[p. 69]sup, they load their stomach,
and pass a much worse night than if they had previously taken dinner.
Since, then, an unwonted change of diet for half a day produces such
effects upon persons in health, it appears not to be a good thing
either to add or take from. If, then, he who was restricted to a single
meal, contrary to usage, having his veins thus left empty during a
whole day, when he supped according to custom felt heavy, it is probable
that if, because he was uneasy and weak from the want of dinner, he
took a larger supper than wont, he would be still more oppressed;
or if, wanting food for a still greater interval, he suddenly took
a meal after supper, he will feel still greater oppression. He, then,
who, contrary to usage, has had his veins kept empty by want of food,
will find it beneficial to counteract the bad effects during that
day as follows: let him avoid cold, heat, and exertion, for he could
bear all these ill; let him make his supper considerably less than
usual, and not of dry food, but rather liquid; and let him take some
drink, not of a watery character, nor in smaller quantity than is
proportionate to the food, and on the next day he should take a small
dinner, so that, by degrees, he may return to his former practice.
Persons who are bilious in the stomach bear these changes worst, while
those who are pituitous, upon the whole, bear the want of food best,
so that they suffer the least from being restricted to one meal in
the day, contrary to usage. This, then, is a sufficient proof that
the greatest changes as to those things which regard our constitutions
and habits are most especially concerned in the production of diseases,
for it is impossible to produce unseasonably a great emptying of the
vessels by abstinence, or to administer food while diseases are at
their acme, or when inflammation prevails; nor, on the whole,
to make a great change either one way or another with impunity.
PART 10
One might mention many things akin to these respecting the stomach
and bowels, to show how people readily bear such food as they are
accustomed to, even if it is not naturally good, and drink in like
manner, and how they bear unpleasantly such food as they are not accustomed
to, even although not bad, and so in like manner with drink; and as
to the effects of eating much flesh, contrary to usage, or garlic,
or asafoetida, or the stem of the
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