De Medicina

2 The weak, however, among whom are a large portion of townspeople, and almost all those fond of letters, need greater precaution, so that care may re-establish what the character of their constitution or of their residence or of their study detracts. Anyone therefore of these who has digested well may with safety rise early; if too little, he must stay in bed, or if he has been obliged to get up early, must go to sleep again; he who has not digested, should lie up altogether, and neither work nor take exercise nor attend to business. He who without heartburn eructates undigested food should drink cold water at intervals and none the less exercise self-control.

He should also reside in a house that is light, airy in summer, sunny in winter; avoid the midday sun, the morning and evening chill, also exhalations from rivers and marshes; and he should not often expose himself when the sky is cloudy to a sun that breaks through . . ., lest he should be affected alternately by cold and heat — a thing which excites

He can tell that his body is sound, if his morning urine is whitish, later reddish; the former indicates that digestion is going on, the latter that digestion is complete. On waking one should lie still for a while, then, except in winter time, bathe the face freely with cold water; when the days are long the siesta should be taken before the midday meal, when short, after it. In winter, it is best to rest in bed the whole night long; if there must be study by lamp-light, it should not be immediately after taking food, but after digestion. He who has been engaged in the day, whether in domestic or on public affairs, ought to keep some portion of the day for the care of the body. The primary care in this respect is exercise, which should always precede the taking of food; the exercise should be ampler in the case of one who has laboured less and digested less well.

Useful exercises are: reading aloud, drill, handball, running, walking; but this is not by any means most useful on the level, since walking up and down hill varies the movement of the body, unless indeed the body is thoroughly weak; but it is better to walk in the open air than under cover; better, when the head allows of it, in the sun than in the shade; better under the shade of a wall or of trees than under a roof; better a straight than a winding walk. But the exercise ought to come to an end with sweating, or at any rate lassitude, which should be

Coming to food, a surfeit is never of service, excessive abstinence is often unserviceable; if any intemperance is committed, it is safer in drinking than in eating. It is better to begin a meal with savouries, salads and such-like; and after that meat is to be eaten, best either when roasted or boiled. All preserved fruits are unserviceable for two reasons, because more is taken owing to their sweetness, and even what is moderate is still digested with some difficulty. Dessert does no harm to a good stomach, in a weak one it turns sour. Whoever then in this respect has too little strength, had better eat dates, apples and such-like at the beginning of the meal. After many drinkings which have somewhat exceeded the demands of thirst, nothing should be eaten; after a surfeit of food there should be no exertion. Anyone who has had his fill digests the more readily if he concludes the meal with a drink of cold water, then after keeping awake for a time has a sound sleep. When a full meal is taken at

3 Now the foregoing precepts indeed almost always hold good; but some particular notice requires to be taken of changes of surroundings and varieties of constitution and sex and age and seasons. For it is not safe to remove either from a salubrious to an oppressive locality, or from an oppressive to a salubrious one. It is better to make the move from a salubrious into an oppressive place at the beginning of winter, from an oppressive into a salubrious one in early summer. It is not good indeed to overeat after a long fast, nor to fast after overeating. And he runs a risk who goes contrary to his habit and eats immoderately whether once or twice in the day. Again, neither sudden idleness after excessive labour, nor sudden labour after excessive idleness, is without serious harm. Therefore when a man wishes to make a change, he ought to habituate himself little by little; indeed any work is easier even for a boy or an old man than for an unaccustomed adult. Hence also too idle a life is inexpedient, because there may come up some necessity for labour. But if at any time a man has had to undergo unaccustomed labour, or at any rate much more than he is used to, he should go to bed on an empty stomach, more especially if he has a bitter taste in his mouth, or his eyes are dimmed, or his bowels disturbed; for then he must not only sleep with his stomach empty, but even remain at rest over the next day, unless rest has quickly removed the trouble; in this case

But above all things everyone should be acquainted with the nature of his own body, for some are spare, others obese; some hot, others more frigid; some moist, others dry; some are costive, in others the bowels are loose. It is seldom but that a man has some part of his body weak. So then a thin man ought to fatten himself up, a stout one to thin himself down; a hot man to cool himself, a cold man to make himself warmer; the moist to dry himself up, the dry to moisten himself; he should render firmer his motions if loose, relax them if costive; treatment is to be always directed to the part which is mostly in trouble.

Now the body is fattened: by moderate exercise, by oftener resting, by anointing, and by the bath if after a meal at midday; by the bowels being confined, by winter cold in moderation, by sleep adequate but not over long, by a soft couch, by a tranquil spirit, by food whether solid or fluid which is sweet and fatty; by meals rather frequent and as large as it is possible to digest. The body is thinned: by hot water if one bathes in it and especially if salt; by the bath on an empty stomach, by a scorching sun, by heat of all kinds, by worry, by late nights; by sleep unduly short or overlong, by a hard bed throughout the summer; by running or much walking or any violent exercise; by a vomit, by purgation, by sour and harsh things consumed; by a single meal a day; by the custom of drinking wine not too cold upon an empty stomach.

But as I have mentioned a vomit and a purge among thinning measures, there are some things to be said in particular concerning them. I note that a vomit was rejected by Asclepiades in the book written by him, entitled De tuenda sanitate; I do not blame him for being disquieted with the custom of those, who by ejecting every day achieve a capacity for gormandizing. He has even gone somewhat further; for from the same volume he has expelled likewise purgings; which indeed are pernicious when procured by too powerful medicaments. Such measures, however, are not to be dispensed with entirely, because regard for different constitutions and times can make them necessary, provided that they are employed in moderation and only when needed. Hence Asclepiades has himself allowed that what is already corrupted ought to be expelled: so this kind of treatment is not wholly to be condemned. But there may be more than one reason for this too; and so a somewhat closer consideration may be given to the matter.

A vomit is more advantageous in winter than in summer, for then more phlegm and severer stuffiness in the head occur. It is unsuitable for the thin and for those with a weak stomach, but suitable for the plethoric, and all who have become bilious, whether after overeating or imperfect digestion. For if the meal has been larger than can be digested, it is not

Now defaecation is to be procured also by a medicament, when, the bowels being costive, too little is passed, with the result that there is increase of flatulence, dizziness of vision, headaches, and other disturbances in the upper parts. For what can rest and fasting help in such circumstances which come about so much through them? He who wants to defaecate should in the first place make use of such food and wine as will promote it; then if these have little effect, he should take aloes. But purgatives also, whilst necessary at times, when frequently used entail danger; for the body becomes subject to malnutrition, since a weakened state leaves it exposed to maladies of all sorts.

The body is heated: by anointing, by salt-water affusion and the more so when hot; by all food which is salt, bitter and fleshy; and after meals by the bath and harsh wine. On the contrary it is cooled: by the bath and sleep on an empty stomach, if not too prolonged; by all sour food; by the coldest water to drink, by oil affusion when mixed with water.

The body is rendered humid: by more than customary exertion, by a frequent bath, by food in

The bowels are confined by exertion, by sitting still, by besmearing the body with potter's clay, by a scanty diet, and that taken once a day in the case of one accustomed to two meals, by drinking little and that only after the consumption of whatever food is to be taken, also by rest after food. On the contrary they are rendered loose: by increasing the length of the walk, more food and drink; by moving about after the meal; by frequently drinking during the meal. This too should be recognized, that a vomit confines the bowels when relaxed, and relaxes them when costive: again, a vomit immediately after the meal confines the bowels, later it relaxes them.

As to what pertains to age: the middle-aged sustain hunger more easily, less so young people, and least of all children and old people. The less readily one supports it, the more often should food be taken; one who is growing needs it most. Children and the old should bathe in warm water. Wine should be diluted for children; for the old men it should be rather undilute: but at neither age be of a kind to cause flatulence. It matters less for the young what they take and the way they are treated. Those who

The season of the year also merits consideration. In winter it is fitting to eat more, and to drink less but of a stronger wine, to use much bread, meat preferably boiled, vegetables sparingly; to take a single meal unless the bowels are too costive. If a meal is taken at midday, it is better that it should be somewhat scanty, and that dry, without meat, and without drinking. At that season everything taken should be hot or heat-promoting. Venery then is not so pernicious. But in spring food should be reduced a little, the drink added to, but, however, of wine more diluted; more meat along with vegetables should be taken, passing gradually from boiled to roast. Venery is safest at this season of the year. But in summer the body requires both food and drink oftener, and so it is proper in addition to take a meal at midday. At that season both meat and vegetables are most appropriate; wine that is much diluted in order that thirst may be relieved without heating the body; laving with cold water, roasted meat, cold food or food which is cooling. But just as food is taken more frequently, so there should be less of it. In autumn owing to changes in the weather there is most danger. Hence it is not good to go out of doors unless well covered, and with thick shoes, especially on the colder days; nor at night to sleep in the open air, or at any rate to be well covered. A little more food may now be taken, the wine less in quantity but stronger. Some think orchard fruit injurious, which is generally the

4 I have next to speak of those who have some parts of the body weak. He whose head is infirm ought, after he has digested well, to rub it gently in the morning with his own hands; never if possible cover it with a wrap; have it shaved to the skin. It is well to avoid moonlight, and especially before the actual conjunction of the moon and sun, and to walk nowhere after dinner. If he has retained his hair, he should comb it every day, walk much, but, if possible, not under cover nor in the sun; everywhere, however, he should avoid the sun's blaze, especially after taking food and wine; undergo anointing rather than affusion, but that never before a flaming fire, on occasion before a brazier. If he goes owing to the bath he should first sweat for a while, in the tepidarium, wrapped up, and then undergo anointing there; next pass into the calidarium; after a further sweat he should not go down into the hot bath, but have himself sluiced freely from the head downwards, first with hot, next with tepid, then with cold water, which should be poured for longer on the head than upon other parts, after which it should be rubbed for a while, lastly wiped dry and anointed. Nothing is so

5 Nor indeed is it only those who are troubled by a weakness of the head that find the use of cold water beneficial, but also those who suffer with persistent running from the eyes, choked nostrils and running from the nose, and tonsillar maladies. In these cases, not only is the head to be douched every day, but also the face bathed with abundance of cold water; especially should this be carried out by all those benefited by it, whenever the south wind renders the weather more oppressive. And whereas

6 But one who is often troubled by an urgent motion should exercise his upper parts at handball and the like; walk on an empty stomach, avoid the sun and continual bathing; undergo anointing even without sweating, not make use of multifarious foods, least of all stews or pulse or greens, and of those things which pass through quickly; in a word, to avoid all things which are digested slowly. Especially advantageous are: venison and hard fish and meat of domestic animals roasted. It is never expedient to drink wine treated with sea-water, nor indeed thin or sweet wine, but that which is dry and fuller-bodied, and not too old. If one desires to use honeyed wine, it should be made from boiled honey. Cold drinks are to be used whenever possible, so long as they do not disturb the bowels. When anything in the dinner is felt to disagree, he should provoke a vomit, repeating it the next day; on the third day should be eaten a small quantity of bread soaked in wine with the addition of grapes preserved in a jar or in must which has been boiled down and such like; then he should return to his accustomed habit; but he must always rest after the meal,

7 When the more lax intestine, which they name colon, tends to be painful, and when it is nothing more than an inflation of a sort, the aim should be to promote digestion; to practise reading aloud and other exercises; to use a hot bath, also hot food and drink, and in short, to avoid all manner of cold, all sweets and pulse, and whatever else tends to flatulence.

8 But if anyone suffers from his stomach, he should read out loud, and after the reading take a walk, then exercise himself at handball and at drill or at anything else which brings the upper part of the body into play; on an empty stomach he should not drink water but hot wine; if he digests readily he should take two meals a day; drink light and dry wine, and after a meal drinks should preferably be cold. Weakness of the stomach is indicated by pallor, wasting, pain over the heart, nausea, and involuntary vomiting, headache when the stomach is empty; where these symptoms are absent, the stomach is sound. Nor must one absolutely trust those of our patients who when very unwell have conceived a longing for wine or cold water, and in backing up their desires, lay the blame on their perfectly innocent stomach. But those who digest slowly, and whose parts below the ribs on that account become inflated, or who on account of heat of some kind become thirsty at night, may drink before going to bed three or four cupfuls of wine through a fine reed. Also, to counter slow digestion, it is well to read aloud, next to take a walk, then to be either anointed or laved, taking care to

9 When sinews tend to become painful, as is common in foot or hand ache, the affected part should be exercised as far as possible, even exposing it to work or to cold, unless when pain is increasing. Rest in the open air is best. Venery is always inimical; an in all other bodily affections, digestion is a necessity, for indigestion is most harmful, and whenever the body is attacked, the faulty part feels it most.

But just as digestion has to do with all sorts of troubles, so has cold with some, heat with others; each person should be guided by his own bodily habit. Cold is inimical to the aged, and to the thin; to wounds, to the parts below the ribs, intestines, bladder, ears, hips, bladebones, genitals, bones, teeth, sinews, womb, brain. It renders the skin pale, dry, hard, black; from it are developed shiverings and tremors. But cold is beneficial to the young and to stout people; in cold weather, with due precautions, the mind is more vigorous and the digestion better. Cold water affusion is of service, not only to the head, but also to the stomach, and to painful joints not accompanied by ulcerations, also for those who are too rubicund, when pain is absent. But heat benefits all that cold harms, such as dimness of eyesight when there is neither pain nor lacrimation, also contracted sinews, and particularly

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.

1 So then spring is the most salubrious, next after it comes winter; summer is rather more dangerous than salubrious, autumn is by far the most dangerous. But as regards weather the best is that which is settled, whether cold or hot, the worst that which is the most changeable, and that is why autumn brings down the greatest number. For generally about midday there is heat, but at night and in the early morning, cold, as also in the evening. Thus the body, relaxed by the preceding summer, and now by the midday heat, is caught by the sudden cold. But while this chiefly occurs at this season, so whenever the like happens harm is done.

In settled weather fine days are the most salubrious, rainy better than foggy or cloudy days; and in winter the best days are those in which there is an entire absence of wind, in summer those in which westerly winds blow. As for the other winds, the northerly are more salubrious than those from the sunrising or south; nevertheless, these vary somewhat according to the character of the district. For almost everywhere wind when coming from inland is salubrious, and injurious when from the sea. And not only is health more assured in settled weather, but pre-existing diseases also, if there have been any, are milder and more quickly terminated. But the worst weather for the sick man is that which has

The middle period of life is the safest, for it is not disturbed by the heat of youth, nor by the chill of age. Old age is more exposed to chronic diseases, youth to acute ones. The square-built frame, neither thin nor fat, is the fittest; for tallness, as it is graceful in youth, shrinks in the fulness of age; a thin frame is weak, a fat one sluggish.

In spring those diseases are usually to be apprehended which are stirred up anew by movement of humor. Consequently there tend to arise runnings from the eyes, pustules, haemorrhages, congestions in the body, which the Greeks call apostemata, black bile which they call μελανχολίαν, madness, fits, angina, choked nostrils, runnings from the nose. Also those diseases which affect joints and sinews, being at one time troublesome, at another quiescent, then especially both begin and recur.

But summer, while not wholly exempt from most of the foregoing maladies, adds to them fevers whether continued or ardent or tertian, vomitings, diarrhoeas, earaches, oral ulcerations, cankers which occur on other parts but especially upon the pudenda, and whatever exhausts the patient by sweating.

In autumn there is scarcely one of the foregoing which does not happen; but at this season in addition there arise irregular fevers, splenic pain, subcutaneous dropsy, consumption, called by the Greeks phthisis, urinary difficulty, which they call strangury, the

Winter provokes headache, coughs, and all the affections which attack the throat, and the sides of the chest and lungs.

Of the various sorts of weather, the north wind excites cough, irritates the throat, constipates the bowels, suppresses the urine, excites shiverings, as also pain of the lungs and chest. Nevertheless it is bracing to a healthy body, rendering it more mobile and brisk. The south wind dulls hearing, blunts the senses, produces headache, loosens the bowels; the body as a whole is rendered sluggish, humid, languid. The other winds, as they approximate to the north or south wind, produce affections corresponding to the one or other. Moreover, any hot weather inflates the liver and spleen, and dulls the mind; the result is that there are faintings, that there is an outburst of blood. Cold on the other hand brings about: at times tenseness of sinews which the Greeks call spasmos, at times the rigor which they call tetanos, the blackening of ulcerations, shiverings in fevers. In times of drought there arise acute fevers, runnings from the eyes, dysenteries, urinary difficulty, articular pains. In wet weather there occur chronic fevers, diarrhoeas, angina, canker,

As regards the various times of life, children and