Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

320 Late antiquityYet if all parts were loosened by a state of looseness, these (medicaments) shouldsimilarly be applied to all parts, even to those that are consumed by an invisibledecay. For the difference seems to be one of concomitant symptoms, but the kindof the diseases remains the same.(26) Conicienda sunt eius praeterea accidentia, quae Graeci symptomata uocant,cum generali congrua curatione. (Chron. 3.5.71)Moreover, one should consider the concomitant characteristics of the diseases,which the Greeks call symptoms, in connection with the treatment that is appropriateto the kind of disease. 78(27) Sed haec utraque Soranus excludit; nam primo dicto respondens ait aliudesse signum, aliud accidens. nam signum neque recedit et semper significato coniunctumest, accidens autem, quod Graeci symptoma uocant, nunc aduenit,nunc recedit, ex quibus esse intelligimus singula, quae febricitantium accidentiadixerunt, ut corporis difficilem motum, grauedinem, tensionem praecordiorum.(Acut. 2.33.176)But Soranus rejects both of these, for against the first statement he argues thata sign is something different from a concomitant characteristic. For a sign doesnot disappear and is always connected with what is signified, but a concomitantcharacteristic, which the Greeks call a symptom, now appears, now disappears,from which points we understand that there are individual phenomena, whichthey say are the concomitant characteristics of people who have fever, such asdifficulty with moving, heaviness, and a distention of the praecordium.(28) declinante passione omnia supradicta minuentur, quae Graeci symptomatauocauerunt, nos accidentia passionis. (Acut. 3.18.177)When the disease declines, all the above mentioned phenomena will decrease,which the Greeks call symptoms, but which we call concomitant characteristics.(29) ac si passionibus fuerint appendicia, quae saepe generandorum animaliumfuerunt causae, erunt congrua iisdem passionibus adhibenda. (Chron. 4.8.118)But if they are consequences of diseases, which have often been the causes of thegeneration of these animals, measures have to be taken that are appropriate to thesame diseases.Thus as far as definitions as such are concerned, it seems that when Caelius –apparently bluntly – says that he, or Soranus, refuses to give definitions, hemeans that he and Soranus object to the uncritical, automatic procedureof trying to catch the essence of a disease in a definition. This can perhapsbe understood against the background of a certain keenness on definitions78 Cf. Acut. 2.6.30: ‘One should also attend the other concomitant signs of the disease, which the Greekscall symptomata’(attendenda etiam cetera passionum accidentia, quae symptomata Graeci uocauerunt).