De Medicina |
Translator: Walter George Spencer
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| 9 |
Si quis uero stomacho laborat , legere clare debet et post lectionem ambulare ; tum pila et armis alioue quo genere , quo superior pars mouetur , exerceri ; non aquam sed uinum calidum bibere ieiunus ; cibum bis die adsumere , sic tamen ut facile concoquat ; uti uino tenui et austero , et si post cibum , frigidis potius potionibus . Stomachum autem infirmum indicant pallor , macies , praecordiorum dolor , nausea , et nolentium uomitus , ieiuno dolor capitis ; quae in quo non sunt , is firmi stomachi est . Neque credendum utique nostris est , qui cum in aduersa ualetudine uinum aut frigidam aquam concupiuerunt , deliciarum patrocinium in accusatione non merentis stomachi habent . At qui tarde concocunt , et quorum ideo praecordia inflantur , quiue propter ardorem aliquem noctu sitire consuerunt , ante quam conquiescant duos tresue cyathos per tenuem fistulam bibant . Prodest etiam aduersus tardam concoctionem clare legere , deinde ambulare , tum uel ungui uel lauari ; adsidue uinum frigidum bibere , et post cibum magnam potionem , sed , ut supra dixi , per siphonem ; deinde omnes potiones aqua frigida includere . Cui uero cibus acescit , is ante eum bibere aquam egelidam debet et uomere : at si cui ex hoc frequens deiectio incidit , quotiens aluus ei constiterit , frigida potione potissimum utatur .
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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 drink wine cold, a large drink after dinner, but as I have said through a tube, ending all by drinking cold water. He whose food tends to turn sour should beforehand take a draught of tepid water and vomit; but if as a consequence he has frequent motions, he should, whenever possible after each stool, take a draught of cold water. |
| 10 |
Si cui uero dolere nerui solent , quod in podagra cheragraue esse consueuit , huic , quantum fieri potest , exercendum id est , quod adfectum est , obiciendumque labori et frigori , nisi cum dolor increuit . Sub diuo quies optima est . Venus semper inimica est ; concoctio , sicut in omnibus corporis adfectibus , necessaria : cruditas enim id maxime laedit , et quotiens offensum corpus est , uitiosa pars maxime sentit . Vt concoctio autem omnibus uitiis occurrit , sic rursus aliis frigus , aliis calor ; quae sequi quisque pro habitu corporis sui debet . Frigus inimicum est seni , tenui , uulneri , praecordiis , intestinis , uesicae , auribus , coxis , scapulis , naturalibus , ossibus , dentibus , neruis , uuluae , cerebro . Idem summam cutem facit pallidam , aridam , duram , nigram ; ex hoc horrores tremoresque nascuntur . At prodest iuuenibus et omnibus plenis ; erectiorque mens est , et melius concoquitur , ubi frigus quidem est sed cauetur . Aqua uero frigida infusa , praeterquam capiti , etiam stomacho prodest , etiam articulis doloribusque , qui sunt sine ulceribus , item rubicundis nimis hominibus , si dolore uacant . Calor autem adiuuat omnia , quae frigus infestat , item lippientis , si nec dolor nec lacrimae sunt , neruos quoque , qui contrahuntur , praecipueque ea ulcera , quae ex frigore sunt . Idem corporis colorem bonum facit , urinam mouet . Si nimius est , corpus effeminat , neruos emollit , stomachum soluit . Minime uero frigus et calor tuta sunt , ubi subita insuetis sunt : nam frigus lateris dolores aliaque uitia , frigida aqua strumas excitat . Calor concoctionem prohibet , somnum aufert , sudorem digerit , obnoxium morbis pestilentibus corpus efficit .
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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 those ulcerations which are due to cold. It gives the surface of the body a good colour; it promotes diuresis. If excessive it weakens the body, mollifies sinews, relaxes the stomach. Yet cold and heat are both least safe when applied suddenly to persons unaccustomed to them; for cold gives rise to pain in the side and other diseases, cold water excites swelling in the neck. Heat hinders concoction, prevents sleep, exhausts by sweating, renders liable the body to pestilential illnesses. |
| 11 |
Est etiam obseruatio necessaria , qua quis in PESTILENTIA utatur adhuc integer , cum tamen securus esse non possit . Tum igitur oportet peregrinari , nauigare , ubi id non licet , gestari , ambulare sub diu ante aestum leniter eodemque modo ungui ; et , ut supra conprensum est , uitare fatigationem , cruditatem , frigus , calorem , libidinem , multoque magis se continere , si qua grauitas in corpore est . Tum neque mane surgendum neque pedibus nudis ambulandum est , minime post cibum aut balineum ; neque ieiuno neque cenato uomendum est , neque mouenda aluus ; atque etiam , si per se mota est , conprimenda est . Abstinendum potius , si plenius corpus est , itemque uitandum balneum , sudor , somnus meridianus , utique si cibus quoque antecessit ; qui tamen semel die tum commodius adsumitur , insuper etiam modicus , ne cruditatem moueat . Alternis diebus in uicem modo aqua modo uinum bibendum est . Quibus seruatis ex reliqua uictus consuetudine quam minimum mutari debet . Cum uero haec in omni pestilentia facienda sint , tum in ea maxime , quam austri excitarint . Atque etiam peregrinantibus eadem necessaria sunt , ubi graui tempore anni discesserunt ex suis sedibus , uel ubi in graues regiones uenerunt . Ac si cetera res aliqua prohibebit , utique retineri debebit a uino ad aquam , ab hac ad uinum qui supra positus est transitus .
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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 to be done in pestilence of all sorts, and particularly in one brought by south winds. And the same precautions are needed by those who travel, when they have left home during an unhealthy season, or when entering an unhealthy district. Even when something prevents observance of other rules, yet he ought to keep up the alteration, mentioned above, from wine to water, and from water to wine. |
| 12 |
Instantis autem aduersae ualetudinis SIGNA conplura sunt . In quibus explicandis non dubitabo auctoritate antiquorum uirorum uti , maximeque Hippocratis , cum recentiores medici , quamuis quaedam in curationibus mutarint , tamen haec illos optime praesagisse fateantur . Sed antequam dico , quibus praecedentibus morborum timor subsit , non alienum uidetur exponere , quae tempora anni , quae tempestatum genera , quae partes aetatis , qualia corpora maxime tuta uel periculis oportuna sint , quod genus aduersae ualetudinis in quo timeri maxime possit , non quo non omni tempore , in omni tempestatum genere omnis aetatis , omnis habitus homines per omnia genera morborum et aegrotent et moriantur , sed quo minus * * * frequentius tamen quaedam eueniant , ideoque utile sit scire unumquemque , quid et quando maxime caueat .
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Book II PROOEMIUM 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. |