Decisiones praecipuorum aliquot aporēmatōn iatrophilosophikōn

or even by the "water-suction" psychoantlēsiō a drainage procedure of Paul of Aegina (Book 6, chapter 58), so that the matter can be evacuated. To this we also refer the "under-probing" hupospathismon a type of surgical undermining and "scalp-denuding" periskutismon a scalp surgery. In more delicate cases, it is better to attach an iron tool shaped like a phlebotomy lancet to a copper coin at its base, which is then covered by a poultice, and thus it is driven while hidden into the affected spot. After these, one must assist the decay of the bone, either with "bone-breakers" katagmatikois bone-fragmenting agents and "head-remedies" kephalikois head medicines, or with a heated iron, or by scraping xusei scraping.

Do physicians intending to cure diseases with a decoction of Guaiacum wood, sarsaparilla, or China root correctly withhold almost every grain of salt from the food of the sick?

Salt stimulates the sluggish appetite of the stomach. Pliny (Book 31, chapter 9) notes this; doves, knowledgeable of this, spit gathered salty earth into the throats of their squabs, preparing them for the timeliness of food, as the same Pliny testifies (Book 10, chapter 34). Shepherds observe the same, as Plutarch reports (Book of Natural Causes, Question 3) against Apollonius, son of Herophilus, by sprinkling the fodder of their flocks with salt. Conversely, the strength of the stomach is greatly weakened if we offer food that is not well salted, just as truly unsalted food produces unsalted bodies and minds. The same must be concluded regarding the expulsive force of the intestines, as Triverus rightly notes in his commentary on the 22nd Aphorism of Polybius regarding dietetic salt. To say nothing of urine, in which the salinity stimulating nature to excretion arises not only from the action of heat, which Aristotle mentions (Book 2 of Meteorology, chapter 3), but also from the portions of salty foods edesmatōn foodstuffs that have escaped the power of blood-making haimatōseōs blood-forming.

Therefore, physicians intending to cure diseases with a decoction of Guaiacum wood, sarsaparilla, or China root do not correctly withhold almost every grain of salt from the food of the sick.