Old age is dry and cold; and its correctives are calefacients and
diluents compounded with them. Friction is to be applied to the aged,
but so as not to occasion lassitude. To such as are weak, some such
course of diet as the following is to be prescribed: about the third
hour, a small bit of bread with Attic honey; and afterwards, about the
seventh hour, after having undergone friction, and taken exercise and
baths suitable to old men, they must first get such things as are of a
laxative nature, and afterwards fish or fowls; and then for supper, such
things as are wholesome, and not apt to spoil in the stomach. I also
do not forbid them to use wines prepared with honey, particularly such
persons as are suspected of being threatened with the stone or gout, and
in that case, a little parsley may be added. If phlegm be gendered in
the stomach, we must of necessity apply such remedies as will remove it,
and return immediately to a diluent diet: we must give them ripe figs
in preference to every other kind of food, and if during the winter,
dried figs, unless they complain of unpleasant symptoms in the right
hypochondrium. When serous and pituitous recrements collect in the bodies
of old men, we must promote the discharge of urine every day, and soften
the belly, principally by giving oil before a diet. It is obvious, that
all pot-herbs ought to be eaten before all other food, with oil, pickles,
or olives and damascenes seasoned with salt. When the belly is bound, the
herb mercury and the bastard saffron will relieve it. Turpentine also is
proper in such cases. It may be given sometimes to the bulk of a Pontic
walnut, and sometimes of two or three. Oil also in a clyster is most
useful to those who are constipated.
* * * * *
COMMENTARY. This Section is copied from Oribasius. (Synops. v, 18.) See
also Aëtius. (iv, 30.) These directions are all borrowed from Galen (Hyg.
v), who has treated of the subject with his characteristic elegance and
good sense. The following is a brief exposition of his views of practice
in such cases: “Old age is cold and dry, and is to be corrected by
diluents and calefacients, such as hot baths of sweet waters, drinking
wine, and taking such food as is moistening and calefacient.” He
strenuously defends the practice of allowing old persons to take wine,
and gives a circumstantial account of the Greek and Roman wines best
adapted to them. In the case of old persons he approves of three meals
in the day. He recommends the bath to be taken before dinner, which
should consist of sea fish. He properly expresses his disapprobation
of giving them aloetic pills to remove constipation of the bowels, and
advises rather that they should be kept open with laxative herbs and
oily clysters, in the manner stated by our author. Aëtius remarks, in
like manner, that old men are much hurt by strong purgatives, which only
increase the disposition to costiveness. All that is required in such
cases, he remarks, is to lubricate the rectum with an injection of oil.
The Arabians follow closely in the same strain. Alsaharavius recommends
old persons to drink strong diuretic wines. He also approves of the tepid
bath, and friction with emollient oils. He disapproves of much exercise
and of taking aloetic pills, instead of which he directs oily clysters
and laxative herbs. (Pract. xxvii, 10.) See more particularly Averrhoes’
Commentary on the Cantica of Avicenna (tr. i.) They agree that if an
old man had been accustomed to be frequently bled, the practice is not
to be wholly laid aside. Avicenna particularly approves of a milk-diet.
He recommends old red wines, but forbids such as are new and sweet. (i,
3, 3.) Even Plato, the philosopher, permits old men to take a liberal
allowance of wine, which he pronounces to be the restorative of youth,
and the corrective of the austerity and despondency of old age. (leg.
ii.) See also Athen. (Deip. x, 54, ed. Schweigh.)
According to Hippocrates, old men bear abstinence better than those of
any other period of life. (Aphorism.) The reason of this assigned by his
Commentators, Theophilus and Damascius, is, that their innate heat is
lower than at any other age, and consequently requires less pabulum to
support it. (Ed. Dietz. t. iv, 277.)