that remarkable regularity with which he saw the Periods of Feavers were ended on the Seventh , Fourteenth , One and Twentieth day, &c. Pythagoras his Philosophy was in those Ages very Famous, of which Harmony and the Mysteries of Numbers made a considerable part, Odd were more Powerful than Even , and Seven was the most perfect of all. Our great Physician espoused these Notions,[45] and confined the Stages of acute Distempers to a Septenary Progression[46], upon which this Inconvenience follow'd, that when a Crisis fell out a day sooner or later than this Computation required, his Measures were quite broken; and that this must necessarily oftentimes happen, will appear by and by.
Upon this score Asclepiades rejected this whole Doctrine as vain,[47] and Celsus finding it to be too nice and scrupulous, observes that the Pythagorean Numbers led the Ancients into the Error.[48]
Galen being aware of this, succeeded much better in his reasoning upon the Matter, and very happily imputed the Critical Changes not to the Power of Numbers, but to the Influence of the Moon; which he observes, has a mighty Action upon our Earth, exceeding the other Planets, not in Energy, but in Nearness[49]. So that