The seven books of Paulus Ægineta, volume 1 (of 3)

by Aegineta Paulus

SECT. LIII.—ON THE REGIMEN FITTING TO THE DIFFERENT SEASONS.

It is proper to regulate the diet with a view to the season. In winter to take more fatigue, and eat more than usual, if the state of the weather be northerly; but if it be southerly, to take the same fatigue, but to use less food and drink. In fine, to make the body dry in the wet season, and warmer in the cold, to eat also warm fleshes and acrid pot-herbs, and drink more wine than usual. In the beginning of spring some may evacuate by emetics, and others by laxatives, and another may get a vein opened, according as habit or inclination directs. Rest is suitable to the season of summer, and also a diminution of labour and food; the food also ought to be more cooling and the drink abundant; and, in short, everything ought to be done which can contribute to cooling and dilution. In autumn, as it is a changeable, unsettled, and unhealthy season, the diet ought to be particularly attended to, that it be not too refrigerant; moderation as to venery and cold drink ought to be observed; and the cold breezes of morning and the heat of noon attentively guarded against. Too much fruit ought likewise not to be taken, being hurtful not only by the quantity, but also by the quality of the chyle which it supplies, and by engendering flatulence. Nay, even the best kinds of autumnal fruits, figs and grapes, engender flatulence, unless taken before any other food, for otherwise they spoil the other food; but if taken then, they neither are flatulent, nor spoil the other articles of food. When the air is cold the body must be warmed accordingly, and everything done, as in the commencement of winter. It may also be expedient, after the autumnal solstice, to have recourse to one of the afore-mentioned evacuations, lest any excrementitious particles being shut up in the system should prove hurtful during the winter.

Commentary. This is copied from Oribasius. (Euporist. i, 10.)

It is one of the aphorisms of Hippocrates that those who require bloodletting or medicine, should be bled or take medicine in the spring. (Aphor. sect. vi.) Galen, Rhases, Haly Abbas, and in short all the ancient authorities agree with him respecting this rule of practice. According to Alsaharavius, the pulse is stronger and fuller in spring than at any other season. (Theor. vii, 2.)

Hippocrates and Galen lay it down as a general rule that the fullest diet is most proper in winter, and the sparest in summer. (Aphor. i, 18.)

Rhases lays down very suitable directions for the regimen that is most proper during every season of the year, but they are scarcely at all different from our author’s. As we have mentioned, he recommends depletion in spring before the heat set in. In summer, he approves of cooling acid fruits with cold water for drink. In autumn he directs abstaining from cold baths, and the use of a restricted regimen. In winter, he recommends a full proportion of calefacients, such as pepper, cumin, mustard, and rocket. (Ad Mansor. iv, 26.) Winter, he says in another work, favours the formation of flesh and blood, braces the body, and strengthens the powers. Spring fills the system with humours. Summer dissolves the humours, and weakens the internal powers. Autumn engenders bad humours, bile, and blood. (Contin. xxxiv.)

Haly Abbas recommends purging or bleeding in spring, to evacuate the superfluities formed and shut up in the system during winter. In summer, the regimen is to be cooling and diluent; little exercise is to be taken; the cold bath is to be used, swimming in cold water is to be practised: for food, chickens, fish caught among rocks, grapes, apples, and the summer fruits will be proper; but wine is either not to be drunk at all, or much diluted with water and cooled in snow; and venery is to be avoided. In autumn, the regimen is to be cooling and desiccative, the exercise moderate, the cold bath is to be avoided, but the tepid is to be taken, and much fruit is to be avoided. In winter, the regimen is to be heating and desiccative, and wine is to be taken moderately. The wine, he adds, ought to be strong and heating, to counteract the cold of winter; but much must not be taken, because it will dilute and humectate the body which stands in need of desiccation. Wine, too, he says, possesses little nourishment, whereas the system requires much support in winter. He recommends the flesh of quadrupeds and fowls for food. (Pract. i.) See, in like manner, Avicenna (i, 3, 5); Alsaharavius (Theor. ix, 2.)

The poet Hesiod recommends a full diet in winter. (Opera et Dies, l. 558.)

Maximus Planudes, in a Declamation on winter, affirms that at this season the heat, being confined within the body, operates more strongly in performing the vital functions than at any other season. This season, he says, is favorable to all classes of men except doctors; but they are sick at heart to see that no other persons are sick, and, bewailing their own misery, undergo the thirst of Tantalus amidst the rains of winter! See Boissonade (Anecd. Græca, vol. ii.)

Among the works of the ‘Physici et Medici Græci Minores,’ published a few years ago by Ideler, there are several small treatises, one by Hierophilus Sophistes, in prose, one by Theodorus Prodromus in iambic verse, and two others, anonymous, in which the regimen adapted to every month of the year is carefully laid down, but the rules are too minute to admit of being given here. We may mention, however, that they generally recommend pork, with peppers, and pure wine, as the best course of diet in winter.