Commentary on Hippocrates' Regimen for Health

​Let food and drink and all other things set as a target the wet and the hot, since it is necessary to wet and warm the solid parts of the body of the elderly, which are the only parts properly called parts by those who name them. But on the other hand, one must again provide for the evacuation of phlegmatic residues. If, therefore, you should gather and learn scientifically from the treatise “On Temperaments” that the proper temperament of the elderly is cold and dry, but that they have an acquired wetness due to the generation of phlegmatic residues, and having gone from those writings to the commentaries “On Hygiene”, you should further learn how one must regulate the regimen of the elderly, the lack of qualification in the present passage will be perfectly clear to you. For neither ought human life to be divided into two, nor should wet and soft bodies be spoken of in the case of the elderly, nor that they must be regulated in regimen with dry foods in their temperament. However, by saying that young people have firm bodies and are dry in their temperament, he is clearly making his argument concerning those in their prime alone and calling these people young. He therefore omitted the age of children and that of those past their prime, and, as I say, even the most well-blended one, which is between children and those in their prime. And he himself is clear in suspecting his own argument. For he did not simply say that the older people ought to be regulated in regimen in a drier way, but added, “the greater part of the time.” This is the same as saying ”not always”, which he added neither to the constitution of the body nor to any other age, for one ought always to choose the regimen proper to each body. “Therefore, one must make the regimens in relation to age, season, habit, locality, and physical types, opposing the established heat and cold. For in this way they would be healthiest.” [q.1] Generally this argument has been spoken by him both clearly and truly, and has already been frequently fully discussed by us in many places. “And in winter one ought to walk quickly, but in summer to keep quiet, unless one is walking through burning heat.” [q.2] He teaches how one ought to walk in each of the seasons: choosing in winter a walk that dries and warms, but in summer making the opposite target, or, he says, not to walk under the sun. For at such times one must hurry to be released more quickly from the dryness and heat that arise in the body during such a journey. “And those who are fleshy ought to walk more quickly, but the lean more quietly. And one should use many baths in summer, but fewer in winter. And the firm ought to bathe more than the fleshy.” [q.3] Quick movement, by increasing the heat further, melts the body. But in slow movements, the moderate heat makes both blood-making and nutrition better, and because of this contributes to the good nourishment of animals. ”And in winter one should wear clean garments, but in summer oil-dirty ones.” [q.4] Whether the writer conceived of something wiser than what has been said by all the commentators, he himself would know. But if he thinks that clean garments should be worn in winter because they warm more or because they do not hinder respiration, and oil-dirty ones in summer either because they cool or because they block respiration, I do not praise the argument. For even of clean garments, those that have a thick weave, and especially if they are worn out, cool, and therefore it is better to use these. For oil-dirty ones are altogether filthy. And no clean person tolerates filthy garments, especially in summer. Moreover, oil-dirty ones, when worn for a time, warm more than clean ones, even if they are very cold at the first application. ”And those who are fat, and as many as wish to become lean, should perform all their labors while fasting, and set to their food while still panting and not cooled down, having previously drunk mixed wine that is not very cold. And they should prepare their side-dishes with sesame or seasonings and other such things. And let the served side-dishes be fat, for in this way they would be filled from the very least food.” [q.5]