Plato, Timaeus (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Pl. Ti.]. | ||
<<Pl. Ti. 81b | Pl. Ti. 83b (Greek) | >>Pl. Ti. 85a |
83cTo all these humors the general designation “bile” has been given, note either by certain physicians or by someone who was capable of surveying a number of dissimilar cases and discerning amongst them one single type note worthy to give its name to them all. All the rest that are counted as species of bile have gained their special descriptions in each case from their colors.
Serum is of two kinds: one is the mild whey of the blood; the other, being derived from black and acid bile, is malignant whenever it is imbued with a saline quality through the action of heat; and this kind is termed “acid phlegm.” Another kind involves air and is produced by dissolution from new and tender flesh. And when this is inflated
83dand enclosed by a fluid, and when as a result of this process bubbles note are formed which individually are invisible because of their small size but in the aggregate form a mass which is visible, and which possess a color which appears white owing to the foam created,—then we describe all this decomposition of tender flesh intermixed with air as “white phlegm.”And the whey of phlegm that is newly formed is “sweat” and “tears,”
83eand all other such humors as pour forth in the daily purgings of the body. And all these are factors in disease, whenever the blood is not replenished naturally from meats and drinks but receives its mass from opposite substances contrary to Nature's laws.Now, when the flesh in any part is being decomposed by disease, but the bases thereof still remain firm, the force of the attack is reduced by half, for it still admits of easy recovery;
84abut whenever the substance which binds the flesh to the bones note 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 84band 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,
Plato, Timaeus (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Pl. Ti.]. | ||
<<Pl. Ti. 81b | Pl. Ti. 83b (Greek) | >>Pl. Ti. 85a |