Book 2
8
A prolonged pain in the head, if without cause it shifts to the neck and shoulders, and again returns to the head, or if it spreads from the head to reach the neck and shoulders, is most pernicious, unless it induces some abscess so that pus is coughed up, or unless there is an outburst of blood from some part, or unless there is upon the head an eruption of much scurf or of pimples all over the body. Equally severe is this malady when a numbness or an itching wanders, now all over the head, now over part of it, or there is felt there a sensation as of something cold, and when these symptoms extend to the tip of the tongue. And since the abscesses described above are beneficial, recovery is more difficult, in proportion as they supervene less often upon such maladies.
8
When there are pains in the hips, if there is great numbness, and both the leg and hip become cold, if there is no movement of the bowel except forced, and the stool passed is mucous, and if the patient is already over forty, there will be a very prolonged illness, lasting at least a year, nor will it possibly come to an end except either in spring or in autumn.
8
Treatment is likewise difficult at that age when pain in the shoulders either spreads to the hands or extending to the shoulder-blades gives rise to numbness and pain there, which is not relieved by a vomit of bile.
