The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c13.6

c13.6

*Summary and Extracts* (84 d-86 a): “When the lung, distributor of air in the body, is obstructed by discharges of (*reūma*), the circulation of air in the body is troubled, on the one hand the parts that do not receive their freshening (supplies) get corrupted and, on the other, air does violence to certain vessels (*phleps*), causes them to be distended, twisted and dislocates them. And it shuts itself in that part of the body where the diaphragm is found.¹ Thus are born frequently a number of painful diseases accompanied by abundant perspiration. Often in this way, the flesh gets disjoined inside the body, air gets therein, unable to get out therefrom and (becomes) the cause of suffering identical to that provoked by air come from without.² Such suffering is, above all, very great when the air applies itself to the tendons (*neuron*)³ and to the vessels which are there and causes them to swell. Then it causes the extensor muscles to distend as also the muscles adhering thereto and causes them to contract in the contrary direction. The diseases resulting from this tension have, for this reason, received the name of tetanus and episthosnos. It is difficult to bring any remedy to them and, most often, it is the fevers which, coming in then, resolve them.⁴