§1## ΓΑΛΗΝΟΥ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΥΠΩΝ ΓΡΑΨΑΝΤΑΣ Η ΠΕΡΙ ΠΕΡΙΟΔΩΝ ΒΙΒΛΙΟΝ.
Τοῖς μὲν παλαιοῖς ἰατροῖς ἀπόχρη μόνον τοῦτο εἰποῦσιν, ὡς κατὰ περίοδον ἐνίοις τῶν νοσημάτων οἱ παροξυσμοὶ γίνονται, μηκέτι προστιθεμένοις, τί σημαίνει τοὔνομα ἡ περίοδος.
## GALEN'S BOOK TO THOSE WHO WROTE ON TYPES, OR, ON PERIODS. For the ancient physicians, it was sufficient merely to say that the paroxysms in some of the diseases occur according to a period, without further adding what the name 'period' signifies.
ἠπίσταντο γὰρ Ἕλλησιν ἀνθρώποις γράφοντες τὰ βιβλία, σαφῶς εἰδόσιν, ὡς ἐπειδὰν δι’ ἴσον χρόνον γίγνηταί τι ταὐτὸν τῷ εἴδει, τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον ἅπαντες Ἕλληνες ὀνομάζουσι περίοδον.
For they knew they were writing books for Greek people who clearly understood that whenever something identical in kind occurs at equal intervals of time, all Greeks call this time a 'period'.
οὕτω γοῦν Ὀλυμπιακάς τέ τινας καὶ Πυθιακὰς ἐκάλουν περιόδους.
Thus, at any rate, they used to call certain Olympic and Pythian cycles 'periods'.
οἱ νεώτεροι δὲ πρῶτον μὲν ἐπεισήγαγον ταῖς περιόδοις τὴν τοῦ τύπου προσηγορίαν.
But the more recent physicians first introduced the designation of 'type' to periods.
εἶθ’ οἱ μὲν ταὐτὸν ἡγοῦντο σημαίνεσθαι πρὸς τῆς περίοδος φωνῆς καὶ τάξις καὶ τύπος· οἱ δὲ οὐ ταὐτόν.
Then, some thought that the same thing was signified by the words 'period', 'order', and 'type'; others, however, did not think so.
ὁρίσαι δὲ πάντα ταῦτα ἐπιχειροῦσιν ἄλλοι ἄλλως, οὐ μόνον κατασκευάζοντες τοὺς ἰδίους ὅρους, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς τῶν ἄλλων ἀντιλέγοντες.
And others attempt to define all these things in different ways, not only establishing their own definitions but also contradicting those of others.
ὅσοι μὲν οὖν ἄχρι τῆς περὶ τοὺς ὅρους φιλοτιμίας προεληλύθασι συγχωροῦντες ἐκ τῶν τριῶν ὀνομάτων ἕν τι σημαίνεσθαι, τύπου καὶ περιόδου καὶ τάξεως, ἐλάττονα φλυαροῦσιν·
Now, those who have gone as far as vanity regarding definitions, yet concede that one and the same thing is signified by the three names—type, period, and order—talk less nonsense.
ὅσοι δὲ περίοδον μὲν ὀνομάζουσι τὸν χρόνον, δι’ ὅν τι ταὐτὸν γίγνεται, τύπον δὲ οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἅπαντα τὸν τοιοῦτον χρόνον, ἀλλ’ ὅταν ὁλοκλήροις ἡμέραις τε καὶ νυξὶ περιγράφηται, μακρὰς οὗτοι καὶ ἀχρήστους φλυαρίας καταβάλλονται, καὶ διὰ τοῦθ’ αὑτῶν τε καὶ τῶν μαθητῶν κατατρίψαντες τὸν χρόνον, ὅταν ἐπὶ τοὺς κάμνοντας ἀφίκωνται, χείρους εἰσὶν ἰδιώτου παντός.
But those who call 'period' the time through which something identical occurs, and 'type' not simply all such time, but when it is bounded by complete days and nights, bring down long and useless nonsense upon themselves, and having thereby wasted their own time and that of their disciples, when they come to the sick, they are worse than any layman.
ἰδιώτης μὲν γὰρ νοῦν ἔχων, ἐπειδὰν θεάσηταί τινα καθ’ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν παροξυνόμενον, ἐάν θ’ ὑστερῇ σμικρὸν ὁ παροξυσμὸς ἐάν τε προλαμβάνῃ, φαντασίαν τινὰ ἔχει περιόδου τῆς καλουμένης ἀμφημερινῆς·
For a layman who has intelligence, when he sees someone suffering a paroxysm every day, whether the paroxysm is slightly delayed or occurs earlier, has some impression of the so-called quotidian period.
εἰ δέ τις καὶ φιλόπονος εἴη καὶ φιλίατρος, ἔννοιά τις αὐτὸν εἰσέρχεται δυοῖν τριταίοιν ἢ τριῶν τεταρταίων, καὶ τοῦτο ἀξιοῖ διορισθῆναι πρὸς τῶν ἰατρῶν.
And if someone should be both industrious and a lover of medicine, a certain conception of two tertians or three quartans enters his mind, and he demands that this be distinguished by the physicians.
οἱ δὲ ταῖς εἰρημέναις ὑποθέσεσι δουλεύοντες, ἐὰν ἐντύχωσιν ἀῤῥώστῳ δυοῖν ὥραιν ἑκάστης ἡμέρας τὸν παροξυσμὸν ἔχοντι προληπτικὸν, εἴκοσι μὲν εἶναι καὶ δυοῖν ὥραιν φασὶ τὴν περίοδον, τὸν δ’ ὅλον τύπον οὐχ ἁπλοῦν, ἀλλά τινα σύνθετον ὑπάρχειν νομίζουσιν· εἶτα ζητήσαντες ἱκανῶς καὶ λογισάμενοι κατὰ σφᾶς αὑτοὺς, οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ δακτύλων, οἱ δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ διαγράμματος ἔν τινι βιβλίῳ γεγραμμένου, δώδεκά φασιν εἶναι δωδεκαταίους τὸν τοιοῦτον τύπον.
But those who are enslaved to the aforementioned hypotheses, if they meet a patient having the paroxysm anticipating by two hours each day, say that the period is twenty-two hours, and believe that the whole type is not simple, but some composite one; then, after investigating sufficiently and calculating among themselves, some on their fingers, others even on a diagram written in some book, say that such a type is twelve twelfth-day fevers.
γελώντων δὲ ἐπὶ τούτοις τῶν ἀκουσάντων, ἀγανακτοῦσιν.
And when those who hear this laugh at them, they are indignant.
ἔτι δὲ μᾶλλον ὅταν ὥρᾳ μιᾷ ποτε θεάσωνται τὸν παροξυσμὸν προλαμβάνοντα, καὶ τότε ἀποφαίνονται δ΄ εἶναι καὶ κ΄ εἰκοστοτεταρταίους, αὐτοί τε καταγελῶνται καί τινα τοῖς ἄλλοις ἰατροῖς ὑποψίαν ἀγνοίας παρὰ τοῖς ἰδιώταις παρασκευάζουσιν.
And still more, whenever they see the paroxysm anticipating by one hour at some time, they then declare it to be twenty-four twenty-fourth-day fevers, and they themselves are laughed at, and they prepare a suspicion of ignorance among laymen against the other physicians.
ὅταν γὰρ ἐκείνους ἐκ βιβλίου θεάσωνται μετὰ σεμνότητός τινος εὑρίσκοντας, ὥς τι μέγιστον πρᾶγμα, κδ΄ εἰκοστοτεταρταίους, ἐπέρχεται καταγινώσκειν αὐτοῖς ἁπάντων τῶν ἀναγινωσκόντων τὰ βιβλία, καὶ μᾶλλον τοῖς ἀλόγῳ τριβῇ μεταχειριζομένοις τὴν τέχνην ἑαυτοὺς ἐπιτρέπουσιν.
For when they see those men with a certain solemnity finding from a book, as if it were a matter of the greatest importance, twenty-four twenty-fourth-day fevers, it occurs to them to condemn all who read books, and they rather entrust themselves to those who practice the art with irrational experience.
ἐὰν γοῦν τις ἕπηται ταῖς ὑποθέσεσι τῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα ληρούντων ἰατρῶν, καὶ τὸν τριταῖον, ὅταν ἤτοι προλαμβάνῃ μίαν ὥραν ἢ ὑστερίζη, πάντα μᾶλλον ἢ τριταῖον ἐρεῖ.
If, at any rate, anyone follows the hypotheses of the physicians who talk such nonsense, even when the tertian fever either anticipates or delays by one hour, he will call it anything rather than a tertian.
τὸν μὲν γὰρ προλαμβάνοντα, τεττάρων καὶ κ΄ ὄντα, φησὶ τεσσαρακοστουγδαῖον ἐπιπλοκὴν εἶναι· τὸν δὲ ὑστερίζοντα πεντηκοσταῖον, καὶ τοῦτον ἐρεῖ ε΄ καὶ κ΄ εἶναι.
For the one that anticipates, being twenty-four, he says is a complication of forty-eight-day fevers; and the one that delays, he will say is a fifty-day fever, and that this consists of twenty-five fevers.
τίς μὲν οὖν ἤρξατο πρῶτος τῆς ἐμπλήκτου ταύτης σοφίας, οὐκ οἶδα·
Who first began this mad wisdom, I do not know.
ἡνίκα δ’ ἐγὼ πρῶτον ἤκουσα τοῦ γε μηνύοντος αὐτὴν, ἐρῶ.
But I will tell when I first heard it from the one who disclosed it.
μεθεστήκει μὲν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἔναγχος Ἀντωνῖνος ὁ μετ’ Ἀδριανὸν γενόμενος αὐτοκράτωρ, ἦρχε δὲ τότε Σεβῆρος, ἑαυτὸν μὲν Ἀντωνῖνον μετονομάσας, εἰς δὲ τὴν τῆς ἀρχῆς κοινωνίαν προσλαβὼν Λούκιον καὶ μετονομάσας Σεβῆρον.
Antoninus, who became emperor after Hadrian, had recently departed from among men, and Severus was ruling then, having renamed himself Antoninus, and having taken Lucius into partnership of the rule, and renamed him Severus.
ἐν τούτῳ τῷ χρόνῳ πρῶτον ἀκούσας ἐθαύμασα τοὺς προβάλλοντας ὡδί πως· ἐὰν πέντε τις ὥραις παροξυνόμενος ἀνίηται δυοῖν, ὡς εἶναι τὴν ὅλην περίοδον ὡρῶν ζ΄ καὶ τοῦτ’ ἐφεξῆς γίγνηται, τίνα χρὴ νομίζειν τὸν τύπον;
At this time, having heard it for the first time, I was astonished at those who proposed questions in some such way: if someone, suffering a paroxysm for five hours, is relieved for two, so that the whole period is seven hours, and this occurs successively, what must we believe the type to be?
ἀπεκρινάμην οὖν εὐθέως αὐτῷ, μηδ’ οἷόν τε γενέσθαι τοῦτο.
So I replied to him immediately, that this was not even possible to happen.
τοὺς γὰρ ὀλιγοχρονίους οὕτω παροξυσμοὺς μακρὰς ποιεῖσθαι τὰς παρακμὰς, καὶ τοὐπίπαν γε καὶ εἰς ἀπυρεξίαν ἀφικνεῖσθαι.
For such short paroxysms make the declines long, and for the most part indeed reach a state of no fever.
σὺ δὲ παροξυσμὸν μὲν, ἔφην, διηγῇ νοσήματος ἐπιεικέστατον, τῇ συνεχείᾳ δὲ τῶν περιόδων ὀλεθριώτατον αὖθις ἀποφαίνεις αὐτόν. μηδὲν, ἔφη, σκόπει τό γε νῦν, πότερον ἀδύνατός ἐστιν ἡ ὑπόθεσις, ἢ δυνατὴ, γυμνασίας δ’ ἕνεκα τὰ τοιαῦτα συγχώρει ζητεῖσθαι.
'But you,' I said, 'describe a paroxysm of a disease that is most mild, yet by the continuity of the periods you declare it on the other hand to be most deadly.' 'Do not consider at all for now,' he said, 'whether the hypothesis is impossible or possible, but for the sake of exercise, concede that such things are investigated.
πρὸς γὰρ τὴν τῶν ποικίλων τύπων εὕρεσιν εὐπορωτέρους ἡμᾶς ἐργάσεται. ἐκείνῳ μὲν οὖν ὅτι τὸ τοιοῦτον γυμνάσιον ἀπορωτέρους ἡμᾶς ἐργάζεται μᾶλλον ἤπερ εὐπορωτέρους, ἐπειράθην ἐνδείξασθαι τότε· νυνὶ δὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐπιδείξω προδιηγησάμενος, ἥ τίς ποτ’ ἐστὶν ἡ χρεία τῆς τοιαύτης θεωρίας.
For it will make us more resourceful toward the discovery of various types.' To him, therefore, I attempted to show at that time that such an exercise makes us more perplexed rather than more resourceful; but now I shall demonstrate it to others, having first explained what indeed is the utility of such a theory.