Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

318 Late antiquityThe addition ‘without any reason and because of some affection in the body’ ismade because other people fear drinking out of a suspicion that it may be mixedwith poison, or they are deliberately careful because, if they drink at the wrongtime, they may be in danger; and people who are afraid for these reasons cannotimmediately be called hydrophobes.In both cases the definition is stated in such a form as to distinguish thedisease from other phenomena that present themselves in a similar way butare due to a different cause. 76Not only do these passages appear difficult to accommodate withinthe supposedly categorical rejection by the Methodists of definitions;they also seem to go against the more specific ban on the inclusionof the cause in the definition, which Caelius expresses in the followingpassage:(23) Nos autem superfluum fuisse causas passionis dicere iudicamus, cum sit necessariumid, quod ex causis conficitur, edocere. multo autem ac magis superfluumdicimus etiam causas antecedentes diffinitionibus adiungi, quippe cum nec sola cholericapassio ex indigestione fiat neque sola indigestio hanc faciat passionem, sedetiam aliae speciales atque contraria virtutis, quarum nihil ex ista diffinitionemonstratur, dehinc quod rheumatismus siue humoris fluor non solum uentrisatque intestinorum sit, sed etiam stomachi. Quapropter, ut Soranus ait, cholericapassio est solutio stomachi ac uentris et intestinorum cum celerrimo periculo. sedantecedentes causas eius passionis dicimus . . . quorum sane intellectus aptus rationiest ob causarum scientiam, inutilis uero ac necessarius curationi uel naturae.(Acut. 3.19.190, partly quoted under no. 13 above)We, however, judge that it was superfluous to state the causes of the disease, whenit is necessary to set forth what is brought about by (these) causes. Even much moresuperfluous we hold to be the inclusion of antecedent causes in the definitions,for neither is cholera the only disease caused by indigestion nor is indigestion theonly thing to bring about this disease, but there are other special (causes) of diversekinds, none of which become clear from this definition. Moreover, it is superfluousbecause the rheumatism or a flux of humour is not only of the belly and theintestines but also of the oesophagus. For this reason, as Soranus says, the cholericdisease is a loose state of the oesophagus and the belly and the intestines with acutedanger. The antecedent causes, however, we state to be the following . . . Yet whilethe understanding of these is certainly appropriate to the theoretical knowledge ofthe causes, it is useless and not necessary for the treatment or for the nature of thedisease.76 For similar explanations of the components of the definition by reference to distinction from othersimilar phenomena see Acut. 3.1.5 (quoted above under no. 17), where, again, the cause of thedisease (in this case, synanche) is referred to in the definition; see also Soranus, Gyn. 1.12; 1.19;1.36.