1. Convulsionem febri’, in other words ‘fever resolves spasm’ (Marks, 1817), while the Roman encyclopaedist Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25 BC–AD 50) suggested for the treatment of dropsy (oedema) heated sand and warm baths (Adams, 1834)

2. In the fifth century BC Hippocrates (460–377 BC) noted that malarial fever could have a calming effect in epileptics ‘febrem convulsioni supervenire melius est, quam Convulsionem febri’, in other words ‘fever resolves spasm’ (Marks, 1817), while the Roman encyclopaedist Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25 BC – AD 50) suggested for the treatment of dropsy (oedema) heated sand and warm baths (Adams, 1834).