Rufus on His Place in History

Rufus ap. Orib. Coll.Med. 45.30

From the Works of Rufus. On Disease Relocations.

1 When it comes to all of the diseases that happen to humankind, some subside through medical intervention, others through relocations and successions of other pains. 2 It has been discussed elsewhere how to carry out treatment with remedies and all the various courses of regimen and drugs that are appropriate for each disease. At present I am going to discuss all the pains that usefully follow and resolve ancient diseases without any intervention by the doctor, so that he might not stand in the way if there is a turn for the better in some respect. Furthermore, some people are ignorant about hip pain, or some other joint pain, or swelling that arises when illnesses are present, or dysentery, or jaundice, or many other things which have been written about, and being under the impression that something bad is taking place, they refuse to accept it or help it along. By attempting instead to prevent it before the entire body corroborates it they do much greater harm. But as for myself, by explaining in the present work all the things that one must prevent if it continues to be painful and all the things that contribute to irritation rather than cause it to cease, I hope to have written something great for the entire technē of medicine. 3 Of course, someone will say that these are not my own findings since Hippocrates long ago discovered many things of the sort, and I agree. What does not come from his work? Yet, if I sketch everything in sum, including what became known later and distinguishing each detail, that does not make this composition of mine unpleasant. 4 For example, if a fever follows after a downward flow, some of the flux is dried up while some of it is concocted. This is the cure for the downward flow.