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BOOT
4
Regimen Sanitatte gaiernitanum.
Code of Health
School of Salernum,
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE, WITH AN
INTRODUCTION, NOTES AND APPENDIX.
BY
JOHN ORDRONAUX, LL.B., M.D.,
Prof, of Medical Jurisprudence in the Law School of Columbia
College, N. Y., Etc., Etc., Etc.
' Laudibus aetemum nullum negat esse Salernum;
Illuc pro morbis totus circumfluit Orbis,
Nee debet sperni, fateor, doctrina Salemi."
Immortal praise adorns Salerno's name,
To seek whose shrine the World's infirm once came ;
Nor should this Age, her Laws of Health, disclaim.
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1870.
Ooi> wen/', , ;
LIBEABT. °
* J
*sf»'ngton OV
\ i7
fR^
F'h^ A?
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
J. B.. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.
lippincott's press,
philadelphia.
TO
NATHAN SMITH LINCOLN, M.D.,
Professor of Special Operative and Clinical Surgery in the National
Medical College, Washington, D. C,
MEDICAL FOSSIL, NEWLY PRESERVED IN ENGLISH VERSE,
Affectionately Dedicated,
AS A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT TO HIS HIGH PROFESSIONAL AND CLASSI-
CAL ATTAINMENTS, AND A HUMBLE MEMORIAL OF THE LIFE-
LONG FRIENDSHIP OF A COLLEGE CLASSMATE.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
chap. page
i. Of Mental Conditions and of Certain Remedies............. 47
2. Refreshment for the Brain................................. 49
3. Of Noontide Sleep....................................... 49
4. Of Incarcerated Flatus.................................... 51
5. Of Supper............................................... 51
6. The Rule for Apportioning Meals.......................... 53
7. Food to be Avoided...................................... 53
8, 9. Food that Nourishes and Fattens........................ 55
10. Of the Qualities of Good Wine............................ 55
11. Of Sweet White Wine.................................... 55
12. Of Red Wine............................................ 57
13. Of Antidotes to Poisons................................... 57
14. Of Air.................................................. 57
15. Of Over-drinking........................................ 57
16. Of the Best Kind of Wine................................ 59
17, 18, 46. Of Beer and Vinegar.............................. 59
19. The Appropriate Diet for each Season...................... 61
20. Of Correcting an Improper Drink.......................... 61
21. Of Sea-sickness......................................... 63
22. Of Condiments in General................................. 63
1 * 5
6 Index of Subjects.
chap. page
23. Utility of Washing the Hands............................. 63
24. Of Bread................................................ 65
25. Of Pork................................................. 65
26, 45. Of Must............................................. 67
27. Of Drinking Water....................................... 67
28. Of Veal................................................. 69
29. Of Edible Birds.......................................... 69
30. Of Fish................................................ 69
31. Of Eels and Cheese ..................................... 71
32. Of Food and Drink at Meals.............................. 71
33. Of Peas and Beans....................................... 71
34. Of Milk for Consumptives................................. 73
35, 36. Of Butter and Whey.................................. 73
37. Of Cheese............................................... 75
38. Method of Eating and Drinking............................ 77
39. Of Pears................................................ 79
40. Of Cherries.............................................. 81
41. Of Prunes.............................................. 81
42. Of Peaches, Grapes and Raisins........................... 81
43. OfFigs................................................. 83
44. Of Medlars.............................................. 85
47. Of Turnips.............................................. 85
48. Of Animal Viscera...................................... 85
49. Of Fennel Seed.......................................... 87
50. Of Anise................................................ 87
51. Of Reeds............................................... 89
52. Of Salt................................................ 89
53. Of Tastes and their Qualities.............................. 91
54. Of Wine-Soup........................................... 91
Index of Subjects. 7
chap. page
55. Of Diet................................................. 91
56. Of Dieting............................................... 93
57. Of Cabbage............................................. 93
58. Of Mallows............................................. 95
59. Of Mint................................................. 95
60. Of Sage................................................. 95
61. Of Rue................... ............................. 97
62. Of Onions............................................... 97
63. Of Mustard............................................. 99
64. Of the Violet............................................ 99
65. Of the Nettle............................................ 99
66. Of Hyssop.............................................. 101
67. Of Chervil.........................................,___ 101
68. Of Elecampane.......................................... 101
69. Of Pennyroyal........................................... 103
70. Of Cresses.............................................. 103
71. Of Celandine............................................ 103
72. Of the Willow..................................;........ 103
73. Of Saffron............................................... 105
74. Of Leeks................................................ 105
75. Of Pepper.............................................. 107
76. Of Dullness of Hearing................................. 107
77. Of Ringing in the Ears................................... 107
78. Things Hurtful to the Sight............................... 109
79. Things Strengthening the Sight............................ 109
80. Of Allaying Toothache................................... 109
81. Of Hoarseness........................................... n 1
82. Of Remedies for Catarrh................................. 111
83. Cure for a Fistula........................................ 113
8 Index of Subjects.
CHAP. page
84. Of Headaches ......................................... "3
85. Of the Four Seasons of the Year......................... "3
86. Number of Bones, Teeth and Veins in the Body............ 115
87. Of the Four Humors in the Human Body.................. "5
88. Of Temperaments.—The Sanguine........................ "7
89. The Bilious Temperament............................... IJ7
90. The Phlegmatic Temperament............................ 119
91. The Melancholy Temperament............................ 119
92. Of Complexions......................................... 119
Indications of Plethora............................... 121
Indications of Excess of Bile......................... 121
Indications of Excess of Phlegm...................... 121
Indications of Excess of Black Bile.................... 123
93. Of Bleeding, and of the Age for Bleeding.................. 123
94. In what Month it is Proper, and in what Improper to Bleed.. 123
95. Of Obstacles to Bleeding................................ 125
96. Circumstances Relating to Blood-letting.................... 125
97. Of some Effects of Blood-letting.......................... 127
98. Of the Size of the Wound in Blood-letting................. 127
99. Things to be Considered in Blood-letting............... ... 127
100. Things to be Avoided after Bleeding...................... 129
101. In what Diseases, Ages and Quantities Blood-letting should
Occur................................................ 129
102. What Parts are to be Depleted and in what Seasons........ 129
103. Of the Benefit of Bleeding from the Salvatella Vein......... 131
Specimens of English Translations........................ 132
Index of Subjects. 9
APPENDIX.
chap. page
1. The Physician's Praise.................................... 137
2. Objects of Medicine..................................... 137
3. Limits of Medicine....................................... 137
4. Inconveniences of Physicians.............................. 139
5. How to Forestall the Ingratitude of Patients................ 139
6. Demeanor Necessary for the Physician..................... 143
7. Of Quackery......,..................................... 143
8. Exhortation to Health.................................... 143
9. Hygiene................................................ 145
10. Winds.................................................. 147
11. Autumn................................................. 147
12. Winter................................................. 147
13. Regimen of the Months.—January......................... 149
14. February................................................ 149
15. March.................................................. 149
16. April................................................... 151
17. May.................................................... 151
18. June.................................................... 151
19- July.................................................... 151
20. August.................................................. 153
21. September.............................................. 153
22. October................................................. 153
23. November............................................... 155
24. December............................................... 155
25. General Rules for Eating.................................. 155
26. Order of Supping........................................ 157
27. Cider and Perry......................................... 157
A*
io Index of Subjects.
chap. page
28. Mead................................................... 159
29. Coffee.................................................. 159
30. Of the Use of Baths...................................... 159
31. Effects of Sparkling Wine................................ 161
32. Effects of New Wine..................................... 161
33. The Time and Mode of Sleeping.......................... 163
34. Of Nature's Calls........................................ 163
35. Of Eggs............................................... 165
36. The Delights of Life..................................... 165
37. Valedictory.............................................. 167
PREFACE.
TO cherish the memory of our professional masters
with becoming reverence, and to fan the dying
embers of classical scholarship on the hearthstone of
modern Medicine, have been the impelling" motives to the
preparation of this volume. For its text, however old it
may appear, now that nine centuries have rolled their en-
gulfing tides upon it, is one which, whatever its rhetorical
merits, can never be worn out in human estimation. The
preservation of Health is a living problem in every age.
And, although disenchanting Science, through her prying
handmaids, Physiology and Chemistry, has rudely shat-
tered the old medical idols seated at the gateways of
Nature, and carried the torch of investigation into a world
not dreamed of by the Salernian masters, yet their writings,
as embodied in the following Code, re-echo with intuitions
which our meridional philosophy both accepts and demon-
strates to be the expressions of great fundamental laws, that
must have been inscrutable to these Medical Fathers.
Aside from these facts, however, the wisdom of succes-
sive generations has set the seal of its approbation upon the
11
12
Preface.
Regimen Sanitatis Salerni as a work of transcendent merit.
Though written in the early twilight of the Middle Ages
and in inferior Latin, it at once took its place alongside of
such classic productions as the Aphorisms of Hippocrates.
No secular work, indeed, ever met with more popular favor,
nor infused its canons so radically into the dogmas of any
science. It was for ages the medical Bible of all Western
Europe, and held undisputed sway over the teachings of its
schools, next to the writings of Hippocrates and Galen.
For centuries, the educated world, laymen, as well as phy-
sicians, pondered over its broad truths, its quaint sugges-
tions, its astute interpretations of physical phenomena and
its aphoristic sayings, as the hoarded wisdom of all pre-
ceding time. And though its merit is not enhanced by the
framework of Leonine verses in which the subject was set,
it would be unjust to suppose that even this masculine, un-
varnished measure, without any quality to recommend it
save its sonorous cadences, had no part in introducing it to
popular favor. Little wonder is it, therefore, that it became
a Book of Proverbs among physicians, a sort of Vade Mecum
in fact, which, down even to modern days, each one felt
bound to commit to memory, as Cicero tells us Roman
boys did the Twelve Tables, ut carmen necessarium. To
such a celebrity had this Poem attained even to the present
century, that it has passed through, as one critic asserts,
two hundred and forty editions, while others say only one
hundred and sixty-three. Be this as it may, either figure
expresses a popularity not commonly acquired by any
secular work.
With such a record to introduce it, little need be said in
explanation of its reappearance, beyond what was stated in
the opening sentence of this preface. The Poem—how-
ever barbarous its Latin, however limping in structure and
faulty in syntax, as well as prosody—will always speak for
Preface.
l3
itself, and prove its own highest worth to consist in the
pointed common sense which sparkles in almost every line.
Copies of it have also become so exceedingly rare that
few, even, of our largest libraries contain any. It is fast
becoming, therefore, a lost constellation in the firmament
of letters; and, inasmuch as with the decreasing attention
paid to classical culture among physicians of our day the
writings of the early masters are gradually drifting into
oblivion, I have, out of love and reverence for them,
endeavored to rescue this waif from Lethean submersion,
and to present it, "tricked out in the new-spangled ore"
of a versified English translation, as a contribution to our
own medical literature.
No English translation of the Regimen has appeared since
1617, and that one being susceptible of improvement not
less in language than in versification, as may be judged by
the specimen annexed, I have accordingly undertaken the
task of producing as literal a translation in verse as the
spirit of the original, its medical dogmas, aphoristic say-
ings, the differences of idiom between the two languages
and the cramping exigencies of prosody, would permit. It
has been my aim, throughout, to secure fidelity of translation
rather than grace in paraphrase, since the pith of an apho-
rism would often be destroyed by diffusing this latter
through the waters either of circumlocution or of a meta-
phor ; and yet, with a double-rhyming Latin line, it has
been impossible at times to give a literal interpretation
within the mechanical limits of heroic verse. Nothing but
a tour de force could accomplish it. How far, therefore,
I have been able to serve the English, without misinterpret-
ing the Latin, the reader can best judge for himself. And
if I shall have succeeded in rekindling a flame of admira-
tion for the labors of the Medical Fathers, however humble
they may appear by the side of those of our Athenian
M
Preface.
civilization, I shall have secured a tribute to the sovereignty
of science and the memory of her pioneers, such as is too
apt to be neglected in the midst of the rapid and gigantic
strides of this Age of Wonders. J. O.
Roslyn, N. Y.. August, 1869.
INTRODUCTORY.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SALERNUM.
Terra Salerni.
Urbs Phcebo sacrata, Minervae sedula nutrix;
Fons Physicae, pugil eucrasiae, cultrix Medicinae;
Assecla Naturae, vitae paranympha; salutis
Pronuba fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis;
Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis.
*******
quo tanquam sole nitenti
Et nitet, et nituit illustris fama Salerni.1
THESE words, written by a mediaeval poet of renown,
are not an inflated metaphor, terminating in an empty
boast. The earliest school of Medicine in Christian Europe
has, even in the fragments of her doctrines which have de-
scended to us, bequeathed an imperishable legacy to the
Healing Art, such as no other academy ever. did. And to-
day, after nine hundred years have added their stores of
acquisition to the past achievements of the human mind in
science and art, the name of Salernum still stands without
1 Aegidius Coiboliensis. Lib : de Virtut: et Laud: Comp : Med.
In Leyser's Hist. Poet: et Poem : Medi-Aevi. Cited in Croke's Regi-
men Sanitatis Salernitana: p. 54
15
16 Introductory.
a peer in historic grandeur, as the true Day-Star and Herald
of Didactic Medicine, among the Western nations. The
representative and expounder of the Hippocratic doctrines,
embellished with the later culture of the Arabians, her
school became the repository and fountain of all past
learning, the strong pillar of tradition and the most jealous
guardian of conservative Medicine. An uncompromising
enemy to empiricism in every form, she still practiced a
boundless liberality toward proficiency and culture in medi-
cal scholarship wherever found, inviting to the privileges
and honor of a seat in her faculty, the wise of either sex;
thus anticipating by centuries all subsequent medical schools
in this act of intellectual justice; and after collecting the
floating, fragmentary knowledge of previous generations,
has given it to the world developed and digested in special
treatises by her ripest scholars. No school of Medicine
in any age or country, if only for this, can ever over-peer
her in renown; and even, as in the Universities of Europe
during the Middle Ages, at the bare mention of the name
of the learned Cujacius, every scholar instinctively uncov-
ered himself, so at the very name of Salernum, that foun-
tain and nurse of rational Medicine, every physician should
recall her memory "with mute thanks and secret ecstasy,"
as among the most spotless and venerated chapters in the
history of his art.
According to a native historian,1 the city of Salernum
was so named from salum (salt), and Lirnus, the river
1 Antonio Mazza, Historia Urbis Salerni, in Graevius, Thesaurus
Antiq. Ital. vol: 9, part: 4 : § 9.
Michael Zapulle " Nel Compend. dell' Histor: di Napoli," fol: 267,
says:
" Fu Salerno edificate da Sem, come si legge nell' officio particolare
di quella chiesa, approbate da Sommi Pontifici, e nelle Croniche di
quella Citta."
Introductory. 17
which washes it; while according to more ancient chron-
iclers, it was founded by, and derived its name from Shem,
the elder son of Noah.
" Salernum post diluvium a Sale Noe pronepote conditum.
Exulta, cujus studio,
Arphaxad, Sale primogenitum tuo nomine nuncupavit."
And in the church, during the festival of Sts. Fortunatus,
was sung, after mass, this anthem :
" O Salernum, civitas nobilis quam fundavit Sem."
According to these same traditions, Shem founded five
cities in Italy, all whose names begin with S., viz.: Sipon-
tum, Samnia, Salernum, Surrentum, Sena-Vetus. But it is
far more probable, and all contemporaneous history favors
the idea, that Salernum, whatever the etymology of its
name, was founded by Goths, Suevi or Lombards, any of
which tribes might, in their general migration through the
fallen Roman Empire, have colonized on the shores of
Southern Italy. The position of the city, with the sea on
the south and sheltering mountains on the north, whose
sides were clothed with balsamic forest trees, seems always
to have been considered an inviting one to strangers, and
when its monks, stimulated into additional activity of mind
by the labors of their brethren in the neighboring monas-
tery of Monte Casino, began to study and to practice the
scientific medicine of the Greeks and Arabians, the influx
of invalids and students into the city became proportion-
ally great. Indeed, the renown of these monk-physicians,
carried possibly in the mouths of itinerant Crusaders, spread
over Europe, and led the poets of that and subsequent ages
to speak of the city as Urbs antiqua Salernum, celebrata per
Orbem. And from this generally admitted pre-eminence
in medical learning, its school stood as the recognized head
of dogmatic Medicine, and representative of the last and best
culture in the Healing Art down almost to the sixteenth cen-
2*
i8
Introductory.
tury. Such was the fame, founded upon merit, of this little
city in which Minerva found so many untiring worshippers.
The School of Salernum.
The Medical School of Salernum dates back to the ninth
century, although writers disagree so extensively upon the
question of its origin, whether ecclesiastical or lay, that it
is hardly worth our while to open any discussion upon it.1
That a school existed there, flourished, and was the ac-
knowledged head of all European medical academies
during the Middle Ages, is an established fact no longer
to be gainsaid. As early as 984, Adalberon, bishop of
Verdun, is recorded to have visited Salernum for the pur-
pose of obtaining medical advice; and the abbot of Monte
Casino, Desiderius, afterward known as Pope Victor III.,
also came there in 1050 for the same purpose. Peter of
Amiens, writing about the same time, mentions in terms of
high praise Gariopuntus, one of the masters in its school,
as an aged philosopher greatly skilled in medical lore.2
And in 1057, according to an authoritative historian,3 Ru-
dolph, surnamed Mala Corona, who was himself an adept
in the physical sciences, on visiting Salernum, as any
scholar would the seat of a flourishing university for the
purpose of communing with its distinguished lights, found,
in the person of a learned matron and professor, Trotula,
the only intellect that could successfully combat with his
own. But a few years later, Roger, Count of Sicily, con-
1 PucciNOTTi, Storia delta Medicina, Tom : ii., p. 247. Livorno, 1855.
2 Ecole de Salerne. Introduction, par le Dr. Charles Daremberg.
Paris, 1861, p'. xxiv.
3 Rudolphus Mala Corona Physicae scientiam tam copiose habuit, ut
in urbe Psalernitana, ubi maximae Medicorum Scholae ab antiquo tem-
pore habentur, neminem in medicinali arte praeter quandam sapientem
mulierem, sibi parem inveniret. Ordericus Vitalis, Eccl: Hist: lib :
3, ad Ann. 1057.
Introductory.
!9
firmed by letters patent the ancient privileges of its College
of Doctors. Romualdus,1 writing in 1075, speaks emphati- \
cally of the high renown already achieved by Salernum, of
which place he had not only been archbishop, but had also
obtained a wide reputation as a skillful practitioner of medi-
cine. The archives of the Neapolitan kingdom contain the
names of Salernian physicians of as early a date as 846,
and in whatever way the school is mentioned by mediseval
writers, it is always spoken of reverentially, because of its
great antiquity.
The Greeks, who, in the persons of Hippocrates and
Galen, must be considered as the founders of all rational
Medicine, have always maintained a foothold for their doc-
trines in some of the medical schools of Europe. And to-
day, Montpelier, the former rival and present successor of
Salernum in dogmatism, is perhaps the purest Hippocratic
school in the world. While it is true that the medical
Fathers were translated into Latin as early as the sixth cen-
tury, as appears from a passage in Cassiodorus,2 yet it would
seem that their authority was somewhat rivaled by the more
practical treatises of the Methodists, who, for a while at
least, held sway in the schools. The subsequent develop-
ment of medical learning among the Arabians and their
sedulous culture of the Fathers, whose treatises they had
translated and adopted in their seminaries, revived their
waning authority among those Western nations with whom
Arabian civilization had come into contact. But whether
this orthodoxy in medicine was carried to Salernum by the
Saracens or not (and their visits, originally of a predatory
nature, do not antedate the middle of the ninth century),
1 Romualdus, Chronic. Salernit: in Muratori, Script. Rer : Ital: Vet:
vol: vii., part 162.
2 " Legite Hippocratem et Galenum lingua Latina conversos." Mu-
ratori Antiq : Ital: vol: iii., col. 930.
20
Introductory.
all writers agree upon the fact that her early, constant and
uncompromising conservatism had, from the first, won her
the distinguished title of Civitas Hippocratica,1 a title of
which she was herself justly proud, since this legend was
inscribed upon her seal.
But although an enemy to Empiricism and Methodism,
either of which creeds had been considered as essentially
heterodox even in the days of Galen, her dogmatism in
practice was guided by a rational interpretation of the
elements of general pathology. Hence, according to the
Practica of Petrocellus and the Passionarius of Gariopun-
tus about A. D. 1040, the form of practice of her physicians
was essentially Methodist (doctrines of strictum et laxuni) in
their pathology, but dogmatic, or more properly Hippo-
cratic in their therapeutics;2 yet, as it is alleged, without
any consciousness of the opposite character of the two
systems, the former of which they would have been horri-
fied to adopt suo proprio nomine. It is not necessary, how-
ever, in this connection, to discuss in detail the peculiar
tenets of this renowned school. They may have been
purely Hippocratic, or partly Themisonian. They may
have professed humorism alone, or combined solidism with
it. Their pathology and practice may have been consistent
or contradictory, and a critical historian might properly
embark upon the task of analyzing and settling this long-
mooted point. But to us it is not a question requiring dis-
cussion here. Let Salernum have been more or less tinc-
tured with progressive ideas in Medicine, sometimes relaxing,
sometimes narrowing, her dogmatic conservatism, she has
still come down to us through all the varying phases of nine
centuries as the unquestioned fountain and archetype of
1 Antonio Mazza, Hist: Salerni, cap. ix.
2 Diiremberg, Op : cit: p. xxi.
Introductory.
21
orthodox Medicine, and the mother of all subsequent medi-
cal schools.
The Statutes of the college of Salernum are remarkable
for the jealous guardianship which they exercise over the
purity and proficiency of candidates for medical degrees.
The school had selected for its patron St. Matthew, and
for the motto on its seal the words "Civitas Hippocratica."
Its Faculty consisted of ten professors or Magistri, who suc-
ceeded each other according to seniority.1 The examina-
tion of candidates was conducted with great strictness, and
consisted in expositions either of Galen's Therapeutics, or
the first book of Avicenna; also in the Aphorisms of Hip-
pocrates and the Analytic? of Aristotle. If successful, the
candidate received the title of M. A. and Physician.
Candidates were required to be twenty-one years of age,
and to produce proofs of having studied Medicine for seven
years. As yet the degree thus obtained did not authorize
one to practice indiscriminately in every department; for,
if the candidate desired to be admitted to practice Surgery,
it was required in addition that he should study Anatomy
for one whole year. But every one, to whatever degree
admitted, must first swear to be true and obedient to the
Society of Physicians—to refuse all fees from the poor, and
to have no share of gains with apothecaries. A book was.
then put into his hands—a ring upon his finger—his head •
was crowned with laurel, and he was dismissed with a kiss.
These statutes were modified from time to time, although
the spirit of rigid honor and medical orthodoxy in which
they were cast was never abated to the last. Again, an-
other law required that the candidate should have accom-
plished three years of study in logic, and five years in both
medicine and surgery, before he could be admitted to an
1 Sprengel's History of Medicine, vol : 2, p. 142.
22
Introductory.
examination. He must also swear to conform to estab-
lished rules, and among other things servare formam curia
hactenus observatam, and inform the authorities whenever
an apothecary falsified drugs.
On the other hand, apothecaries were obliged to com-
pound medicines as the physician directed and to sell them
at an established price.
Frederick II., A. D. 1225, gave to the Universities of
Salernum and Naples the exclusive right of conferring
degrees and licenses to practice medicine in the kingdorn
of Naples. The candidate when admitted received the
title of Magister, and was so confirmed by royal authority.
A still later law required, after five years' study, another
year of practice with an old physician. But during these
five years the candidate might still teach in public. An-
other rule, which was evidently considered of more than
ethical obligation, forbade every physician to share in the
profits of apothecaries or to keep a drug store himself.
The instruction imparted in the school was restricted to
such principles alone as were found in the authenticated
texts of Hippocrates and Galen.
The fees of practitioners were duly regulated according
to time and distance. Thus, for office-calls and those
within the city limits during the day, physicians received
half a tarenus ;Y for calls outside the city three tareni if
1 The tarenus was a goid coin equal in value to two Neapolitan carlini,
or about eight cents of our money, gold standard. At this rate, our
illustrious Masters of Salernum received four cents for office-calls and
such as were made in the city; and twenty-four cents for those made
out of town.
Content with little, like Hippocrates,
They practiced more for honor, than for fees.
But when the fee was earned, the visit made,
Without delay, they asked to be repaid.
Vid. Appendix, Ad Prcecavendum Aegrorum Ingratitudinem.
Introductory. 23
entertained at the patient's house, otherwise four; and the
patient might call in the physician twice during the day
and once during the night. The poor always to be at-
tended gratuitously.
Druggists (stationarii) and apothecaries {confectionarW)
were placed under the supervision of physicians, who were
forbidden to merchandise with them as to prices, or to own
any share in their profits. And both those who sold and
those who manufactured drugs were first sworn to a strict
adherence to the Codex; their number was limited, and
the cities or towns in which they could follow their avoca-
tions carefully designated. The prices allowed to be charged
by them were based chiefly upon the perishable nature of
the articles. Two Imperial inspectors were charged, in
connection with the Medical Faculty, with the duty of
superintending the preparation of all electuaries and syrups.
In matters appertaining to medical police, such as contagious
diseases, sales of poison or love-philters and other charms,
the laws at Salernum were in advance of the age, and
hardly surpassed even in our own day. Those, in particu-
lar, relating to apothecaries are worthy of imitation and
adoption in every civilized country.
The same emperor, Frederick II., who had legislated so
wisely in his ordinances regulating medical instruction and
practice, dealt a fatal blow to the school at Salernum when
he erected a rival academy at Naples. ' By whatsoever mo-
tive induced, his knowledge of, and respect for the sacred
traditions clustering around this old Hippocratic shrine,
should have made him hesitate and refrain from dealing it
a wound destined to sap its existence. But so it was; and
from that moment the active life of the institution began
to diminish. Bologna and Paris, both jealous rivals of
Salernum, and who had essayed by imitation of her teach-
ings to eclipse her didactically, soon took advantage of
24
Introductory.
their opportunity. The infusion of Saracenic Medicine into
the Hippocratic doctrines at Salernum became more and
more apparent, and only in the department of surgery do
the Greek traditions still appear to hold their original sway
during the period of her decline. And yet, such is the
ingrained respect of the human mind for whatever has
survived the erosions of time, that we instinctively retrace
our steps in periods of doubt to consult ancient authorities,
if even but traditional; such, in fact, is the historical mo-
mentum of a great name, which, once crowned in the temple
of Fame, can never be dethroned or stripped of its sove-
reignty, that, as late as the middle of the last century
Salernum was still considered the mater et caput of medical
authority in ethical matters, for in 1748 disputes as to pre-
cedence in rank between physicians and surgeons having
occasioned painful differences among French practitioners,
the Medical Faculty of Paris addressed an official letter to
the Faculty of Salernum, requesting their counsel and as-
sistance in the formation of a judgment upon the issues then
raised before them. This is the last historical appearance
of the famous School of Salernum, for a sweeping royal
decree of 1811, centralizing instruction in a few designated
centres, virtually completed her downfall, by assigning to
her a place among gymnasia or preparatory institutes only.
Thus died the venerable and venerated mother of all
Christian medical schools amid the splendors of a merid-
ional civilization, of which, in her own department, she
had been the day-star and morning-glory. The first to rise
from the darkness of the Middle Ages, and to aid in the
revival of medical letters, she continued faithful to her
trust and her tenets for more than nine centuries. What
school ever did as much for medical learning? Or where did
rational Medicine ever find so firm and enduring a shrine ?
It is sad to think that not a stone of the old University is
Introductory.
25
now standing—that not a fragment of the valuable collec-
tion of MSS. contained in her once opulent library still
remains in Salernum; but scattered here and there on dusty
shelves and in unfrequented corners, they have been left to
the chance discovery of some mousing antiquary. But for
all this, the name and fame of Salernum cannot die, and
the prophecy of the poet, whose lines we have already
quoted, continues to be fulfilled :
" quo tanquam sole nitenti
Et nitet, et nituit illustris fama Salerni."
For the art of printing, as early as 1480, enshrined in
enduring forms the writings of her distinguished masters,
and although but little known among the physicians of
modern times, even by name, their works have not perished
on that account. They still live in history, and still merit
recognition at the hands of those who most honor them-
selves when they honor the traditions and the laws, the
philosophy and the recorded wisdom of their professional
predecessors. Forming as they do, a professional legacy,
they are to be esteemed for what they have done, not for
what they can now do; since, like an heir-loom, their
worth lies more in their history than in any presently con-
vertible value. And wherever any man shall be found who
carries into the conception of his professional relations, and
the obligations he owes to them, something higher than a
craven, artisan spirit of acquisition, he will be proud to
remember those great names which have adorned his own
calling; anxious to know something of the taste and of the
quality of their labors, and more anxious still to carve a
line, to raise a stone, and to preserve, untarnished, their
memory from the effacing hand of time.
Of the many learned men who flourished at Salernum,
and whose names, exhumed from the dust of centuries by
3 B
26
Introductory.
M. de Renzi,1 have now been enshrined in their proper
historical niches, it must suffice, in a sketch of this kind, to
mention only the leading ones. To those who may be in-
clined to pursue the subject at greater length, we would
recommend the perusal of Peter Diaconus, De Viris Illus-
tribus, also the Chronicon S. Monasterii Casinensis, auctore
Leone, and continued by Petr: Diaconus; Fabricius, Bib :
Med: et Infim: Latin: and Mabillon, Annates ordinis S.
Benedicti; and lastly, A. Mazza Hist: Salerni, in Grsevius
Thesaurus; and Romualdus, Chronicon Salernit. in Mura-
tori's Scripts. Rer. Ital:
Of these distinguished men who wrote on medical sub-
jects, Abbot Bertharius was one of the earliest, but what
was the particular topic discussed by him is not definitely
stated. His successor Alfarius wrote upon the four humors.
Desiderius also distinguished himself as a physician no less
than a philosopher and theologian. Constantine of Car-
thage, who came to Salernum after a long curriculum of
study at Bagdad, was known as a voluminous writer and
on many topics. A disciple of his, known simply as John,
published a book of Aphorisms, and Gariopuntus wrote
about the same time. Nicholaus wrote a work entitled
Antidotarium. Musandinus wrote on Dietetics; Maurus
upon Urine and Phlebotomy; Bartholomseus and Cophon
upon Practice. There were also many graduates of Saler-
num distinguished in other walks of life than that of medi-
cal practice, and whose names have descended to us; such
as the famous St. Bruno and Romualdus.
With true chivalric respect for intellect wherever found,
Salernum also opened her halls and chairs of instruction'to
eminent women, several of whom became professors and
have left works on Medicine not inferior in character to
1 Collectio Salernitana: Napoli 1852-59: vols. 5.
Introductory.
27
those written by their masculine colleagues. Thus Abella
wrote a poem in two books: "De Atrabile et de Natura
Seminis Homini; Mercuriadis wrote De Crisibus, de Febre
Pestilenti; de Curatione Vulnerum, de Unguentibus; Re-
becca, de Febribus, de Urinis et de Embryone ;x and Trot-
tula, de Mulieribus Passionibus.'' The justice of allowing
every human being to fill whatever sphere in life God has
endowed him or her with fitness for, was a dogma in the
Salernian ethics, which might be profitably imitated in this
day of superior intelligence; and the safety of doing so
was fully vindicated in the writings of these female physi- ",'.',
cians, who proved themselves the most conservative and
orthodox of writers, as they must have been of teachers.
The Poem called "Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum,"
or sometimes simply designated as "Schola Saler-
NITANA.''
Whatever may have been the value to medical literature
of the writings of the School of Salernum—contributions to
science, which, as now collected, form many volumes2—the
chief renown of her didactic essays rests almost exclusively
upon her famous Poem De Conservanda Valetudine,3 which,
under various names, and finally complimented with the
title of Flos Medicince, attained such an unparalleled celeb-
1 Croke's Regimen Sanit: Salemit: p. 14.
2 Colledio Salernitana; ossia documenti inediti, e trattati di Medicina
appartenenti alia Scitola Medica Salernitana, racolti e illnstrati da G. E. T.
Menschel, C. Daremberg e S. Renzi, premessa la storia della scuo-
lare publicata a cura di S. de Renzi, Napoli, 1852-1859, 5 vols, in 8vo.
3 Quod Academiam Salernitanam maxime commendavit, et ejus glo-
riam transmisit posteris, opus est illud, De Conservanda Valetu-
dine.
Zacch: Sylvius, in Praefatio. Scholae Salernitanae Roterodami 1648:
28
Introductory.
rity as rendered it a carmen necessarium1 in the mouth of
every physician, down almost to the eighteenth century.
Not to have been familiar with it from beginning to end,
not to have been able to quote it orally as the occasion
might require, would, during the Middle Ages, have cast
serious suspicion upon the professional culture of any phy-
sician. Indeed, it was a general favorite among the edu-
cated of every class, and looked upon, like Solomon's Prov-
erbs, as a People's Book, useful to all who could appreciate
its wide yet broad and common-sense suggestions as to the
conduct of our physical life. So universally were its merits
recognized and endorsed that an edition of it was printed
as early as 1480.2 Since that time, according to Mr. Baudry
de Balzac,3 two hundred and forty editions of this famous
Poem have been published, and in almost all the languages
of modern Europe. Sir Alexander Croke,4 from whose
edition we have prepared the subjoined list, has collected a
descriptive catalogue of one hundred and sixty-two.
Editions of the Schola Salernitana.
The first edition, with the commentary of Arnaldus de
Villa Nova, appears to have been printed at Montpelier,
1 Nullus Medicorum est, qui carmina Scholae Salernitanae ore non
circumferat, et omni occasione non crepet.
Zacchs. Sylvius ut Supra.
2 At Montpelier. Vid. Brunet, Manl: du Lib : vol: 3, p. 541.
3 Collectio Salernitana. Naples, 1852, t. 1, p. 417: and re-edited by
Messrs. Daremberg and Renzi. Naples, 1859. pp. 128.
The early editions vary in the title given to the Poem. In some it is
Regimen Sanitatis Salerni; or Medicina Salernitana, seu De Conservanda
Bona Valetudine; while the MSS. usually style it Flos Medicines.
See Sylvius ut Supra.
4 For a detailed list of all these editions, including place and year of
publication, and name of editor, see Croke's Regimen Sanitatis Salerni
tamtm, Oxford, 1830, p. 67.
Introductory. 29
A. D. 1480, in quarto; and there have been subsequently
issued in the original Latin no less than one hundred and
seven editions.
Of translations, generally repeated in succeeding edi-
tions, the earliest being in German, A. D. 1474, there have
been issued of editions :
In German........................................... 16
■' French,1 earliest A. D. 1501......................... 19
" Italian, " " 1549......................... 7
" Dutch, " " 1658......................... 1
" Bohemian," " 1721........................ 1
" Polish, " " 1532......................... 1
" Hiberno-Celtic " ......................... 1
" English,2 earliest " 1530.........................
And including the present one ......................... 10
56
Forming with the before-mentioned 107 in Latin, a grand
total of........................................... 163 v/
A popularity so general, and extending through so many
centuries, could not have rested upon any ephemeral basis
derived either from the character of the poetical form in
which the work was presented, or any particular admiration
either of its authors or of the person for whose benefit it
was originally written. Prejudices born of extrinsic causes
do not long survive, nor do succeeding generations adopt
them with alacrity, or seek by imitating their subjects to
perpetuate them in kind. Truth alone endures the succes-
sive criticisms of time, and when any work of man has
1 Two more should be added to these, viz.: that of 1825 and 1861.
2 Of these nine editions, only three appear to have contained different
translations, and of these last, only two have hitherto been printed, the
others remaining in MSS. Even the elegant edition of that most fin-
ished classical scholar, Sir A. Croke, does not give a new English
version of the poem, but repeats an ancient translation. For extracts
from these early versions see page 132.
3° Introductory.
commanded admiration for centuries, we need not ask
what constitutes its basis. It is the condensation of truth
in compact, suggestive sentences, adorned by the elegance
of rhyme, and thus invoking the harmony of numbers to
the aid of memory, which has given to this Poem an un-
dying charm. Written in plain, untechnical language,
saturated with the broad common sense of daily experience,
and prescribing for all the necessities and all the dangers
of practical life, it at once comes home, as Bacon said of
his Essays, to " Men's Businesse and Bosomes;" and the
innumerable imitations of it which sprang up in mediaeval
Europe, wherever a rival medical school existed, attest in
the most forcible manner possible the high and fixed
reverence it commanded in public estimation.
History of the Poem.
The history of its origin is tinged with a hue of romance,
which, although adding nothing to the merits of the pro-
duction, cannot well be omitted in any sketch of its life.
The facts are in great measure historical, being connected
with the first Crusade against the Infidels by Christian
Europe, and there is nothing born of the imagination, or
borrowed from minstrelsy in the person mentioned, or the
circumstances associating him with the Poem. Divested
of all legendary haze, and brought into the broad, search-
ing sunlight of investigation, it is simply the epic of a
brave but unfortunate prince and Christian warrior, of a
noble and self-sacrificing wife and princess, and a commu-
nity of grateful physicians and philosophers, who, in
addressing this ripe, consummate fruit of medical wisdom
to a Norman prince, have left a legacy for all time to all
mankind. And following the purest lodes in the mine of
wisdom, they have enshrined their utterances in brief, sen-
tentious dogmas, so full of truth that all men subscribe to
Introductory.
31
them at once, and sing their author's praises from Pole to
Pole:
" Haec sunt quae scripsit Regi Schola docta Salerni,
Dogmata, quae totum lustrant per secula mundum
Testantur studia antiqui, at per magna Salerni."1
Robert, duke of Normandy, and second son of the
Conqueror, having joined the first Crusade under Godefroi
de Bouillon, and being on his way to the Holy Land,
tarried during the winter of 1096 at Salerno, at that time
the metropolis of the Norman duchy of Apulia. During
his stay there, he doubtless became acquainted not only
with the high repute of its school of Medicine, but person-
ally with its Faculty. In the spring, after visiting the
celebrated convent of Monte Casino for the purpose of
recommending himself to the prayers of the monks and
their patron saint, Benedict, he sailed for the Levant,
arriving in time to take part in the siege of Nice. After
the fall of Jerusalem, at whose siege he received an arrow
wound in the right arm, which assumed a fistulous cha-
racter, hearing of the death of his brother, William Rufus,
he started for England to claim the throne, and on his way
through Italy stopped to consult the physicians of Salerno
about the critical state of his arm. The wound having
been caused by a poisoned arrow, the physicians were of
opinion that no relief could be obtained until the poison
was first eliminated from this part by suction. The risk
which any one, who might wish to undertake it, was sup-
posed to incur, led this brave and pious prince to hesitate
in asking such a favor from any of his followers; and he
was likely to have retained his disability to the last, when
his wife, hearing what was the opinion of his medical
1 Io: Francis : Lombardus, in Burman Thesaur. Antiq. Ital., vol: 9,
pt. 4.
32 Introductory.
advisers, and without informing him of her intentions, on
several occasions, while he was sleeping, performed the
task of sucking the wound, and eventually changed its
entire character, whereby it soon healed. This being ac-
complished, in addition to a special prescription given him
for the cure of fistulas (vid. cap. 83), the Faculty of the
School, in general council convened, indited for his benefit
the celebrated Regimen Sanitatis, which constitutes a true
code for the Preservation of Health. It is addressed to
him as king of England, for such he was de jure, upon
the death of his brother, William Rufus, and, although he
never attained the throne, it seems idle to assume that it
could have been addressed to any other personage. The
historical and the internal evidence both point to him as
the only one intended in the salutatory line.
One of the latest and best authorities upon the subject
of the Salernian writings, having himself been a most in-
defatigable collector and commentator upon them, Dr.
Charles Daremberg, librarian of the Bibliotheque Mazarine,
is of opinion that the Regimen Sanitatis Salerni, as con-
tained in the edition commented upon by Arnaldus de
Villa Nova, is the work of medical rhapsodists, impersonal
in its origin and therefore of uncertain date. The follow-
ing are his words:
"If it were permitted me to compare trivial things with
great ones, I should unhesitatingly say that the Regimen,
as transmitted to us in the text of A. de Villa Nova, is the
work of medical rhapsodists—that it represents a poetical
cycle which first appears in the middle of the eleventh
century and terminates with the beginning of the fifteenth,
and leaves no possibility of determining either the date or
the origin of the successive interpolations, or any ability
to decipher its first common foundation, since all verses
which appear in the Salernian writings prior to the edition
Introductory. $$
of Arnaldus de Villa Nova are written in an impersonal style
and without name either of author, or of work. Every
one seems to have had a share in its production, and it
is no one's work in particular, or rather it is the faithful
echo of universal common sense in matters of hygiene."
And, again, speaking upon the idea of the Poem, he thus
expresses himself:
"Whatever may have been the original form under
which the Regimen may be conceived to have existed,
either as medical advice addressed ex professo to some
distinguished personage of its own day, or a tissue of
aphorisms and proverbial phrases originally isolated, it is
nevertheless true that its essential character, as appears
from the commentary of Arnaldus de Villa Nova, is ex-
clusively dietetic, and excludes, therefore, all descriptions
of diseases and special therapeutics—that long list of
simple or compound medicines which figure in certain
MSS. and many other matters, which evidently do not
enter into the plan either of the author or the collector."1
It is impossible, therefore, with any regard for historical
truth, to ascribe the authorship of the Poem to any single
person. And though it has commonly been credited to
John of Milan, perhaps critics, in their distant and recon-
dite searches after its origin, might have done better had
they looked nearer home and confined themselves to its
first line, which distinctly announces the fact that it is a
work by Schola tola Salerni, or, in other words, compiled
from contributions offered by its Faculty incorporate.
It must be remembered, also, in any critical study of the
Poem, that it does not belong to the classical school of the
Augustan days. It is not written, consequently, in Virgil-
ian Latin. This, indeed, might be inferred from its rhym-
1 Ecole de Salerne: Introdn. pp. 56 and 58. Paris, 1861.
34
Introductory.
ing character, since rhyme is no essential part of versifica-
tion ; and among the Roman poets we find no rhymes of a
later day than those of the Early Republic, such as occur
in Naevius and Ennius, and even then only occasionally,
and, as it were, without intention. The Latin of the
Schola Salernitana cannot otherwise be considered than as
a barbarous dialect, strong, rough, ungraceful in expres-
sion, a sort of Fescennine verse, such as rustics might have
repeated under the Old Empire, but now had become the
jus et norma loquendi among the educated classes in that
crepuscular age. And I cannot do better in this connec-
tion than to quote the very able and impartial criticism
upon it of Sir Alexander Croke,1 in the words that follow:
"The style is, of course, somewhat barbarous, and the
inaccuracies have probably been multiplied by the mistakes
of transcribers. In many places the grammar can hardly
defend itself. The avaxoXoudov and change of person are fre-
quent. The conjunctions and other particles are sometimes
deficient, and at others redundant. The arrangement, in
general, is not immethodical, though some few lines seem
misplaced. In the versification, fhe quantity of syllables,
and even the accent, are frequently disregarded," etc.
Of the Versification.
As may be perceived, the Poem is written in Leonine5
or rhyming verses, a style of poetry which is said to have
been a favorite one among the Normans, who always pre-
ferred it in their epics of great men, as having a more
sonorous measure than the simple hexameter. Thus, in
the epitaph on Duke Rollo, it is recited in such lines that
1 Op: cit 31.
2 For more particular details concerning the Leonine verse, see the
very scholarly "Essay on Rhyming Latin Verse," by Sir Alexander
Croke.
Introductory. 35
" Dux Normannorum cunctorum norma bonorum,
Rollo ferus fortis, quern gens Normannica mortis
Invocat articulo hoc jacet in tumulo."
And, again, in an epitaph on the duke of Sicily:
" Linquens terrenas migravit Dux ad amoenas
Rogerius sedes, nam Cceli detinet aides."
The Leonine verse admitted of many varieties, based
upon either a hexameter or a pentameter. The former
admitted of thirty-four forms, the latter of only four.
The situation of the rhymes also varied in many ways:
1st. Whether at the end of the lines, thus producing the
ordinary couplet, e. g. :
" Maurus, Mattheus Salomon, Petrus, Urso, moderni
Sunt Medici, per quos regnat Medicina Salerni."
2d. Whether in the middle, the line being divided into
two rhyming parts, these constituted the simplices Leonini,
and are the ones commonly used in the Schola Salernitana,
although its verses often fluctuate between the first and
second classes.
Of the simplices Leonini the following are illustrations :
" Fons, speculum, gramen, haec dant oculis relevamen,
Mane igitur montes, sub serum inquirite fontes."
Some early bard has attempted it not unsuccessfully
either, in a marriage between the English and Latin as
follows:
" Friars, friars, woe be Xo ye, ministri malorum,
For many a man's soul bring ye, ad pcenas infernorum.
When friends fell first from Heaven, quo prius habitabant,
On earth they left the sins seven, et fratres communicabant."
And the witty author of Father Prout's Reliques has
certainly achieved a double triumph in this respect, having
given us, in the Eulogy on Prout, and the lines addressed
36
Introductory.
to the unfortunate L. E. L., specimens of two classes of
Leonine verses, viz. :
In Mortem Venerabilis Andrecz Prout, Carmen.
" Quid juvat in pulchro Sanctos dormire sepulchro!
Optimus usque bonos nonne manebit honos ?
Plebs tenui fossa Pastoris condidit ossa,
Splendida sed miri mens petit astra viri."
Eta, etc., Reliques, p. 27.
To L. E. L.
" Lady for thee, a holier key, shall harmonize the chord,
In Heaven's defence, Omnipotence, drew an avenging sword;
But when the bolt had crushed revolt, one angel fair, though frail,
Retained his lute, fond attribute! to charm that gloomy vale."
Reliques, p. 314.
3d. Whether the line was subdivided into two, three, or
four distinct rhyming parts, varying according to the form
or application of the rhyme, e. g. :
" Pauper amabilis, et venerabilis est benedictus,
Dives inutilis, insatiabilis, est maledictus."
#■ Jlfc ¥fc ¥fc rll: -Sfc ¥fc
O Valachi, vestri stomachi, sunt amphora Bacchi,
Vos estis, Deus est testis, teterrima pestis."
4th. Whether each word rhymed with its corresponding
one, e. g. :
" Quos anguis dirus tristi mulcedine pavit,
Hos sanguis mirus Christi dulcedine lavit."
Texts.
It would require a volume in itself to speak chronologi-
cally of the various texts and editions of this celebrated
Poem. The popularity which it acquired, as well with the
educated laity as physicians, led, in the Middle Ages, to
innumerable imitations. Some, with more temerity than
good taste or justice to posterity, undertook to remodel it,
Introductory.
37
and in so doing simply accomplished what honest Dog-
berry wished some kind and friendly hand might do for
him. Aside from this, interpolations have doubtless found
their way, in great number, among its pregnant lines, but,
inevitable as it must have been with any production become
a classic hundreds of years before the birth of the art of
printing, and dependent, therefore, for its circulation upon
manual transcriptions or oral repetitions by men of vary-
ing intelligence, there is internal evidence, presumptive,
if not primd facie, of the superior authenticity of one edi-
tion at least, among the early ones, and which all subse-
quent students of the Poem or historians of Medicine
have definitely accepted and recognized. This edition,
consisting of three hundred and sixty-two lines, is accom-
panied by a voluminous commentary from the pen of Ar-
naldus de Villa Nova, a distinguished scholar and physician
of the thirteenth century, and one of the foremost men of
his day. After studying Medicine in the leading schools
of that age, he visited Salernum, and in gratitude toward
Frederick of Arragon, king of Sicily, from whom he had
received some marks of distinguished favor, he wrote his
famous commentary on the "Schola Salernitana." This
commentary, the first ever written and printed with the
text, has never been surpassed for clearness, vigor or
grace, and it has always been accepted as the best gloss or
exposition of the Salernian dogmas extant. It was always
considered both the editio princeps and the editio recepta
among the most critical scholars, and all subsequent edi-
tions, whatever their complexion or corrections, have been
founded more or less largely upon this. Many of these
editions now exist only in a very small number of copies
and in a few of the oldest libraries of Europe, so that I
have been unable to find them in any of our American
collections. While their consultation, in a matter of
38 Introductory.
scholarly research like this would have afforded me su-
preme gratification, I am persuaded that the text followed
by me in the present edition is entirely orthodox, being
founded upon that of Zaccharias Sylvius, published at
Rotterdam, 16571—an edition which includes Villa Nova's
text and commentary entire, and has been pronounced the
editio recepta of modern times. Diligently comparing its
text with that of Sir Alexander Croke, published at Oxford
in 1830, and the later revised text published at Paris in
1861 (being an extract from the many volumes of Salernian
writings collected by Drs. Daremberg and Renzi), I can
but think that I have obtained as near a fac-simile of the
original Poem addressed to Duke Robert of Normandy as
can be reproduced. In doing this, I have not ventured to
make any fresh corrections, where even repetitions of the
same rule occurred superfluously, or clauses seemed paren-
thetically intruded into texts already sufficiently clear.
For, although these might justly be suspected of having a
different paternity from the original, yet they have stood
so long the merciless inquest of critics, that it has seemed
to me their title to remain there was made good and inde-
feasible by prescription. Five hundred years of undisputed
occupancy are a title to possession such as few things can
show; and since there is no historical evidence against the
validity of that title, the presumption naturally follows
that their right is an established one.
Besides reproducing the entire text of Villa Nova's
edition, I have annexed to the various sections such addi-
1 Schola Salernitana, sive De Conservanda Valetudine Prascepta
Metrica. Autore Joanne de Mediolano (hactenus ignoti) cum luculenta
et succincta Arnoldi Villanovani in singula capita exegesi. Ex recen-
sione Zacchariae Sylvii, Medici Roterodamensis. Cum ejusdem Praefa-
tione. Nova editio, melior et aliquot Medicis opusculis auctior. Ro-
terodami, Ex : Officina Arnoldi Leers, 1657.
Introductory.
39
tions as are embodied in his own commentary, as also
further ones derived from the Paris edition of 1861. For,
although its editor, Dr. Daremberg, in common with all
students of the Schola Salernitana, is of opinion that its
text was originally limited to the subject of Dietetics, as
shown in Villa Nova, he has nevertheless collected in his
edition of 1861 many desultory writings of the Salernian
Masters, upon various topics belonging to Medicine. From
these I have made such a selection as was deemed sufficient
to exhibit the views of those writers upon topics of general
interest, in and out of the profession. These excerpts will
be found collected and arranged in the form of an Ap-
pendix.
The original Poem contains three hundred and sixty-two
lines. Villa Nova's additions and those of the Paris edi-
tion of 1861, as annexed by me to the various sections,
give one hundred and twenty-one more, and the Appendix
itself contains two hundred and sixty-one, making a total
of seven hundred and forty-four lines. I have been stu-
dious to keep these additions separate from the original
text, and wherever they occur their origin is duly stated.
In preserving the separate sections with their appropriate
titles, I have carefully followed the editio recepta, differing
in this respect from Croke, who prints it as a continuous
poem, and Daremberg, who interpolates many passages
not found in Sylvius. All these, as appeared to me most
proper, being foreign matter of questionable authenticity,
I have transferred to the Appendix.
Subject of the Schola Salernitana.
The topics discussed in the Poem relate to the six non-
naturals, as they were called by the Galenic school, viz. :
air, food, exercise, sleep, excretions and the passions, and
they are all introduced as texts (afterward enlarged upon)
40
Introductory.
in the opening apostrophe to the Duke of Normandy.'
These were the great pivots around which all ancient thera-
peutics turned. They were considered to be the pillars of
successful medical practice, without which, in fact, no
treatment could be said to have any foundation in the laws
of nature. And viewing, through the lapse of centuries,
the importance paid by the Medical Fathers to Hygiene as
a co-operative science to Medicine and the chief fountain
of those collateral aids and compensations which enabled
them, with so much less knowledge than we possess, to
cope successfully with disease, it may be seriously ques-
tioned whether we moderns give attention enough to this
department of sanitary science in actual medical practice,
or make it, as generally as we should, an integral part of a
medical education. The best essays of Hippocrates and
Galen are upon Hygiene—essays which may still be read
and followed with profit, for they are applicable to all
times and places, and all conditions of mankind.
Commenting in detail upon them, Arnold of Villa Nova
expounds to us in a graceful and lucid style the correspond-
ing ideas of the great masters, whether Greek or Arabian,
concerning these topics, and, like a true philosopher,
believed in a system of Hygiene which regarded the body
as essentially under the dominion of conservative laws—vis
medicatrix naturoz—which laws were constantly striving to
re-establish their authority when dethroned, sua sponte, and
1 Many of the descriptions, if not most, of the therapeutic virtues of
herbs mentioned in the text are evidently borrowed from a poem enti-
tled "De Virtutibus Herbarum" written by a physician named Odobonus,
who, singularly enough, wrote under the name of ^Emilius Macer, a
Roman poet of the days of the Republic, to whom a poem, similarly
named, is credited, although nothing of it has been preserved, except
an occasional fugitive line (Vid. Mattaire). Vid. Odobonus, in Fabricius,
Bib: Lat: Med. et Infim: Aetatis: lib: xiv., p. 468, and similarly,
RIacer, lib : xii., p. 3.
Introductory.
4i
in advance of all human intervention in their behalf; and
looking to this as the keystone in the arch of Medical prac-
tice, delights in quoting great authorities in support of his
own views. With the modesty of a great mind, he, al-
though among the greatest of his century, never offends
by any dogmatic assertion of his own views, but always
places them behind those of Rhazes, Avicenna, Averroes,
Galen, etc. In this respect his commentary is strikingly
impersonal, although in itself a fine specimen of didactic
composition. And its Latinity is so far in advance of that
of the Poem itself, as to afford a striking evidence of the
contrast between the productions of lettered and unlet-
tered men in the same field of professional composition.
The following is a specimen. Speaking of cheerfulness,
he thus expresses himself:
" Laetitia enim calorem excitat naturalem, spiritus tem-
perat, et putiores reddit, virtutem corroborat, setatem flori-
dam facit, juvenile corpus diu conservat, vitam prorogat,
ingenium acuit et hominem negotiis quibuslibet obeundis
aptiorem reddit. Hujusmodi porro sunt cibi suaves et
bona succi, vinum subtile ac delectabile, boni et fragrantes
odores, delectabilium rerum commemoratio, et cum amicis
et familiaribus frequentior et jucunda conversatio. Quare
ut Eobanus noster diserte canens admonet."1
1 For obvious reasons I have not translated this passage, since, as all
scholars know, style is untranslatable, and, desiring to give a specimen
of Villa Nova's, I could only do it, therefore, in the original.
4 *
42 Introductory.
" Utere convivis non tristibus, utere amicis,
Quos nugae et risus, et joca salsa juvant.
Quem non blanda juvent varii modulamine cantus ?
Hinc jecur et renes, aegraque corda stupent.
Nam nihil humanas tanta dulcedine mentes
Afficit, ac melica nobile vocis opus.
Tange lyram digitis, animi dolor omnis abibit,
Dulcisonum reficit tristia corda melos."
Atque hactenus quidem dicta, magna ex parte hisce etiam
versibus, ex Hieronymo Fracastorio complexi sumus.
" Tu tamen interea effugito quae tristia mentem
Sollicitant, procul esse jube curasque metumque
Pallentem, ultrices iras, sint omnia laeta.
Alma Ceres te in hoc, Bacchi quoque lajta juvabunt
Munera, sic dulces epulae sic copia rerum,
Sic urbis, sic ruris opes, et summa voluptas,
Visere saepe amnes nitidos jucundaque Tempe.
Et placidas summis sectari in montibus auras,
Accedant juvenumque chori, mistaeque puellae."
Quod diserte admodum apud Ovid, lib : i, Epist. 4.
" Quod caret alterna requie durabile non est,
Haec reparat vires, fessaque membra levat."
Introductory.
43
" Use joyous feasts, with cheerful friends unite,
Whom quips and cranks and pointed jokes delight.
What mortal lives to whom enchanting songs
Bring not consoling joys, in clust'ring throngs ?
To him, whose nature ne'er is moved by these,
Will pangs of heart leave little worldly ease.
For naught does human breast so much rejoice,
As melody from Music's dulcet voice.
Strike but the harp—black Care, dethroned, will fly,
And golden Joy instead, thine heart lift high."
Again, and as germane to the same subject, we quote
the following verses from Jerome Fracastorius.
" Fly thou sad things, which load the tender heart,
Bid pallid fear and every care depart.
Let vengeful hate, great source of all distress,
Give place in turn to perfect happiness.
Let choicest food and joyous wine delight,
And feasts where plenty reigns at kingly height
View cities and survey the country's treasure,
And let it ever be supremest pleasure
To wander where, with fascinating mien,
Tempe's fair groves and glitt'ring streams are seen.
Or, mastering some lordly mountain high,
Gain purer breezes from the morning sky.
But where'er placed, amid what charms, forsooth,
Be there at hand a choir of maids and youth."
Which idea is eloquently expressed by Ovid, Book I.,
Epist. 4, as follows :
" Deprived of rest, all prematurely die,
'Tis this alone that doth our strength supply."
ox
(supposed seal of salernum.)
REGIMEN SANITATIS SALERNITANUM
Hoc opus optatur, quod Flos Medicinae vocatur.
Let this, the Flower of Medicine, be
The chosen Book of all for thee.
DE
CONSERVANDA BONA VALETUDINE.
LIBER SCHOLA SALERNITANA.
I.
33e BLnimi !Pat|)ematt0 tt l^emetitts guttatiam
mngulatttmg.
A NGLORUM REGI scribit Schola tota Salerni.
Si vis incolumem, si vis te reddere sanum,
Curas tolle graves, irasci crede profanum.
Parce mero—ccenato parum, non sit tibi vanum
Surgere post epulas ; somne fuge meridianum;
Ne mictum retine, nee comprime fortitur anum;
Haec bene si serves, tu longo tempore vives.
{Additio a. v.)
Si tibi deflciant medici, medici tibi fiant
Haec tria—mens laeta—requies—moderata diaeta.
46
ON THE
PRESERVATION OF HEALTH.
CODE OF THE SCHOOL OF SALERNUM.
I.
©f ittnttal <£ onto it ions, antf of OTertatn lUmrtjiest.
1/ O ALERNO'S SCHOOL, in conclave high, unites
^-J To counsel England's King, and thus indites:
If thou to health and vigor wouldst attain,
Shun weighty cares—all anger deem profane,
From heavy suppers and much wine abstain.
Nor trivial count it, after pompous fare,
To rise from table and to take the air.
Shun idle, noonday slumber, nor delay
The urgent calls of Nature to obey.
These rules if thou wilt follow to the end,
Thy life to greater length thou mayst extend.
(Addition a. v.1)
Shouldst Doctors need ? be these in Doctors' stead—
Rest, cheerfulness, and table thinly-spread.
1 These letters, wherever they occur, refer to Arnold of Villa
Nova's Commentary, whose text we have followed. See page 38.
47
48 De Conservanda Bona Valetudinc.
II.
Bt (Konfortattone i&tubxi.
LUMINA mane, manus surgens gelida lavet aqua,
Hac iliac modicum pergat, modicum sua membra
Extendat, crines pectat, dentes fricet. Ista
Confortant cerebrum, confortant caetera membra,
Lote cale; sta, pranse, vel i, frigesce minute.
Additio De Recreatione Visus a. v.
Fons—Speculum—Gramen, haec dant oculis relevamen,
Mane igitur montes, sub serum inquirito fontes.
[Additio in Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Sero frequentemus littora, mane nemus;
Hi praesertim oculos recreant, visumque colorant,
Cceruleus, viridisque, et janthinus, addito fusco.
III.
Oe HDtunto gibe itfetrtitano &omno.
SIT brevis, aut nullus, tibi somnus meridianus.
Febris, pigrities, capitis dolor, atque catarrhus,
Quatuor haec somno veniunt mala meridiano.
On the Preservation of Health. 49
2.
Uefteatjment foe tl)c -yearn.
AT early dawn, when first from bed you rise,
Wash, in cold water, both your hands and eyes.
With comb and brush then cleanse your teeth and hair,
And thus refreshed, your limbs outstretch with care.
Such things restore the weary, o'ertasked brain;
And to all parts ensure a wholesome gain.
Fresh from the bath get warm. Rest after food,
Or walk, as seems most suited to your mood.
But in whate'er engaged, or sport, or feat,
Cool not too soon the body when in heat.
[Addition a. v.)
Recreation for the Sight.
Groves, Brooks and Verdure, weary eyes relieve,
At dawn, seek Mountains, Streams at dusky eve.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
At eve the shore, at morn the groves, frequent,
Whose varied hues, to cheer the sight, present
Blue tints and green, with dusky-yellow blent.
3-
cOf Noontide £lcep.
LET noontide sleep be brief, or none at all;
Else stupor, headache, fever, rheums will
On him who yields to noontide's drowsy call.
5 0
$o De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
(Additio in Ed Parisii, 1861.)
Si quis forte cupit somno indulgere diurno,
Si consuevit ita, minus illi culpa nocebit;
Dummodo non longus somnus, nee proximus escae;
Sed brevis, capite recto sumetur, et ipsi
Qui dormit, liceat sonitu finire modesto.
Mensibus in quibus R, post prandia somno fis aeger,
Mensibus in quibus US, somnus post prandia bonus.
IV.
Bt jFIatu in albo toetento.
QUATUOR ex vento veniunt in ventre retento;
Spasmus, hydrops, colica, vertigo, hoc res probat
ipsa.
V.
JBt <£cma.
E
X magna ccena stomacho fit maxima poena;
Ut sis nocte levis, sit tibi ccena brevis.
On the Preservation of Health. 51
(Addition from Paris Ed. of 1861.)
Perchance, should some one crave a midday nap
From habit—then, t'will cause him less mishap.
But let none sleep soon after having fed,
Nor long, and always with uplifted head.
To point these rules, t'is fitting to rehearse,
To him who sleeps, this rude, untutored verse:
Post-prandial sleep, ye mortals, put afar,
In any month whose name includes an R.
Post-prandial sleep 's alone salubrious,
In months, whose names their ending have in US.
4-
©f incarcerate ^Flatus.
FOUR ills from long-imprisoned flatus flow,
Convulsions, colics, dropsies, vertigo ;
The truth of this the thing itself doth show.
5-
©f Supper,
GREAT suppers will the stomach's peace impair.
Wouldst lightly rest ? curtail thine evening fare.
52 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
VI.
De Btispositione ante ctlri irumpttonem.
TU nunquam comedas stomachum nisi noveris esse
Purgatum, vacumque cibo, quern sumpseris ante.
Ex desiderio id poteris cognescere certo;
Haec sint signa tibi, subtilis in ore saliva.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Inanis venter non audit verba libenter.
VII.
Bt Uitantiis Otitis.
PERSICA, poma, pyra, lac, caseus et caro salsa,
Et caro cervina, leporina, caprina, bovina,
Haec melancholica sunt, infirmis inimica.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Anserina caro salsa, sicut est anatina.
Frixa nocent, elixa fovent, assata ccercent;
Acria purgant, cruda sed inflant, salsaque siccant.
Non comedas crustam, choleram quia gignit adustam.
Urunt res salsae visum, spermaque minorant,
Et generant scabiem, pruritum sive rigorem.
On the Preservation of Health. 53
6.
Cfje Kule for Apportioning itteate.
EAT not again till thou dost certain feel
Thy stomach freed of all its previous meal.
This mayst thou know from hunger's teasing call,
Or mouth that waters—surest sign of all!
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
An empty stomach, calling loud for food,
To hear long tales is in no willing mood.
7-
dFooti to be aboifiefi.
THE luscious peach, the apple and the pear,
Cheese, ven'son, salted meats and e'en the hare,
With flesh of goats, dyspeptic throes provoke,
And crush the weak 'neath melancholy's yoke.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
Salt is the flesh of ruffled ducks and geese;
Fried meats do harm; while boiled give peptic peace;
And fragrant roasts, digestive powers increase.
Bitters will purge—crude things in all cause wind,
And salted meats the body dry and bind,
While crusts give rise to bile of darkest kind.
Salt things consume virility and sight,
And psoric torments breed of direst might.
5 *
54 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
VIII. IX.
Be (Ribiz bene Nutrientibus et Impinguentibus.
OVA recentia, vina rubentia, pinguia jura,
Cum simila pura, naturae sunt valitura.
Nutrit et impinguat triticum, lac, caseus infans,
Testiculi, porcina caro, cerebella, medullas,
Dulcia vina, cibus gustu jucundior, ova
Sorbilia, maturae ficus, uvaeque recentes.
X.
Bt itfont Vini ^toprtetatibus.
VINA probantur, odore, sapore, nitore, colore,
Si bona vina cupis, haec quinque probantur in
illis,
Fortia, formosa, fragrantia, frigida, frisca.
XI.
Bt Vino Bulct et SUbo.
CORPORA plus augent tibi dulcia, Candida vina.
Alii sic,
Sunt nutritiva plus dulcia Candida vina.
On the Preservation of Health. 55
8, 9.
dFooti that boti) jSTouvisbes anti ^Fattens.
EGGS newly laid and broths of richest juice,
With ruby wine, increase of strength produce,
Wheat and milk make flesh, brains and tender cheese,
Marrow and pork, as taste they chance to please.
Or eggs, with art prepared, or honeyed wine;
Ripe figs and grapes, fresh gathered from the vine.
10.
©f tbe (Qualities of <&ooti h&Xint.
THE taste of wines, their clearness, odor, shade,
Are living proofs of their specific grade;
You'll find all those that are of highest source,
Fragrant, frigid, fair, fuming high with force.
R
n.
©f Stoeet mifiitt 513.1 ine.
ICH, heavy wines that are both sweet and white,
The body's size increase, and e'en its might.
56 De Conservanda Bona Valetudinc.
s
XII.
Be Vino Uubro.
I vinum rubens nimium quandoque bibatur,
Venter stipatur, vox limpida turbificatur.
XIII.
De ILethalium "fcJenenorum Hemebiis.
A LLIA, nux, ruta, pyra, raphanus et theriaca,
Haec sunt antidotum, contra lethale venenum.
/E
XIV.
De .Here.
R sit mundus, habitabilis ac luminosus,
Nee sit infectus, nee olens foetore cloacae.
XV.
De Nimia Vini iPotatione.
I tibi serotina noceat potatio vini,
Hora matutina rebibas, et erit medicina.
On the Preservation of Health. 5 7
w
12.
©f l\e* mine.
HOE'ER of too much ruby wine partakes,
Himself, forsooth, both hoarse and costive
makes.
T
13-
©f Antidotes to poisons.
HE radish, pear, theriac, garlic, rue,
All potent poisons will at once undo.
14.
©f Air. >
LET air you breathe be sunny, clear and light,
Free from disease, or cesspool's fetid blight.
A
i5-
©f ©ber^brinfcmg.
RT sick from vinous surfeiting at night ?
Repeat the dose at morn, 'twill set thee right.
58 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
XVI.
De itteliori Vino.
GIGNIT et humores melius vinum meliores,
Si fuerit nigrum, corpus reddet tibi pigrum.
Vinum sit clarum, vetus, subtile, maturum;
Ac bene dilutum, saliens, moderamine sumptum.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Dum saltant atomi, patet excellentia vini.
Vinum spumosum, nisi defluat, est vitiosum.
Spuma boni vini in medio est, in margine pravi.
XVII. XVIII. XLVI.
De (JTerebisia et Aceto.
NON sit acetosa cerevisia, sed bene clara,
De validis cocta granis, satis ac veterata.
De qua potetur stomachus non inde gravetur.
Crassos humores nutrit cerevisia, vires
Praestat, et augmentat carnem, generatque cruorem,
On the Preservation of Health.
59
16.
©f tf)e iScst liin* of imnt.
RIPE, good old wine imparts a richer blood
To him who daily tastes its tonic flood;
But when too dark—beware! the danger's great
That you may grow inert, and not elate.
Let wines be fine and clear, mature and old,
And mixed with water, still, their sparkle hold;
Then quaff a mod'rate draught, secure and bold.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
Bright beads, when rising fast in any wine,
Bespeak good quality and vintage fine;
But sparkling wine, unless its tide flows free,
Is false and doubly base in quality.
In good wine beads and bubbles take their start,
Resilient ever from the central part.
In wines depraved and drugged the bubbles spring,
From out, alone, the margin's narrow ring.
17, 18, 46.
©f ISeer anb Vinegar.
NO acid taste should lurk in wholesome beer;
Brewed from sound grain, it should be old and
clear.
Let not the stomach ever burdened be,
By long potations, unrestrained and free.
60 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
Provocat urinam, ventrem quoque mollit et inflat.
Infrigidat modicum; sed plus desiccat acetum,
Infrigidat, macerat, melancholiam dat, sperma minorat,
Siccos infestat nervos, et impinguia siccat.
XIX.
(©u& btetus ratio quolibet anni tempore fit utiles.
TEMPORIBUS veris modicum prandere juberis,
Sed calor aestatis dapibus nocet immoderatis.
Autumni fructus caveas, ne sint tibi luctus.
De mensa sume quantum vis tempore Brumae.
XX.
De prabo IPotu corrtgenbo.
SALVIA cum ruta faciunt tibi pocula tuta,
Adde rosa florem, minuitque potenter amorem.
Or the Preservation of Health. 61
From beer gross humors and great strength will start,
And sizy blood be formed in every part.
It spurs the reins and flesh augments in all,
Ihe bowels frees and e'en distends withal.
Vinegar cools, yet chiefly dries the blood,
The body wastes—a melancholy flood
Of ills begets, and procreation chills,
While nerves and flesh it withers and distills.
19.
Che Appropriate Diet for each Reason.
SLENDER in Spring thy diet be, and spare;
Disease, in Summer, springs from surplus fare.
From Autumn fruits be careful to abstain,
Lest by mischance they should occasion pain.
But when rapacious Winter has come on,
Then freely eat till appetite is gone.
20.
©f Correcting an improper Drinfe.
OF all the cunning draughts that you can brew,
The best is Sage, combined with graceful Rue.
Let rose-leaves be into this mixture brought,
And love's desires will quickly come to naught.
6
62 De Conservanda Bona Valctudinc.
XXI.
De Kausca ittauna.
NAUSEA non poterit haec quemquam vexare,
marinam
Undam cum vino, mixtam qui sumpserit ante.
s
XXII.
De (ffienerali (Tonbimento.
ALVIA, sal, vinum, piper, allium,1 petroselinum,
Ex his fit salsa, nisi sit commixtio falsa.
XXIII.
De ttltilitate Hotionis itf anuum,
LOTIO post mensam tibi confert munera bina,
Mundificat palmas, et lumina reddit acuta.
Si fore vis sanus, ablue saepe manus.
1 The ancients ascribed great prophylactic virtues to garlic, a tradi-
tion of which is still cherished among the lower classes of Continental
Europe. Says the Roman Herbalist:
" Allia qui mane jejuno sumpserit ore,
Hunc ignotarum non laedet potus aquarum,
Nee diversorum mutatio facta locorum.
" Haec ideo miscere cibis messoribus est mos,
Ut si forte sopor fessos depresserit illos,
Vermibus a. nocuis tuti requiescere possint."
Macer, lib : i. cap. 5.
On the Preservation of Health. 63
21.
©f -ca^sicfcness.
EA-SICKNESS its fell gripe on none will fix,
Who wisely with their wine salt water mix,
And to each threatened qualm this draught prefix.
s
22.
©f (Eonbiments in (General.
PEPPER, parsley, sage, garlic, salt and wine,
Use these, as sauce, lest meats should ill combine.
23-
2Uttlitg of hashing the fijanbs. i
FROM washing after meals two gains arise :
The hands are cleansed and strengthened are the
eyes.
If thou in health prolonged wouldst ever stay,
Wash frequently thy hands each passing day.
Whoe'er will garlic, fasting, chew,
At morn, escapes diseases,
Unharmed—may drink of waters new,
And travel where he pleases.
Thus reapers mingle it with food,
That should they, wearied, sleep,
It may, from every noxious brood,
Their bodies safely keep.
64 De Conservanda Bona Valetudinc.
XXIV
De i)ane.
PANIS non calidus, nee sit nimis inveteratus,
Sed fermentatus, oculatus sit, bene coctus.
Modice salitus, frugibus validis sit electus.
Non comedas crustam, choleram quia gignit adustam.
Panis salsatus, fermentatus, bene coctus,
Purus fit sanus, qui non ita, sit tibi vanus.
[Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Non bis decoctus, non in sartagine tostus.
Est omnis vitiosa repletio pessima panis.
Plus panis comedas cum pisce, fructibus, herbis,
At cum carne minus, duris sed adhuc minus ovis.
XXV.
De (JTame IPorctna.
EST caro porcina sine vino pejor ovina;
Si tribuis vina, tunc est cibus et medicina.
(Additio a. v.)
Ilia bona sunt porcorum, mala sunt reliquorum.
On the Preservation of Health. 65
24.
©f H3reab,
NOR fresh nor old be bread, but spongy, light,
Tasteful, well baked, of wheat freed from all
blight.
Nor yet forget, whene'er you take a bite,
To shun the crust, lest some dark flux should smite.
Wholesome is raised, well-baked and seasoned bread;
None other should upon thy board be spread.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
Nor doubly-baked, nor toast in frying-pan;
Excess in bread's the worse excess for man.
With fish, fruits, greens, eat bread without regard,
But less with meat, and least with eggs cooked hard.
25-
©f Uorft.
INFERIOR far to lamb is flesh of swine,
Unqualified by gen'rous draughts of wine:
But add the wine, and lo! you'll quickly find
In them both food and medicine combined.
[Addition a. v.)
Entrails of swine alone are fit for food;
All other beasts' should wholly be eschewed.
6*
66 De Conservanda Bona Valetudinc.
XXVI. XLV.
De iHusto.
PROVOCAT urinam mustum, solvit cito ventrem,
Hepatis emphraxim, splenis generat, lapidemque.
XXVII.
De Aciuae ^otu.
POTUS aquae sumptus, fit edenti valde nocivus,
Infrigidat stomachumque cibum nititur fore cru-
dum.
[Additio a. v.)
Vina bibant homines, animantia ccetera fontes,
Absit ab humano pectore potus aquae.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Si sitis est, bibe quod satis est, ne te sitis urat;
Quod satis est, non quod nimis est, sapientia curat.
Potus aquae nimium stomachum confundit et escas.
Si sitiant homines calidi potare fluentem,
Temporis ardore, modice tunc frigida detur.
Est pluvialis aqua super omnes sana, laetosque
Reddit potantes ; bene dividit et bene solvit.
Est bona fontis aqua, quae tendit solis ad ortum,
Sed, ad meridiem tendens, aqua nocet omnis.
On the Preservation of Health. 67
26, 45-
©f ittust.
NEW wine at once doth diuretic prove,
And sluggish bowels tends to freely move ;
The spleen and liver causes to congest;
And sometimes, too, incites a lithic pest.
27.
©f Drmfeing abater.
WHO water drinks at meals hath mischief
brewed;
The stomach chilled voids undigested food.
(Addition a. v.)
Let men drink wine, let beasts for fountains crave,
But water-drinking never men enslave.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
If very thirsty, drink just what you need, x/
Lest thirst should some consuming fever breed;
Nor stint yourself, but take enough, no more:
So speaks in every age majestic lore.
Yet too much water drunk the food disturbs,
The stomach frets, and thus digestion curbs.
'Mid summer heats, should you desire to drink
From fountain cool, you need not trembling shrink.
Rain water is by far the best potation,
And gives our jaded spirits exaltation.
68 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
XXVIII.
De (ftame Uttulfna.
QUNT nutritivae multum carnes vitulinae.
XXIX.
De Abtbus esut Aptt's.
SUNT bona gallina, et capo, turtur, sturna, columba,
Quiscula, vel merula, phasianus, ortygometra,
Perdix, frigellus, otis, tremulus, amarellus.
XXX.
De ^fectbus.
SI pisces sunt molles, magno corpore tolles,
Si pisces duri, parvi sunt plus valituri.
On the Preservation of Health. 69
All things, indeed, it can dissolve, digest,
For 'tis great Nature's sov'reign Alkahest.
Fountains whose currents flow toward the East,
Give waters wholesome, both to man and beast.
Fountains that look toward the sunny South,
Unwholesome waters give to every mouth.
28.
©f Ueal.
THE tender flesh of sucking calves, when sound,
Doth in the richest nourishment abound.
29.
©f lEbible IStrbs.
CAPONS are sweet, stares, turtle-doves and fowls,
Blackbirds, gay pheasants, flesh of horned owls;
The partridge, chaffinch and the kingly quail,
Amorous duck and tremulous wagtail.
30-
©f dFfef).
WHEN fish are soft, the largest you should prize;
When hard, most healthy those of smallest size.
70 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
XXXI.
De Angutlla et nonnthil etiam be (faseo.
VOCIBUS anguillae pravae sunt si comedantur—
Qui physicam non ignorant, haec testificantur.
Caseus, anguilla, nimis obsunt si comedantur,
Xi tu saepe bibas, et rebibendo bibas.
XXXII.
I
De <£tbt ^otusque in ^ranbfo.
NTER prandendum sit saepe parumque bibendum.
Si sumas ovum, molle sit atquo novum.
XXXIII.
De ^isis (et dFabis).
PISUM laudandum decrevimus ac reprobandum.
Est inflativum cum pellibus atque nocivum,
Pellibus ablatis sunt bona pisa satis.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Corpus alit faba, constringit cum cortice ventrem.
Desiccat phlegma, stomachum lumenque relidit.
Munducare fabam caveas, parit ilia podagram;
Mundat, constipat, nee non caput aggravat, inflat.
Jus olerum, cicerumque bonum, substantia prava.
On the Preservation of Health. 71
31-
©f lids anb Cheese.
BY eating eels the human voice is hurt,
As learned Doctors everywhere assert;
But cheese with eels is worse than all, they say,
Unless to Bacchus you devote the day.
32.
©f /ttrat anb Drt'nfc at /Heals.
TAKE short potations at your meals, but oft,
And let all eggs you eat be fresh and soft.
33-
©f ^eas anb Ijrans.
SPEAK we of peas in an approving way, \/
Nor meanwhile fail against them to inveigh.
Unshelled, they cause a dire, flatulent mood;
But shelled, become most admirable food.
[Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
Though beans will nourish, yet their husks are prone
To cause in all a constipated tone.
They dry the phlegm, the stomach hurt and eyes;
Wherefore shun beans, since they to gout give rise.
They cleanse, but bind, and also cloud the wit;
All broth of pulse is good—all pulp unfit.
72 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
XXXIV.
De Hacte iTabibis.
LAC phthisicis sanum caprinum post camelinum;
Ac nutritivum plus omnibus est asininum.
Plus nutritivum vaccinum, sic et ovinum.
Si febriat caput et doleat, non est bene sanum.
[Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Humectat stomachum, proprium nutritque calorem
Hepatis, et stomachi contemperat immoderatum,
Provocat urinam, confert pinguedine dempta,
Et mollit ventrem, humores solvere fertur.
Lac vaccae multum confortat membra calore;
Dissipat humorum morsum nocivum calidorum ;
Carnes augmentat, matricis vulnera sanat;
Humectat corpus hominis lac, atque refrigat,
Quaeque cibaria dura turbida viscera reddunt.
XXXV. XXXVI.
De ISutgro et £ero.
LENIT et humectat, solvit sine febre Butyrum.
Incidit atque lavat, penetrat, mundat quoque
Serum.
On the Preservation of Health. 73
34-
©f jHilfc for (Consumpttbes.
GOATS' milk and camels', as by all is known,
Relieve poor mortals in consumption thrown;
While asses' milk is deemed far more nutritious,
And, e'en beyond all cows' or sheeps', officious.
But should a fever in the system riot,
Or headache, let the patient shun this diet.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
The stomach's gently soothed, and moistened too,
The liver nourished with fresh heat anew;
The loins more active are, the fat's dispelled,
The bowels freed, and every taint expelled.
Cows' milk gives wonted heat to every part,
And quickly dissipates the acrid smart
Of tainted humors,with a soothing art;
Increases flesh, to pangs of womb gives ease,
Can moist the body, and its heat appease;
And whatsoever things remain still crude
Within, converts to salutary food.
35, 36.
©f Gutter anb raheg.
BUTTER soothes, moistens—all this without fever; ]/
Whey proves a cleanser and a full reliever.
7 D
74 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
xxxvn.
De OTaseo.
CASEUS est frigidus, stipans, crassus, quoque durus.
Caseus et panis, sunt optima fercula sanis.
Si non sunt sani, tunc hunc non jungito pani.
Caseus de se Ipso. a. v.
Ignari medici me dicunt esse nocivum,
Sed tamen ignorant cur nocumenta feram.
Expertis reor esse rarum, quia commoditate.
Languenti stomacho caseus addit opem.
Caseus ante cibum confert, si defluat alvus;
Si constipetur, terminet ille dapes.
Qui physicam non ignorant, haec testificantur.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Caseus ante cibum, cibus est, post, medicina,
Caseus et cepae veniant ad prandia saepe.
Caseus ille sanus, quern dat avara manus.
Caseus est nequam, quia concoquit omnia sequam.
On the Preservation of Health. 75
37-
©f (Sfjeese.
CHEESE naturally is both cold and cloying,
Heavy and crude, and to digest annoying.
Yet those in health their hunger can appease,
With nothing better than plain bread and cheese.
But poor dyspeptics ever must beware,
How they mix bread with this deceitful fare.
(Addition a. v.)
A Soliloquy, by Cheese.
Know-nothing Doctors speak of me as ill,
Though what the harm I do they know not still.
'Tis rare I injure wiser ones, who link
Me, fitly, to good food or congruous drink.
A languid stomach is by cheese o'ertaxed;
'Tis good before our meals if one's relaxed;
If costive, then the feast with cheese dismiss,
For doctors all are well agreed on this.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
Let cheese be food whenever you begin
Your meal, but after that be medicine.
Let cheese and dainty mushrooms oft unite "
To furnish you with a delicious bite.
Cheese always wholesome is in any land,
When served to you by some spare miser's hand.
Cheese is a surly and capricious elf,
Digesting every substance but itself.
76 De Conservanda Bona Valetudinc.
XXXVIII.
De Jttobo lEbenbt et 13tbenbi.
INTER prandendum sit saepe parumque bibendum.
Ut minus aegrotes non inter fercula potes.
(Additio a. v.)
Ut vites pcenam, de potibus incipe ccenam.
Post pisces nux sit, post carnes caseus adsit.
Unica nux prodest, nocet altera, tertia mors est.
Singula post ova, pocula sume nova.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Vinum corde vetus corpus desiccat et urit,
Et choleram nutrit; ventrem constringere fertur;
Si jungas aquam moderanter, corpora nutrit,
Saepe bibendo parum, pondus laxas epularum,
Et liquor ipse tibi proderit, atque cibus.
Vinum lymphatum generat lepram cito potum;
Illud ergo convenit non sumere, ni bene mixtum,
Si vis perfecte, si vis te vivere recte,
Disce parum bibere, sis procul a venere.
Post vinum verba, post imbrem nascitur herba;
On the Preservation of Health. 77
38.
iHetfjob of ISattng anb Drtnfctng.
i
AT meals to sipping only, cling perforce,
And for health's sake drink not between each
course.
(Addition a. v.)
Would you no peptic torments ever feel ?
With drink, instead of food, begin each meal;
Nuts always add to fish; to meats add cheese;
One nut is good; another brings disease;
A third with death's own fangs mankind will seize.1
And also, after every egg you swallow,
Let instantly a fresh potation follow.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
Old wine is apt to burn and desiccate,
Make bile, and e'en, 'tis said, to constipate;
But, sparingly diluted, quickly gives
Fair sustenance to everything that lives.
By sipping merely, often it corrects
Of heavy meals the dolorous effects;
And thus may Bacchus, when he's fitly wooed,
In point of worth stand close allied to food;
But wine, when drugged, to leprosy gives rise,
And to be used, needs water as a guise.
1 The first nut is, by Villa Nova, supposed to be the nutmeg, the second
the walnut, and the third the vomic-nut.
7*
78 De Cojiserva?ida Bona Valetudine.
Post studium scire, post otia multa perire;
Post florem sequitur fructus, post gaudia luctus.
Si vox est rauca, bibe vinum, quod bibit aucha.
XXXIX.
De ^gri's.
A DDE potum pyro, nux est medicina veneno.
Fert pyra nostra pyrus, sine vino sunt pyra virus.
Si pyra sunt virus, sit maledicta pyrus.
Si coquis antidotum pyra sunt, sed cruda venenum.
Cruda gravant stomachum, relevant pyra cocta gra-
vatum.
Post pyra da potum, post pomum vade cacatum.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Ante cibum, stringunt, et post, pyra sumpta, resolvunt.
Pyra sumantur, sed post bona vina sequantur.
On the Preservation of Health. 79
So, if in perfect health thou wouldest be,
Drink little wine and far from Venus flee.
Herbs spring from showers, and pointed words from
wine,
While knowledge springs alone from thought's deep
mine.
Yet, beast-like, many mortals daily perish,
Clinging to sloth with an undying relish.
Flowers yield to fruits, and joys to sorrows pale;
When hoarse, then like the goose, drink Adam's ale.
39-
©f Vears.
PEARS should be followed by deep draughts of
wine;
The nut for poison is a balsam fine.
Though plenty, pears are, without wine, a bane;
And if so, cursed be pear-trees and profane!
When cooked, all kinds of poison they expel,
But raw, are in themselves a poison fell,
That loads and gnaws the stomach with fierce pain;
While cooked, such torments they expel amain.
Then follow this, as a most useful rule—
Drink after pears, from apples go to stool.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
Pears bind, preceding food; purge when they follow;
Then, after pears, of good wine take a swallow.
80 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
Anus pedit dum coctana cruda comedit;
Si fuerit cocta, tunc est cibus et medicina.
Omnia mala mala, praeter Appia Salernitana.
Quando capis poma, de vertice due perizoma,
Quando capis pyra, tunc primo de vertice gyra.
Tolle peripsma—post ede pulpam—sperne arullam,
Persica—pyra—poma cum cortice sunt meliora.
XL.
De (Herasis.
CERASA si comedas, tibi confert grandia dona;
Expurgat stomachum nucleus lapidem tibi toilet,
Et de carne sua sanguis eritque bonus.
XLI.
De ^urnis.
I" NFRIGIDANT, laxant, multum prosunt tibi prunae.
XLII.
De ^erstcts, Iftacemts et ^assults.
PERSICA cum musto vobis datur ordine justo
Sumere; sic est mos, nucibus sociando racemos.
On the Preservation of Health. 81
When raw, they will the lower bowel move,
When cooked, both food and useful physic prove.
Bad are all apples but the Appian kind,
And ere you eat of them pare off the rind;
For pears the same rule always bear in mind.
The peel removed, the pulp you then may eat,
Though peach and these, unpeeled, are far more sweet.
40.
©f (ferries.
CHERRIES you'll find are of benign intent;
They purge the stomach, and the stone prevent,
The blood throughout in healthy tone augment.
41.
©f prunes.
1 RUNES cool the body and the bowels move—
To all, in many ways, a blessing prove.
w
42.
©f Reaches, ©rapes anb Iftatsms.
ITH peaches you should always use new wine,
For they, in proper order well combine.
82 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
Passula non spleni, tussi valet, est bona reni.
(Additio ex. Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Utilitas uvae sine granis et sine pelle;
Dat sedare sitim jecoris, choleraeque calorem.
XLIII.
De Jftcubus.
SCROFA, tumor, glandes, ficus cataplasmati cedunt,
Junge papaver ei, confracta foris tenet ossa.
(Additio a. v.)
Pediculos, veneremque facit, sed cuilibet obstat.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Impinguant et alunt, varios curantque tumores.
Seu denter crudae, seu cum fuerint bene coctae.
Pectus lenificant ficus, ventremque relaxant.
On the Preservation of Health. 83
And 'tis the fashion, too, when nuts are swallowed,
That they should by the juice of grapes be followed.
Though raisins will cure coughs, they hurt the spleen,
And yet the kidneys keep in mood serene.
[Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
Stripped of all skin, deprived of all their seed,
Grapes are of highest use in times of need;
They soothe the swollen liver's angry heat,
And cool the bile in its own ardent seat.
43-
©f dFt'gs.
FIG-POULTICE will our bodies rid of tumors,u
Scrofula, boils and even peccant humors;
'Twill surely draw—add poppy-heads alone—
The splintered fragments from a broken bone.
(Addition a. v.)
Breed lice and lust in all who use the fruit,
And yet Love's call, in turn, chill at its root.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
Figs soothe the chest, and figs the bowels scour, ^
When raw or cooked with corresponding power
Both feed and fatten and relieve us too,
From every kind of swelling, old or new.
84 De Conservanda Bona Valctudine.
XLIV.
De /Hespilis.
M ULTIPLICANT mictum, ventrem dant ^Escula
strictum.
Mespila dura bona, sed mollia sunt meliora.
R
XLVII.1
De i&apts.
APA juvat stomachum, novit producere ventum,
Provocat urinam, faciet quoque dente ruinam.
Si male cocta datur, hinc torsio tunc generatur.
(Additio a. v.)
Radix rapa bona est, comedenti dat tria dona;
Visum clarificat, ventrem mollit, bene bombit.
Ventum saepe rapis, si tu vis vivere rapis.
E
XLVIII.
De Animalium Visceribus.
GERITUR tarde cor; digeritur quoque dure.
Similiter stomachus, melior sit in extremitates.
1 Nos. XLV. and XLVI. will be found combined with Nos. XVIII.
and XXVI., ante.
On the Preservation of Health. 85
44.
©f itteblars.
MEDLARS the bowels heat and constipate,
The kidneys too they strongly stimulate;
The hard are best and mostly in demand,
And yet for food the soft much higher stand.
47-
©f Curntps,
THOUGH eating turnips may impart delight, ^
'Tis known that they much flatulence excite.
They spoil the teeth—they also spur the reins,
And when ill-cooked cause most tormenting pains.
(Addition a. v.)
Its root is good, and gives us blessings three—
Purges, and aids the sight, and wind sets free.
And yet on turnips if you daily feed,
You'll reap of wind a most prodigious meed.
48.
©f Animal "fcTtseera.
THE heart much time requires to digest;
And also 'gainst rejection1 will protest.
1 Alluding to the ancient custom of vomiting between courses.
86 De Conservanda Bona Valeludine.
Reddit lingua bonum nutrimentum medicinae.
Digeritur facile pulmo, cito labitur ipse.
Est melius cerebrum gallinarum reliquorum.
XLIX.
De Semine jFtenicult.
OEM EN fceniculi pellit spiracula culi.
(Additio a. v.)
Bis duo dat marathrum, febres fugat atque venenum,
Et purgat stomachum, lumen quoque reddit acutum.
L.
De Aniso.
EM END AT visum, stomachum confortat Anisum.
Copia dulcoris aniso fit melioris.
On the Preservation of Health. 87
The same with tripe—while other members, distant,
Are to digestion far much less resistant.
A high and healing name do tongues sustain,
While lungs digest themselves with little pain,
And food become, as dew glides into rain.
But brains of barnyard fowls will ever stand
Highest of all such food in any land.
49.
©f JiFennel jceeb.
MONG spices, fennel, as 'tis known full well,
Hath power supreme all flatus to expel.
[Addition a. v.)
Many the virtues fennel seed displays,
First, fever in its presence never stays;
Next, it kills poison and the stomach frees,
And last, to human sight gives increased ease.
50.
©f Anise.
THE sav'ry aniseed the stomach cheers,
And human sight improves as well as clears.
The sweeter kind all others overpeers.
88 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
LI.
De -pobio.
O I cruor emanat Spodium sumptum cito sanat.
(Additio a. v.)
Gaudet hepar spodio, mace cor, cerebrum quoque
moscho;
Pulmo liquirita, splen capparis, stomachumque ga-
langa.
LII.
De 5ale.
VAS condimenti praeponi debet edenti.
Sal virus refugat, et non sapidumque saporat.
Nam sapit esca male quae datur absque sale.
Urunt persalsa visum, spermaque minorant,
Et generant scabiem, pruritum, sive rigorem.
[Additio a. v.)
Sal primo poni debet, primoque reponi,
Non bene mensa tibi ponitur absque sale.
On the Preservation of Health. 89
51-
©f Keebs.
REED-ASHES quickly put a stop, you'll find,
When drunk, to haemorrhage of any kind.
(Addition a. v.)
The liver glows beneath reed-ashes' touch ;
Mace cheers the heart, its nut the brain full much;
Capers the spleen—liq'rice the lungs admire,
The stomach fresh galanga's spicy fire.
52.
©f Salt.
SALT-CELLARS ever should stand at the head
Of dishes, whereso'er a table's spread.
Salt will all poisons expurgate with haste,
And to insipid things impart a taste.
The richest food will be in great default
Of taste without a pinch of sav'ry salt.
Yet of salt meats, the long-protracted use
Will both our sight and manhood, too, reduce;
And beyond all, let none express surprise,
To loathsome psora and to cramps give rise.
(Addition a. v.)
On tables, salt should stand both first and last,
Since, in its absence, there is no repast.
g *
90 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
LIII.
De jcaportbus ac eorum diualttattbus.
HIC fervore viget tres, salsus, amarus, acutus ;
Alget acetosus sic stipans, ponticus atque;
Unctus, et insipidus dulcis, dant temperamentum.
B
LIV.
De "fcJippa.1
IS duo vippa facit, mundat dentes, dat acutum
Visum, quod minus est implet; minuit quod
abundat.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Vippa famem frenat, oculos dentesque serenat,
Et stomachum mundat, sic anhelitum quoque fugat;
Ingeniumque acuit; replet, minuit simul offa.
LV.
De Diaeta.
O
MNIBUS assuetam jubeo servare diaetam.
Approbo sic esse, ni sit mutare necesse.
From Vinum and Panis.
On the Preservation of Health. 91
53-
©f Castes, anb their Qualities.
THESE three are foremost—bitter, acid, salt—
Acids cool, bind; and styptics have this fault;
The oily, sweet, insipid though they be,
From all extremes will keep the body free.
54-
Mme^soup,
WINE-SOUP will always give you comforts four:
Clean teeth and a sharp sight, an increased
store
Of flesh—should you deficient be in this;
Or, if obese, your flesh it will dismiss.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
Hunger it checks, while soothing teeth and eyes;
The stomach frees and asthma mollifies;
The wit increases, good sound fat produces,
And daily share of needed food reduces.
55-
©f Bitt.
WE hold that men, on no account, should vary
Their daily diet until necessary;
92 De Conservanda Bona Valetudinc.
Est Hippocras testis, quoniam sequitur mala pestis.
Fortior est meta medicinae certa diaeta;
Quam si non curas, fatue regis, et male curas.
LVI.
De Abmtnistratione Diceta*.
QUALE, quid, et quando, quantum, quoties, ubi,
dando
Ista notare cibo debet medicus diaetando.
Ne mala conveniens ingrediatur iter.
LVII.
De
DOCTORS in Onions diff'rent virtues see:
Quoth Galen, they should never given be
To bilious men, with whom they'll disagree.
Yet for lymphatics deems them wholesome food.
Asclepias praises them in highest mood.
They aid the stomach, also cause to start
A handsome color in a hairless part;
Which, with them rubbed, you thus can soon repair
Your tonsure, and bring back all fallen hair.
9 E
98 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
(Additio a. v.)
Appositas perhibent morsus curare caninos,
Si trita cum melle prius fuerint et aceto.
LXIII.
De Sinapi.
EST modicum granum, siccum, calidumque Sinapi,
Dat lachrymas, purgatque caput, tollitque vene-
num.
LXIV.
De Viola purpurea.
C RAPULA discutitur, capitis dolor, atque gravedo,
Purpuream dicunt Violam curare caducos.
LXV.
De £trtica.
GRIS dat somnum, vomitum quoque tollit et
usum,
Illius semen colicis cum melle medetur.
Et tussim veterem curat, si saepe bibatur.
Frigus pulmonis pellit, ventrisque tumorem,
Omnibus et morbis subveniet articulorum.
JE
On the Preservation of Health.
99
(Addition a. v.)
They'll cure dog-bites, and give relief, 'tis said,
In Oxymel, when on the surface spread.
63-
©f iHustarb.
M
USTARD the human body heats and dries;
Poisons expels, and clears both head and eyes.
H
64.
©f tfje Violet.
EADACHE, catarrh, the violet dispels,
And falling fits and drunkenness expels.
65-
©f tfje Nettle.
r I SHE nettle to the sick man slumber brings;
J- Checks qualms, and need of all emetic things.
From painful colics patients may be freed
By eating honey which contains its seed.
When in decoction used, it will drive off
Catarrh, or any long-protracted cough;
From ventral tumors give relief as well,
And joint diseases cure with magic spell.
ioo De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
LXVI.
De #?PSSopo,
H YSSOPUS est herba purgans a pectore phlegma.
Ad pulmonis opus cum melle coquatur hys-
sopus;
Vultibus eximium fertur reparare colorem.
LXVII.
De Oterefolto.
A PPOSITUM cancris tritum cum melle medetur,
Cum vino potum lateris sedare dolorem
Saepe solet, tritam si nectis desuper herbam,
Saepe solet vomitum, ventremque tenere solutum.
LXVIII.
De ISnula (ftampana.
ENULA campana reddit praecordia sana.
Cum succo rutae succus si sumitur hujus,
Affirmant ruptis nil esse salubrius istis.
On the Preservation of Health. 101
66.
©f ?^BSS0p.
HYSSOP among all purging herbs is best,
And frees from phlegm the overburdened chest.
When cooked with honey 'tis esteemed the chief
Of balms to give the lungs complete relief.
Its use, by some, is said to give the face
The highest character of human grace.
67.
©f (tffjerbil.
FRESH honey, when with pounded chervil mixed,
Cures cancer, if upon its surface fixed.
First steeped in wine, then drunk, it will provide
Relief for any form of aching side.
Applied in pulp, 'twill oft, as all agree,
The stomach void, and e'en the bowels free.
68.
©f IStecampane.
ELECAMPANE brings joyous health to all
Thoracic organs, whether great or small.
To drink its juice, combined with that of rue,
Is the best thing that ruptured men can do.
9*
102 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
c
LXIX.
De }Julegio.
UM vino choleram nigram potata repellit;
Appositam veterem dicunt sedare podagram.
LXX.
De Kasturtto.
ILLIUS succus crines retinere fluentes
Illitus asseritur, dentesque levare dolorem,
Et squamas succus sanat cum melle perunctus.
LXXI.
De (Cfjeltbonia.
CiECATIS pullis hac lumina mater hirundo,
Plinius ut scribit, quamvis sint eruta reddit.
LXXII.
De Saliee.
AURIBUS infusus vermes succus necat ejus.
Cortex verrucas in aceto cocta resolvit.
■4
On the Preservation of Health. 103
69.
©f ^ennj?roj)al.
DECOCTIONS made with any kind of wine,
Will cause the blackest jaundice to decline; v
And bound on any old arthritic part,
Relieves at once its overpow'ring smart.
70.
©f (Presses.
THE juice of early cresses, it is said,
Checks falling hair, whenever on it spread.
Cures toothache, too, and when with honey smeared
On scalp, at once 'tis from all lichen cleared.
7i-
©f (ftelanbme.
SWALLOWS, to their blind young, with celandine,
Restore, 'tis said, their wonted vision fine;
And Pliny writes that if this be employed,
Vision returns to eyes of old, destroyed.
72.
©f the milloto.
THE juice of willows, poured into the ear,
All insects causes thence to disappear.
104 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
Hujus flos, sumptus in aqua, frigescere cogit
Instinctus Veneris, cunctos acres stimulantcs
Et sic desiccat, ut nulla creatio fiat.
LXXIII.
De Gtroco.
C ONFORTARE crocum dixerunt exhilarando.
Membra defecta confortat hepar reparando.
LXXIV.
De IPorro.
REDDIT fcecundas mansum per saepe puellas;
Illo stillantem poteris retinere cruorem,
Ungis si nares intus medicamine tali.
(Additio ex Ed. Parisii, 1861.)
Si fuerint cocti, porri sunt plus valituri.
Crudi, detestabiles cholerico ventove feraces.
On the Preservation of Health.
io5
Its bark in vinegar of any sort,
When macerated long, dissolves a wart.
Its tender blossom drunk in water cools
Consuming love, and fierce excitement schools,
And all productive power thus overrules.
73-
©f Saffron.
SAFFRON, 'tis said, brings comfort to mankind,
By giving rise to cheerfulness of mind.
Restores weak limbs, the liver also mends,
And normal vigor through its substance sends.
74-
©f Heefes.
THE leek will all young women fruitful make,
Who of its substance constantly partake.
Should ever bleeding from the nose begin,
'Twill yield at once to this drug, smeared within.
(Addition from Paris Ed., 1861.)
When cooked they're best; when raw they're doubly
vile,
And fruitful in producing wind and bile.
106 De Conservanda Bona Valetudinc.
LXXV.
De ^ipere.
QUOD piper est nigrum, non est dissolvere pigrum,
Phlegmata purgabit, concoctricemque juvabit.
Leucopiper stomacho prodest; tussique, dolori
Utile, praeveniet motum, febrisque rigorem.1
LXXVI.
De ©rabitate Cubitus.
T mox post escam dormire, nimisque moveri,
' Ista gravare solent auditus, ebrietasque.
LXXVII.
De Cinnitu aurium.
A J ETUS—longa fames, vomitus, percussio, casus,
IV J. Ebrietas, frigus, tinnitum causat in aure.
1 Quodque movere solet frigus periodica febris
Compescit, febris si sumitur ante tremorem.
Macer, lib. 3, cap. i.
An ague-frozen blood, with warmth can fill,
And fever break, dispensed before a chill.
On the Preservation of Health. 107
75-
©f pepper.
ALL peppers black make food digest with haste,
Cure phlegm, and help us to repair our waste.
White pepper is the stomach's dearest friend,
And coughs and pains brings to an early end.
'Twill interrupt the chill of any fever,
Or prove, if raging high, supreme reliever.1
76.
©f Dullness of Rearing.
TO sleep soon after having taken food,
And exercise when frequently renewed,
With drunkenness—all these in turn appear
To dull, betimes, the sharpness of the ear.
77-
©f Ringing in tfje ISars.
EMETICS, blows, all accidents and fear,
Dangers, long fasts and drunkards' wild career,
Will cause continued ringing of the ear.
See note on opposite page.
108 De Conservanda Bona Valctudine.
LXXVIII.
De Uisus Kocumentis.
BALNEA, vina, Venus, ventus, piper, allia, fumus,
Porri cum caepis, lens, fletus, faba, sinapis,
Sol, coitus, ignis, labor, ictus, acumina pulvis,
Ista nocent oculis, sed vigilare magis.
LXXIX.
De Gtorroborantibus T^isum.
FCENICULUS, verbena, rosa, chelidonia, ruta,
Subveniunt oculis dira caligine pressis,
Nam ex istis fit aqua, quae lumina reddit acuta.
LXXX.
De Dolore Dentium Jfcebanbo.
IC dentes serva, porrorum collige grana.
Cum hyoscyamo ure adjuncto simul quoque
thure.
On the Preservation of Health. 109
78.
Cfjings hurtful to tfje Sigfjt.
MUCH bathing, Venus, blust'ring winds and wine,
And meats of every sort preserved in brine,
With lentils, pepper, mustard, also beans,
Garlic and onions—by such hurtful means,
With too much labor amid dust and smoke,
Weeping, or watching fires, we thus invoke,
With long exposure to the noonday sun,
The direst wrongs that can to sight be done.
But vigils are, by far, more noxious still
Than any form of single-mentioned ill.
79-
©f Cfjtngs Strengthening the ,£igf)t.
FENNEL, vervain, rose, celandine and rue,
Cure filmy eyes and give them sight anew.
From each a potent eyewash may be made,
To strengthen them when sight begins to fade.
80.
©f Swaging Cootfjacfje.
THUS treat your teeth whene'er they chance to ^
ache;
The seeds of leeks, selected wisely, take;
10
no De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
Sic per embotum, fumum cape dente remotum.
LXXXI.
De Haucebine Vocis.
NUX, oleum, frigus capitis, anguillaque potus.
Ac pomum crudum, faciunt hominem fore raucum.
LXXXII.
itfjeumatis itemebia.
JEJUNA, vigila, caleas dape, valde labora,
Inspira calidum, modicum bibe, comprime flatum ;
Haec bene tu serva, si vis depellere rheuma.
Si fluat ad pectus, dicatur rheuma catarrhus ;
Ad fauces bronchus; ad nares esto coryza.
On the Preservation of Health. 111
Burn them with sweet frankincense mixed, nor yet
To introduce some henbane leaves forget;
Then through a funnel broad allow, forsooth,
The smoke to be slow drawn into the tooth.
81.
©f hoarseness.
OIL and raw apples, nuts and eels, 'tis said,
With such catarrhs as settle in the head,
And leading, too, a long intemp'rate course
Of life, will render any person hoarse.
82.
©f Hemebies for (ftatarrfj.
T^AST well and watch. Eat hot your daily fare,
A Work some, and breathe a warm and humid air;
Of drink be spare; your breath at times suspend,1
These things observe if you your cold would end.
A cold whose ill effects extend as far
As in the chest, is known as a catarrh.
Bronchitis, if into the throat it flows—
Coryza, if it reach alone the nose.
1 Holding the breath was a form of exercise much observed by the
ancients in their gymnastics. Mercurialis, in his treatise on this subject,
quotes Galen as recommending it very highly.
ii2 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
LXXXIII.
De (tfuratione jfistula\
AURIPIGMENTUM, sulphur, miscere memento;
His decet apponi calcem, commisce saponi.
Quatuor haec misce. Commixtis quatuor istis
Fistula curatur, quater ex his si repleatur.
LXXXIV.
De Doloribus (Capitis.
SI capitis dolor est ex potu, lympha bibatur.
Ex potu nimio nam febris acuta creatur.
Si vertex capitis, vel frons aestu tribulentur,
Tempora fronsque simul moderate saepe fricentur;
Morella cocta nee non calidaque laventur;
Istud enim credunt capitis prodesse dolori.
LXXXV.
De Oguatuor anni Kemportbus.
TEMPORIS aestivi jejunia corpora siccant,
Quolibet in mense, et confert vomitus quoque
purgat
Humores nocuos, stomachi lavat ambitus omnes.
Ver, Autumnus, Hyems, ^Estas, dominantur in anno;
Tempore vernali calidus fit aer, humidusque,
Et nullum tempus melius fit phlebotomiae.
On the Preservation of Health. 113
83-
(Cure for a dFistula.
WITH sulphur, orpin mix—bear this in mind—
And add some lime, with yellow soap combined;
By these in mass commingled well and milled,
Fistula's cured, if four times it is filled.
84.
©f ^eabacfjes.
IF wine give headache, water drink alone,
To follow tippling fever's very prone.
Should crown or forehead heated be and ache,
Light frictions of these parts let patients make,
And with infusions hot of Morel lave;
'Tis said from headache they have power to save.
85.
©f tfje jFour Seasons of tfje $ear.
SUMMER the body dries through its long fasts,
And useful are emetics while it lasts.
They cleanse the system of all humors ill,
By flooding fully each detergent rill.
The seasons in their turn control the year,
In spring we have a tepid atmosphere;
And to let blood no fitter days appear.
10*
r 14 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
Usus tunc homini Veneris confert moderatus.
Corporis et motus, ventrisque solutio, sudor,
Balnea, purgentur tunc corpora cum medicinis.
^Estas more calet sicca, et noscatur in ilia
Tunc quoque praecipue choleram rubram dominari.
Humida, frigida fercula dentur, sit Venus extra,
Balnea non prosunt, sint rarae phlebotomiae,
Utilis est requies, sit cum moderamine potus.
LXXXVI.
De Numero ©ssium, Dentium et Uenarum.
OSSIBUS ex denis bis centenisque novenis,
Constat homo, denis bis dentibus et duodenis;
Et ter centenis decies sex quinque venis.
LXXXVII.
De (Quatuor ^umoribus i^umant (Corporis.
QUATUOR humores in humano corpore constant,
Sanguis cum cholera, phlegma, melancholia.
Terra melancholicis, aqua confertur pituita.
Aer sanguineis, ignea vis cholerae.
On the Preservation of Health. 115
Then mod'rate homage paid to Love, will bring
A solace sweet to every living thing.
Let purgings, baths and perspiration be,
With exercise and medication, free.
For dry is summer with its wonted heat,
And chiefly we must study then to meet
The fiery bile, and quell it in its seat.
Be cooling dishes used—be love denied;
Baths and blood-letting, put them both aside,
And rest to temp'rate living be allied.
86.
Number of ISones, Ceetf) anb Vtin% in tfje ffcjuman
33obp.
OF bones, man's body, as is plainly seen,
In all has some two hundred and nineteen;
Of teeth, in number, thirty-two contains,
With full three-hundred-five-and-sixty veins.
87.
©f tfje jTour Rumors in the pitman ^obg.
FOUR humors form the body in this style,
Atrabilis,1 Blood, Phlegm and yellow Bile.
With earth atrabilis may well compare,
Consuming fire with bile, and blood with air.
1 The ancients made a distinction between yellow and black bile, analo^
gous to our own expressions of Cystic and Hepatic.
n6 De Conservanda Bona Valetudine.
(Additio a. v.)
Humidus est sanguis, calet, est vis aeris illi.
Alget phlegma, humetque illi sic copia aquosa est.
Sicca calet cholera, et igni fit similata,
Frigens sicca melancholia est, terrae adsimilata.
LXXXVII1.
De Cemperatura.
Sanguinea.
NATURA pingues isti sunt, atque jocantes,
Semper rumores cupiunt audire frequenter.
Hos Venus et Bacchus delectant, fercula, risus;
Et facit hos hilares, et dulcia verba loquentes.
Omnibus hi studiis habiles sunt, et magis apti.
Qualibet ex causa nee hos leviter movet ira.
Largus, amans, hilaris, ridens, rubeique coloris,
Cantans, carnosus, satis audax, atque benignus.
LXXXIX.
ffifjolerica gibe SSiltosa.
EST et humor choleras, qui competit impetuosis.
Hoc genus est hominum cupiens praecellere
cunctos.
Hi leviter discunt, multum comedunt, cito crescunt.
Inde magnanimi sunt, largi, summa petentes.
Hirsutus, fallax, irascens, prodigus, audax,
Astutus, gracilis siccus, croceique coloris.
On the Preservation of Health. 117
(Addition a. v.)
Blood is moist, warm, and vital as the air;
While phlegm is cold, through water's copious share;
Bile burns like fire, where'er it flows along;
Gall, dry and cool, to earth bears likeness strong.
88.
©f Cemperament.
The Sanguine.
SUCH are by nature stout, and sprightly too,
And ever searching after gossip new.
Love Venus, Bacchus, banquets, noisy joy,
And jovial, they kind words alone employ;
In studies apt—pre-eminent in arts,
No wrath from any cause e'er moves their hearts.
Gay, loving, cheerful and profuse in all,
Hearty, tuneful, wherever fate may call;
They're florid, bold, and yet benign withal.
89.
.
"^ X salvatella tibi plurima dona minuta,
fc/
Purgat hepar, splenem, pectus, praecordia, vocem,
Innaturalem tollit de corde dolorem.
On the Preservation of Health. 131
In autumn sere, or on cold winter's day,
Take from the left in corresponding way.
Four parts distinct we must in turn deplete—
The liver, heart, the head, and last the feet.
In spring the heart—liver when heats abound,
The head or feet, whene'er their turn comes round.
103.
©f tfje Benefit of Bleeding from tfje Salbatella Vtin.
TO mortals there will come superior gain,
From tapping oft the Salvatella vein;
It frees the voice, spleen, liver and the chest,
And heart, whene'er abnormally distressed.
132 On the Preservation of Health.
Specimens of the English Translations, of which
there appear to have been three heretofore
made, viz.: a.d. 1575, l6°7 AND 1617.
The first from a MS. in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
dated 1575 :
" The puisante Kinge of Brittannye
The schole of famous memorye,
Salernum, biddes him selfe to frame,
If healthe he woulde and kepe the same;
Geve cares noe place within thy brest;
Lett fretting furies be supprest;
Too muche of wine use not to swill;
Suppe you but lighte, eate not thy fill;
At meate to sitte soe longe a time,
To rise is not soe greate a crime ;
At noone geve not thye selfe to slepe;
Nor use thye water for to kepe.
"He maye that liste this to observe,
Him selfe longe time in healthe preserve.
When physicke harde is to be hadd,
Three things may be in steede.
The minde in noe wise must be sadde,
Meane reste and diette muste thee feede."
On the Preservation of Health. 133
The second called the Englishman's Doctor, London, A. D. 1607:
" The Salerne Schoole doth by these lines impart
All health to England's King, and doth advise
From care his head to keepe, from wrath his harte.
Drink not much wine, sup light, and soone arise.
When meat is gone long sitting breedeth smart;
And after noone still waking keepe your eies,
When mou'd you find your selfe to nature's need,
Forbeare them not, for that much danger breeds,
Use three physitians still—first Dr. Quiet,
Next Dr. Merry-man, and Dr. Dyet."
The third called the Regiment of Health, London, 1617 :
" All Salerne Schoole thus writes to England's King,
And for men's health these fit advises bring.
Shunne busie cares, rash angers, which displease;
Light supping, little drinke doe cause great ease.
Rise after meate, sleepe not at afternoone,
Urine and nature's neede, expell them soone.
Long shalt thou live if all these well be done.
When physicke needes, let these thy doctors be,
Good diet, quiet thoughts, heart mirthful, free."
12
APPENDIX.
The following Precepts are Excerpts from the Paris
Edition of 1861, and with the exception of the
first few, touching the art and practice
of Medicine, relate to the gen-
eral subject of the Poem.
136
Appendix.
ILaus Ittetotct.
SENSUS et ars medici curant, non verba sophistae;
Hie aegrum relevat curis, verbis necat iste.
JHetiicina* (©tyectum.
NOSSE malum, sanos servando, aegrisque medendo;
Consule naturam, poteris prudentior esse.
Est medicus, scit qui morbi cognoscere causam;
Quando talis erit, nomen et omen habebit.
Sunt medico plura super aegris respicienda;
In membro crasis, atque situs, plasmatio, virtus,
Morbi natura, patientis conditiones.
Digere materiam, crudamque repelle nocivam,
Mollifica duram, compactam solve, fluentem
Et spissam liquefac, spissam lenique fluentem.
tffletiieina* ILimttes.
CONTRA vim mortis, non est medicamen in hortis.
Si medicus cunctos aegros posset medicari,
Appendix. 137
5mi8 Sfifv-~-i.
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
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