He who drinks milk ought to abstain from all other food until it be
digested, and pass downwards. It is best therefore to drink it in the
morning, newly milked, and to take no food after it, nor any hard
exercise, because this would make it turn acid. But it is better to walk
about gently, and rest between, without sleeping. After doing this, the
first part will be evacuated, and then one may drink another part, and
when it is evacuated another may be taken. At first, therefore, it purges
properly, not indeed from the general system, but what was contained in
the belly. Afterwards it enters the veins, and nourishes excellently,
and is no longer evacuated. In bilious defluxions, and colliquative
diarrhœas, the milk should be given boiled. Boil it at first gently, and
for a short time, so that none of it may run over, and that part of it
may be consumed. Afterwards it may be boiled more and more, taking care
not to burn it, nor convert it into cheese. This will be best guarded
against by boiling it softly, and clearing away what is separated by the
agitation. It may be agitated with a smooth and slender reed; and, if
it froth at the lips, this may be cleared away with a sponge, for often
the part there spoils all the rest. The milk then, as is said, ought to
be boiled until it become thicker and sweeter than the raw. And the thin
and serous part may be dissipated by putting heated pebbles into the
milk. This is beneficial in defluxions of the belly, and particularly in
bilious ones.
* * * * *
COMMENTARY. This account of the process of administering milk is taken
from Oribasius, who, in his turn, is indebted to Ruffus. Avicenna, in
like manner, copies from Ruffus. There is not in any other ancient
author so full a description of the process of boiling milk. On the
ancient modes of preparing milk for various purposes, and their uses,
see ‘Geopon.’ (xviii), and Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxviii, 38.) Pliny mentions
that some cure gout in the hands and feet by milk. Simeon Seth joins our
author, or rather Ruffus, in recommending boiled milk in dysentery. He
likewise praises its effects in phthisis and dry coughs.
The method of preparing milk for use by putting heated stones into it,
is mentioned by Dioscorides, Pliny, and others. Serapion recommends
heated iron. See the following Section. Galen was aware that milk
coagulates in the stomach before it is digested. (De Al. Fac. iii, 15.)