Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
A Treatise on Fevers (Author: [unknown])

Section 19

{TCD 1302 fol col and line fol 6a2line36} Let it be asked here whether food should be given more in the beginning of acute illnesses than in every other period. It seems food should not be given at the beginning, for Hippocrates says in the first book of Remedia acutorum that food should not be given to pleurisy patients until the nutritiveness and moisture of the lips is evident, and Galenus says that that sign {TCD 1302 fol col and line fol 6b1line1} is not evident until after the digestion of the matter in the increase or in the status, so food should not be given to patients in acute illnesses at the beginning. Then Hippocrates says in the first book of Remedia acutorum that barley water should be given at the beginning of the illness and the solid part should be given in the increase and in the other periods, so food should not be given in the beginning of acute illnesses. Then Galenus says in De ingenio sanitatis that wine should not be given in acute illnesses until the matter be digested, from that it is understood that more solid food than wine should not be given till the matter be digested, and the matter is not digested in the beginning of acute illnesses, so food should not be given in the beginning. Then Galenus says that food should least be given at every period where the burden and labour of nature is greatest, and the period where the labour and burden of nature is greatest is when the matter is undigested, so since the matter is undigested in the beginning of the illness food should not be given then. Then Avicenna says in the chapter of synocha, in the kind called epacmastic, that food should not be given in the beginning, for it is a fever that is habitually decreasing, and the unfavourable ailments are stronger at the beginning than in every other period of it, so food should not be given at the beginning of acute illnesses.

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Hippocrates opposes that in this canon: ‘Quibus est ...’ We answer these questions and say according to Galenus that there are two static periods in every acute illness, i.e. a status of the matter, and a status of the accidental ailment. The status of its matter, indeed, i.e. every time the matter is completely digested we call it the status of the illness then, as Galenus says in the first [book of] De Crisi. The status of the accidental ailment, indeed, i.e. every time the accidental ailments are strongest is called the status of the illness as is evident in pleurisy patients, for every time the pain is greatest, and the breathing most difficult, and the cough hardest, we say the the pleurisy is at the status, and this status can be at the beginning of the pleurisy according to Galenus. Note that the unfavourable ailments can be violent and the matter digested at the same time. And understand that the digestion and expulsion can be at the same time, as is evident in pleurisy patients, and in other ulcers expelled by obscure dispersion, {TCD 1302 fol col and line fol 6b2line1} and we say the unfavourable ailments are diminished then by the digestion of the matter. And Galenus says there are other illnesses and when the matter is digested it is increased by them, until it be expelled along with the disease, as is evident in the ulcers that break of themselves. And diet is divided likewise, i.e. complete and partial diet. Complete diet is the diet ordered from the beginning of the illness till the day it ends. Partial diet is diet ordered in the four periods of the illness. And Galenus says that, every time the energy is strong and uncorrupted from the beginning of acute illnesses to the status, food should not be given then until the status, and, when the energy is weak and the unfavourable ailments violent in the beginning of the illness, food should be given then to maintain the energy.