medicine

Critical Days of Illness

κρίσιμοι ἡμέραι

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.

Where this idea shows up

32 Greek sources

Where to read it

De morbis i-iii370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
Prorrheticon I370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De salubri diaeta370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De affectionibus interioribus370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
Epidemiarum370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
Coa praesagia370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De natura hominis370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
Prognosticon370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De fracturis370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De capitis vulneribus370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De aere, aquis, locis370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De locis in homine370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De carnibus370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De diebus criticis370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De natura pueri370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De affectionibus370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De humoribus370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De crisibus370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De muliebribus370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De diaeta370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De articulis370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
Aphorismi370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De officina medici370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
Epistulae, Decretum, Orationes370 BCE
Pseudo-Hippocrates
De diaeta acutorum (spurium)370 BCE
Pseudo-Hippocrates
Historia animalium322 BCE
Aristotle· Chalcis
Problemata322 BCE
Pseudo-Aristotle· Chalcis
De Signis Tempestatum287 BCE
Theophrastus· Athens
De signis tempestatum287 BCE
Theophrastus· Athens
Allegoriae (= Quaestiones Homericae)75 CE
Heraclitus the Allegorist (Homericus)
In Hippocratis De victu acutorum175 CE
Galen· Rome
In Hippocratis De natura hominis175 CE
Galen· Rome