r heart, for every action of the soul doth not proceed from one
measure of heat.

* * * * *

THE PROBLEMS OF

ALEXANDER APHRODISEUS

Q. Why doth the sun make a man black and dirt white, wax soft and dirt
hard? A. By reason of the disposition of the substance that doth suffer.
All humours, phlegm excepted, when heated above measure, do seem black
about the skin; and dirt, being full either of saltpetre, or salt
liquor, when the sun hath consumed its dregs and filth, doth become
white again. When the sun hath stirred up and drawn the humidity of the
wax, it is softened; but in the dirt, the sun doth consume the humidity,
which is very much and makes it hard.

Q. Why are round ulcers hard to be cured? A. Because they are bred of a
sharp choler, which eats and gnaws; and because it doth run, dropping
and gnawing, it makes a round ulcer; for which reason it requires dry
medicines, as physicians assert.

Q. Why is honey sweet to all men, but to such as have jaundice? A.
Because they have much bitter choler all over their bodies, which
abounds in the tongue; whence it happens when they eat honey the humours
are stirred, and the taste itself, by the bitterness of choler, causes
an imagination that the honey is bitter.

Q. Why doth water cast on serpents, cause them to fly? A. Because they
are dry and cold by nature, having but little blood, and therefore fly
from excessive coldness.

Q. Why doth an egg break if roasted, and not if boiled? A. When moisture
comes near the fire, it is heated very much, and so breeds wind, which
being put up in little room, forces its way out, and breaks the shell:
the like happens in tubs or earthen vessels when new wine is put into
them; too much phlegm breaks the shell of an egg in roasting; it is the
same with earthen pots too much heated; wherefore some people wet an egg
when they intend to roast it. Hot water, by its softness, doth dissipate
its humidity by little and little, and dissolves it through the thinness
and passages of the shell.

Q. Why do men wink in the act of copulation, and find a little
alteration in all other senses? A. Because, being overcome by the effect
of that pleasure, they do comprehend it the better.

Q. Why have children gravel breeding in their bladders, and old men in
their kidneys and veins? A. Because children have straight passages in
their kidneys, and an earthly thick humour is thrust with violence by
the uri