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142 I NOTES ON THE FOURTH DISCOURSE
Next in importance to f .the examination of the pulse came the
inspection of"the urine as a means of diagnosis. This is called, as in the
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text,' Tafsira, a word thus defined in the great Dictionary of the Technical
"
Terms used in the Sciences of the Musalmdns :
(p. 1115) This with the
physicians is the vessel wherein is the patient's urine [intended] to be
shewn to the physician ; and it is also calle'fi dalil (indication, guide). It <
is Only called tafsira because it explains (tufassir) and makes manifest to
the physician the patient's physical condition." The chief points tq be
observed in it are the colour (lawn), consistency (qiwdni), smell (rd'tha),
froth (zubd}, sediment (rusub}, and copious or scanty quantity (kathra{iva
qillat}. .Twelve sections are devoted to this subject in the Qdnun, and
in the Dhakhira-i-Khwdrazmshdhi.
twenty-nine
The word translated "delirium " in the text i*> sarsdnc, so explained
by Schlimmer (pp. 179 and 460), with the equivalent of Phrenitis. This
latter word appears correctly as i^Jxoi^s (farrdnitus) in a fine old
twelfth or thirteenth century MS. of the Qdnun in my possession ; but
in the Rome editisn of A.D. 1593 (p. 302) in the corrupt form ^Ja*.' \3
(qardnitusy, and in the Latin version as "karabitus." It is defined by
Avicenna as a " hot swelling (or inflammation) of the pia mater or dura
mater not extending to the substance of the brain," and would therefore
appear to be equivalent to meningitis.
The general doctrine of Fever and its Varieties taught by " Arabian
Medicine " is most clearly and succinctly set forth in Book V of the
Persian Dhakhira-i-Khwdrazmshdhi, of which I possess a very fine MS.
transcribed in the thirteenth century of the Christian era. This' Book
comprises six Guftdrs, or Discourses, of which the first, divided into
four chapters, treats " of what Fever is, and of how many species, how it
appears and how it passes away." The first chapter, on " What Fever
is," may be translated in full on account of its brevity.
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You must know that Fever is an abnormal 2 heat enkindled in the
heart, transmitted by the intermediary of the spirit and the blood to the
blood-vessels and [thus]
diffused throughout the whole body, which it
heats and inflames with an inflammation whereof the harmful effects
appear in all the natural functions.' This sentence^ /formulated aboVe is
the definition (hadd) of Fever the word ;
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Heat :
is the genus, while the
other words are the specific differentiations' (fasl-h'd-yi dhdtt) whereby
the definition is completed. Further you must know that the,, heat of
Fever is not like the heat of anger, fatigue, grief and the HVe, because
these heats harmfully affect the natural functions without the intervention,
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of anything else, even as when water descends into the eye the hurtful
effect thereof on the vision becomes apparent
Without the intervention of
and when the heat of anger,
or the like thereo/, reaches
anything else ;
that point where it will be injurious to the natural functions, it is but the*
cause, and the injury thereof only becomes apparent by the intervention
of .something else. Even so is the of
putridity \>uf&nat\
fever, for the
1 This, same corrupt form also occurs in most MSS. Dhakhira-iof\theKhw^razmskdhi,
Book VI, Guftar i, Part i, ch.
t,y where, however, the word is
specifically
recognized as Greek.
'
Gharib, lit. "strange."
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