3 Again, about the face there originates an affection which the Greeks call "dog spasm." And it begins along with acute fever; the mouth is drawn to one side by a peculiar movement, and so it is nothing else than a distortion of the mouth. In addition there is frequent change of colour in the face as well as over all the body, also an inclination to sleep. In this case blood-letting is the best thing; if that does not end the disorder, the bowels are moved with a clyster; when not even thus dispersed, vomiting is provoked by white hellebore. It is necessary besides to avoid the sun, fatigue and wine. If it is not dispersed by these measures, use running, rubbing of the affected part gently and repeatedly, also rub other parts for less time, but smartly. It is also useful to provoke sneezing; to shave the head, to pour over it hot sea water, or at any rate salt and water, provided that sulphur is also added; after this affusion the patient should again be rubbed; should chew mustard, applying at the same time to the parts of the mouth affected a wax salve, likewise to the[p. 371] unaffected parts mustard until it produces erosion. Food of the middle class is most suitable.
De Medicina. Celsus. W. G. Spencer. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University Press. 1971 (Republication of the 1935 edition).
National Library of Medicine History of Medicine Division provided support for entering this text.
This text was converted to electronic form by Data Entry and has been proofread to a high level of accuracy.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.