§5Αὗται μὲν οὖν εἰσιν αἱ διαφοραὶ τῶν ἐθῶν κατά τε τὴν τῶν ὑλῶν, ἐν αἷς συνίστανται, καὶ τὴν τῶν αἰτίων, ὑφ’ ὧν γίνονται, δύναμιν.
These, then, are the differences of habits according to both the power of the materials in which they consist and that of the causes by which they arise.
Ἐρασιστράτου δὲ καὶ τῶν κενώσεων ἐπιζητητικὸν γίνεσθαι τὸ σῶμα φάντος, ἐπειδὰν ἐθισθῶσί τινες αὐταῖς, καὶ περὶ τούτων ἐπισκεπτέον.
And since Erasistratus says that the body becomes desirous of evacuations when people have become accustomed to them, we must examine these things too.
ἴσμεν γάρ τινας ἐκ τῶν ῥινῶν αἱμορραγοῦντας ἤτοι κατὰ περιόδους τινὰς ἰσοχρονίους ἢ ἀτάκτως ἢ δι’ αἱμορροΐδων ἢ δι’ ἐμέτων ἢ διαρροίαις ἢ χολέραις κενουμένους, ἐνίοτε δ’ ἑκουσίως ἀποχέοντας αἵματος ἢ διὰ φλεβοτομίας ἢ δι’ ἀμυχῶν τῶν ἐν σφυροῖς [ἢ διὰ ῥινός], ὥσπερ γε καὶ διὰ τῶν καθαιρόντων φαρμάκων, ἐμετηρίων τε καὶ κατωτερικῶν· ὑπὲρ ὧν καὶ αὐτῶν ἐσκέφθαι τι χρήσιμον.
For we know that some bleed from the nose either at certain regular intervals or irregularly, or are evacuated by hemorrhoids, or by vomiting, or by diarrhea, or by cholera, and sometimes voluntarily shedding blood either by venesection or by incisions in the ankles [or through the nose], just as indeed by purging drugs, both emetics and purgatives; concerning which things themselves it is necessary to consider something useful.
ἐμοὶ γὰρ οὐ δοκεῖ τὰ σώματα δι’ ἔθος δεῖσθαι τῶν τοιούτων κενώσεων, ἀλλὰ δι’ ἣν αἰτίαν τῆς πρώτης ἐδεήθη κενώσεως ἤτοι τῆς φύσεως ἐργασαμένης αὐτὴν ἤ τινος ἀνθρώπου κατὰ συλλογισμὸν ἰατρικόν, οὕτω καὶ αὖθις καὶ πολλάκις χρῄζειν τῶν αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς.
For to me, bodies do not seem to need such evacuations because of habit, but for the very cause they needed the first evacuation—whether nature produced it or some human by medical reasoning—so also again and many times they need the same things for the same reasons.
ἔνιοι μὲν γὰρ ἐπὶ μοχθηραῖς διαίταις, ἔνιοι δὲ διὰ κατασκευὴν μοχθηρὰν τοῦ σώματος ἀθροίζοντες αἵματος πλῆθος ἢ κακοχυμίαν ὑπὸ τῶν εἰρημένων κενώσεων ὠφελοῦνται τῆς φύσεως ἤ τινος ἰατροῦ τὸ περιττὸν ἀποχέοντος, πρὶν νοσῆσαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον.
For some, under bad regimens, and others, because of a bad constitution of the body, accumulating a plethora of blood or cacochymia (bad humors), are benefited by the aforementioned evacuations, with nature or some doctor draining off the excess before the person falls ill.
ἐνίοις δὲ νοσήσασιν ἡ μὲν κρίσις ἐπὶ τοιαύταις ἐκκρίσεσι τοῦ νοσήματος ἴασις ἐγένετο· τινὲς δ’ ὑπὸ τῶν ἰατρῶν ἐθεραπεύθησαν ὁμοίοις βοηθήμασι χρησαμένων, εἶθ’ ὕστερον ἁλόντες ὁμοίῳ νοσήματι θεραπευθέντες τε δι’ αὐτῶν, ἐάν ποτε πάλιν αὐτοῖς ἤτοι που τὸ τοῦ σώματος βάρος ἢ τῆς κεφαλῆς μόνης ἀνωμαλία τις ἢ καί τι τῶν παρὰ φύσιν ἕτερον ἐπιφαίνηται, κοινοῦνται τοῖς ἰατροῖς περὶ αὐτῶν δεδιέναι φάσκοντες ἁλῶναι τοῖς αὐτοῖς νοσήμασιν, οἷς ἔμπροσθεν ἑάλωσαν ἐπὶ προηγησαμένοις ὁμοίοις συμπτώμασι, κἄπειτα φθάσαντες ἢ διὰ καθάρσεώς τινος ἢ δι’ αἵματος ἀφαιρέσεως ἐκφυγεῖν τὴν προσδοκηθεῖσαν νόσον ἑτοιμότερον ἐπὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ἀφικνοῦνται βοήθειαν, ὅταν αἴσθωνταί τινος ὁμοίου συμπτώματος ὕστερόν ποτε συμπεσόντος αὐτοῖς.
And for some who fell ill, the crisis occurring with such evacuations became the cure of the disease; while others were treated by doctors who used similar remedies, and then later, having been seized by a similar disease, were cured by them; if ever again either a heaviness of the body or some irregularity of the head alone or any other unnatural thing appears to them, they consult with doctors, saying that they fear being seized by the same diseases which they were seized by before after similar preceding symptoms; and then, anticipating the disease so as to escape it either by some purging or by bloodletting, they more readily resort to the same remedy whenever they perceive some similar symptom happening to them later.
ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ πρὶν αἰσθέσθαι τὴν προθεσμίαν ὑφορώμενοι τοῦ χρόνου, καθ’ ὃν ἐν ὡρισμένῃ περιόδῳ τῶν τοιούτων ἔπαθόν τι, κενοῦσθαι φθάνουσιν ὀνομάζουσί τε τὴν προφυλακτικὴν κένωσιν ἐν ἔθει γεγονέναι σφίσιν οὐδεμίαν ὑπαλλαγὴν τοῦ σώματος ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων κενώσεων λαμβάνοντος, ὁποίαν ἐδείχθη λαμβάνον ἐπὶ τοῖς προειρημένοις, ἀλλ’ ὑπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς αἰτίας ταὐτὰ πάσχοντος.
And some, even before perceiving anything, being suspicious of the set limit of time at which they suffered something of the sort in a defined period of time, anticipate it by being evacuated; and they say that this prophylactic evacuation has become a habit for them, although the body receives no alteration from such evacuations, of the kind it was shown to receive in the aforementioned cases, but suffers the same things from the same cause.
ἐὰν οὖν ὑπαλλάξωσι τὴν δίαιταν ἐλάττοσι μὲν ἐδέσμασι χρώμενοι, προστιθέντες δέ τι τοῖς γυμνασίοις, ἄνοσοι διατελοῦσιν ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἐθῶν ὑπαλλαγῆς ὠφεληθέντες, οὐχ ὥσπερ οἱ πρόσθεν εἰρημένοι βλαβέντες· οὐ γὰρ ἔθους λόγῳ διὰ τῶν κενώσεων ὠφελεῖσθαι συνέβαινεν αὐτοῖς ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ μοχθηρᾷ διαίτῃ κακοχυμίαν τε καὶ πλῆθος ἀθροίζουσιν.
Therefore, if they alter their regimen, using less food and adding something to their exercises, they continue to be free from disease, benefited by the alteration of habits, not harmed like those mentioned before; for it did not happen that they were benefited through evacuations by reason of habit, but because they accumulated cacochymia and a plethora under a bad regimen.