PART 7
And I wish to give an account of the other kinds of waters, namely,
of such as are wholesome and such as are unwholesome, and what bad
and what good effects may be derived from water; for water contributes
much towards health. Such waters then as are marshy, stagnant, and
belong to lakes, are necessarily hot in summer, thick, and have a
strong smell, since they have no current; but being constantly supplied
by rain-water, and the
[p. 24]sun heating them, they necessarily want their
proper color, are unwholesome and form bile; in winter, they become
congealed, cold, and muddy with the snow and ice, so that they are
most apt to engender phlegm, and bring on hoarseness; those who drink
them have large and obstructed spleens, their bellies are hard, emaciated,
and hot; and their shoulders, collar-bones, and faces are emaciated;
for their flesh is melted down and taken up by the spleen, and hence
they are slender; such persons then are voracious and thirsty; their
bellies are very dry both above and below, so that they require the
strongest medicines.
1 This disease is habitual to them both in summer
and in winter, and in addition they are very subject to dropsies of
a most fatal character; and in summer dysenteries, diarrheas, and
protracted quartan fevers frequently seize them, and these diseases
when prolonged dispose such constitutions to dropsies, and thus prove
fatal. These are the diseases which attack them in summer; but in
winter younger persons are liable to pneumonia, and maniacal affections;
and older persons to ardent fevers, from hardness of the belly. Women
are subject to oedema and leucophlegmasiae;
2 when pregnant they have
difficult deliveries; their infants are large and swelled, and then
during nursing they become wasted and sickly, and the lochial discharge
after parturition does not proceed properly with the women. The children
are particularly subject to hernia, and adults to varices and ulcers
on their legs, so that persons with such constitutions cannot be long-lived,
but before the usual period they fall into a state of premature old
age. And further, the women appear to be with child, and when the
time of parturition arrives, the fulness of the belly disappears,
and this happens from dropsy of the uterus. Such waters then I reckon
bad for every purpose. The next to them in badness are those which
have their fountains in rocks, so that they must necessarily be hard,
or come from a soil which produces thermal waters, such as those having
iron,
[p. 25] copper, silver, gold, sulphur, alum, bitumen, or nitre (soda)
in them; for all these are formed by the force of heat. Good waters
cannot proceed from such a soil, but those that are hard and of a
heating nature, difficult to pass by urine, and of difficult evacuation
by the bowels. The best are those which flow from elevated grounds,
and hills of earth; these are sweet, clear, and can bear a little
wine; they are hot in summer and cold in winter, for such necessarily
must be the waters from deep wells. But those are most to be commended
which run to the rising of the sun, and especially to the summer sun;
for such are necessarily more clear, fragrant, and light. But all
such as are salty, crude, and harsh, are not good for drink. But there
are certain constitutions and diseases with which such waters agree
when drunk, as I will explain presently. Their characters are as follows:
the best are such as have their fountains to the east; the next, those
between the summer risings and settings of the sun, and especially
those to the risings; and third, those between the summer and winter
settings; but the worst are those to the south, and the parts between
the winter rising and setting, and those to the south are very bad,
but those to the north are better. They are to be used as follows:
whoever is in good health and strength need not mind, but may always
drink whatever is at hand. But whoever wishes to drink the most suitable
for any disease, may accomplish his purpose by attending to the following
directions: To persons whose bellies are hard and easily burnt up,
the sweetest, the lightest, and the most limpid waters will be proper;
but those persons whose bellies are soft, loose, and pituitous, should
choose the hardest, those kinds that are most crude, and the saltiest,
for thus will they be most readily dried up; for such waters as are
adapted for boiling, and are of a very solvent nature, naturally loosen
readily and melt down the bowels; but such as are intractable, hard,
and by no means proper for boiling, these rather bind and dry up the
bowels. People have deceived themselves with regard to salt waters,
from inexperience, for they think these waters purgative, whereas
they are the very reverse; for such waters are crude, and ill adapted
[p. 26] for boiling, so that the belly is more likely to be bound up than
loosened by them. And thus it is with regard to the waters of springs.