A Historical Overview of Patient Care

Abstract

In Abdera, Anaxion, who was lodged near the Thracian Gates, was seized with an acute fever; continued pain of the right side, dry cough, without expectoration during the first days, thirst, insomnolency; urine well colored, copious and thin. On the seventh, in a painful state, for the fever increased, while the pains did not abate, and the cough was troublesome and attended with dyspnea. On the eighth, I opened a vein at the elbow, and much blood, of a proper character, flowed; the pains were abated, but the dry coughs continued. On the twenty-seventh the fever relapsed; he coughed and brought up much concocted sputum; sediment in urine copious and white. Explanation of the characters: it is probable that the evacuation of the sputum brought about the recovery on the thirty-fourth day (Hippocrates, 1979).