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Hippocrates · On Glands §14-17

Diseases Caused by Fluxes and the Breasts as Glands

Passage 4 of 4 · Greek

Summary

The text explains the diseases (such as consumption) caused by phlegm flowing from the palate to the stomach or lungs, and hip diseases caused by flows through the spinal cord. It then discusses the nature of the breasts as glands, the difference in bodily density between men and women, and the serious consequences of breast removal.

§1414.
14.
Ἢν δὲ ὀπίσῳ τὸ ῥεῦμα ᾖ δι’ ὑπερώης, τὸ ἀφικόμενον φλέγμα ἐς τὴν κοιλίην, ῥέουσι μὲν καὶ αἱ κοιλίαι τούτων, νοσέουσι δὲ οὔ· ἀναμένοντος κάτω τοῦ φλέγματος, εἰλεοί.
But if the flow is backward through the palate, the phlegm arriving in the cavity, their bellies also flow, but they do not become diseased; if the phlegm remains below, there are ileuses.
Τὰ πάθη χρόνια, ἄλλοις δι’ ὑπερώης ἐπὶ φάρυγγα, ἢν πουλὺ ῥυῇ καὶ ἐπὶ πουλὺ, αἱ νοῦσοι φθινάδες·
These affections are chronic; for others, the flow is through the palate to the pharynx, and if it flows abundantly and for a long time, the diseases are consumptive.
κορίσκονται γὰρ τοῦ φλέγματος οἱ πνεύμονες, καὶ γίνεται τὸ πῦον· τοῦτο διεσθίει τοὺς πνεύμονας, καὶ οἱ νοσέοντες οὐ ῥάϊον περιγίνονται· καὶ ἡ γνώμη τοῦ ἰητροῦ, καὶ ἢν ἀγαθὸς καὶ ἢν ἀγχίνοος, τὰ πολλ’ ἀξυνετέει τῆς προφάσιος.
For the lungs are saturated with the phlegm, and pus is formed; this corrodes the lungs, and the sick do not easily recover; and the judgment of the physician, even if he is good and quick-witted, for the most part fails to understand the cause.
Ἄλλη νοῦσος διὰ φλεβῶν ἐπὶ νωτιαῖον ἀπὸ κατάῤῥου κεφαλῆς·
Another disease is through the veins to the spinal cord from a catarrh of the head.
ἀΐσσει δὲ ἐνταῦθα ἐπὶ ἱερὸν ὀστέον, ἄγων τὴν ἐπιῤῥοὴν ὁ νωτιαῖος, καὶ ἐναπέθετο τῇσι κοτύλῃσι τῶν ἰσχίων· ἰσχία καὶ ἢν ποιέῃ φθίσιν, καὶ μαραίνεται ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὅδε καὶ ὧδε, καὶ ζώειν οὐκ ἐθέλει· ταχὺ γὰρ πονέει τὴν σπάθην, καὶ ᾅμα τὼ πόδε καὶ μηρὼ παρέπονται, καὶ αἰεὶ τελέως ὄλλυνται χρόνῳ πολλῷ μελεδαινόμενοι, καὶ οὕτως ἀπηύδηκε καὶ θνήσκει.
Here it rushes to the sacred bone, the spinal cord conducting the influx, and deposits it in the cavities of the hips; and if it causes consumption in the hips, this man wastes away here and there, and does not wish to live; for he quickly feels pain in his shoulder-blade, and at the same time his feet and thighs are paralyzed, and they are always completely ruined, being cared for over a long time, and thus he fails and dies.
Ταῦτά μοι περὶ ῥόων ἀπὸ κεφαλῆς εἴρηται.
These things have been said by me concerning the flows from the head.
§1515.
15.
Καὶ πάθεα ἐγκεφάλου καὶ ἄλλαι νοῦσοι, παραφροσύναι καὶ μανίαι, καὶ πάντα ἐπικίνδυνα, καὶ πονέει ὁ ἐγκέφαλος καὶ αἱ ἄλλαι ἀδένες· ἔχει γὰρ καὶ τόνον καὶ ἄλλη ξύνοδος ἐνταῦθα πάλιν τοῦ σώματος.
And the affections of the brain and other diseases, deliriums and madnesses, and all are dangerous, and both the brain and the other glands suffer; for it has both tension, and there is another meeting place here again of the body.
§1616.
16.
Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀδένες ἐν τοῖσι στήθεσι μαζοὶ καλέονται, καὶ διαίρονται γάλα ποιέουσιν· οἷς δὲ οὐ ποιέουσι γάλα, οὕ· ποιέουσι μὲν αἱ γυναῖκες, οἱ δὲ ἄνδρες οὐ ποιέουσι.
But also the glands in the breasts are called breasts, and being distended they produce milk; but for those for whom they do not produce milk, they do not; women produce it, but men do not.
Τῇσι μὲν γυναιξὶν ἀραιή τε ἡ φύσις κατὰ τῶν ἀδένων, ὥσπερ τὸ ἄλλο σῶμα, καὶ τὴν τροφὴν, ἥν τινα ἕλκουσιν ἐπὶ σφᾶς, ἀλλοιοῦσιν ἐς τὸ γάλα· καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς μήτρης παραγίνεται ἐπὶ τοὺς μαζοὺς ἐς τὴν μετὰ τὸν τόκον τῷ παιδίῳ τροφὴν, ἥν τινα ἀποπιέζει καὶ ὑπερβάλλει τὸ ἐπίπλοον ἐς τὰ ἄνω, στενοχωρούμενον ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐμβρύου.
For women, the nature around the glands is porous, just as the rest of the body, and they alter into milk the nourishment which they draw to themselves; and from the uterus it arrives at the breasts for the nourishment of the child after birth, which the omentum squeezes out and throws upward, being crowded by the embryo.
Τοῖσι δὲ ἄῤῥεσι καὶ ἡ στενοχωρίη καὶ ἡ πυκνότης τοῦ σώματος μέγα συμβάλλεται μὴ εἶναι μεγάλας τὰς ἀδένας· τὸ γὰρ ἄῤῥεν ναστόν ἐστι καὶ οἷον εἷμα πυκνὸν καὶ ὁρέοντι καὶ ἐπαφομένῳ· τὸ δὲ θῆλυ ἀραιὸν καὶ χαῦνον καὶ οἷον εἴριον ὁρέοντι καὶ ἐπαφομένῳ· ὥστε τὴν ὑγρασίην οὐ μεθίησι τὸ ἀραιὸν καὶ μαλθακόν· τὸ δὲ ἄρσεν οὐκ ἄν τι προσδέξαιτο, πυκνόν τε ἐὸν καὶ ἀστεργὲς, καὶ ὁ πόνος κρατύνει αὐτοῦ τὸ σῶμα, ὥστε οὐκ ἔχει δι’ οὗ λήψεται τὸ τῶν περισσῶν.
But for males, both the narrowness and the density of the body contribute greatly to the glands not being large; for the male is compact and like a dense garment both to one looking and to one touching; but the female is porous and spongy and like wool both to one looking and to one touching; so that the porous and soft does not let go of the moisture; but the male would not receive anything, being dense and unyielding, and labor strengthens his body, so that he does not have passages through which he will receive the fluid of the excesses.
Οὕτως ἀναγκάζει ὅδε ὁ λόγος καὶ στήθεα καὶ μαζοὺς καὶ τὸ ἄλλο σῶμα τῇσι γυναιξὶ χαῦνα καὶ μαλακὰ εἶναι καὶ διὰ τὴν ἀργίην καὶ διὰ τὰ προειρημένα· τοῖσι δὲ ἀνδράσι τὰ ἐναντία.
Thus this explanation requires both the chest and breasts and the rest of the body to be loose and soft for women, both because of inactivity and because of the aforementioned reasons; but for men, the opposites.
§1717.
17.
Ποιέουσι καὶ μαζοὶ φύματα, φλεγμονὰς, τὸ γάλα ἀποσήποντες· ἀγαθὰ δὲ ἔχουσι τοῖσιν ἔμπροσθεν ὅμοια· ἀποστερίζουσι τὴν πλεονεξίην τοῦ ἄλλου σώματος.
Breasts also produce swellings and triumphs, rotting the milk; but they have beneficial functions similar to those mentioned before: they deprive the rest of the body of its excess.
Μαρτύριον τῇσι γυναιξὶν, ᾗσιν ἀφαιρεῖται νούσῳ ἢ ἄλλῃ τινὶ ξυμφορᾷ μαζός· καὶ ἡ φωνὴ θρασεῖα, καὶ ὑγρὰ εἰς στόμαχον, καὶ πτυελίζουσι, καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀλγέουσι, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶνδε νοσέουσιν· ἰὸν γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς μήτρης καὶ ἐπιῤῥέον τὸ γάλα, ὥσπερ μεθίει καὶ ἔμπροσθεν ἐς τὰ ἄνω τεύχεα, τὰ οἰκεῖᾳ οὐκ ἔχον τεύχεα, συντυγχάνει τοῖσι κυρίοις τοῦ σώματος, καρδίῃ, πνούμονι, καὶ ἀποπνίγονται.
A proof of this is in women from whom a breast is removed by disease or some other misfortune: their voice becomes harsh, and liquids flow into the stomach, and they spit, and they have pain in the head, and they become sick from these things; for the milk, moving from the uterus and flowing in, just as it was sent before to the upper vessels, since it does not have its proper vessels, meets with the vital parts of the body, the heart and the lung, and they are suffocated.

Notes

  1. §14κορίσκονται — Third-person plural present passive of κορέννυμι ('to saturate, fill'), taking the genitive of material (τοῦ φλέγματος) to mean 'the lungs are saturated/filled with phlegm.'
  2. §17ᾗσιν ἀφαιρεῖται — The relative pronoun ᾗσιν (dative feminine plural) functions as a dative of separation with the passive verb ἀφαιρέται (from ἀφαιρέω, 'to take away, remove'), meaning 'from whom a breast is removed.'
  3. §17ἰὸν γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς μήτρης... καὶ ἀποπνίγονται — This sentence begins with neuter singular participles ἰὸν and ἐπιῤῥέον (agreeing with τὸ γάλα) and has the singular verb συντυγχάνει, but shifts to the plural verb ἀποπνίγονται at the end, having 'the women' as its logical subject (anacoluthon). The term τεύχεα refers to the 'receptacles' or 'vessels' of the body (here, the breasts or associated channels).

Cite this passage

Hippocrates, On Glands §14-17. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0627.tlg042.humanitext-grc1:14-17

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