PART 3
For the art of Medicine would not have been invented at first, nor
would it have been made a subject of investigation (for there would
have been no need of it), if when men are indisposed, the same food
and other articles of regimen which they eat and drink when in good
health were proper for them, and if no others were preferable to these.
But now necessity itself made medicine to be sought out and discovered
by men, since the same things when administered to the sick, which
agreed with them when in good health, neither did nor do agree with
them. But to go still further back, I hold that the diet and food
which people in health now use would not have been discovered, provided
it had suited with man to eat and drink in like manner as the ox,
the horse, and all other animals, except man, do of the productions
of the earth, such as fruits, weeds, and grass; for from such things
these animals
[p. 3]grow, live free of disease, and require no other kind
of food. And, at first, I am of opinion that man used the same sort
of food, and that the present articles of diet had been discovered
and invented only after a long lapse of time, for when they suffered
much and severely from strong and brutish diet, swallowing things
which were raw, unmixed, and possessing great strength, they became
exposed to strong pains and diseases, and to early deaths. It is likely,
indeed, that from habit they would suffer less from these things then
than we would now, but still they would suffer severely even then;
and it is likely that the greater number, and those who had weaker
constitutions, would all perish; whereas the stronger would hold out
for a longer time, as even nowadays some, in consequence of using
strong articles of food, get off with little trouble, but others with
much pain and suffering. From this necessity it appears to me that
they would search out the food befitting their nature, and thus discover
that which we now use: and that from wheat, by macerating it, stripping
it of its hull, grinding it all down, sifting, toasting, and baking
it, they formed bread; and from barley they formed cake (maza), performing
many operations in regard to it; they boiled, they roasted, they mixed,
they diluted those things which are strong and of intense qualities
with weaker things, fashioning them to the nature and powers of man,
and considering that the stronger things Nature would not be able
to manage if administered, and that from such things pains, diseases,
and death would arise, but such as Nature could manage, that from
them food, growth, and health, would arise. To such a discovery and
investigation what more suitable name could one give than that of
Medicine? since it was discovered for the health of man, for his nourishment
and safety, as a substitute for that kind of diet by which pains,
diseases, and deaths were occasioned.
