Galen's Commentaries on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates

For indeed children have a greater appetite, and are more harmed by long fasts. But the middle ages between the elderly and children are more or less troubled and harmed by long fasts, according to how much closer they stand to the one or the other of them. Moreover, he himself teaches the cause of this aphorism in the following one, which begins thus: "Those bodies which increase have the most innate heat." So that if anyone should wish to join it to the former, and utter it with the conjunction "for," then the discourse would become a single and manifest one, being of this sort: "The elderly bear fasting most easily; in the second place, those who are of a settled age; adolescents less so; and children least of all; for those bodies which are growing have the most innate heat." But he calls those of a "settled age" those who hold the middle age between the young and the old, such that they have retired from their prime, yet do not yet possess the manifest senescence of old age. Thus also Thucydides said that certain people were in a settled age. But between this age and that of adolescents, there is another certain age which, just as it occupies a middle order of ages, so also of ease and difficulty. Thus, it can neither bear fasting as easily as those in a settled or old age, nor with as much difficulty as adolescents and children. Hippocrates, however, makes no mention of it, so that anyone might understand it from those which he did mention. For when he says, "especially those who are more vigorous among them," he manifested the differences of nature. For children, who have the most innate heat, are more prone to taking food and can concoct it better; and if they do not take it, they are more harmed. Such is the Hippocratic discourse; it requires also a certain small addition for perfection. In those indeed who are in the beginning of old age, it is rightly said: "The elderly bear fasting most easily." But in those who have reached extreme old age, it is not right, because these too cannot tolerate long fasts. Therefore, one ought either to add something brief to the aphorism and pronounce it in this manner: "The elderly bear fasting most easily, except those who have reached extreme old age; in the second place, those who are of a settled age." Or the word "fasting" should be changed to "scarcity of food," and said thus: "The elderly tolerate a scarcity of food; in the second place, those who are of a settled age." For even those who reach extreme old age will be found—even if they cannot tolerate a long fast—to nevertheless require little food. For they suffer something of the same sort that happens to lamps nearly extinguished, which require a continuous supply of oil, but cannot sustain a large and sudden amount at once; thus also for these one must provide a small total quantity, and divide this very scarcity of food into many portions. Nor should a single long fast be imposed upon them.

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Ornamental drop cap 'Q' with floral/foliage motifs.

Those things which grow have the most innate heat. Therefore, they require the most nourishment; otherwise, the body is consumed. But in the elderly, there is little innate heat; therefore, they require few fuels, for [the heat] is extinguished by many. For this reason also, fevers in the elderly do not become similarly acute, for their body is cold.

.xiiii.

Ornamental drop cap 'D' with floral/foliage motifs.

It has been discussed by us more fully, both in the commentaries on Temperaments in the second volume, how it has seemed to some physicians that those who stand in the vigor of youth are hotter, but to others that children are. For the former have a sharper heat, but the latter a more abundant one. But now it is also necessary to speak insofar as it pertains to the present passage, condensing the discourses and arguments into as few words as possible. Therefore, we sometimes apply this very word "hot" to the quality, whose proper name is "hotness," but sometimes we call the whole body "hot" denominatively from the quality.