PART 21
During convalescence from diseases, and also in protracted
[p. 16] diseases,
many disorders occur, some spontaneously, and some from certain things
accidentally administered. I know that the common herd of physicians,
like the vulgar, if there happen to have been any innovation made
about that day, such as the bath being used, a walk taken, or any
unusual food eaten, all which were better done than otherwise, attribute
notwithstanding the cause of these disorders, to some of these things,
being ignorant of the true cause but proscribing what may have been
very proper. Now this ought not to be so; but one should know the
effects of a bath or a walk unseasonably applied; for thus there will
never be any mischief from these things, nor from any other thing,
nor from repletion, nor from such and such an article of food. Whoever
does not know what effect these things produce upon a man, cannot
know the consequences which result from them, nor how to apply them.