1064 VIEWS OF HIPPOCRATES. 



apoplexy, paralysis, or some other dangerous 

 malady. 



It was the opinion of Hippocrates, that coma 

 and apoplexy are owing to a frigidity and thick- 

 ness of the humours in the brain ; consequently, that 

 they should be rarefied by heat, applied in the form 

 of fomentations. Nor can there be a doubt, that 

 the proximate cause of syncope,* coma, catalepsy, 

 epilepsy, apoplexy, and the low delirium of 

 typhus, is a deficient supply of good arterial 

 blood and vital heat to the brain. But under the 

 erroneous impression that most of these morbid 

 conditions are owing to an increased flow of blood 

 to the brain, many practitioners resort to bleeding, 

 which often increases the debility of the cerebral 

 capillaries, and thus causes effusion, an effect 



* It is sometimes difficult te distinguish apoplexy from snycope, 

 as the following case will exemplify. A clerical gentleman who 

 had been for some time accustomed to close mental application, 

 delivered a sermon on Sunday morning, and immediately after- 

 wards attended a funeral, by which he was much exhausted. He 

 then took a hearty dinner, and commenced the afternoon service, 

 during which he fell backwards in the desk, in a state of syncope, 

 from which he slowly recovered. Now if this gentleman had been 

 fifty years of age or older, or if his brain had been weakened still 

 more by previous habits of intemperance, the case would have been 

 one of decided apoplexy, which is often brought on by a hearty 

 meal. This operates in a twofold manner ; first, by pressing 

 upon the ascending vena cava, thus preventing the free passage 

 of blood into the right side of the heart, and thence into the 

 lungs; or by diverting a portion of the blood which usually 

 circulates through the brain to the stomach, for the purpose of 

 carrying on the process of digestion. 



