[p. 71]
AIRS WATERS PLACES
PART 1
WHOEVER wishes to pursue properly the science of
medicine must proceed thus. First he ought to
consider what effects each season of the year can
produce ; for the seasons are not at all alike, but
differ widely both in themselves and at their changes.
The next point is the hot winds and the cold,
especially those that are universal, but also those
that are peculiar to each particular region. He
must also consider the properties of the waters ; for
as these differ in taste and in weight, so the property
of each is far different from that of any other.
Therefore, on arrival at a town with which he is
unfamiliar, a physician should examine its position
with respect to the winds and to the risings of
the sun. For a northern, a southern, an eastern,
and a western aspect has each its own individual
property. He must consider with the greatest care
both these things and how the natives are off for
water, whether they use marshy, soft waters, or
such as are hard and come from rocky heights,
or brackish and harsh. The soil too, whether bare
and dry or wooded and watered, hollow and hot
or high and cold. The mode of life also of the
inhabitants that is pleasing to them, whether they
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