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In convalescence from illness, and also in protracted illnesses, many disturbances occur, some spontaneously and some from things casually administered. I am aware that most physicians, like laymen, if the patient has done anything unusual near the day of the disturbance—taken a bath or a walk, or eaten strange food, these things being all beneficial—nevertheless assign the cause to one of them, and, while ignorant of the real cause, stop what may have been of the greatest value. Instead of so doing they ought to know what will be the result of a bath unseasonably taken or of fatigue. For the trouble caused by each of these things is also peculiar to each, and so with surfeit or such and such food. Whoever therefore fails to know how each of these particulars affects a man will be able neither to discover their consequences nor to use them properly.
