In conclusion, a word about diseases

The name comes to diseases from different  angles. They are called either by the organs that are carriers of the disease, such as “flank disease” and “lung disease”, or by manifestations, such as “epileptic disease”, or by reasons, as when we say: “black bile disease”, or by comparison, as when we say: “lion disease,” “elephant disease,” or associating the name with the person who first said that this disease happened to him. So, doctors say: “Telephus ulcer,” referring it to a person whose name was Telephus. Or the name of the diseases is associated with the city where it is often found, as doctors say: “Balkh ulcers,” or it refers to a doctor who became famous for successfully treating a given disease, such as “Chiron’s ulcer.” Sometimes a disease is named by its substance and essential qualities, such as fever or tumor.

Galen said: diseases are either external and recognized by sensation, or internal, but easily recognized, like pain in the stomach and lungs, or difficult to recognize, like damage to the liver and bile ducts. Sometimes they can only be understood by guesswork, like injuries that occur in the urinary tract.

Diseases can be isolated, but there are also diseases of complicity, when an organ participates with another organ in its disease, or because they are mutually related by nature and are connected by certain tools. These are, for example, the brain and stomach, which are connected by nerves, or the uterus and nipples, which are connected by veins, or because one of the organs is the road to the other - so the groin provides a path for tumors of the lower leg.

Or both organs are adjacent, such as the neck and the brain, so that each acts as an accomplice to the other, especially if one of the organs is a weak neighbor and therefore receives excesses from its accomplice; These are the armpits in relation to the heart.

Disease by complicity also occurs because one of the organs is the source and beginning of the functions of another, such as the thoraco-abdominal obstruction to the lungs in relation to breathing, or because one organ serves another, such as the nerves serve the brain, or because that both of them participate in the actions of the third body. Thus, for example, the brain participates with the kidneys, since they both participate in the actions of the liver.

Sometimes complicity turns into harm. So, for example, if the brain experiences pain, then the stomach participates in the pain, and digestion in it weakens. It sends bad fumes and undigested nutrients to the brain and thereby adds pain to the brain itself. Complicity in illness proceeds according to the laws of illness of the main organ in relation to duration and frequency.

There are six degrees of health and illness of the body, as we will now describe. There is a body that is healthy to the limit, a body that is healthy but not to the limit, a body that is not healthy but not sick either, as mentioned above, then a body in good condition that quickly perceives health, then a body that is sick with a slight illness, then - the body is sick to the limit.

Diseases can be submissive and rebellious. A submissive disease is one that can be treated appropriately without hindrance, while a rebellious disease is one that is associated with an obstacle that does not allow it to be treated correctly. This is what a headache is like when it is accompanied by catarrh.

Know that a disease that corresponds to nature, age, and season is less dangerous than a disease that does not correspond to these and occurs only due to a significant reason; know also: one can hope that the diseases of each season will disappear at the opposite time of year.

Know that there are diseases that turn into other diseases, and the latter are expelled and there is good in this; thus one disease provides cure for several other diseases. For example, a four-day fever often cures epilepsy, gout, varicose veins, joint pain, itching and scabies, acne and spasms. Zarab also cures inflammation of the eyes, slippery intestines, pleurisy and dilation of the vessels of the anus. Zarab is useful for any black gall disease, for pain in the hip, for pain in the kidneys and in the uterus.

But it happens that some diseases turn into other diseases and the situation becomes worse from this. Thus, pleurisy turns into pneumonia, and the disease called faranitus turns into lithargus.

Among the diseases there are diseases that spread to others, such as scabies, leprosy, smallpox, pestilence, rotten ulcers, especially if people's homes are cramped, and also if a neighbor is under the wind; inflammation of the eyes, which especially easily spreads to those who look at the sore eyelids with their own eyes, teeth set on edge - even the thought of sour things causes it, or, for example, consumption and baras. Some diseases are inherited by descendants, such as baras, natural baldness, gout, consumption, leprosy. There are diseases that are characteristic only of certain tribes or inhabitants of a given area and are often found among them.

Know that the weakness of the limbs is a consequence of a disorder of nature and flabby constitution.