[p. 79] drinks made from green
shoots, those from raisins, and the skins of grapes and wheat, and
bastard saffron, and myrtles, pomegranates, and the others, when the
proper time for using them is come, they will be treated of along
with the disease in question, in like manner as the other compound
medicines.
PART 18
The bath is useful in many diseases, in some of them when used steadily,
and in others when not so. Sometimes it must be less used than it
would be otherwise, from the want of accommodation; for in few families
are all the conveniences prepared, and persons who can manage them
as they ought to be. And if the patient be not bathed properly, he
maybe thereby hurt in no inconsiderable degree, for there is required
a place to cover him that is free of smoke, abundance of water, materials
for frequent baths, but not very large, unless this should be required.
It is better that no friction should be applied, but if so, a hot
soap (smegma) must be used in greater abundance than is common, and
an affusion of a considerable quantity of water is to be made at the
same time and afterwards repeated. There must also be a short passage
to the basin, and it should be of easy ingress and egress. But the
person who takes the bath should be orderly and reserved in his manner,
should do nothing for himself, but others should pour the water upon
him and rub him, and plenty of waters, of various temperatures, should
be in readiness for the douche, and the affusions quickly made; and
sponges should be used instead of the comb (strigil), and the body
should be anointed when not quite dry. But the head should be rubbed
by the sponge until it is quite dry; the extremities should be protected
from cold, as also the head and the rest of the body; and a man should
not be washed immediately after he has taken a draught of ptisan or
a drink; neither should he take ptisan as a drink immediately after
the bath. Much will depend upon whether the patient, when in good
health, was very fond of the bath, and in the custom of taking it:
for such persons, especially, feel the want of it, and are benefited
if they are bathed, and injured if they are not. In general it suits
better with cases of pneumonia than in ardent fevers; for the bath
soothes the pain in the side, chest, and back; concocts the sputa,
promotes expectoration,
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