Commentary on Hippocrates' Regimen for Health

​Just as the differences of the seasons indicate a different regimen, so also do the constitutions of the body, to which he has now come after completing the discussion of the seasons. And just as he indicated the appropriate regimen in the seasons, so also in the types of the body. For those who are fleshy, soft, and ruddy have become such due to the wetness of their temperament. But those who are in the opposite state to them, whom he will speak of next, are so due to dryness. It is proper, therefore, for the wet to use a drier regimen, and the dry a wetter one. And if indeed these things have been said truly, it is obvious that it is proper also for those of well-blended temperament to use a well-blended regimen. And by “well-blended” I mean those whom people call neither fleshy nor fleshless, but of good flesh. “But those who are firm, and contracted, and ruddy, and dark, should for the greater part of the time use a wetter regimen, for such bodies are dry by nature.” [q.1] The signs of temperaments have been fully written by me in the commentaries “On Temperaments”, in which we taught that the firm, that is, the hard, and the contracted, that is, the lean, are of a drier temperament, just as indeed are the dark. However, we did not say that the “ruddy” (pyrrhoi) are of dry temperament, but rather those who approach them in color, whom they call “blonde” (xanthoi), since yellow bile (xanthe chole) is also dry in its temperament. But by using names inaccurately sometimes, some of those who write books confuse the teaching of things. Thus, for example, some call the Germans blonde, although they are not blonde, if one wishes to call them accurately, but ruddy. The other parts of the set passage have been spoken both truly and clearly. “And for young bodies, it is beneficial to use softer and wetter regimens; for the age is dry and the bodies are firm. But the older people ought to spend the greater part of the time in a drier way. For bodies at this age are wet, soft, and cold.” [q.2] Having transitioned to the ages, he made an incomplete division, not cutting them into four differences, but into two only. Yet he ought, if indeed he was to take the indication of the manner of regimen from the temperaments according to ages, just as the temperaments are four, so also to cut the ages into four, calling that of children wet and hot, that of those in their prime dry and hot, that of those past their prime dry and cold, and that of the elderly wet and cold. But while that of children must be wet, since growth cannot occur in any other temperament, for those in their prime, since they are hotter and drier than is proper, it is beneficial to use opposite regimens, just as indeed for those past their prime. But on the age of the elderly, there is a not small problem neglected by almost everyone, about which I will speak a little later, after completing the discussion of the previous ages. For if it is agreed that children have more wetness than is beneficial for those who are healthily without harm, and more heat (for they are not simply hot like those in their prime, but according to the innate heat, which is well-blended, having its existence in good blood), the state between children and those in their prime, which is that of youths and adolescents, would be in the best temperament. And since the best is in the middle, it is proper also to make their regimens middle in temperament, making their bodies neither wetter nor drier, nor hotter nor colder. Yet, although the body of children may have more wetness in comparison to a healthy state, still one must not dry them, for we shall make them growless. But concerning the elderly, since some say they are wet, and others dry, both without qualification, we must distinguish in what respect they are dry and in what respect wet. And this was shown in the works “On Temperaments.” For in the solid parts of the body themselves they were shown to be dry, but having many residues due to the coldness of their temperament, and because of these they are said to be wet. Accordingly, therefore, a contrary and double indication is given to physicians from this age: to be wetted because of the dryness of the temperament of the solid parts which need wetting, and to be dried because of the abundance of wet residues. How, then, one might perfectly aim at both has been fully said in the treatise “On Hygiene.” But in the present discussion, it will suffice to state the main point of what we have written there.