The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher: Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician; his Experienced Midwife, his Book of Problems and his Remarks on Physiognomy
Philosophy
The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher: Containing his Complete Masterpiece and Family Physician; his Experienced Midwife, his Book of Problems and his Remarks on Physiognomy
Human beings; Mind and body; Reproduction
Q. Why doth the shining of the moon hurt the head? A. Because it moves
the humours of the brain, and cannot afterwards dissolve them.
Q. If water do not nourish, why do men drink it? A. Because water
causeth the nutriment to spread through the body.
Q. Why is sneezing good? A. Because it purgeth the brain as milk is
purged by the cough.
Q. Why is hot water lighter than cold? A. Because boiling water has less
ventosity and is more light and subtle, the earthly and heavy substance
being separated from it.
Q. How comes marsh and pond water to be bad? A. By reason they are
phlegmatic, and do corrupt in summer; the fineness of water is turned
into vapours, and the earthiness doth remain.
Q. Why are studious and learned men soonest bald? A. It proceeds from a
weakness of the spirits, or because warmth of digestion cause phlegm to
abound in them.
Q. Why doth much watching make the brain feeble? A. Because it increases
choler, which dries and extenuates the body.
Q. Why are boys apt to change their voices about fourteen years of age?
A. Because that then nature doth cause a great and sudden change of
voice; experience proves this to be true; for at that time we may see
that women's paps do grow great, do hold and gather milk, and also those
places that are above their hips, in which the young fruit would remain.
Likewise men's breasts and shoulders, which then can bear great and
heavy burdens; also their stones in which their seed may increase and
abide, and in their privy members, to let out the seed with ease.
Further all the body is made bigger and dilated, as the alteration and
change of every part doth testify, and the harshness of the voice and
hoarseness; for the rough artery, the wind pipe, being made wide in the
beginning, and the exterior and outward part being unequal to the
throat, the air going out the rough, unequal and uneven pipe doth then
become unequal and sharp, and after, hoarse, something like unto the
voice of a goat, wherefore it has its name called Bronchus. The same
doth also happen to them unto whose rough artery distillation doth
follow; it happens by reason of the drooping humidity that a slight
small skin filled unequally causes the uneven going forth of the spirit
and air. Understand, that the windpipe of goats is such by reason of the
abundance of humidity. The like doth happen unto all such as nature hath
given a rough artery, as unto cranes. After the age of fourteen they
leave off that voice, because the artery is made wider and reacheth its
natural evenness and quality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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