A very curious regulation was that if the physician got drunk and anybody insulted him, he could claim no recompense, because “he knew not at what time the king might want his assistance.”
The physicians of Myddvai flourished in the time of Rhys Gryg in the early part of the thirteenth century. His domestic physician was Rhiwallon, who was assisted by his three sons Cadwgan, Gruffydd, and Einion. They lived at Myddvai, in the present county of Caermarthen. By command of the prince, these physicians made a collection of the most valuable prescriptions for the treatment of the various diseases of the human body. This collection was not reduced to writing previously, though many of the recipes were no doubt in use some centuries before. The original manuscript is in the British Museum, and there is a copy in Jesus College, Oxford, in the Red Book, which has been published with an English translation by the Welsh MSS. Society.[675] The descendants of this family of physicians continued to practise medicine without intermission until the middle of the last century. This most interesting volume also contains a second portion, which purports to be a compilation by Howel the physician, son of Rhys, son of Llewelyn, son of Philip the physician, a lineal descendant of Einion the son of Rhiwallon. Some medical prescriptions assumed the form of proverbs such as the following:—
Medical Maxims.
(From the Book of Iago ab Dewi.)
“He who goes to sleep supperless will have no need of Rhiwallon of Myddvai.
A supper of apples—breakfast of nuts.
A cold mouth and warm feet will live long.
To the fish market in the morning, to the butcher’s shop in the afternoon.
Cold water and warm bread will make an unhealthy stomach.
The three qualities of water: it will produce no sickness, no debt, and no widowhood.