Airs Waters Places (5-8)

The effects of hot winds and of cold winds on these cities are such as I have described; the following are the effects of winds on cities lying

exposed to those between the summer and winter risings of the sun, and to those opposite to these. Those that lie towards the risings of the sun are likely to be healthier than those facing the north and those exposed to the hot winds, even though they be but a furlong apart. In the first place, the heat and the cold are more moderate. Then the waters that face the risings of the sun must be clear, sweet-smelling, soft and delightful, in such a city. For the sun, shining down upon them when it rises, purifies them. The persons of the inhabitants are of better complexion and more blooming than elsewhere, unless some disease prevents this. They are clear-voiced, and with better temper and intelligence than those who are exposed to the north, just as all things growing there are better. A city so situated is just like spring, because the heat and the cold are tempered; the diseases, while resembling those which we said occur in cities facing the hot winds, are both fewer and less severe. The women there very readily conceive and have easy deliveries.

Such are the conditions in these cities. Those that lie towards the settings of the sun, and are

sheltered from the east winds, while the hot winds and the cold north winds blow past them—these cities must have a most unhealthy situation. In the first place, the waters are not clear, the reason being that in the morning mist is generally prevalent, which dissolves in the water and destroys its clearness, as the sun does not shine upon it before it is high on the horizon. In the summer cold breezes blow in the morning and there are heavy dews; for the rest of the day the sun as it advances towards the west thoroughly scorches the inhabitants, so that they are likely to be pale and sickly, subject to all the diseases aforesaid, for none are peculiar to them.[*] They are likely to have deep, hoarse voices, because of the atmosphere, since it is usually impure and unhealthy in such places. For while it is not clarified much by the north winds, which are not prevalent there, the winds that do prevail insistently are very rainy, such being the nature of westerly winds. Such a situation for a city is precisely like autumn in respect of the changes of the day, seeing that the difference between sunrise and afternoon is great.

So much for winds, healthy and unhealthy. I wish now to treat of waters, those that bring disease or very good health, and of the ill or good that is likely to arise from water. For the influence

of water upon health is very great. Such as are marshy, standing and stagnant must in summer be hot, thick and stinking, because there is no outflow; and as fresh rain-water is always flowing in and the sun heats them, they must be of bad colour, unhealthy and bilious. In winter they must be frosty, cold and turbid through the snow and frosts, so as to be very conducive to phlegm and sore throats. Those who drink it have always large, stiff spleens, and hard, thin, hot stomachs, while their shoulders, collar-bones and faces are emaciated; the fact is that their flesh dissolves to feed the spleen, so that they are lean. With such a constitution they eat and drink heavily. Their digestive organs, upper and lower, are very dry and very hot, so that they need more powerful drugs. This malady is endemic both in summer and in winter. In addition the dropsies that occur are very numerous and very fatal. For in the summer there are epidemics of dysentery, diarrhoea and long quartan fever, which diseases when prolonged cause constitutions such as I have described to develop dropsies that result in death. These are their maladies in summer. In winter young people suffer from pneumonia and illnesses attended by delirium, the older, through the hardness of their digestive organs, from ardent fever. Among the women occur swellings and leucophlegmasia; they conceive hardly and are delivered with difficulty. The babies are big and swollen, and then, as they are nursed, they oecome emaciated[*] and miserable. The discharge after childbirth is bad. Children are very subject to hernia and men to enlarged veins and to ulcers on the legs, so that such constitutions cannot be long-lived but must grow prematurely old. Moreover, the women appear to be with child, yet, when the time of delivery comes, the fullness of the womb disappears, this being caused by dropsy in that organ. Such waters I hold to be absolutely bad. The next worst will be those whose springs are from rocks—for they must be hard—or from earth where there are hot waters, or iron is to be found, or copper, or silver, or gold, or sulphur, or alum, or bitumen, or soda. For all these result from the violence of the heat. So from such earth good waters cannot come, but hard, heating waters, difficult to pass and causing constipation. The best are those that flow from high places and earthy hills. By themselves they are sweet and clear, and the wine they can stand is but little. In winter they are warm, in summer cold. They would naturally be so, coming from very deep springs. I commend especially those whose flow breaks forth towards the rising—by preference the summer rising—of the sun. For they must be brighter, sweet-smelling and light; while all that are salt, harsh and hard are not good to drink, though there are some constitutions and some diseases which are benefited by drinking such waters, concerning which I will speak presently. Aspect affects spring waters thus. Those whose sources face the risings of the sun are the very best. Second in excellence come those between the summer risings and the summer settings, by preference in the direction of the risings. Third best are those between the summer and winter settings. The worst are those that face the south, and those between the winter rising and setting. These are very bad indeed when the winds are in the south, less bad when they are in the north. Spring waters should be used thus. A man in health and strength can drink any water that is at hand without distinction, but he who because of disease wishes to drink the most suitable can best attain health in the following way. Those whose digestive organs are hard and easily heated will gain benefit from the sweetest, lightest and most sparkling waters. But those whose bellies are soft, moist, and phlegmatic, benefit from the hardest, most harsh and saltish waters, for these are the best to dry them up. For waters that are best for cooking and most solvent naturally loosen the digestive organs the most and relax them; but harsh waters, hard and very bad for cooking, contract most these organs and dry them up. In fact the public are mistaken about saline waters through inexperience, in that they are generally considered to be laxative. The truth is that they are just the reverse; they are harsh and bad for cooking, so that the digestive organs too are stiffened by them rather than loosened.

Such are the facts about spring waters. I will now proceed to speak of rain water and snow water. Rain waters are the lightest, sweetest, finest and clearest. To begin with, the sun raises and draws up the finest and lightest part of water, as is proved by the formation of salt. The brine, owing to its coarseness and weight, is left behind and becomes salt; the finest part, owing to its lightness, is drawn up by the sun. Not only from pools does the sun raise this part, but also from the sea and from whatever has moisture in it—and there is moisture in everything. Even from men it raises the finest and lightest part of their juices. The plainest evidence thereof is that when a man walks or sits in the sun wearing a cloak, the parts of his skin reached by the sun will not sweat, for it draws up each layer of sweat as it appears. But those parts sweat which are covered by his cloak or by anything else. For the sweat drawn forcibly out by the sun is prevented by the covering from disappearing through the sun’s power. But when the man has come into a shady place, his whole body sweats alike, as the sun no longer shines upon it. For this reason too rain-water grows foul quicker than any other, and has a bad smell; being a mixture gathered from very many sources it grows foul very quickly. Furthermore, when it has been carried away aloft, and has combined with the atmosphere as it circles round, the turbid, dark part of it separates out, changes and becomes mist and fog, while the clearest and

lightest part of it remains, and is sweetened as the heat of the sun produces coction, just as all other things always become sweeter through coction. Now as long as it is scattered and uncondensed, it travels about aloft, but as soon as it collects anywhere and is compressed into one place owing to sudden, contrary winds, then it bursts wherever the most compression happens to take place. For this is more likely to occur when the clouds, set in motion and carried along by a wind that allows them no rest, are suddenly encountered by a contrary blast and by other clouds.[*] In such cases the front is compressed, the rear comes on and is thus thickened, darkened and compressed into one place, so that the weight bursts it and causes rain. Such waters are naturally the best. But they need to be boiled and purified[*] from foulness if they are not to have a bad smell, and give sore throat, coughs and hoarseness to those who drink them.

Waters from snow and ice are all bad. For, once frozen, water never recovers its original nature, but the clear, light, sweet part is separated out and disappears, while the muddiest and heaviest part remains. The following experiment will prove it. Pour by measure, in winter, water into a vessel and set it in the open, where it will freeze best; then on the next day bring it under cover, where the ice will

melt best; if, when it is dissolved, you measure it again you will find it much diminished. This shows that freezing dries up and causes to disappear the lightest and finest part, not the heaviest and coarsest, to do which it has no power. In this way, therefore, I am of opinion that such waters, derived from snow or ice, and waters similar to these, are the worst for all purposes.