or
drink. The danger, however, is not so great when the foundation remains,
for then there is a possibility of recovery. But when the substance
which unites the flesh and bones is diseased, and is no longer renewed
from the muscles and sinews, and instead of being oily and smooth and
glutinous becomes rough and salt and dry, then the fleshy parts fall
away and leave the sinews bare and full of brine, and the flesh gets
back again into the circulation of the blood, and makes the previously
mentioned disorders still greater. There are other and worse diseases
which are prior to these; as when the bone through the density of
the flesh does not receive sufficient air, and becomes stagnant and
gangrened, and crumbling away passes into the food, and the food into
the flesh, and the flesh returns again into the blood. Worst of all and
most fatal is the disease of the marrow, by which the whole course
of the body is reversed. There is a third class of diseases which are
produced, some by wind and some by phlegm and some by bile. When the
lung, which is the steward of the air, is obstructed, by rheums, and
in one part no air, and in another too much, enters in, then the parts
which are unrefreshed by air corrode, and other parts are distorted by
the excess of air; and in this manner painful diseases are produced. The
most painful are caused by wind generated within the body, which gets
about the great sinews of the shoulders--these are termed tetanus. The
cure of them is difficult, and in most cases they are relieved only by
fever. White phlegm, which is dangerous if kept in, by reason of the air
bubbles, is not equally dangerous if able to escape through the pores,
although it variegates the body, generating diverse kinds of leprosies.
If, when mingled with black bile, it disturbs the courses of the head
in sleep, there is not so much danger; but if it assails those who are
awake, then the attack is far more dangerous, and is called epilepsy or
the sacred disease. Acid and salt phlegm is the source of catarrh.

Inflammations originate in bile, which is sometimes relieved by boils
and swellings, but when detained, and above all when mingled with pure
blood, generates many inflammatory disorders, disturbing the position of
the fibres which are scattered about in the blood in order to maintain
the balance of rare and dense which is necessary to its regular
circulation. If the bile, which is only stale blood, or liquefied flesh,
c