Chap. 16.] KEMEDIES FROM THE SEXUAL CONGRESS. 297 



(5.) Hippocrates informs us that the viscera of persons who 

 do not take the morning meal 6 become prematurely aged and 

 feeble ; but then he has pronounced this aphorism, it must be 

 remembered, by way of suggesting a healthful regimen, and not 

 to promote gluttony ; for moderation in diet is, after all, the 

 thing most conducive to health. L. Lucullus gave charge to 

 one of his slaves to overlook him in this respect ; and, a thing 

 that reflected the highest discredit on him, when, now an aged 

 man and laden with triumphs, he was feasting in the Capitol 

 even, his hand had to be removed from the dish to which he 

 was about to help himself. Surely it was a disgrace for a man 

 to be governed by his own slave 7 more easily than by himself! 



CHAP. 15. (6.) REMEDIES DERIVED FROM SNEEZING. 



Sneezing, provoked by a feather, relieves heaviness in the 

 head ; it is said too, that to touch the nostrils of a mule with 

 the lips, will arrest sneezing and hiccup. For this last pur- 

 pose, Yarro recommends us to scratch the palm, first of one 

 hand and then of the other ; while many say that it is a good 

 plan to shift the ring from off the left hand to the longest finger 

 of the right, and then to plunge the hands into hot water. 

 Theophrastus says, that aged persons sneeze with greater diffi- 

 culty than others. 



CHAP. 16. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE SEXUAL CONGRESS. 



Democritus spoke in condemnation of the sexual congress, as 8 

 being merely an act through which one human being springs from 

 another ; and really, by Hercules ! the more rarely it is used 

 the better. Still however, athletes, we find, when they become 

 dull and heavy, are re-established by it : the voice, too, is re- 

 stored by it, when from being perfectly clear, it has degenerated 

 into hoarseness. The congress of the sexes is a cure also for 

 pains in the loins, dimness of the eyesight, 9 alienation of the 

 mental difficulties, and melancholy. 



6 " Non prandentium." 



7 Callisthenes the physician is the person supposed to be alluded to. 

 Lucullus did not seem to be of opinion that a man " must be a fool or a 

 physician at forty." 



8 "Ut in qua homo alius exsiliret ex homine." The true meaning of 

 this it seems impossible, with certainty, to ascertain : though a more in- 

 delicate one than that given might be easily suggested. 



9 On the contrary, some authorities say that it is apt to cause dimness of 



