[p. 31]
and in some cases melancholy; for the most humid and watery part of
the bile being consumed, the thickest and most acrid portion is left,
and of the blood likewise, when these diseases came upon them. But
all these are beneficial to the phlegmatic, for they are thereby dried
up, and reach winter not oppressed with humors, but with them dried
up.
PART 11
Whoever studies and observes these things may be able to foresee most
of the effects which will result from the changes of the seasons;
and one ought to be particularly guarded during the greatest changes
of the seasons, and neither willingly give medicines, nor apply the
cautery to the belly, nor make incisions there until ten or more days
be past. Now, the greatest and most dangerous are the two solstices,
and especially the summer, and also the two equinoxes, but especially
the autumnal. One ought also to be guarded about the rising of the
stars, especially of the Dogstar, then of Arcturus, and then the setting
of the Pleiades; for diseases are especially apt to prove critical
in those days, and some prove fatal, some pass off, and all others
change to another form and another constitution. So it is with regard
to them.
PART 12
I wish to show, respecting Asia and Europe, how, in all respects,
they differ from one another, and concerning the figure of the inhabitants,
for they are different, and do not at all resemble one another. To
treat of all would be a long story, but I will tell you how I think
it is with regard to the greatest and most marked differences. I say,
then, that Asia differs very much from Europe as to the nature of
all things, both with regard to the productions of the earth and the
inhabitants, for everything is produced much more beautiful and large
in Asia; the country is milder, and the dispositions of the inhabitants
also are more gentle and affectionate. The cause of this is the temperature
of the seasons, because it lies in the middle of the risings of the
sun towards the east, and removed from the cold (and heat), for nothing
tends to growth and mildness so much as when the climate has no predominant
quality, but a general equality of temperature prevails. It is not
everywhere the same with regard to Asia, but such parts of the country
as lie intermediate between the heat and the cold, are the best supplied
with
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