Aphorisms of Hippocrates

indeed, each of these is considered by itself and through something else. A regimen, such as food, while it is considered by itself—that is, by its own nature—we find it to be of thin or thick substance, of a hot or other temperament, of humors and parts similar or dissimilar, of taste, odor, and one or more faculties; new or old, of a kind suitable for the diet of man, or not. Through something else, or by accident, food is understood if it is much or little, if it is pleasant or unpleasant, if it is easily overcome by human heat, if it has originated in a good or bad place, if it is offered at opportune hours, if in a congruent order, and finally if any external things accompany it, by whose cause it might delight or disturb the nature of man. These things we all first find in food, which furthermore considers five things: namely, the man, the disease, the cause of the disease, the symptoms, and the circumstances. For man of a thicker nature desires one food, one of a thinner nature another: one of a hot [nature] another, one of a cold [nature] another, one of a sanguine another, one of a phlegmatic or bilious [nature] another; one with robust principal parts another, one with thin and weak ones another; one of a rarer substance and composition another, one of a dense one another; one of thick spirits another, one of thin ones another; one of a robust faculty another, one of a weak and languid one another; one of fast operations another, one of slow ones another; one of youth another, one of old age another; one of a male another, one of a female another; one accustomed to this or that food another, one not accustomed another; one of a rich man another, one of a poor man another; one of a man who strongly exercises his body or mind another, one of an idle man another; one affected by some affections of the mind another, one not so affected another. If we observe the humor, or the material cause of the disease, the phlegm desires a different food than the bile; if the place affected by the humor, the head languishing from phlegm requires this food, which the stomach, affected by the same, rejects; if the time of concoction,