On the Sacred Disease
Encyclopedia
On the Sacred Disease is a work of the Hippocratic Corpus
, written in 400 BCE. The authorship of this piece can not be confirmed and is therefore regarded as dubious. The treatise is thought to contain the first recorded observations of epilepsy in humans. The author explains these phenomena by an imbalance in the four humors
rather than assigning them a divine origin. This thought process constituted a major break in the history of medicine.
Symptoms of this disease are described as men becoming mad either by crying out, suffocating on saliva, frothing by the mouth, or by shaking uncontrollably. Such symptoms were thought to be a punishment from the gods on an individual. Hippocrates continues his argument by noting that such phenomena is not of divine origin because previous treatments to the affected involved incantations and pray patterns that were unsuccessful.
The text continues with the known anatomy of the brain at the time. The brain of a human is similar to other animals in that it is double and divided by a thin membrane through the middle. Hippocrates attributes this fact for the reason that a patients pain isn't always located in the same spot on his or her head. Veins from the bodies major organs connect to the brain and vary in size. The veins that run along the right region of the body through the heart and lungs are continued to be described to the best of Hippocrates' knowledge:
Hippocrates argues that the start of this Sacred disease begins with the accumulation of phlegm (one of the four humors)in the veins of the head.This build up begins to be formed in utero. If this disease continues to grow after birth and into adulthood, the affected person will have a "melted" brain which results in mental illness. Once the disease is stuck within the head, the patient loses his speech and chokes causing foam to fall from his or her mouth.
Young children that obtain the disease mostly die Hippocrates argues that due to their small veins, they are not able to accommodate the increased amount of phlegm. When the phlegm gathers the child quickly "cools" and the blood congeals causing death.
The elderly for the most part survive the disease due to the Hippocratic theory that their veins are larger and filled with hot flowing blood that is safe from the coldness of the phlegm.
Summary of Symptoms
Many of the afflicted seem to know when they are about to have another episode. When this happens, they become ashamed and flee from the surrounding crowd to hide. Hippocrates mentions that this is due to the fear of the divine and embarrassment that they have been punished with the "Sacred" disease.
Hippocrates concludes that the Sacred disease is proof that the brain has the greatest power over man. It is through this part of the body that air from breathing first enters. When the disease dilutes the mind to the point where phlegm in the veins increases sufficiently causing air blockage, is when the patient begins to suffer and possibly die.
Hippocratic Corpus
The Hippocratic Corpus , or Hippocratic Collection, is a collection of around 60 early Ancient Greek medical works strongly associated with the physician Hippocrates and his teachings...
, written in 400 BCE. The authorship of this piece can not be confirmed and is therefore regarded as dubious. The treatise is thought to contain the first recorded observations of epilepsy in humans. The author explains these phenomena by an imbalance in the four humors
Humorism
Humorism, or humoralism, is a now discredited theory of the makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers, positing that an excess or deficiency of any of four distinct bodily fluids in a person directly influences their temperament and health...
rather than assigning them a divine origin. This thought process constituted a major break in the history of medicine.
Summary
Hippocrates comments on the "sacred" disease declaring that it is no more sacred than other diseases. He stresses the importance of the disease having no relation with the divine whatsoever, but instead being purely of human origin. The author of On the Sacred Disease argues that even the most mysterious of diseases was still of natural cause and not of divine origin:
“Men regard its nature and cause as divine from ignorance and wonder because it is not at all like to other diseases…Men being in want of the means of life, invent many and various things, and devise many contrivances for all other things and for this disease, in every phase of the disease, assigning the cause to a god…Neither truly do I count it a worth opinion to hold that the body of man is polluted by god, the most impure by the most holy,”
Symptoms of this disease are described as men becoming mad either by crying out, suffocating on saliva, frothing by the mouth, or by shaking uncontrollably. Such symptoms were thought to be a punishment from the gods on an individual. Hippocrates continues his argument by noting that such phenomena is not of divine origin because previous treatments to the affected involved incantations and pray patterns that were unsuccessful.
The text continues with the known anatomy of the brain at the time. The brain of a human is similar to other animals in that it is double and divided by a thin membrane through the middle. Hippocrates attributes this fact for the reason that a patients pain isn't always located in the same spot on his or her head. Veins from the bodies major organs connect to the brain and vary in size. The veins that run along the right region of the body through the heart and lungs are continued to be described to the best of Hippocrates' knowledge:
"The other runs upward by the right veins in the lungs and divides into branches for the heart and the right arm. The remaining part of it rises up the upward across the clavicle to the right side of the neck, and is superficial so as to be seen; near the ear it is conceled, and there it divides;it's thickest, largest, and most hollow part ends in the brain; another small vein goes to the right ear, another to the right eye, and another to the nostril.Such are the distributions of the hepatic vein."
Hippocrates argues that the start of this Sacred disease begins with the accumulation of phlegm (one of the four humors)in the veins of the head.This build up begins to be formed in utero. If this disease continues to grow after birth and into adulthood, the affected person will have a "melted" brain which results in mental illness. Once the disease is stuck within the head, the patient loses his speech and chokes causing foam to fall from his or her mouth.
Young children that obtain the disease mostly die Hippocrates argues that due to their small veins, they are not able to accommodate the increased amount of phlegm. When the phlegm gathers the child quickly "cools" and the blood congeals causing death.
The elderly for the most part survive the disease due to the Hippocratic theory that their veins are larger and filled with hot flowing blood that is safe from the coldness of the phlegm.
Summary of Symptoms
- Shivering
- Loss of speech
- Trouble breathing
- Contraction of the brain
- Blood stops circulating
- Excretion of the phlegm
Many of the afflicted seem to know when they are about to have another episode. When this happens, they become ashamed and flee from the surrounding crowd to hide. Hippocrates mentions that this is due to the fear of the divine and embarrassment that they have been punished with the "Sacred" disease.
Hippocrates concludes that the Sacred disease is proof that the brain has the greatest power over man. It is through this part of the body that air from breathing first enters. When the disease dilutes the mind to the point where phlegm in the veins increases sufficiently causing air blockage, is when the patient begins to suffer and possibly die.
External links
- English translation by Francis Adams: with parallel Greek text (Perseus ProjectPerseus ProjectThe Perseus Project is a digital library project of Tufts University that assembles digital collections of humanities resources. It is hosted by the Department of Classics. It has suffered at times from computer hardware problems, and its resources are occasionally unavailable...
), HTML (MIT) - English translation by W.H.S. Jones (Loeb Classical LibraryLoeb Classical LibraryThe Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
, with facing Greek text): archive.org