On the Causes and Indications of Acute and Chronic Diseases

Aretaeus of Cappadocia, a Greek physician from the 2nd century AD, authored On the Causes and Indications of Acute and Chronic Diseases. This work, rediscovered in 1554, revived the teachings of Hippocrates. Aretaeus followed the pneumatic school, which believed health depended on vital air (pneuma) and that imbalances in the four humors (blood, phlegm, choler, melancholy) disrupted this vital air, indicated by abnormal pulses.1

His writings provided detailed descriptions of various illnesses, including pleurisy, diphtheria, tetanus, pneumonia, asthma, and epilepsy. Notably, he was the first to differentiate between spinal and cerebral paralyses and is credited with naming diabetes, deriving the term from the Greek word for "siphon" due to the disease's characteristic excessive thirst and fluid emission.1