BIOLOGICAL BEGINNINGS 3 



to the sight nor does their touch seem ahke to the hand? From the follow- 

 ing evidence you may know that these elements are not all one, but that 

 each of them has its own power and its own nature. If you were to give a 

 man a medicine which withdraws phlegm, he will vomit you phlegm; if 

 you give him one which withdraws bile, he will vomit you bile. Similarly 

 too black bile is purged away if you give a medicine which withdraws 

 black bile. And if you wound a man's body so as to cause a wound, blood 

 will flow from him. So long as a man lives he manifestly has all these ele- 

 ments always in him. 



Phlegm increases in a man in winter; for phlegm, being the coldest con- 

 stituent of the body, is closest akin to winter. It is in winter that the 

 sputum and nasal discharge of men is fullest of phlegm; at this season mostly 

 swellings become white, and diseases generally phlegmatic. And in spring 

 too phlegm still remains strong in the body while the blood increases. And 

 in summer blood is still strong, and bile rises in the body and extends until 

 autumn. In the summer phlegm is at its weakest. But in autumn, blood 

 becomes least in man, for autumn is dry and begins from this point to chill 

 him. It is black bile which in autumn is greatest and strongest. All these 

 elements are then always comprised in the body of a man, but as the 

 year goes round they become now greater and now less, each in turn and 

 according to its nature. 



Now, as these things are so, such diseases as increase in the winter ought 

 to cease in the summer, and such as increase in the summer ought to cease 

 in the winter, with the exception of those which do not depart in a period 

 of days. When diseases arise in the spring, expect their departure in 

 autumn. Such diseases as arise in autumn must have their departure in 

 spring. Whenever a disease passes these limits, you may know that it will 

 last a year. 



HUMOURS 



The fashions of diseases. Some are congenital and may be learned by 

 inquiry, as also may those that are due to the district, for most people are 

 permanent residents there, so that those who know are numerous. Some 

 are the result of the physical constitution, others of regimen, of the con- 

 stitution of the disease, of the seasons. Countries badly situated with respect 

 to the seasons engender diseases analogous to the seasons. 



If the seasons proceed normally and regularly, they produce diseases that 

 come easily to a crisis. If the summer proves bilious, and if the increased 

 bile be left behind, there will also be diseases of the spleen. So when spring 

 too has had a bilious constitution, there occur cases of jaundice in spring 

 also. When summer turns out hke to spring, sweats occur in fevers. When 

 the spring turns out wintry, with after-winter storms, the diseases too are 

 wintry, with coughs, pneumonia or angina. For seasons, too, suffer from 

 relapses, and so cause diseases, 



