Note 741 — BOOK III.—OF THE EPIDEMICS.

I will venture to affirm, without much fear of contradiction, that in all the works on medicine, both ancient and modern, there is not to be found so vivid a delineation of the symptoms of fever, complicated with effusion on the brain. Those who have added new features to the picture, have thereby detracted from the general effect. Galen, in his Commentary, insists more especially on the character of the respiration, but there does not appear to me to be any particular obscurity about it. He also touches on this case towards the end of the Second Book, On Difficulty of Breathing. After reading all his prolix disquisition on the subject, one does not feel much better instructed on the subject. Galen, at times, nay, very frequently, seems to forget a favorite saying of his own, namely. that he who would wish to lay in a copious store of knowledge during life, should trouble himself little about words, and attend principally to things.