Page:Greek Biology and Medicine.djvu/52

 GREEK BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE most frequently translated and imitated de- scription of a face of a dying man: " for his nose was as sharp as a pen," says the Hostess of the dying Falstaff. Space fails me for the writer's description of unfavorable signs from the patient's posi- tion in bed, — as " lying upon his back, with hands, neck, and legs extended," or his wishing to sit erect at the climax of the disease, espe- cially in pneumonia, or waving his hands be- fore his face, or hunting as if gathering bits of straw or picking the nap from the coverlet: " for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way," still says the Hostess, who had not read Hippocrates, but doubtless had seen old men die before. There is scarcely a statement in this writing that has failed to leave its impress upon medi- cine: witness, for example, the cult which has surrounded its statement of the periodic crises in acute disease. The writing closes substan- tially with these words: " He who would know correctly beforehand those that will recover, and those that will die, and in what cases the disease will be protracted or shortened, must [30]