Kitap 1
3
Total abstinence from food is bad, as is also much food. It is proper, then, to administer a little food every day, but not to withdraw food altogether; for the stomach to be reminded of its duties and fomented, as it were, during the whole day. Also the food must be attenuant and laxative, rather in the form of soups than roasted, such as hens or shell-fish; and the herb mercury is to be boiled with it, and some vinegar added. And we may add to the juices, if it be proper to use the juice of ptisan, something to promote exhalation and the discharge of urine, such as fennel, parsley—the pot-herbs themselves, or their fruits. Horehound, also, by its acrid qualities, does good; and likewise colewort with oil, and the brine of fish (garum). The sweet cumin is a most excellent medicine for the flatulence and urine; for the stomach and bladder are to be stimulated during the whole time of the disease.
