Paralysis and relaxation

The word falij, which means paralysis, is sometimes used in a general sense, and sometimes in a particular, specific sense. Falij in a general sense means the same thing as relaxation in any organ, and in a particular sense - relaxation spreading along one half of the body. This relaxation can begin from the neck, with the face and head remaining healthy, or it can cover the entire half of the body from head to foot. In the language of the Arabs, falij suggests precisely this meaning, for in their language the word falij means splitting and dividing in half. When we take the word paralysis in the sense of relaxation in general, then it can either be common to both halves of the body, except for the organs of the head - if it involved them, it would be sakta - or it refers, for example, to one finger.

As is known, the loss of sensation and movement occurs because the sensing and moving pneuma is either locked and cannot penetrate the organs, or it penetrates, but the organs do not experience its influence due to a disorder of nature. When nature is upset, it is either hot or cold, either wet or dry. It seems that a hot nature does not interfere with the influence of sensation until it reaches extreme warmth, as can be seen in people suffering from thinness and dryness, for in them, despite their heat, movements and sensations do not stop. The judgment about dry nature is close to this. In contrast, the nature that in most cases hinders sensation and movement is the cold and wet nature. This is by no means incredible, for cold is the opposite of the pneuma and causes numbness in it, and humidity seems to predispose the organs to sluggishness. So, the causes of loss of movement include cold and moisture without matter, but this can be easily corrected by warming. Apparently, such loss does not involve most of the body or one half of it, and if it is inevitable, it takes place in any one organ.

Apparently, paralysis and relaxation most often occur due to retention of the pneuma, and the reason for its retention is blockage or separation of the pores and passages leading to the organs due to the incision. And blockages can form either as a result of compression of the pores, or from the accumulation of clogging juice, or from a disease that combines both of these circumstances, that is, from a tumor. So, the reason for the relaxation and paralysis that occurs as a result of the cessation of access of the pneuma to the organs is the compression of the pores, or overflow, or a tumor, or the disintegration of the whole. And the compression of the pores occurs either from the outer bandage, which can be removed, and then the relaxation and loss of sensation and movement are accidental and stop when the bandage is untied, or from strong compression, as happens with a blow or a fall, or when the vertebrae are broken and displaced to the side, to the right or to the left, and press on the nerve coming out of them in this direction; or they deviate forward or backward, and then for the most part there is stretching of the nerve, and not compression, for, deviating forward or backward, the vertebrae do not converge in the place from which the nerves exit: after all, the exit points of the nerves, as you know, are not on front and not on the back side of the vertebrae. And sometimes the pores shrink due to compaction of the organ substance.

As for the obstructive overflow, it arises from the wet liquid juices that the organ uses; These juices pass into all the cavities of the nerves or are retained in those places where the nerves and their branches begin, and block the path of the pneuma moving along them. With a tumor of the nerves, a tumor forms in the places where the nerves and their branches grow and also clogs the passages. As for the incision affecting the nerves, a longitudinal incision does not impair sensation and movement, but a transverse incision does not allow the force of sensation and movement to reach the organs that draw it from the passages that connected these organs with the threads of nerves now cut.

Know that the spinal cord is similar to the brain and is also divided into two parts, although vision does not distinguish this; and how could it be otherwise, since it also grows from both halves of the brain? Therefore, it is not surprising that nature protects one of the halves and expels matter into the half of the spinal cord, which is initially weaker or more easily absorbs matter, or has been subjected to a blow or shock, or into the half into which excesses from the adjacent half of the brain rush.

It should not be surprising that the disease chooses one half of the body preferentially over the other, for nature also distinguishes between more subtle things, as you can remember from the basics that we taught you in Book One.

Know that wet matter often rushes to the limbs as a result of an unexpected increase in heat in the body or a sudden emotional movement - fear, fright, anger, pleasure or sadness. Know also that if the damage and matter causing paralysis are in any half of the ventricles of the brain, then the paralysis covers the entire half of the body and with it half of the face, the same thing happens if they are in the passages of any half; if they reside in both halves of the ventricles of the brain and its passages, then sacta arises. When damage and matter reside in the place where the spinal cord begins, the entire body becomes paralyzed, except for the facial organs. Sometimes this causes numbness in the scalp if the sensation does not penetrate there, because the sensory nerve passes to the scalp from the neck, as we have already explained. If the damage and matter are located in any half of the initial part of the spinal cord, then paralysis covers this entire half, except for the face, and if they are below the beginning of the spinal cord, going deeper there, or are in one half, then the organ relaxes and is paralyzed. to which the nerves emerging from this place of the spinal cord are adjacent.

If the cause depends not on the spinal cord, but on the nerves, then the organ to which the nerve belongs relaxes. The damage can be either in the entire nerve, or in half of it, or in some part of it, and then the organ that was moved by this nerve, damaged due to the presence of matter, the disintegration of a single one, or a tumor, relaxes.

Paralysis sometimes occurs, marking a crisis during the Kulanj; Often sensitivity is preserved, because the matter then resides in the motor, and not in the sensory nerves. Some ancient doctors say that there were years when the kulanj became universal and killed most of the patients, and whoever escaped received chronic paralysis. Apparently, in these cases, nature seems to shake out the matter that enters the intestines and returns it to the outer integument, but the matter turns out to be too thick to leak through sweat, gets stuck in the nerves and produces paralysis. With such paralysis, sensitivity in most cases remains the same as it was.

There is also a paralysis that occurs as a crisis in acute diseases, when matter passes into the nerves. This happens when nature, due to old age or weakness of the patient, is powerless to carry out complete emptying, and remnants of matter remain in the head area. Then, at the end of the disease, a headache and heaviness in the head remain, and then nature drives the matter, moving it, but not completely emptying it, and it causes paralysis and similar diseases.

Paralysis most often occurs in winter, with severe cold, but sometimes it occurs in spring due to the movement of juices when the body is full. It sometimes happens in southern countries in people who have reached fifty years of age or close to this age, due to discharges descending from the head, since nature in the south abundantly fills the head with matter.

The pulse of a paralytic is weak, slow, and rare, but when the disease exhausts the patient’s strength and the pulse weakens even more, it becomes frequent and irregular breaks appear in its beating.

The urine in paralysis is in most cases light in color, but sometimes it becomes very red due to the weakness of the liver, which cannot separate the blood from the aqueous humor, or due to the inability of the vessels to attract blood, or due to pain that sometimes occurs, or due to some or other concomitant disease.

It also happens that the half of the body that is not affected by paralysis is burning, as if engulfed in fire, and the other, paralyzed half is cold and as if covered in snow. The pulse on both halves is also different; in the cold half, the pulse drops to the extent required by the laws of cooling. Sometimes it comes to the point that the eye on the affected half becomes smaller. If the weakened and paralyzed organs are of the same color as the rest of the body and do not become smaller or shrink, this gives more hope than the opposite signs.

Sometimes sakta, epilepsy, kulanj, strangulation of the uterus and chronic fevers after a crisis end in paralysis.

Paralysis resulting from the displacement of the vertebrae kills in most cases, but paralysis from a shock that does not hit the nerve too much is often cured; if it is very strong, then there is no hope for recovery. In the case where there is hope, you should start with bloodletting.

We have already spoken about how the matter of paralysis, spreading, causes sakta and vice versa.

Signs. In case of paralysis due to contraction of nerves, a fall, a blow or a cut, this is indicated by the cause itself. Sometimes the cause remains hidden during the incision if the nerve is located deep; in such cases, the sign is that paralysis comes on suddenly and no measures help.

Paralysis that can be treated is one that occurs not from a cut in the nerve, but from a tumor and similar causes. If it comes from a hot tumor, then this is indicated by muscle tension, pain and fever, and if the cause is a hard tumor, this is recognized by palpation; a sign is palpable nodularity of the nerve and previous pain. This mostly occurs after a bruise, contraction of nerves or a hot tumor.

As for the case when paralysis is caused by a loose tumor, it is difficult to recognize, but such a disease does not occur without symptoms such as mild pain, numbness, mild fever, increased or decreased pain depending on movements and food; Moreover, it does not arise suddenly. In all these cases, the patient, when he wants to move, seems to feel some kind of obstacle in this very place.

If the paralysis arose from the spread of moisture, then the patient feels how something is spreading throughout the paralyzed organ, and paralysis due to thickening of the nerve is indicated by the fact that the paralyzed organ, when contracted, is difficult to straighten and return to a relaxed state, if the patient himself or someone else is trying to do it; in this case, the organs are not soft, as with absolute paralysis.

If, along with matter, there is blood, then this is indicated by the condition of the neck and other veins and eyes, as well as excessive filling of the pulse and other signs that have already been repeatedly mentioned.

Evidence that the paralysis arose from moisture alone is the whiteness and flabbiness of the body; its occurrence after kulanj and acute fevers is indicated by the occurrence of kulanj and acute fevers.

If the cause of paralysis is a disorder of a simple cold or damp nature, then it does not appear immediately, and there are no other signs; this is also recognized by touch and for reasons acting on this organ.

They say: if you see that a child’s urine is salty, then this portends paralysis or spasms.

Treatment. For the five nerve diseases, that is, numbness, spasms, trembling, paralysis and twitching, treatment should be directed to the back of the brain. At first, you should not rush to use strong medications; on the contrary, put them off until the fourth or seventh day, and if the disease is severe, then until the fourteenth day. During this period, one should limit oneself to light remedies that can soften, warm and relax. At such times, an enema will not hurt. And then, after that, empty it with the help of strong emptying agents.

As for the diet, paralytics at the beginning of the disease should be limited to, for example, barley water or water sweetened with honey for two or three days. If the patient’s strength can withstand this, then this should be done until the fourteenth day, and if they cannot stand it, feed them light poultry meat. Try to keep the patient from hand to mouth and then feed him food of dry quality; he must feel thirsty for a long time. It is useful for paralytics to snack on the kernels of pine nuts, as they have special healing properties. Know that water is better for them than wine, for wine conducts juices to the nerves. Wine, drunk in large quantities, sometimes sours in the body of the sick and turns into vinegar, and vinegar is the most harmful thing for the nerves.

Diseases of the nerves that arise as a result of compression or compression are treated with the remedies that we mention in the paragraphs on reduction and compression of nerves.

If paralysis occurs from a fall or blow, then its treatment is difficult. In any case, when treating, they look at whether this caused a contraction of a nerve or a tumor, or whether there was an attraction of matter, and each disease is treated in an appropriate way. When treating such an injury, no matter in which organ it occurs, medicines should be applied to the site of the blow and to the place from which the nerve leading to the paralyzed organ emerges, and applying medicines to the paralyzed organ itself does not bring any significant benefit. Apply medicine to the place where the nerves grow, no matter whether you want to eliminate the swelling with the medicine, or cause relaxation, or warm it up and change the nature.

Sometimes there is a need to place cups near a bruised and swollen organ when the tumor begins to resolve; this is done to pull the blood somewhere to the side or to the surface of the body.

If the disease is a true paralysis arising from relaxation of the nerve, then after general measures one should perform an evacuation from matter using those means that we have mentioned, prescribed and determined for the evacuation of liquid juices, and apply them as stated, without increasing and without reducing the quantity.

The best evacuation remedies for the paralytic are furbiyun pills, bimaristani pills, bug pills, stinking pills and the iyaraja of Hermes. It is also useful to induce vomiting using white hellebore itself or squeezed radish juice into which the power of hellebore has passed, as well as using other emetics. Sometimes the treatment is gradually intensified, and first they give teryak to drink, one danak at a time, then gradually increase its quantity, but do not give more than one dirham. Teryak is often mixed with peeled sesame seeds and sugar. The patient is also given sagapen on its own, opopanax on its own, and beaver stream on its own with honey wine; Each time they give you about one bottle to drink, this is very useful for such patients. It is necessary to give them strong enemas and introduce strong suppositories to pull the matter down; Strong oils should also be rubbed into their spine. Such patients are helped by rubbing hot oils and medicinal dressings that cause redness, which have already been mentioned several times, especially if sensitivity is lost. Iris rhizome is one of the good remedies for redness; They rub it with it, rubbing the medicine deep into it.

It is also useful to place jars on the ends of the muscles, without an incision, but certainly after emptying; they are beneficial

warming up the muscles. Sometimes, however, a small incision has to be made. Jars should have a narrow neck; They need to be applied with strong heat so that they stick tightly and tightly, and quickly tear off. When using jars, they should be placed in many places if the relaxation is very significant and scattered throughout the body, but if it is not very scattered, then the jars are concentrated in one place. Then zift, pine resin or hot medicinal dressings that cause redness, for example, a medicinal dressing made from chaff flour and iris with honey, are placed on the sore spot. A medicinal mustard dressing is also useful for such patients; As soon as it weakens, it should be renewed until the diseased organ turns red and blisters.

A medicinal bandage made from the broadleaf bug is very helpful for paralysis; in many cases it eliminates the need for tapsia and mustard; A bandage of zift, especially with soda and sulfur, and rubbing with olive oil and soda, sulfur water, sea water, as well as thinning watering are also useful.

If the sensitivity of the organ is weak, then a strong medicinal bandage sometimes tears off the skin, but the patient does not feel it, and the bandage causes damage and severe ulceration. This should be avoided, and it is necessary to monitor the effect of the bandage: if the sore spot turns red and swells, but the redness and swelling do not go under the skin and disperse with light pressure with the fingers, and this place turns white, it means that the effect of the medicinal bandage has not passed under the skin. If the redness is persistent and the heat is clearly felt, then refrain from repeating the application of the bandage. This is defined as follows: increase the time the bandage is in place and monitor how things are going; if you need to stop holding the bandage, then stop, and if you need to repeat its application, repeat.

Know that blowing kachim and similar medicines into the nose is very useful for such patients, for it cleanses the brain and removes disease-causing juices from the diseased side. Drinking a little old wine is very good for all sorts of nerve diseases, but in large quantities it is most harmful to the nerves.

For paralysis, it is useful to use calamus jam, and also gradually teach patients to drink iyaraja, mixed, for example, with an equal amount of beaver stream, until the dose is increased to six dirhams, starting with one dirham. Drinking castor oil with water from the known roots also helps a lot.

Some treated paralysis by giving the patient a mithqal of iyaraja with a mithqal of black pepper every day, and they were cured. When prescribing any of these medications, you should not give the patient water to drink so that the medicine remains in the stomach longer; sometimes it stays there all day and then takes effect. Often such patients are given one misqal of pepper and a misqal of beaver stream to drink at night.

For a paralytic there is nothing better than teryak, mithridate, shalis and, especially, cashew. Asafoetida gum is also very useful as a drink and ointment, especially if taken twice a day. Indian hazel is also a surprisingly good remedy.

When the diseased organ returns to recovery, it should then be exercised, flexing and straightening, so that complete health returns to it.

Sometimes the patient benefits from fever, and shouting and reading loudly also helps. After bowel movements, when they have had their beneficial effect, you should take a long dry bath or bathe in water from hot springs. At the end, after bowel movements, when it is necessary to dissolve, it is desirable that the dissolution be carried out not with pure emollients alone, but with drugs with a slightly astringent property. Therefore, it should be dissolved with such means as, for example, anise, mai'a, aromatic rush, beaver stream and other similar hot medicines with an astringent property.

A medicine prepared from sedge and recorded in the Pharmacopoeia helps against paralysis that occurs after kulanj. Such patients also benefit from oils - not very strong ones, not part of complex combinations, but such as, for example, iris oil, spikenard oil, castor bean oil, narcissus oil and jasmine oil. They tested sedge oil, narcissus oil and oil prepared with anacardium gum, and it turned out that they were all useful due to their special properties. Many people have benefited from them, because they strengthen, cool and prevent matter from reaching the nerves, and when these same people were treated with heat, the disease intensified. The fact is that liquid matter spreads more from heat, and when an organ cools down, it becomes stronger from the cold, reduces the volume of matter and it heads towards destruction.

One should not be too zealous in warming such patients, but it is necessary to strengthen the medicines for them, for example, chamomile, sweet clover, marjoram, forest mint and pulegium mint. These substances should also be mixed with others with a slightly cooling property, for example, thickly brewed licorice root juice, chicory seeds and others. If you use all these remedies, they help a lot. As for paralysis resulting from a nerve cut, there is no treatment for it.

Paralysis due to a cold nature is treated with well-known warming agents. If the cause of this nature was drinking plenty of water, then a dry bath should be prescribed.

Know that when paralysis is accompanied by fever, treatment of paralysis must be postponed. Sikanjubin with julanjubin is an excellent medicine at such times.