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Front Page Titles (by Subject) ON VISION. - The Writings of Hippocrates and Galen
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ON VISION. - Hippocrates, The Writings of Hippocrates and Galen [1846]Edition used:The Writings of Hippocrates and Galen. Epitomised from the Original Latin translations, by John Redman Coxe (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1846).
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ON VISION.
Haller tells us that this treatise has been altogether rejected by Mercurialis, and thrown into his fourth class or division. It is, however, considered as by no means an ill-written one. Gardeil even affirms that it ought to be attentively read by every oculist who feels an attachment to his profession. It is very concise, and recommends many acrid and severe applications in diseases of the eyes. Of these, cauterization constitutes the chief means. Cataract is first noticed;—neither extraction, nor depression of the lens, seem to have been then practised. Early attention to evacuate the head, and cauterize the vessels, is said to arrest and check the progress of the disease. Near-sighted people are mentioned;—this state would appear to have been considered as morbid, and cauterization, &c., are recommended; bleeding is said to be injurious in it, and in some other affections. The treatment seems to have been deferred until full growth was attained, when cauterizing in different places was freely pursued, and scarification of the lids. The principal object, in most cases, seems to have been to evacuate or purge the head; and, in some instances, some of the flesh of the lids appears to have been cut away, and then slightly cauterizing,—carefully guarding the cartilage and the roots of the eyelashes. Itching of the lids, nyctalopia, gutta serena, and ophthalmia, are all mentioned, and some singular treatment recommended, that may possibly have been found beneficial. Thus in gutta serena, we are told to trepan near the fontanelle, to remove water that is below it, &c. Some useful remarks in ophthalmic cases are given. SECTION VI.aON THE SHOP OR OFFICE OF THE PHYSICIAN.
Fœsius has a sufficiently interesting preface to the section now to be considered; but it is not adapted to my plan, independently of its extent. Of the ten treatises here noticed in the arrangement of Fœsius, five are esteemed to be genuine by Haller. Other commentators and translators have thought differently, and have separated them in conformity to their views, and arranged them elsewhere. The subject is briefly adverted to, in a preliminary address to the reader, by a friend of Haller, in the first volume of his translation. Be they or not the offspring of Hippocrates, there is not one from which we cannot gain information, and at the same time enjoy both the “utile and the dulce.”—Ed. Although, says Haller, Galen doubted if this were of the genuine writings of Hippocrates; yet that it is so, is easily detected by its raciness (ex ipso sapore). Brief, profound, and even in the less important parts, not less informed attention is bestowed on the minutest concerns, and precepts given as to the best situation for the surgeon or physician, and mode of standing or sitting in his operations, &c. The subject of bandages is by no means uninteresting, and is pretty copiously treated of. Gardeil, speaking of the title of this treatise, says it has undergone alterations among the ancients, and been the object of dispute to the learned. I have, adds he, given in French, the name that seemed to me to be best adapted to the matters treated of, as well as to the Latin translations, by which it is quoted, de Officina Chirurgi. His title is “Du Laboratoire du Chirurgien.” Le Clerc thinks that the term is inappropriate, inasmuch as surgery did not then constitute a distinct branch of medicine, and that the term Ιηϛϱειον implies “La Boutique du Médecin,” and not “du Chirurgien;” the title of surgery appearing no where in the writings of Hippocrates, although the art constituted a large part of his medical practice. The treatise sets off by stating that the means of instruction in every case, are dependent on the senses, by which we are enabled to form comparisons, and from them deduce our judgments. In relation to the objects of the physician in his shop, they are enunciated under the heads of the patient, the operator, assistants, situation for the operation, instruments, light, as best adapted to perform it, and other necessary appurtenances; all which are briefly considered, as well as some particulars respecting the hands, nails, and the regular placing of the instruments as they may be called for, the silence and attention requisite, and other circumstances. This is followed by the subject of bandages, the making, form, and application; compresses, &c., and their various intentions explained; the natural situation of injured parts by extension, flexion, &c.; the attention constantly required to keep up the full advantages that proper bandaging affords, and obviate the injury that negligence brings with it; with many hints and suggestions of a useful nature, not irrelevant even at the present time. [a ]This section, entitled by Fœsius χειρουργουμενα, or that part of medicine called Chirurgia or Surgery, consists of ten treatises. |

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