CHAP. 118.—FROM WHAT CAUSES CORPULENCE ARISES; HOW IT MAY BE REDUCED.
Digestion during sleep is more productive of corpulence than strength. Hence it is, that it is preferable for athletes to quicken digestion by walking. Watching, at night more especially, promotes digestion of the food.
(54.) The size of the body is increased by eating sweet and fatty substances, as well as by drinking, while, on the other hand, it is diminished by eating dry, acrid, or cold substances, and by abstaining from drink. Some animals of Africa, as well as sheep, drink but once every four days. Abstinence from food for seven days, even, is not of necessity fatal to man; and it is a well-known fact, that many persons have not died till after an abstinence of eleven days. Man is the only animal that is ever attacked with an insatiate[371] craving for food.
CHAP. 119.—WHAT THINGS, BY MERELY TASTING OF THEM, ALLAY HUNGER AND THIRST.
On the other hand, there are some substances which, tasted in small quantities only, appease hunger and thirst, and keep up the strength, such as butter, for instance, cheese made of mares’ milk, and liquorice. But the most pernicious thing of all, and in every station of life, is excess, and more especially excess in food; in fact, it is the most prudent plan to retrench everything that may be possibly productive of injury. Let us, however, now pass on to the other branches of Nature.
Summary.—Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations, two thousand, two hundred, and seventy.
Roman authors quoted.—M. Varro,[372] Hyginus,[373] Scrofa,[374] Saserna,[375] Celsus Cornelius,[376] Æmilius Macer,[377] Virgil,[378] Columella,[379] Julius Aquila[380] who wrote on the Tuscan art of Divination, Tarquitius[381] who wrote on the same subject, Umbricius Melior[382] who wrote on the same subject, Cato the Censor,[383] Domitius Calvinus,[384] Trogus,[385] Melissus,[386] Fabianus,[387] Mucianus,[388] Nigidius,[389] Manilius,[390] Oppius.[391]
Foreign authors quoted.—Aristotle,[392] Democritus,[393] Neoptolemus[394] who wrote the Meliturgica, Aristomachus[395] who wrote on the same subject, Philistus[396] who wrote on the same subject, Nicander,[397] Menecrates,[398] Dionysius[399] who translated Mago, Empedocles,[400] Callimachus,[401] King Attalus,[402] Apollodorus[403] who wrote on venomous animals, Hippocrates,[404] Herophilus,[405] Erasistratus,[406] Asclepiades,[407] Themison,[408] Posidonius[409] the Stoic, Menander[410] of Priene and Menander[411] of Heraclea, Euphronius[412] of Athens, Theophrastus,[413] Hesiod,[414] King Philometor.[415]