Book 1
9
The pus, whether it be carried upwards or downwards, is of various colours—pale, white, ash-coloured, or livid, black and fetid; or devoid of smell and very thick; or intermediate; or smooth and consistent; or rough and unequal, with fleshy substances floating in it, these being round or broad, readily separated or viscid. To say all in a word respecting the pus, such kinds as are white, concocted, devoid of smell, smooth, rounded, and are quickly coughed up, or pass downwards, are of a salutary character; but such as are very pale, bilious, and inconsistent, are bad. Of these by far the worst are the livid and black, for they indicate putrefaction and phagedenic ulcers.
