Note 693 — BOOK III.—OF THE EPIDEMICS.

On this brief case Galen has left a lengthy and elaborate Commentary, abounding in most interesting matters on a variety of subjects; as, for example, the different readings and opinions of the more ancient commentators on the characters at the end of this and the other reports; on the formation of the Hippocratic Collection, and the extraordinary zeal of the Ptolemies in procuring books for their great Library at Alexandria, and so forth. There is not much in it, however, which bears directly on the present case, and therefore we shall give but a very brief abstract of it. It appears from Galen that there was a considerable diversity of readings in the latter part of it, more especially in regard to the number of days the patient lived; some of the old authorities having placed the death on the fifth, some on the seventh, and others on the eighth. Galen inclines to hold by the text as we now have it, and maintains, apparently with good reason, that under such a combination of fatal symptoms it was not likely that the patient’s strength should have stood out longer than the fourth day. Another curious subject connected with this case which Galen slightly touches upon, but without throwing any light upon it, is the omission of the treatment. He justly remarks, that if Hippocrates treated the patient himself, or superintended the treatment as managed by another, it is singular that there is no mention of a clyster having been administered, nor of a cataplasm having been applied, nor of venesection having been practiced. I shall not attempt to solve the question here propounded by Galen. See the Argument. His Commentary also contains an interesting discussion on the meaning of the expression “respiration elevated.” To give the sum of what has been advanced on this subject in a few words, it may signify laborious breathing so as to move the labia of the nose; or it may mean simply orthopnœa, or it may signify laborious respiration, attended with elevation of the chest. By the way, this is evidently the “sublimis anhelitus” of Horace, in his famous ode entitled “Nireus.” I have often wondered that such a learned physician as Julius Cæsar Scaliger, in his celebrated critique on Horace in his Poetics, should have remarked on this expression: “Ex toto Galeno non intelligo quid sit sublimis anhelitus.” Galen, in fact, treats fully of the “sublimis anhelitus” in various parts of his works. See in particular On Difficulty of Breathing.