Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
5. But Cleomenes the physician would have the word λιμός (which
signifies _hunger_) to be added to the making up of the word
βούλιμος without any reason at all; as πίνειν, _to drink_,
has crept into καταπίνειν, _to swallow_; and κύπτειν, _to
incline_, into ἀνακύπτειν _to raise the head_. Nor is bulimy,
as it seems, a kind of hunger, but a fault in the stomach, which
concurring with heat causes a faintness. Therefore as things that
have a good smell recall the spirits of those that are faint, so
bread affects those that are almost overcome with a bulimy; not that
they have any need of food (for the least piece of it restores them
their strength), but the bread calls back their vigor and languishing
spirits. Now that bulimy is not hunger but a faintness, is manifest
from all laboring beasts, which are seized with it very often through
the smell of dry figs and apples; for a smell does not cause any want
of food, but rather a pain and agitation in the stomach.
6. These things seemed to be reasonably well urged; and yet we thought
that much might be said in the defence of the contrary opinion, and
that it was possible enough to maintain that bulimy ariseth not from
condensation but rarefication of the stomach. For the spirit which
flows from the snow is nothing but the sharp point and finest scale of
the congealed substance, endued with a virtue of cutting and dividing
not only the flesh, but also silver and brazen vessels; for we see
that these are not able to keep in the snow, for it dissolves and
evaporates, and glazes over the outmost superficies of the vessels
with a thin dew, not unlike to ice, which this spirit leaves as it
secretly passes through the pores. Therefore this piercing spirit, like
a flame, seizing upon those that travel in the snow, seems to burn
their outsides, and like fire to enter and penetrate the flesh. Hence
it is that the flesh is more rarefied, and the heat is extinguished by
the cold spirit that lies upon the superficies of the body; therefore
the body evaporates a dewy thin sweat, which melts away and decays the
strength. Now if a man should sit still at such a time, there would
not much heat fly out of his body. But when the motion of the body
doth quickly heat the nourishment, and that heat bursts through the
thin skin, there must necessarily be a great loss of strength. Now we
know by experience, that cold hath a virtue not only to condense but
also to loosen bodies; for in extreme cold winters pieces of lead are
found to sweat. And when we see that bulimy happens where there is no
hunger, we may conclude that at that time the body is rather in a fluid
than condensed state. The reason that bodies are rarefied in winter is
because of the subtility of the spirit; especially when the moving and
tiring of the body excites the heat, which, as soon as it is subtilized
and agitated, flies apace and spreads itself through the whole body.
Lastly, it is very possible that apples and dry figs exhale some such
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