184 REGIMEN SANITATIS SALERNITANUM. 



Cui nor fuit unquam 

 Ante sitim potus, nee cibus ante famem. 



We can easily understand that an agent which can produce so much 

 disease, is of importance in the treatment of disease when existing. It 

 is indeed not easy to over-estimate the value of the moderata diceta in 

 medical practice. Celsus informs us, that by the Greeks, physic was di- 

 vided into three parts, one of which (the S'latTTiriK}!,) cured diseases 

 by diet alone. He also informs us that " there is no one thing more re- 

 lieves an indisposed person than a reasonable abstinence." {Grieves^ 

 TransL, p. 79.) Our sick would be somewhat startled at a Celsian pre- 

 scription to give the patient food every third day. Aretasus is particu- 

 larly strong in his praise of diet : " Si recens malum sit, ad pristinum 

 habitum recuperandum, alia medela non opus est. " In the words of 

 the School of Salerno : 



Ex magna cosna stomacho fit maxima pcEna, 

 Ut sis nocte levis sit tibi ccena brevis. 



The general repose and quiescence of all the organs, that are neces- 

 sary to recovery, are not possible when the stomach is distended. Even 

 in health, there is little sleep to a full stomach. Incubi and succubi are 

 swallowed with our suppers, and, by the same means, we too often neu- 

 tralize all the therapeutic effort of the physician. "Absolute diet," by 

 which physicians mean absolute want of diet, "is a potent means of cure 

 in many cases." The Arab physicians of our own time, as I am informed 

 by my learned friend, Mr. G. R. Gliddon, cure patients of many obsti- 

 nate skin diseases, by keeping them for sixty days on an allowance of 

 dry biscuit and water and giving an alterative ptisan. We can readily 

 understand which is the active means of cure. The last medical nov- 

 elty, received from Germany, (where they can manufacture systems of 

 medicine as rapidly as they can Niirnberg dancing dolls,) is a practical 

 application of the plan of diet in its fullest extent. Its inventor is one 

 Schrott, a retired serjeant-major of the Austrian service, who has opened 

 at Lindewiese in Silesia, what he calls a " universal-remedy-establish- 

 ment on the hunger-and-thirst system." (Grahani's Grcsfenlierg, Lon- 

 don, 1844.) His treatment consists mainly of rigorous diet, and if suc- 

 cessful, will prove the truth of what no one has disputed since the days 

 of Hippocrates, — that rest and diet are often enough to cure, unaided, 

 very many diseases. I would merely add in conclusion, that by diet in 

 this sense, we understand total abstinence from all alcoholic beverages. 



The principal error of the aphorism, is that it confines the attention 

 too exclusively to the three important points mentioned. A fourth 

 should be added, ijersonal cleanliness. The bath must not be forgotten. 



