It is proper to regulate the diet with a view to the season. In winter to
take more fatigue, and eat more than usual, if the state of the weather
be northerly; but if it be southerly, to take the same fatigue, but to
use less food and drink. In fine, to make the body dry in the wet season,
and warmer in the cold, to eat also warm fleshes and acrid pot-herbs, and
drink more wine than usual. In the beginning of spring some may evacuate
by emetics, and others by laxatives, and another may get a vein opened,
according as habit or inclination directs. Rest is suitable to the season
of summer, and also a diminution of labour and food; the food also ought
to be more cooling and the drink abundant; and, in short, everything
ought to be done which can contribute to cooling and dilution. In autumn,
as it is a changeable, unsettled, and unhealthy season, the diet ought to
be particularly attended to, that it be not too refrigerant; moderation
as to venery and cold drink ought to be observed; and the cold breezes
of morning and the heat of noon attentively guarded against. Too much
fruit ought likewise not to be taken, being hurtful not only by the
quantity, but also by the quality of the chyle which it supplies, and
by engendering flatulence. Nay, even the best kinds of autumnal fruits,
figs and grapes, engender flatulence, unless taken before any other
food, for otherwise they spoil the other food; but if taken then, they
neither are flatulent, nor spoil the other articles of food. When the air
is cold the body must be warmed accordingly, and everything done, as in
the commencement of winter. It may also be expedient, after the autumnal
solstice, to have recourse to one of the afore-mentioned evacuations,
lest any excrementitious particles being shut up in the system should
prove hurtful during the winter.
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