greek-medicinefeatured in 30 works

Critical Days of Illness

The ancient idea that a fever turns decisively toward life or death on fixed numbered days — the 7th, the 14th, the 20th.

Greek physicians of the Hippocratic school (5th–4th c. BCE, centered on the island of Kos) noticed that acute illnesses tend to reach a 'crisis' — a sharp turn toward recovery or death — on predictable days counted from when the disease began, especially the 7th, 14th, and 20th. By charting these critical days, a doctor could time his forecast and avoid acting at the wrong moment. Elaborated in works like the 'Epidemics' and later systematized by Galen (2nd c. CE), the doctrine tied the rhythm of disease to number and gave Western medicine a framework for prognosis that lasted two thousand years.

How it traveled

Epidemiarum
Kos · -370
explains
De morbis i-iii
Kos · -370
explains
De affectionibus interioribus
Kos · -370
explains
De diaeta acutorum (spurium)
— · -370
explains
Coa praesagia
Kos · -370
explains
Prognosticon
Kos · -370
explains
De crisibus
Kos · -370
explains
De diebus criticis
Kos · -370
explains
De affectionibus
Kos · -370
explains
Aphorismi
Kos · -370
explains
Prorrheticon I
Kos · -370
explains
De fracturis
Kos · -370
explains
De locis in homine
Kos · -370
explains
In Hippocratis De victu acutorum
Rome · 175
explains
In Hippocratis De natura hominis
Rome · 175
explains
In Hippocratis Epidemiarum I
Rome
explains
In Hippocratis Prognosticum
Rome
explains
In Hippocratis Aphorismos Commentarii VII
Rome
explains
De crisibus
Rome
explains
De diebus decretoriis
Rome
explains
Ad Glauconem de methodo medendi
Rome
explains
De differentiis febrium
Rome
explains
De morborum temporibus
Rome
explains
De methodo medendi
Rome
explains
Adversus eos qui de typis scripserunt vel de circuitibus
Rome
explains
In Hippocratis De fracturis
Rome
explains
De praenotione ad Epigenem
Rome
explains
De septimestri partu
—
explains
De typis [attributed]
Rome
explains
De totius morbi temporibus
Rome
explains

Key passages(20)

Galen, Ad Glauconem de methodo medendi 1.7↗explains

Ad Glauconem de methodo medendi · Galen