CHAPTER I. THE PROŒMIUM.
IN chronic diseases, the postponement of medical treatment is a
bad thing; for, by procrastination, they pass into incurable affections,
being of such a nature that they do not readily go off if
they once attack; and if protracted by time, they will become
strong, and end only in death. Small diseases also are succeeded
by greater, so that although devoid of danger at first, their
progeny proves deadly. Wherefore neither should the patient
conceal his complaint, from the shame of exposure, nor shrink
from fear of the treatment; nor should the physician be inactive,
for thus both would conspire to render the disease incurable.
Some patients, from ignorance of the present and
what will come at last, are content to live on with the disease.
For since in most cases they do not die, so neither do they
fear death, nor, for this reason, do they entrust themselves to
the physician. Cephalæa, of which I am about to treat in the
first place, is a proof of these statements.