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

1 I. c. as Galen suggests in his commentary, they were like the lienteries in not causing much pain. Lientery is not particularly painful.

2 Littré in a long and obscure note argues that only ἄνευ πυρετῶν and not ἐν πυρετοῖς1ι can belong to the preceding phrase, apparently because it is illogical to say that fever was present when the disease consisted merely of unhealthy stools. But the writer does not wish to exclude fever ; he merely wishes to exclude from this class of patient tenesmus, lientery and dysentery. The commentary of Galen, πολλοῖς ῦέ φης1ιν αὐτὸ τοῦτο γενές1θαι τὸ νός1ημα, τουτές1τι τὸ διαχωρεῖν τὰ τοιαῦτα: καὶ γὰρ καὶ χωρὶς πυρετῶν ἐνίοις τοῦτο γενές1θαι Φης1ι, does not, as Littré supposes, support his contention. The phrase καὶ χωρὶς πυρετῶν ἐνίοις τοῦτο γενές1θαι φης1ὶ implies καὶ ἐν πυρετοῖς τοῦτο ἐγένετο.

3 It is hard to separate διέξοδοι from τῶν πολλῶν, yet the sense seems to require it. The next sentence states that these evacuations caused no relief, evidently because they did not clear the trouble from the bowel. Now if διέξοδοι be taken with τῶν πολλῶν, the only possible translation is " evacuations of the many contents which were retained there," implying complete evacuation. Galen's comment (Kéhn XVII, Part I, p. 708) bears out the former interpretation : τὰς δὲ διεξόδους, τουτές1τὶ τὰς κενώς1εις, αὐτοῖς ς1υμβῆναι, πολλῶν ἐνόντων καὶ ἐπις1χόντων . . . . . καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μηδὲ τοὺς πόνους λύειν τὰ διεξιόντα. πῶς γαρ ὀ̂όν τε λύειν αὐτά, πολλῶν ἔτι τῶν ἐπεχομένων όντων ; It should be noticed that ἐπις1χόντων is probably from ἐπίς1χω (Galen's ἐπεχομένων) and not from ἐπέχω, although I cannot find a parallel for intransitive ἐπίς1χω in this sense.

4 The writer has not expressed himself clearly in this chapter, which seems to be the roughest of rough notes. The last two sentences apparently mean :-- （a) It was always the bowel complaints which caused most deaths. This was natural, since (b) all attacked by bowel complaints died.