healthy.
πῶς οὖν ἐκ σφυγμῶν τὸ μέγιστον προγινώσκομεν;
How is it, then, that we make the greatest prognostications from the pulses?
οὐχ ὡς ἐξ αἰτίων πολὺ δυναμένων, φήσει τις, ἀλλ’ ὡς σημείων ἐπικαίρων, ὡς εἰ καὶ γρυπουμένοις τοῖς ὄνυξι καὶ μελαινομένοις τεκμαίροιτό τις περὶ θανάτου.
Not because they are causes with great power, someone will say, but because they are important signs, just as if one were to infer death from curved and blackening fingernails.
ὅταν γὰρ τοῖς χρησίμοις εἰς τὴν ζωὴν ἕπηταί τινα κατ’ ἀνάγκην, ὁ μὲν κίνδυνος ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ χρησίμου βλάβῃ, τὸ δ’ ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἑπόμενον σημεῖον γίνεται τοῦ κινδύνου.
For when certain things necessarily follow upon what is useful for life, the danger indeed lies in the damage to the useful thing, but the necessarily following event becomes a sign of the danger.
κύριον μὲν οὖν σπλάγχνον ἡ καρδία, ἐκπεφύκασι δ’ ἀπ’ αὐτῆς αἱ ἀρτηρίαι, καὶ κινοῦνται τὸν αὐτὸν ἐκείνῃ τρόπον· ὥστε καὶ βλάπτονται τὸν αὐτὸν, καὶ ταύτῃ μέγα δηλοῦν πεφύκασιν.
Therefore, the heart is a sovereign organ, and the arteries grow out from it and move in the same manner as it does; consequently they are also affected in the same way, and by this they are naturally suited to reveal great things.
ἐδείχθη δὲ οὐ ταὐτὸν ὂν τὸ δηλοῦν μεγάλα τῷ δύνασθαι μεγάλα.
And it has been shown that revealing great things is not the same as being capable of great things.
πόθεν οὖν ἐπῆλθεν ἅπασιν ἰατροῖς τε καὶ φιλοσόφοις εἰς τὴν αὐτὴν χρείαν ἀνάγειν τήν τε ἀναπνοὴν καὶ τοὺς σφυγμοὺς, τῆς μὲν οὕτως εἰς μέγα διαφέρειν ἡμῖν φαινομένης, τῶν δ’, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἢ παντάπασιν εἰς οὐδὲν, ἢ παντελῶς μικρόν;
From where, then, did it occur to all physicians and philosophers to refer both respiration and the pulses to the same use, when the former appears to make so great a difference to us, while the latter, as it seems, make either absolutely no difference or an utterly small one?
ἐμοὶ μὲν οὖν δοκοῦσιν, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ γράφουσιν οἱ πλείους αὐτῶν, ἐκ τοῦ τρέπεσθαι παραπλησίους τροπὰς ἐπὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς αἰτίοις ἀμφότερα κοινὴν εἶναι καὶ τὴν χρείαν αὐτῶν ὑπονοῆσαι·
To me, indeed, they seem, just as the majority of them actually write, to have suspected that their use is also common because both undergo similar changes under the same causes.
τῶν τε γὰρ γυμναζομένων καὶ λουομένων, καὶ τῶν ὁπωσοῦν ἄλλως θερμαινομένων, οὐ τὴν ἀναπνοὴν μόνον ὠκυτέραν τε καὶ πυκνοτέραν καὶ μείζονα γινομένην ἔστιν ἰδεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς σφυγμοὺς ὡσαύτως τρεπομένους, τῶν τ’ ἀργούντων, καὶ τῶν ὁπωσοῦν ἄλλως ψυχομένων, οὐ τὴν ἀναπνοὴν μόνην ἀραιοτέραν τε καὶ βραδυτέραν καὶ μικροτέραν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς σφυγμούς.
For in those who exercise or bathe, or are warmed in any other way whatsoever, one can see not only respiration becoming quicker, more frequent, and larger, but also the pulses changing in the same way; and in those who are at rest, or are cooled in any other way whatsoever, not only respiration becomes less frequent, slower, and smaller, but also the pulses.
καὶ ἐν τοῖς καυσώδεσι πυρετοῖς πλεῖστον μὲν καὶ τάχιστον καὶ πυκνότατον ἀναπνέουσι, μεγίστους δ’ ἔχουσι καὶ ταχίστους καὶ πυκνοτάτους τοὺς σφυγμούς.
And in burning fevers they breathe most, fastest, and most frequently, and they have the largest, fastest, and most frequent pulses.
εἰ δ’ ἐπὶ ταῖς ἀσυμμέτροις τροφαῖς οἱ μὲν σφυγμοὶ μείζονες, αἱ δ’ ἀναπνοαὶ γίνονται μικρότεραι, οὐδὲ τοῦτο ἀπόρημα τῷ λόγῳ· μικρότερον μὲν γὰρ ἀναπνέουσιν ἢ σφύζουσι στενοχωρίᾳ τῶν φρενῶν, ἀλλ’ ὅσῳ μικρότερον, τοσούτῳ πυκνότερον, ἰώμενοι τὴν μικρότητα τῆς ἀναπνοῆς τῷ συνεχεῖ τῆς ἐνεργείας.
And if after excessive food the pulses become larger while respirations become smaller, not even this is a difficulty for the argument; for they breathe smaller or pulse because of the confinement of the diaphragm, but by how much smaller it is, by so much more frequent, curing the smallness of the respiration by the continuity of the activity.
ὅσον γὰρ ἐνδεέστερον ἀπέλαυσεν ἡ φύσις ἀέρος, οὐ δυνηθέντος ἐπὶ πλεῖστον διαστῆναι τοῦ θώρακος, τοῦτο ἐπανορθοῦται τῇ πυκνότητι.
For as much as nature enjoyed less air, the thorax being unable to expand to the greatest extent, this is corrected by the frequency.
καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἴσον δύναται τὸ μικρότερόν τε ἅμα καὶ πυκνότερον πνεῦμα τῷ μείζονί τε ἅμα καὶ ἀραιοτέρῳ.
And for this reason, respiration that is at once smaller and more frequent is equal in power to that which is at once larger and less frequent.
λέγομεν δὲ νῦν ἀραιότερον σφυγμὸν τὸν ἐπὶ τροφαῖς, οὐ τὸν πρὸ τῆς τροφῆς, ἐκείνου μὲν γὰρ πυκνότερός ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ τῇ τῆς ἀναπνοῆς ἰδέᾳ παραβάλλοντες.
We are speaking now of the pulse after food being "less frequent" not in comparison with that before food (for it is indeed more frequent than that), but comparing it with the pattern of respiration.
εἰ τοίνυν τρέπεται μὲν ὡσαύτως ἐπὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς αἰτίοις ἡ ἀναπνοὴ τοῖς σφυγμοῖς, βλάπτεται δ’ οὐχ ὡσαύτως ἀπολλυμένη, καὶ γὰρ τοῦτ’ ἔμπροσθεν ἐδείχθη, περαίνοιτ’ ἂν οὐδὲν ἧττον ὁμοίως ἀλλήλοις τὰ ἀντικείμενα, τό τε τῆς αὐτῆς ἕνεκα χρείας ἄμφω γεγονέναι καὶ τὸ μὴ τῆς αὐτῆς.
If, then, respiration is changed in the same way as the pulses under the same causes, but is not affected in the same way when abolished (for this too was shown earlier), no less would the opposites prove true at the same time: namely, that both have come to be for the sake of the same use, and that they have not.
ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐνδέχεται· χρὴ γὰρ θάτερον αὐτῶν ἀληθὲς ὑπάρχειν, οὐκ ἄμφω.
But this is not possible; for one of them must be true, not both.