De Medicina

The original work was published some time before 47 CE. It consisted of eight books in highly regarded Latin text. The subject matter is divided as follows:

• Book I – Diet, hygiene, and the benefits of exercise.
• Book II – The cause of disease, its symptoms and prognosis.
• Book III – Treatment of diseases, including the common cold and pneumonia.

He classified mental disorders into: Phrenitis, delirium with fever; Melancholia, depression; one due to false images and disordered judgment, presumably schizophrenia; Delirium due to fear; Lethargus, coma; and Morbus comitialis, epilepsy. The term insania, insanity, was first used by him. The methods of treatment included bleeding, frightening the patient, emetics, enemas, total darkness, and decoctions of poppy or henbane, and pleasant ones such as music therapy, travel, sport, reading aloud, and massage. He was aware of the importance of the doctor-patient relationship.

• Book IV – Anatomical descriptions of selected diseases.
• Book V – Medicines, including opiates, diuretics, purgatives and laxatives.
• Book VI – Ulcers, skin lesions and diseases.
• Book VII – Classical operations, such as lithotomy and removal of cataracts.
• Book VIII – Treatment of dislocations and fractures.

De Medicina was known during the Middle Ages up to the 9th or 10th centuries, but was later lost up until the 15th century. It was the first medical book to be printed, in Florence, 1478.