Stephanus 84

84a but when flesh actually falls ill together with the bones, and the blood no longer separates from the fibers and the sinews to become food for bone and a bond joining flesh to bone, but instead, out of what was oily and smooth and sticky, has grown rough and salt, parched by bad living—when all this happens, every such thing cools itself back again beneath the flesh and the sinews, withdrawing from the bones; and the flesh, dropping out from the 84b roots along with them, leaves the sinews bare and full of salt, while they themselves, falling again into the stream of the blood, make the ailments spoken of before more numerous. And when these grievous conditions come upon the body, those before them grow greater still—whenever bone, denied sufficient respiration through the density of the flesh and warmed by the southeast wind, has mortified, neither taking in its food again 84c nor passing back in the way of nature into the flesh, cooling, while that passes into flesh, and flesh falling into blood, so that all the diseases turn out rougher than those before; and the last of all, when the nature of the marrow sickens from deficiency or from some excess, brings about the greatest and most sovereign of the diseases toward death, the whole nature of the body of necessity flowing away in reverse.

There is a third kind of diseases, again, which must be understood as arising in three ways: 84d one from breath, one from phlegm, one from bile. For when the lung, the steward of breath for the body, blocked by flows does not offer clear passages—here no air passing, there more entering than is due—the part that gets no cooling rots away, while the part forcing its way through the veins and swinging them round with it melts the body toward the partition at its middle and is shut up within, 84e and from these there have often been wrought myriads of painful diseases, with a great flood of sweat. And often, when flesh has been dissolved within the body and breath has arisen there, unable to make its way out, it has brought the same birth-pangs as the things that come pressing in—the greatest of all when, gathered round the sinews and the small veins there and swollen, it strains the tendons and the sinews joined to them backward in this way against them; and from the tautness of the affection itself these diseases have been named tetanus and opisthotonus.

Timaeus: and the cure of these too is hard; for fevers, when they come on after such conditions as these

84a but when the bond that ties flesh to bone falls sick, and no longer separates off from fibers, blood, and sinew to become food for the bone and a fastening of flesh to bone, but turns from greasy, smooth, and sticky into rough, salty, and dried out through bad diet, then when this happens, all such stuff crumbles away again under the flesh and the sinews, breaking off from the bones, and the parts that fall away from the 84b roots leave the sinews bare and full of brine. When these fall back into the flow of blood, they make the diseases mentioned before more numerous. When these painful troubles happen in the body, the ones before them become even greater: when a bone, too dense to get enough breath and heated by decay, starts to rot, and neither takes in nourishment 84c nor goes back into it in reverse as it crumbles—the rot going on into the flesh, and the flesh falling into the blood—then every disease it makes is harsher than those before. Last of all, when the nature of the marrow sickens from lack or from excess, it produces the greatest and most deadly of diseases, since the whole nature of the body is then forced to flow in reverse.

A third kind of disease must be understood 84d as arising in three ways: one from breath, one from phlegm, and one from bile. For when the lung, the steward of the body's airs, does not keep clear passages, being blocked by fluids, the breath does not go some places and enters other places in greater amount than it should; what does not get any cooling rots, and where it forces its way through the veins and twists them and melts the body, and finding a partition in the middle 84e it is trapped there, and countless painful diseases have come from these, often with heavy sweating. Often, when flesh in the body breaks apart and air gets in and cannot get out, it causes the same pains as the things that get in; and the greatest pains, when it gathers around the sinews and the little veins there and swells up, and so pulls the tendons and the connected sinews backward with these. From the sheer tightness of this condition these diseases have been called tetanus and opisthotonos.

Timaeus: And the remedy for these is hard; for fevers that come on in such cases

84a but whenever the substance which binds the flesh to the bones becomes diseased and no longer separates itself at once from them and from the sinews, so as to provide food for the bone and to serve as a bond between flesh and bone, but becomes rough and saline instead of being oily and smooth and viscid, owing to its being starved by a bad regimen,—then, every such substance, as it undergoes these affections, molders away beneath the flesh and the sinews 84b and withdraws from the bones; while the flesh falls away with it from the roots and leaves the sinews bare and full of saline matter, and by falling back itself into the stream of the blood it augments the maladies previously described.

But although these bodily ailments are severe, still more grave are those which precede them, whenever the bone by reason of the density of the flesh fails to receive sufficient inspiration, and becoming heated because of its moldiness decays and does not admit its nutriment, but, on the contrary, falls back itself, 84c as it crumbles, into its nutriment which then passes into flesh, and this flesh falling into, the blood causes all such maladies to be more violent than those previously described. And the most extreme case of all occurs whenever the substance of the marrow becomes diseased either from deficiency or from excess; for this results in the gravest of diseases and the most potent in causing death, inasmuch as the whole substance of the body, by the force of necessity, streams in the reverse direction.

A third class of diseases takes place, as we must conceive, in three ways, 84d being due partly to air, partly to phlegm, and partly to bile. Whenever the lungs, which are the dispensers of air to the body, fail to keep their outlets clean through being blocked up with rheums, then the air, being unable to pass one way while entering by another way in more than its proper volume, causes the parts deprived of respiration to rot, but forces and distorts the vessels of the veins, and as it thus dissolves the body it is itself shut off within the center thereof which contains the midriff; and as a result of this 84e countless diseases of a painful kind are produced, accompanied by much sweating. And often, when the flesh is disintegrated, air which is enclosed in the body and is unable to pass out brings about the same pangs as those caused by the air that enters from without; and these pangs are most severe when the air surrounds the sinews and the adjacent veins and by its swelling up strains backwards the tendons and the sinews attached to them; hence it is actually from this process of intense strain that these maladies have derived their names of tetanus and opisthotonus.

Timaeus: Of these maladies the cure also is severe for what does most to relieve them is, in fact, an attack of fever.