De Medicina

10 There are also observances necessary for a healthy man to employ during a pestilence, although in spite of them he cannot be secure. At such a time, then, he will do well to go abroad, take a voyage; when this cannot be, to be carried in a litter, walk in the open before the heat of the day, gently, and to be anointed in like manner; further as stated above he should avoid fatigue, indigestion, cold, heat, venery, and keep all the more to rule, should he feel any bodily oppression. At such a time he should not get up early in the morning nor walk about barefoot, and least so after a meal or bath. Neither on an empty stomach nor after a meal should he provoke a vomit, or set up a motion; indeed if the bowels tend to be loose, they are to be restrained. The fuller his habit of body, the more abstinence; he should avoid the bath, sweating, a midday siesta, and in any case if food has been taken previously; at such times, however, it is better then to take only one meal a day, and that a moderate one, lest indigestion be provoked. He should drink, one day water, the next day wine; if he observes these rules, there should be the least possible alteration as to the rest of his accustomed dietary. Such then are the things

Of impending disorders there are many signs, in explaining which I shall not hesitate to make use of the authority of ancient men, and especially of Hippocrates; for although more recent practitioners have made some changes in methods of treatment, they allow none the less that the ancients prognosticated best. Before I note, however, those preceding symptoms which suggest fear of disease, it does not seem unfitting to set out: the seasons of the year (1, 1‑2), the sorts of weather (1, 3‑4), periods of life and temperaments which may be in particular safe or open to risks (1, 5), and what kind of disorders is most to be apprehended in each (1, 6‑23). Not that men may not sicken and die at any season, in any sort of weather, at any age, whatever their temperament, from any kind of disease, but since certain kinds occur less . . . but some kinds occur more often, so it is of use that everyone should recognize against what, and when, he should be most on his guard.