On the Sacred Dissease   

formerly had. And thus it appears to me to hold, with regard to
purifications.

But this disease seems to me to be no more divine than others; but
it has its nature such as other diseases have, and a cause whence it
originates, and its nature and cause are divine only just as much as
all others are, and it is curable no less than the others, unless
when, the from of time, it is confirmed, and has became stronger
than the remedies applied. Its origin is hereditary, like that of
other diseases. For if a phlegmatic person be born of a phlegmatic,
and a bilious of a bilious, and a phthisical of a phthisical, and
one having spleen disease, of another having disease of the spleen,
what is to hinder it from happening that where the father and mother
were subject to this disease, certain of their offspring should be
so affected also? As the semen comes from all parts of the body,
healthy particles will come from healthy parts, and unhealthy from
unhealthy parts. And another great proof that it is in nothing more
divine than other diseases is, that it occurs in those who are of a
phlegmatic constitution, but does not attack the bilious. Yet, if it
were more divine than the others, this disease ought to befall all
alike, and make no distinction between the bilious and phlegmatic.

But the brain is the cause of this affection, as it is of other very
great diseases, and in what manner and from what cause it is formed, I
will now plainly declare. The brain of man, as in all other animals,
is double, and a thin membrane divides it through the middle, and
therefore the pain is not always in the same part of the head; for
sometimes it is situated on either side, and sometimes the whole is
affected; and veins run toward it from all parts of the body, many
of which are small, but two are thick, the one from the liver, and the
other from the spleen. And it is thus with regard to the one from
the liver: a portion of it runs downward through the parts on the
side, near the kidneys and the psoas muscles, to the inner part of the
thigh, and extends to the foot. It is called vena cava. The other runs
upward by the right veins and the lungs, and divides into branches for
the heart and the right arm. The remaining part of it rises upward
across the clavicle to the right side of the neck, and is
superficial so as to be seen; near the ear it is concealed, and
there it divides; its thickest, largest, and most hollow part ends
in the brain; another small vein goes to the right ear, another to the
right eye, and another to the nostril. Such are the distributions of
the hepatic vein. And a vein from the spleen is distributed on the
left side, upward and downward, like that from the liver, but more
slender and feeble.

By these veins we draw in much breath, since they are the
spiracles of our bodies inhaling air to themselves and distributing it
to the rest of the body, and to the smaller veins, and they and
afterwards exhale it. For the breath cannot be stationary, but it
passes upward and downward, for if stopped and intercepted, the part
where it is stopped becomes powerless. In proof of this, when, in
sitting or lying, the small veins are compressed, so that the breath
from the larger vein does not pass into them, the part is
immediately seized with numbness; and it is so likewise with regard to
the other veins.

This malady, then, affects phlegmatic people, but not bilious. It
begins to be formed while the foetus is still in utero. For the brain,
like the other organs, is depurated and grows before birth. If,
then, in this purgation it be properly and moderately depurated, and
neither more nor less than what is proper be secreted from it, the
head is thus in the most healthy condition. If the secretion (melting)
the from the brain be greater than natural, the person, when he
grows up, will have his head diseased, and full of noises, and will