Aphorisms
SECTION I
Part 1
Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous,
and decision difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to
do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants,
and externals cooperate.
Part 2
In disorders of the bowels and vomitings, occurring spontaneously,
if the matters purged be such as ought to be purged, they do good,
and are well borne; but if not, the contrary. And so artificial evacuations,
if they consist of such matters as should be evacuated, do good, and
are well borne; but if not, the contrary. One, then, ought to look
to the country, the season, the age, and the diseases in which they
are proper or not.
Part 3
In the athletae, embonpoint, if carried to its utmost limit, is
dangerous, for they cannot remain in the same state nor be stationary;
and since, then, they can neither remain stationary nor improve, it
only remains for them to get worse; for these reasons the embonpoint
should be reduced without delay, that the body may again have a commencement
of reparation. Neither should the evacuations, in their case, be carried
to an extreme, for this also is dangerous, but only to such a point
as the person's constitution can endure. In like manner, medicinal
evacuations, if carried to an extreme, are dangerous; and again, a
restorative course, if in the extreme, is dangerous.
Part 4
A slender restricted diet is always dangerous in chronic diseases,
and also in acute diseases, where it is not requisite. And again,
a diet brought to the extreme point of attenuation is