Slow and rapid breathing

It is the opposite of fast and its causes are also opposite. Sometimes breathing slows down due to pain, if you need the respiratory organ to move carefully and slowly.

Rapid breathing is breathing when the time between one combination of inhalation and exhalation and the other that preceded it is short. One of its reasons is a strong need for air, if it cannot be satisfied by a large amount and speed of breathing, because the need is greater than what a large and fast breath gives. The obstacle here is pain, swelling or narrowness of the passages due to an abundance of matter, compression of blood vessels, effusion of pus into the chest cavity or some other cause of narrowing of the passages. You have already learned the difference between frequent breathing, which occurs from the need for air, and that which depends on pain and other causes, from what was said earlier in the paragraph about large breathing. Frequent breathing, as Hippocrates testifies, entails danger due to drying out of the lung and fatigue of the respiratory organs in the areas adjacent to the lung.

It indicates the dying of strength, the extinction of innate warmth and the transition of the nature of the heart to cold. This is one of the very bad signs in acute illnesses, especially if cold sweat occurs. Then all the signs of dissipation of innate heat are evident.

It refers to bad breath and differs from other types of bad breath in that with other types the bad breath is not only felt when breathing, but in this case it is felt when air comes out of the mouth. This indicates putrefaction of the juices in the respiratory organs, either in the tube or in the lungs, if the juice or matter rots in them.