Hippocrates, De morbis popularibus
W. H. S. Jones, Ed.

---

---

---

PART 8

VIII. Now the greatest number of these symptoms continued to be protracted, troublesome, very disordered, very irregular, and without any critical signs, both in the case of those who came very near death

[p. 161] and in the case of those who did not. For even if some patients enjoyed slight intermissions, there followed a quick relapse. A few of them experienced a crisis, the earliest being about the eightieth day, some of the latter having a relapse, so that most of them were still ill in the winter. The greatest number had no crisis before the disease terminated. These symptoms occurred in those who recovered just as much as in those who did not. The illnesses showed a marked absence of crisis and a great variety ; the most striking and the worst symptom, which throughout attended the great majority, was a complete loss of appetite, especially in those whose general condition exhibited fatal signs, but in these fevers they did not suffer much from unseasonable thirst. After long intervals, with many pains and with pernicious wasting, there supervened abscessions either too severe to be endured, or too slight to be beneficial, so that there was a speedy return of the original symptoms, and an aggravation of the mischief.¹