Kitap 3
4
But his best medicament is food opportunely given; the question is when it should first be garden. Most of the ancients gave it late, often on the fifth, often on the sixth day of illness, which the climate of Asia or of Egypt may perchance permit. Asclepiades, after he had for three days harassed the patient in every way, destined the fourth day for food. But Themison, recently, took into account not when the fever began, but when it ceased, or at any rate was alleviated; and awaiting the third day from that time, if there was no return of the fever, gave food at once; if fever recurred, he gave food when it ceased, or if it obstinately persisted, he certainly gave it if the fever abated. But on none of these matters is there actually an invariable precept. For it may be that the first food should be given on the first day, it may be on the second, it may be on the third, it may be not until the fourth or fifth day; it may be after one paroxysm, it may be after two, it may be after several. For it all depends upon the kind of disease, the patient's body, the climate, his age, and the time of year; where circumstances differ so greatly, there cannot be an invariable rule of time by any means. In the case of a disease which takes away more of the patient's strength, food is to be given earlier, and the same in a climate in which he uses up more. Hence in Africa it seems right that a patient should never fast over a day. Food should also be given sooner to a child than to an adolescent, sooner in summer than in winter. There is one thing that should be observed, always, and everywhere, that the patient's strength should be continually under the eye of the attending practitioner; and so long as there is a superfluity, he should counter it by abstinence; if he begins to fear weakness, he should assist with food. For it is his business to see that the patient is neither burdened by superfluous material nor rendered weak by hunger. And this I find also in the writings of Erasistratus; who although he did not direct when the bowels should be emptied, or when the body in general, nevertheless, by saying that such things should be seen to, and food given when it was needed by the body, showed sufficiently that food should not be given while the strength was in excess, but that care should be taken not to let it become deficient. Hence it can be understood that it is not possible for many patients to be cared for by one practitioner, and provided that he is skilled in the art, he is a suitable one who does not much absent himself from the patient. But they who are slaves to gain, since more is to be got out of a crowd, are glad to adopt those precepts which do not exact a sedulous attendance, as in this very instance. For even those who see the patient but seldom find it easy to count days or paroxysms; a physician must always be at hand, if he is to see the one thing that matters, the point when the patient is about to become too weak unless he gets food. The fourth day, however, is generally the most suitable date for beginning to give food.
