tery food in is general
prejudicial. Going out at night, and even until three o'clock in the
morning, is dangerous, on account of dew. Only small river fish should
be used. Too much exercise is hurtful. The body should be kept warmer
than usual, and thus protected from moisture and cold. Rain-water must
not be employed in cooking, and every one should guard against exposure
to wet weather. If it rain, a little fine treacle should be taken after
dinner. Fat people should not sit in the sunshine. Good clear wine
should be selected and drunk often, but in small quantities, by day.
Olive oil as an article of food is fatal. Equally injurious are fasting
and excessive abstemiousness, anxiety of mind, anger, and immoderate
drinking. Young people, in autumn especially, must abstain from all
these things if they do not wish to run a risk of dying of dysentery. In
order to keep the body properly open, an enema, or some other simple
means, should be employed when necessary. Bathing is injurious. Men
must preserve chastity as they value their lives. Every one should
impress this on his recollection, but especially those who reside on the
coast, or upon an island into which the noxious wind has penetrated."

On what occasion these strange precepts were delivered can no longer be
ascertained, even if it were an object to know it. It must be
acknowledged, however, that they do not redound to the credit either of
the faculty of Paris, or of the fourteenth century in general. This
famous faculty found themselves under the painful necessity of being wise
at command, and of firing a point-blank shot of erudition at an enemy who
enveloped himself in a dark mist, of the nature of which they had no
conception. In concealing their ignorance by authoritative assertions,
they suffered themselves, therefore, to be misled; and while endeavouring
to appear to the world with _eclat_, only betrayed to the intelligent
their lamentable weakness. Now some might suppose that, in the condition
of the sciences of the fourteenth century, no intelligent physicians
existed; but this is altogether at variance with the laws of human
advancement, and is contradicted by history. The real knowledge of an
age is shown only in the archives of its literature. Here alone the
genius of truth speaks audibly--here alone men of talent deposit the
results of their experience and reflection without vanity or a selfish
object. There is no ground for beli