Kitap 1
9
But just as digestion has to do with all sorts of troubles, so has cold with some, heat with others; each person should be guided by his own bodily habit. Cold is inimical to the aged, and to the thin; to wounds, to the parts below the ribs, intestines, bladder, ears, hips, bladebones, genitals, bones, teeth, sinews, womb, brain. It renders the skin pale, dry, hard, black; from it are developed shiverings and tremors. But cold is beneficial to the young and to stout people; in cold weather, with due precautions, the mind is more vigorous and the digestion better. Cold water affusion is of service, not only to the head, but also to the stomach, and to painful joints not accompanied by ulcerations, also for those who are too rubicund, when pain is absent. But heat benefits all that cold harms, such as dimness of eyesight when there is neither pain nor lacrimation, also contracted sinews, and particularly those ulcerations which are due to cold. It gives the surface of the body a good colour; it promotes diuresis. If excessive it weakens the body, mollifies sinews, relaxes the stomach. Yet cold and heat are both least safe when applied suddenly to persons unaccustomed to them; for cold gives rise to pain in the side and other diseases, cold water excites swelling in the neck. Heat hinders concoction, prevents sleep, exhausts by sweating, renders liable the body to pestilential illnesses.
