Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
A Treatise on Fevers (Author: [unknown])
Section 12
{TCD 1299 page and line 31a42} Let it be asked here whether phlebotomy is suitable in any fever; it seems it is not, for Galenus says the physician should imitate nature and follow its operations, and the proper work of nature is to expel everything excessive and injurious, and there is no fever in which nature expels the blood, so the physician should not practise phlebotomy in any fever. Then Galenus says blood should not be let when it evacuates good blood along with bad blood, for the evacuation of the good blood along with the bad blood injures more than it relieves, and the vein could not be opened in fevers without expelling the good blood in it, so phlebotomy should not be practised in fevers. Then Galenus says that the (opening of the) vein evacuates only the humour that offends inside the veins, and the matter of intermittent fever is outside the veins, and Avicenna says
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these words: {TCD 1299 page and line 31b1}: ‘Venole exicate ... ’ i.e. when the veins are evacuated they attract to themselves crude humours, and continuous intermittent fever is created then, so phlebotomy is not suitable in any fever. Then phlebotomy is not suitable in chronic illnesses, for Galenus says light diet should not be given in chronic illnesses, as Hippocrates says in this canon: ‘In diurna ... ’, since light diet is a sort of purgative, blood-letting is still more a sort of purgative, so it is not suitable in chronic illnesses. And Galenus says phlebotomy is not suitable in fever accompanied by great heat, and no fever is without heat, so blood should not be let in any fever. Then Avicenna says when the energy is weak blood should not be let, and it should not be let when the energy is powerful as Hippocrates says in this canon: ‘Ea corum ... ’, so blood should not be let in any fever. This is opposed according to Galenus in the nineteenth book of De ingenio sanitatis, for he says not only is phlebotomy suitable in sinoca inflatiua, but it is suitable in every corrupt fever unless the energy or age of the patient prevent it. Then Galenus says there are two things which come from phlebotomy in fevers, i.e. the lowering of the excessive heat and the expulsion of the corruption, so phlebotomy is suitable in every fever. Then Galenus says in the commentary to the Aphorisms in this canon: ‘Dolores oculorum’ Speaking of curing the eyes, for he says there when many humours offend together, blood should then be let, and many humours offend in corrupt fevers, so blood should be let in them. We answer that according to Galenus who says whenever the energy be relieved by blood-letting, even though the fever be the greater for it, it should be let, for Galenus advises blood-letting to strengthen the energy, and humour-cure to expel the matter of corrupt fever.