Five-day, six-day, seven-day and other fevers

In Greek, the five-day fever is called pentataus, but some people call such fevers gyrating. This fever is born from matter similar to that of four-day fever, but its matter is denser and poorer; Most often, such fever occurs from the mucous membrane of black bile. As for the six-day, seven-day, and so on, Hippocrates mentions them, but Galen says: I have never seen anything like this in my life and have not even seen an obvious and severe five-day fever, this fever seems to be hidden. It is not at all incredible, Galen continues, that the cause of, for example, a seven-day or nine-day fever is an incorrect diet; if this regimen is applied and followed, it causes fever, and when it becomes habitual, it produces fever at the same time, but if this regimen were stopped or corrected, then the diet would not cause fever. Consequently, the cause of attacks and relapses of fever is the periodic repetition of erroneous measures of treatment, and not the periodic repetition of the outpouring of matter. So,” says Gaen further, “when studying this disease, one must keep this circumstance in mind so that no mistake occurs

Although Galen seems to deny the existence of this kind of fever and believes that there must be another main cause for them, Hippocrates considers the words about the existence of seven-day and nine-day fevers to be true, and there is nothing obviously difficult or obviously impossible here, so there is no need to resort to interpretation. The reasoning expressed by Hippocrates regarding these fevers boils down to the fact that the seven-day fever lasts a long time, but does not kill, and the nine-day fever is even longer and also does not kill. He says that the worst fever is the five-day fever, for it occurs before or after consumption, and Galen’s words about it are as you already know. I believe that there is some basis for the words of Hippocrates and that by consumption he means tabes. The word five-day is here the subject of an indefinite judgment that does not mean universality, and Hippocrates seems to say: Five-day fevers have a variety that belongs to the worst fevers, for it occurs both before and after tabes. The meaning of these words is that when fevers drag on, cause suffering, mix and become heterogeneous, they often lead to inflammation of the main organs and tabes.

Such fevers have the inherent property of becoming stronger at the end at any one periodicity, and most often this turns out to be a four-day period, as we have already explained, but they lead to a four-day period only if the juices are thick and there is a lot of moisture. If the melting of the juices intensifies and bowel movements, tangible and intangible, become more frequent, then only the scantiest and most dense ash is retained in the juices. And this causes a later onset of the attack, and the fever, which was four days old, becomes five days old. Under such circumstances it is most likely that the body will become prone to flame and the fever will turn into tabes. In addition, if dryness occurs earlier than five days, it may create some ashiness in the juices, but not much, because at the end of dryness there is little juice; In this ash-like matter, rotting can begin and then a five-day fever occurs. And the dry fever has already weakened the body, and the new fever turns out to be malignant, for it serves as a sign of the combustion of juice, of which there is already little left, and the burned-out remainder is small; moreover, it arose as a result of the intensification and complication of the initial fever.

One should not deny the existence of diseases that have not happened to be observed at one time or another or in one place or another, for there are countless numbers of such diseases. It is also not appropriate to say that if the fever lasts five days, then a fifth matter must be present, because black bile gives a four-day periodicity not precisely because it is black bile, but because it is small and thick. It is not at all incredible that some people have scanty and thick black bile in their bodies, which undergoes putrefaction, and no one has the right to say: It is acceptable that the mucus can give another attack when it thickens and becomes scanty. After all, assumption is a broad concept, and it can rarely prove the obligatory nature of anything contrary to a given statement. Further, the assumption of something that has not been seen or heard by anyone, and not attested by any natural scientist or scientist, is not identical to the assumption of something attested by such a scientist as Hippocrates. One reliable person told me that he observed a nine-day fever, and as for a five-day fever, we have repeatedly observed it, and this does not oblige us to say that some other juice is present with it.

Treatment of various varieties of these fevers. The treatment of such a disease approaches the treatment of mucous quartan fever; when using it, a longer fast and a lighter diet are required, as well as sleep that promotes digestion, during which thick matter dissolves and ripens. However, it is also necessary to coarse the regime so that the forces do not fall, and both regimes seem to be opposing each other. Since such fevers do not weaken the strength, we fearlessly ease the regime, ordering the patient to fast for a while, and compensate for this whenever we want, feeding him with dishes that improve, accelerate and multiply nutrition, but are unable to thicken matter and increase its quantity.

One of the most useful measures of treatment here is vomiting from hellebore and radish seeds or from emetic nut and quinoa seeds, as well as evacuation with the help of iyarajas, followed by the use of teriyak or something similar. It is also useful to induce perspiration using medications or a hot bath, without using water or using moisturizers.