Maximus Planudes, in a Declamation on winter, affirms that at this season
the heat, being confined within the body, operates more strongly in
performing the vital functions than at any other season. This season, he
says, is favorable to all classes of men except doctors; but they are
sick at heart to see that no other persons are sick, and, bewailing their
own misery, undergo the thirst of Tantalus amidst the rains of winter!
See Boissonade (Anecd. Græca, vol. ii.)
Among the works of the ‘Physici et Medici Græci Minores,’ published
a few years ago by Ideler, there are several small treatises, one by
Hierophilus Sophistes, in prose, one by Theodorus Prodromus in iambic
verse, and two others, anonymous, in which the regimen adapted to every
month of the year is carefully laid down, but the rules are too minute to
admit of being given here. We may mention, however, that they generally
recommend pork, with peppers, and pure wine, as the best course of diet
in winter.