Humanitext Reader

Galen · Causes of Diseases §1

Causes of Simple and Composite Diseases in Homoeomerous Parts

Passage 1 of 12 · Greek

Summary

The author notes that the classification of diseases was shown in a previous book and states his plan to examine their causes starting from simple, homoeomerous parts to composite organs. Based on his own physical hypothesis of unified matter, he begins to discuss the four simple and four composite causes of disease involving the imbalance of heat, cold, dryness, and wetness.

§1## ΓΑΛΗΝΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ ΝΟΣΗΜΑΣΙΝ ΑΙΤΙΩΝ ΒΙΒΛΙΟΝ. Πόσα μέν ἐστι καὶ τίνα τὰ σύμπαντα νοσήματα κατ’ εἴδη τε καὶ γένη διαιρουμένοις, ἁπλᾶ τε καὶ σύνθετα, δι’ ἑτέρου δεδήλωται γράμματος.
## GALEN'S BOOK ON THE CAUSES OF DISEASES. How many and of what kind all diseases are, when divided by species and genera, both simple and composite, has been shown in another book.
ἑξῆς δ’ ἂν εἴη τὰς αἰτίας αὐτῶν ἑκάστου διελθεῖν, ἀπὸ τῶν ἁπλῶν τε καὶ ὁμοιομερῶν ὀνομαζομένων τοῦ ζώου μορίων ἀρξαμένους, εἶτ’ αὖθις ἐπὶ τὰ σύνθετά τε καὶ ὀργανικὰ μεταβάντας.
Next in order would be to go through the causes of each of them, starting from the parts of the animal called simple and homoeomerous, and then passing on again to the composite and organic parts.
ἐπεὶ τοίνυν ἐδείχθη, κατὰ μὲν τοὺς ἡνῶσθαί τε καὶ ἠλλοιῶσθαι τὴν ὑποβεβλημένην οὐσίαν γενέσει καὶ φθορᾷ δοξάζοντας, ἅπασα νόσος ὁμοιομεροῦς τε καὶ ἁπλοῦ πρὸς αἴσθησιν σώματος ἤτοι δυσκρασία τις ὑπάρχουσα, ἢ τῆς συνεχείας αὐτοῦ τῶν μερῶν διαίρεσις, κατὰ δὲ τοὺς μήθ’ ἡνῶσθαι καὶ κενόν τι παραπεπλέχθαι πάσῃ σώματος συγκρίσει νομίζοντας, ἀμετρία τε πόρων οὖσα καὶ λύσις τῆς αἰσθητῆς ἑνώσεως, ἀρξώμεθα καὶ νῦν ἐπισκοπεῖσθαι τὰς αἰτίας ἑκάστου τῶν νοσημάτων τῆς πρώτης ὑποθέσεως, ἣν δὴ καὶ ἀληθῆ πεπείσμεθα ὑπάρχειν.
Since, therefore, it was shown that—according to those who believe that the underlying substance is unified and altered by generation and corruption— every disease of a body that is homoeomerous and simple to perception is either some bad mixture (dyscrasia) or a division of its continuous parts; while according to those who think that there is no unification, but that a certain void is interwoven in every bodily compound, it is an immeasurability of pores or a dissolution of perceptible unity—let us now also begin to examine the causes of each of the diseases according to the first hypothesis, which indeed we are persuaded is true.
ἦν δ’, οἶμαι, τέτταρα μὲν ἁπλᾶ, τέτταρα δὲ σύνθετα, ποτὲ μὲν τοῦ θερμοῦ μόνον τὴν αὔξησιν ἄμετρον ἢ τοῦ ψυχροῦ λαβόντος, ἤ τινος τῶν τῆς ἑτέρας ἀντιθέσεως τῆς κατὰ τὸ ξηρὸν καὶ ὑγρὸν, ἔστιν ὅτε δὲ καὶ κατὰ συζυγίαν τινὰ αὐξηθέντων αὐτῶν, ὡς εἶναι θερμὸν ἅμα καὶ ξηρὸν, ἢ ψυχρὸν καὶ ξηρὸν, ἢ θερμὸν καὶ ὑγρὸν, ἢ ψυχρὸν καὶ ὑγρὸν τὸ νόσημα.
There were, I believe, four simple and four composite [diseases], sometimes when only the hot or the cold, or one of the other opposition of dry and wet, receives an immoderate increase, and sometimes when they are increased in a certain combination, so that the disease is at once hot and dry, or cold and dry, or hot and wet, or cold and wet.

Notes

  1. 1διαιρουμένοις — Dative present participle. It means "for those who divide (into species and genera)" and functions as a dative of relation or reference, indicating the persons with respect to whom the statement holds.
  2. 1ἀρξαμένους — Accusative plural participle. It agrees with the implied subject of the infinitive διελθεῖν after the impersonal expression ἂν εἴη ("it would be [in order]..."). The subsequent participle μεταβάντας follows the same construction.
  3. p.2ἐδείχθη — Passive indicative aorist. It takes the nominative subject ἅπασα νόσος and the nominative participles ὑπάρχουσα and οὖσα to form a participle construction of showing/proving ("it was shown that...").
  4. p.2λαβόντος — Aorist participle in the genitive absolute construction. The subject is τοῦ θερμοῦ ... ἢ τοῦ ψυχροῦ, functioning as a circumstantial clause (temporal or conditional) meaning "when the hot ... or the cold receives...".

Cite this passage

Galen, Causes of Diseases §1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0057.tlg042.humanitext-grc1:1

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