5 Again there is dripping from the head sometimes into the nose, which is a mild affair; sometimes into the throat, which is worse, sometimes into the lung, which is worst of all. When the drip is into the nostrils, a thin phlegm is discharged from them; there is slight pain, and a feeling of weight in the head, with frequent sneezing; if the drip is into the throat, it irritates and excites a slight cough; if the drip is into the lung, besides the sneezing, cough and even weight in the head, there is lassitude, thirst, a feeling of heat, and bilious urine. Another although not very different affection is gravedo. This closes up the nostrils, renders the voice hoarse, excites a dry cough; in it the saliva is salt, there is ringing in the ears, the blood-vessels in the head throb, the urine is turbid. Hippocrates named all the above coryza; I note that now the Greeks reserve this term for gravedo, the dripping they call catastagmus. These affections are commonly of short duration, but if neglected may last a [p. 373] long while. None is fatal, except that which causes ulcers in the lung. Whenever we feel anything of the sort, we should forthwith keep out of the sun, and abstain from the bath, wine and coition; but the use meanwhile of anointing and of customary food is allowable. The patient should walk, but only briskly and under cover; after that the head and face should be rubbed for more than fifty strokes. This complaint is generally relieved, provided that we take care of ourselves for a couple of days, or for three at the most. When the disease has been relieved so that the drip of phlegm becomes thick, or the gravedo so that the nostrils are more open, the bath may be resumed, much water, at first hot, then lukewarm, being used to foment the face and head; next, along with more food, wine may be taken. But if on the fourth day the phlegm is still thin, or the nostrils still stuffed up, the patient should take dry Aminaean wine, then for a couple of days water; after which he can return to the bath and his usual habits. Nevertheless, even during those days, when some things are to be avoided, it is not expedient to treat the patients as sick men, but they are to do everything as in health, unless these symptoms have been liable to cause more prolonged and severe trouble; for then a somewhat more careful attention is needed. Therefore in such a case if there is a drip into the nose or into the throat, besides the treatment described above, the patient from the start should walk a good deal during the first days: have the lower limbs smartly rubbed, together with more gentle rubbing of the chest, face and head; his accustomed food should be reduced by one-half; he[p. 375] may take eggs, also starchy and such-like foods, which thicken phlegm; thirst should be resisted as far as he can bear it. When by these measures a patient has been prepared for the bath, and has used it, there may be added to the diet small fish or meat, provided that at first he should not take the full quantity of food; undiluted wine should be taken more freely. But if the drip is into the lung also, there is even more need for walking and rubbing and the same regimen as to diet, and if that diet is not effective, more acrid food is to be employed; he should allow himself more sleep, and abstain from all business; but the bath should be tried at a somewhat later stage. In the case of gravedo, he should lie in bed on the first day, neither eat nor drink, cover the head, and wrap wool around the throat; on the next day he should get up, and still abstain from drink, or, if he must have some, take not more than one tumbler-full of water; on the third day he may eat the crumb of bread, but not much, with some small fish, or light meat, and water for drink. Should the patient be unable to restrain himself from using a fuller diet, he is to provoke a vomit; when he gets to the bath, he should foment freely his head and face with hot water until he sweats, and then have recourse to wine. After the above measures it is scarcely possible for the same discomfort to persist; but if it does so, use cold, dry, light food with the least possible fluid, whilst continuing the rubbings and the exercises, such as are needed in all such sorts of illness.
De Medicina. Celsus. W. G. Spencer. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University Press. 1971 (Republication of the 1935 edition).
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