De Medicina

Celsus, Aulus Cornelius

Celsus, Aulus Cornelius. De Medicina. Spencer, Walter George, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University; London, England: W. Heinemann Ltd, 1935-1938.

19 The foregoing are not the only differentiations; but as well some materials have good juices,

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others bad, what the Greeks call euchylous and kakochylous; some are bland, others acrid; some render our phlegm thicker, others thinner; some agree with the stomach, others are alien; also some cause flatulence, others are free from that; some warm, others cool; some readily turn sour in the stomach, others do not readily decompose inside; some move the bowels, others check motions; some excite urination, others retard it; some promote sleep, others excite the senses. All these, then, should be known because one suits one body or constitution, one another.

20 Of good juice are: wheat, siligo, spelt, rice, starch, frumenty, pearl barley gruel, milk, soft cheese, all sorts of game, all birds of the middle class, also the larger birds named above; fish intermediate between the soft and hard, such as mullet and bass; spring lettuce, nettle-tops, mallow, gourd, raw egg, purslane, snails, dates; orchard fruit which is neither bitter nor sour; wine sweet or mild, raisin wine, must boiled down; olives preserved either in wine or must; sow's womb, pig's chaps and trotters, all fatty or glutinous meat, and the liver of all animals.

21 Of bad juice are: millet, panic, barley, pulse; very lean meat from domesticated animals and all salted meat; all pickled fish, fish sauce, old cheese; skirret, radish, turnip, navew, bulbs; cabbage and even more its sprouts, asparagus, beet, cucumber, leek, rocket, cress, thyme, catmint, savory, hyssop, rue, dill, fennel, cummin, anise, sorrel, mustard,

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garlic, onion; spleens, kidneys, chitterlings; orchard fruit when sour or bitter; vinegar, everything acrid, sour, bitter, oily; also rock fish, and all fish of the very soft kind, or on the other hand those which are very hard and strong-flavoured, mostly such as live in ponds, lakes and muddy rivers, and which have become excessively large.

22 The following are bland materials: broth, porridge, pancake, starch, pearl barley gruel, fat and glutinous meat, generally all that belong to domesticated animals, particularly, however, the trotters and titbits of pigs, the pettitoes and heads of kids, calves, and lambs, and the brains of all animals; likewise all bulbs properly so‑called, milk, must boiled down, raisin wine and pine kernels. The following are acrid: everything especially harsh, everything sour, everything salt, and even honey, and the better it is the more it is so. Likewise garlic, onion, rocket, rue, cress, cucumber, beet, cabbage, asparagus, mustard, radish, endive, basil, lettuce and most pot-herbs.

23 Now the following make phlegm thicker: raw eggs, spelt, rice, starch, pearl barley gruel, milk, bulbs, and generally all glutinous substances. Phlegm is rendered thinner by: all salted and acrid and acid materials.

24 But best suited to the stomach are: whatever is harsh, even what is sour, and that which has been sprinkled moderately with salt; so also unleavened bread, and spelt or rice or pearl barley which has been soaked; birds and game of all kinds, and both of these whether roasted or boiled; among domesticated animals, beef; of other meat the lean rather than the fat; the trotters, chaps,

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ears, and the sterile womb of a pig; among pot-herbs, endive, lettuce, parsnip, cooked gourd, skirret; among orchard fruit, the cherry, mulberry, service fruit, the mealy pear from Crustumeria, or the Mevian; also keeping-pears, Tarentine or Signian, the round or Scandian apple or that of Ameria or the quince or pomegranate, raisins preserved in jars; soft egg, dates, pine kernels, white olives preserved in strong brine, or the same steeped in vinegar, or black olives which have been well ripened on the tree, or which have been preserved in raisin wine, or in boiled-down must; dry wine is allowable even although it may have become harsh, also that doctored with resin; hard-fibred fish of the intermediate class, oysters, scallops, the shellfish murex and purpura, snails; food and drink either very cold or very hot; wormwood.

25 But on the other hand materials alien to the stomach are: all things tepid, all things salted, all things stewed, all things over-sweetened, all things fatty, broth, leavened bread, and likewise that made from either millet or barley, pot-herb roots, and pot-herbs eaten with oil or fish sauce, honey, mead, must boiled down, raisin wine, milk, cheese of all kinds, fresh grapes, figs both green and dry, pulse of all sorts, and whatever causes flatulence; likewise thyme, catmint, savory, hyssop, cress, sorrel, charlock, walnuts. But it can be understood from the above that what has good juice does not necessarily agree with the stomach, and that whatever agrees with the stomach has not necessarily good juice.