Aristotle's Problems

In whomsoever the belly and stomach do not overflow with evil humors, and especially phlegmatic ones, their belch is pure; but those filled with such humors emit a belch of a foul odor. Because the radish is hot, it dries the humors and thins them; moreover, it moves the breath from the humors, and exhausts and empties them by belching through the mouth. Thus, if mud remains at rest, it gives off no foul odor; but when moved and upturned by something, it releases a stench. Therefore, whoever says that the radish itself is of an evil nature and possesses the quality of a foul odor, and for that reason also gives off a heavy scent for a long time even externally, is mistaken; for if it were so, it would be necessary that everyone receiving and chewing it should belch foul odors.

Why in bitter frosts do the fingers and extremities of the body turn black and fall off? Because the fierce cold pursues the innate heat inward and shuts it up in the body; the remaining extremities die, since the vital heat does not stir there. Thus, they first become livid, then black, and finally they die. They fall off for this reason: that nature, providing for the rest of the healthy body, encompasses it and binds it to itself, forsaking the dead part and permitting it to fall away. Indeed, the extremities are afflicted first because they are not fleshy, and likewise they are less warm and are weak and porous. But whoever says that from the beginning the innate heat flees the cold—as being hostile to itself—toward the interior, and then, having gathered its strength, returns to recover the forsaken parts and rushes to their aid in a dense column, and that by this intervention of the aid of the concentrated column of heat it burns out the extremities—that which is driven there far more by its remaining there—they are mistaken.

Why are those with freezing extremities, who bring them to a fire to be warmed, tormented with the greatest pain? Because of the sudden change in quality; for if one is moved from great cold into great heat, he suffers this. For everything effected immoderately and all at once through distemperance vexes nature. But through a good temperament and moderation, or into that which is changed according to nature, it greatly delights nature itself; for the human body possesses a substance more subject to the moderation of temperament than other animals.

Why do those who swallow pepper hiccup? Because of the proportion, I say, which it has with those things that agitate from without and bring distress. Pepper and yellow bile are like thorns, but phlegm and bread are like a very heavy stone. Those who have the mouth of the stomach void of superfluities and quite sensitive and hot, are immediately bitten by the acrimony of the pepper and turn the stomach into a spasmodic rejection; and being irritated by the persistence of it, they are moved to the aforementioned hiccup. But those whose stomachs are more phlegmatic and colder, and not sufficiently subject to sensation, hiccup later. This also happens to those who suddenly swallow a very large piece of bread, being weighed down by the frequency and size of the bread, because nature cannot endure it nor rest in its own members when something is present that brings destruction. Pepper, therefore, of an acrid quality, acts in proportion to the bile stimulating within. Bread, however, being heavy in its quantity—just as a multitude of phlegm pressing within—causes a hiccup.

Why do afflictions in the nails of the fingers excite the greatest pain? Because the nerves descending into the backs of the fingers create the nails with their superfluities, just as the gums create the teeth; wherefore the sensory power penetrating through the nerves even to the ends of the nerves, residing there and being compressed, becomes greater, just as water which flows down into a valley. There is no doubt, moreover, that where the sense is more excited by an affliction, a greater pain is also exasperated there.

Why, in those who suddenly swallow a somewhat large piece of bread and thus hiccup, does the retention of breath stay the hiccup? It must be said that the esophagus is joined roughly to the artery [trachea], and the artery itself reaches the rest of the esophagus and narrows the space; being thus constrained, it presses the piece of bread down into the belly, and thus, being relieved of the burden, it settles the hiccup.

Why do those who hiccup because of swallowed bread not hiccup when they hear something distressing? Because they have the mind dismayed and intent upon the cause which moves the sorrow; and the breath, no longer going forth because of the neglect to move the chest, and being forced by its multitude, stays the hiccup as we have said.

Why, when standing nearer to images, do we see flat colors, but when viewing them from afar, we see some recessed and retreating, others indeed protruding? It must be said that the power of sight, being at a great distance, cannot skillfully discern the manifest qualities of colors, but sees the whiter colors as protruding and the blacker as receding. For white, approaching splendor, whitens and shines outward; but black, like air and darkness, recedes inward. Indeed, some of the arts give form to matter, as when a statue-maker casts a horse or an ox in bronze, or finishing an animal of this kind, or diminishing it, fashions a man, or changes the matter of the bronze from one species to another. Others act by addition, as he who makes a face in wax or any likeness, or the potter who fashions from clay. Others by subtraction, in the manner of one carving an animal; others by composition, joining, and connection, such as the building art; others by alteration, both of temperament and of the addition to the body, as nature which increases the members by nourishing; and others by the mixture of colors and the coupling of bodies, such as painting.

Why, if cold water is harmful to the nerves, is hot water not friendly, but also harmful? For if the one is harmful, its contrary ought to be healthful. For contraries cannot act similarly upon the same thing, by the first reason and through the same thing; here I say that heat is not absolutely harmful, but