Book I

 [p. 77] drink wine cold, a large drink after dinner, but as I have said through a tube, ending all by drinking cold water. He whose food tends to turn sour should beforehand take a draught of tepid water and vomit; but if as a consequence he has frequent motions, he should, whenever possible after each stool, take a draught of cold water.

9 When sinews tend to become painful, as is common in foot or hand ache, the affected part should be exercised as far as possible, even exposing it to work or to cold, unless when pain is increasing. Rest in the open air is best. Venery is always inimical; an in all other bodily affections, digestion is a necessity, for indigestion is most harmful, and whenever the body is attacked, the faulty part feels it most.

But just as digestion has to do with all sorts of troubles, so has cold with some, heat with others; each person should be guided by his own bodily habit. Cold is inimical to the aged, and to the thin; to wounds, to the parts below the ribs, intestines, bladder, ears, hips, bladebones, genitals, bones, teeth, sinews, womb, brain. It renders the skin pale, dry, hard, black; from it are developed shiverings and tremors. But cold is beneficial to the young and to stout people; in cold weather, with due precautions, the mind is more vigorous and the digestion better. Cold water affusion is of service, not only to the head, but also to the stomach, and to painful joints not accompanied by ulcerations, also for those who are too rubicund, when pain is absent. But heat benefits all that cold harms, such as dimness of eyesight when there is neither pain nor lacrimation, also contracted sinews, and particularly