[p. 301]and in the same manner
the urine, and alvine discharges, and sweats, according as they appear
along with favorable or unfavorable symptoms, indicate diseases of
a short or long duration.
Part 13
Old persons endure fasting most easily; next, adults; young persons
not nearly so well; and most especially infants, and of them such
as are of a particularly lively spirit.
Part 14
Growing bodies have the most innate heat; they therefore require
the most food, for otherwise their bodies are wasted. In old persons
the heat is feeble, and therefore they require little fuel, as it
were, to the flame, for it would be extinguished by much. On this
account, also, fevers in old persons are not equally acute, because
their bodies are cold.
Part 15
In winter and spring the bowels are naturally the hottest, and
the sleep most prolonged; at these seasons, then, the most sustenance
is to be administered; for as the belly has then most innate heat,
it stands in need of most food. The well-known facts with regard to
young persons and the athletae prove this.
Part 16
A humid regimen is befitting in all febrile diseases, and particularly
in children, and others accustomed to live on such a diet.
Part 17
We must consider, also, in which cases food is to be given once
or twice a day, and in greater or smaller quantities, and at intervals.
Something must be conceded to habit, to season, to country, and to
age.
Part 18
Invalids bear food worst during summer and autumn, most easily
in winter, and next in spring.
Part 19
Neither give nor enjoin anything to persons during periodical
paroxysms, but abstract from the accustomed allowance before the crisis.
Part 20
When things are at the crisis, or when they have just passed it,
neither move the bowels, nor make any innovation in the treatment,
either as regards purgatives or any other such stimulants, but let
things alone.
Part 21
Those things which require to be evacuated should be evacuated,
wherever they most tend, by the proper outlets.
Part 22
We must purge and move such humors as are concocted, not such
as are unconcocted, unless they are struggling to get out, which is
mostly not the case.
Part 23
The evacuations are to be judged of not by their quantity,