doctors and their limits

οὔτε γὰρ ἰατροὶ ἤρκουν τὸ πρῶτον θεραπεύοντες ἀγνοίᾳ, ἀλλ’ αὐτοὶ μάλιστα ἔθνῃσκον ὅσῳ καὶ μάλιστα προσῇσαν, οὔτε ἄλλη ἀνθρωπεία τέχνη οὐδεμία· ὅσα τε πρὸς ἱεροῖς ἱκέτευσαν ἢ μαντείοις καὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις ἐχρήσαντο, πάντα ἀνωφελῆ ἦν, τελευτῶντές τε αὐτῶν ἀπέστησαν ὑπὸ τοῦ κακοῦ νικώμενοι.

At first the doctors were helpless. They were treating a disease they did not know, and they themselves died in the greatest numbers, because they came closest to the sick. No other human skill did any good either. People prayed at the temples, consulted oracles, and tried everything else of the kind, but nothing worked. In the end, overwhelmed by the disaster, they gave it all up.

λεγέτω μὲν οὖν περὶ αὐτοῦ ὡς ἕκαστος γιγνώσκει καὶ ἰατρὸς καὶ ἰδιώτης, ἀφ’ ὅτου εἰκὸς ἦν γενέσθαι αὐτό, καὶ τὰς αἰτίας ἅστινας νομίζει τοσαύτης μεταβολῆς ἱκανὰς εἶναι δύναμιν ἐς τὸ μεταστῆσαι σχεῖν· ἐγὼ δὲ οἷόν τε ἐγίγνετο λέξω, καὶ ἀφ’ ὧν ἄν τις σκοπῶν, εἴ ποτε καὶ αὖθις ἐπιπέσοι, μάλιστ’ ἂν ἔχοι τι προειδὼς μὴ ἀγνοεῖν, ταῦτα δηλώσω αὐτός τε νοσήσας καὶ αὐτὸς ἰδὼν ἄλλους πάσχοντας.

Let each person, doctor or layman, give his own opinion about where it probably came from, and what causes could have been powerful enough to bring about so great a change. I will describe what it was like, and set down the signs that would let anyone who studies them recognize it if it ever strikes again. I can do this because I had the sickness myself and watched others suffer from it.

ἔπειτα ἐξ αὐτῶν πταρμὸς καὶ βράγχος ἐπεγίγνετο, καὶ ἐν οὐ πολλῷ χρόνῳ κατέβαινεν ἐς τὰ στήθη ὁ πόνος μετὰ βηχὸς ἰσχυροῦ· καὶ ὁπότε ἐς τὴν καρδίαν στηρίξειεν, ἀνέστρεφέ τε αὐτὴν καὶ ἀποκαθάρσεις χολῆς πᾶσαι ὅσαι ὑπὸ ἰατρῶν ὠνομασμέναι εἰσὶν ἐπῇσαν, καὶ αὗται μετὰ ταλαιπωρίας μεγάλης.

Next came sneezing and hoarseness, and soon the pain moved down into the chest with a hard cough. When it settled in the stomach, it turned the stomach over. Then came vomiting of every kind of bile the doctors have names for, all of it in great agony.

ἰατροὶ δὲ ἐφοίτων ἐξ ἄστεος καὶ τοῖς ἀκολούθοις αὐτῶν ἐχρώμεθα διακόνοις, οἱ δέ τινες καὶ αὐτοὶ προσεδρεύοντες ἀντὶ διακόνων ἦσαν.

Doctors came out from the city. We used their attendants as our servants, and some of the doctors themselves sat by us and did the servants' work.

καὶ οἱ ἰατροὶ ἀφίσταντο καὶ τελευτῶντες ἀπέγνωσαν παντάπασι, καὶ διηγγέλθη ὡς οἰχησομένου αὐτίκα.

The doctors stepped back and finally gave up all hope, and word went out that I would die at any moment.

κἀκείνῃ μὲν ἰατρὸν ἔπεμπον, αὐτὸς δὲ, ἐπειδὴ τάχιστα παρέσχεν, εἰχόμην τῆς ὁδοῦ.

I sent her a doctor, and as soon as I could, I set out on my journey myself.

怪當今居世之士曽不留神醫藥精究方術上以療君親之疾下以救貧賤之厄中以保身長全以養其生

It amazes me that the learned men of our time pay no attention to medicine and never study its methods with care. With medicine they could treat the illnesses of their rulers and parents above them and rescue the poor and humble from hardship below them. In between, they could keep themselves safe and whole for many years, and so care for their own lives.

賫百年之壽命持至貴之重器委付凡醫恣其所措

They carry a life that could last a hundred years and hold the most precious vessel there is, and they hand it all over to some ordinary doctor to do with as he pleases.

觀今之醫不念思求經㫖以演其所知各承家技終始順舊

Look at the doctors of today. It never occurs to them to search out the meaning of the classics to widen what they know. Instead, each one simply carries on his family's methods and follows the old ways from start to finish.

Quid deinde illud, fratres dilectissimi, quale est, quam pertinens, quam necessarium, quod pestis ista et lues quae horribilis et feralis uidetur explorat iustitiam singulorum et mentes humani generis examinat, an infirmis seruiant sani, an propinqui cognatos pie diligant, an misereantur seruorum languentium domini, an deprecantes aegros non deserant medici, an feroces uiolentiam suam conprimant, an rapaces auaritiae furentis insatiabilem semper ardorem uel metu mortis extinguant, an ceruicem flectant superbi, an audaciam leniant inprobi, an pereuntibus caris uel sic aliquid diuites largiantur et donent sine herede morituri.

And then, dearest brothers, think what this means: how fitting it is, how necessary. This plague and pestilence, which seems so terrible and deadly, searches out the justice of each person and tests the minds of humankind. It asks whether the healthy serve the sick, whether relatives truly love their own family, and whether masters pity their sick slaves. It asks whether doctors stand by the sick who beg for their help, and whether the fierce hold back their violence. It asks whether the greedy, at least for fear of death, will put out the fire of their raging greed, which nothing ever satisfies. It asks whether the proud will bend their necks and the shameless will tame their boldness. And it asks whether the rich, at least now, as their loved ones die and they face death without heirs, will give something away.

καὶ τὸ μὲν σῶμα οὔτε τι διήλλασσε τῆς προτέρας χροιᾶς οὔτε θερμὸν ἦν, ἅτε πυρετοῦ ἐπιπεσόντος, οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ φλόγωσις ἐπεγίνετο, ἀλλ’ οὕτως ἀβληχρός τις ἐξ ἀρχῆς τε καὶ ἄχρις ἑσπέρας ὁ πυρετὸς ἦν ὥστε μήτε τοῖς νοσοῦσιν αὐτοῖς μήτε ἰατρῷ ἁπτομένῳ δόκησιν κινδύνου παρέχεσθαι.

The body did not change from its usual color. It was not hot, as you would expect when a fever strikes, and there was no inflammation either. From the start until evening the fever was so mild that it gave no hint of danger, either to the sick themselves or to a doctor who touched them.

διὸ δὴ ἅπαντες αὐτοὺς οὐχ ἧσσον ἢ τοὺς πονουμένους ᾠκτίζοντο, οὐχ ὅτι τῷ λοιμῷ ἐπιέζοντο ἐκ τοῦ προσιέναι (οὔτε γὰρ ἰατρῷ οὔτε ἰδιώτῃ μεταλαχεῖν τοῦ κακοῦ τοῦδε τῶν νοσούντων ἢ τῶν τετελευτηκότων ἁπτομένῳ ξυνέβη, ἐπεὶ πολλοὶ μὲν ἀεὶ καὶ τοὺς οὐδὲν σφίσι προσήκοντας ἢ θάπτοντες ἢ θεραπεύοντες ταύτῃ δὴ τῇ ὑπουργίᾳ παρὰ δόξαν ἀντεῖχον, πολλοὶ δὲ τῆς νόσου ἀπροφασίστως αὐτοῖς ἐπιπεσούσης εὐθὺς ἔθνησκον), ἀλλ’ ὅτι ταλαιπωρίᾳ πολλῇ εἴχοντο.

So everyone pitied the nurses as much as the sick. It was not that the nurses caught the plague by coming near the sick. (No doctor or anyone else caught this disease by touching the sick or the dead. Many people who kept burying or nursing even strangers held out in that work against all expectation. Meanwhile, many others fell sick for no visible reason and died at once.) People pitied the nurses because of the great hardship they endured.

Ἀπορούμενοι γοῦν τῶν τινες ἰατρῶν τῇ τῶν ξυμπιπτόντων ἀγνοίᾳ τό τε τῆς νόσου κεφάλαιον ἐν τοῖς βουβῶσιν ἀποκεκρίσθαι οἰόμενοι, διερευνᾶσθαι τῶν τετελευτηκότων τὰ σώματα ἔγνωσαν. καὶ διελόντες τῶν βουβώνων τινάς, ἄνθρακος δεινόν τι χρῆμα ἐμπεφυκὸς εὗρον.

Some of the doctors were baffled, because they did not understand what was happening. Thinking that the heart of the disease lay in the buboes, they decided to examine the bodies of the dead. When they cut open some of the buboes, they found a dreadful carbuncle growing inside.

ἐκεῖνο μέντοι ἀποφήνασθαι ἔχω, ὡς τῶν ἰατρῶν οἱ δοκιμώτατοι πολλοὺς μὲν τεθνήξεσθαι προηγόρευον, οἳ δὴ κακῶν ἀπαθεῖς ὀλίγῳ ὕστερον παρὰ δόξαν ἐγίνοντο, πολλοὺς δὲ ὅτι σωθήσονται ἰσχυρίζοντο, οἳ δὴ διαφθαρήσεσθαι ἔμελλον αὐτίκα δὴ μάλα.

This much, however, I can say for certain. The most respected doctors foretold the death of many people who, soon afterward and against all expectation, were completely free of their troubles. And they promised that many would recover who were in fact about to die almost at once.