Kitap 2
18
Of drinks too the strongest class are: whatever can be made from grain, likewise milk, mead, must boiled down, raisin wine, wine either sweet or heady or still fermenting or of great age. But vinegar, and that wine which is a few years old, whether dry or rich, are intermediate in quality; and therefore to weak patients nothing of the other class should be given. Water is of all the weakest; and drink from grain is the more nutritious, according as the grain itself is nutritious; wine coming from a good soil is more nutritious than from a poor one, that from a temperate climate more nutritious than from an extreme one, whether too wet or too dry, whether excessively cold or hot. Mead, the more honey it contains, must the more it is boiled down, raisin wine the drier the grapes - are the stronger. Rain water is the lightest, then spring water, next water from a river, than from a well, after that from snow or ice; heavier still is water from a lake, the heaviest from a marsh. The recognition of water is as easy as it is necessary for those who want to know its nature. For by weighing, the lightness of water becomes evident, and of water of equal weight, that is the better, which most quickly heats or cools, also in which pulse is most quickly cooked. It is generally the case too that the more substantial the material, the less readily it is digested, but once digested it nourishes the more. Thus the quality of the food administered should be in accordance with the patient's strength, and the quantity in accordance with its quality. For weak patients, therefore, there is needed the lightest food; food of the middle class best sustains those moderately strong, and for the robust the strongest is the fittest. Finally, of the lightest foods more can be taken; it is rather with the strongest food that moderation should be observed.
