Giordano Bruno: De Umbris Idearum (1582 First Edition)

is: which, when we press to recall something from memory, is opened; it provides a passage for the animal spiritIn Renaissance physiology, the "animal spirit" was a subtle fluid responsible for sensation, movement, and thought, flowing through the nerves and brain ventricles. from the prow to the stern A metaphor for the front and back of the brain.. Furthermore, the animal spirit never passes through unless it is serene, lucid, and clear. Hence, when it is dulled by immoderate coldness, it renders our memory blunt and languid. Indeed, if this coldness is joined with dryness, it will bring about immoderate wakefulness and insomnia; if joined with humidity, it causes lethargyoriginal: "lethargum"; a state of pathological drowsiness or coma.. To repel these conditions, the following means have been devised by art:

Exercise that recalls and excites the senses, and which, as it were, awakens the spirits lulled to sleep by shameful sluggishness and idleness. Moderate sexual intercourse. The repelling of sadness and the restoration of joy through pleasure. The purging of all the passages of the body. Rubbing the head with an ivory comb and a rough cloth. The use of lighter or watered-down wines, lest the veins, gaping from the vehemence of the wine, should scorch the blood. The closing of the stomach with naturally or artificially stypticAstringent substances used to "seal" the stomach and prevent vapors from rising. things, lest the smokiness evaporating from the stomach due to the boiling of food—which obscures the mind and the intellect—should induce sleep. Abstinence from cold and humid foods, such as fish in general, brains, and marrow, no less than from sharp and smoky leeks, radishes, garlic, and onions, which have not been softened by fire—