Note (16) — BOOK III.

16. There may be the same reason, &c. Nec minus dubitari potest, an alvus ducenda sit.) The connection of this sentence with the context has an obscurity very uncommon in our author. We must observe that he is here maintaining the necessity of taking blood in phrenitic cases against Asclepiades: and after general reasons drawn from the nature of the disease, he adds an argument from the practice of that physician. He prescribed clysters in this distemper, though, as Cælius Aurelianus[ IZ ] observes, that was directly contrary to a principle of his own. Celsus therefore insists, that there is no reason against bleeding, that is not equally strong against clysters, which are however approved by Asclepiades. According to the exact method every where observed by our author, this argument would naturally have followed what he said of friction ordered by Asclepiades: and as it now stands after the conclusion drawn, it seems to be an after-thought. If this explication be thought unnatural, it may be otherwise paraphrased, and connected with the following paragraph thus: The doubt is the same with regard to clysters, as to the letting of blood, and the resolution is also the same. But after either of these, intermitting a day, &c.