GREEK BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 



constitution is), relative to meat and drink, 

 and what he is relative to the rest of his mode 

 of life, and what results follow for the indi- 

 vidual from particular things, and all this not 

 merely in general terms, as e.g., ' cheese is un- 

 wholesome food, for it distresses one who eats 

 plentifully of it '; but what particular distress 

 it causes, and for what reason, and to what in- 

 gredient of the man's constitution it is un- 

 suitable." 12 



The writer points to the physician's need to 

 consider this question closely. Each individual 

 is peculiarly constituted, and cheese will be 

 injurious or strengthening as it may or may 

 not suit his constitution. Here the writer 

 tacitly accepts the Hippocratic conception of 

 the four humors representing the four ele- 

 mental qualities of every human body: the 

 blood contains the warm-moist quality; yellow 

 bile, the warm-dry; black bile, the cold-dry; 

 and phlegm (formed in the brain), the cold- 

 moist. Although these humors do not exist 

 in the same proportions in every individual, 

 nevertheless each person's health depends upon 

 their due relations and blending, while an ab- 

 normal preponderance or accumulation of any 

 one of them produces disease. Though the 



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