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ZEUXIPPUS. I have heard that Tiberius Caesar once said that a man over sixty who holds out his hand to a physician is ridiculous.Cf. Moralia, 794 B; Tacitus, Annals, vi. 46. To me that seems a pretty strong statement, but this does seem to be true, that each person ought neither to be unacquainted with the peculiarities of his own pulse (for there are many individual diversities), nor ignorant of any idiosyncrasy which his body has in regard to temperature and dryness,Cf. Moralia, 735 F. and what things in actual practice have proved to be beneficial or detrimental to it. For the man has no perception regarding himself, and is but a blind and deaf tenant in his own body, who gets his knowledge of these matters from another, and must inquire of his physician whether his health is better in summer or winter, whether he can more easily tolerate liquid or solid foods, and whether his pulse is naturally fast or slow. For it is useful and easy for us to know things of this sort, since we have daily experience and association with them.
