The Signs and Causes of Affections of the Head in General

Abstract

When the pain bites an acrid vapour abounds, evidence of an excessive heavy humour. Throbbing indicates heat and, if tension is severe, it lodges in the membranes where sensation is situated and is the cause of pain. If brief and mild, it is due to the fumes of wine, the sun’s descending rays, to wakefulness or work: these are the external causes of headache. And if it is long and severe, so much so that it is not possible to bear the sound of voices or other clatter or smells or bright light, in short, all those things that harass the head with torment, then it is the headache properly so-called.