Aphorisms of Hippocrates

rightly; but those who have an inclination towards the worse are cured unseasonably and beyond the opportunity, that is, because the cure was not performed in time. Therefore, in establishing a regimen, or in administering a medicine, or in performing a surgical operation, the physician must choose the opportune time, that is, the opportunity. For a thin diet has its own time in diseases, in the causes of diseases, and in symptoms: in a hot or cold temperament, in a bilious humor or not, in the stomach, or another part of the body whether fleshy or lean, in a strong or weak constitution, in this or that region, in this time of the year, in a body replete or empty. Similarly, it must be said of the remaining four things, which each also demand their own proper time; because all these things, and the others which are elements or are composed of elements, are in perpetual motion and mutation, and all motion is measured by time, of which opportunity is a part, which is called fleeting and sudden, as it flows and perishes immediately. But that the experiment is perilous can be understood in two ways: by its own nature and through something else. For the experiment is threefold, or rather consists in the three instruments of the physician: in diet, in medicines applied inside or outside the body, and in surgical operation. If the physician knows these three, and the disease, its causes, its co-causes, and the nature of the patient, he will never be said to be experimenting, but to be cognizing and knowing. But if he is ignorant of all or some of them, his instruments are called experiments, because he makes a risk regarding a matter of which he has no knowledge, and he knows neither the disease, nor the nature of the patient, nor the causes. Therefore, if he is ignorant of even one of these parts, he will surely be called an experimenter and an empiric, and not a physician. But