Q. Why should not the meat we eat be as hot as pepper and ginger? A. Because as hot meat doth inflame the blood, and dispose it to a leprosy; so, on the contrary, meat too cold doth mortify and chill the blood. Our meat should not be over sharp, because it wastes the constitution; too much sauce doth burn the entrails, and inclineth to often drinking; raw meat doth the same; and over sweet meats to constipate and cling the veins together. Q. Why is it a good custom to eat cheese after dinner, and pears after all meat? A. Because by reason of its earthliness and thickness it tendeth down towards the bottom of the stomach, and so putteth down the meat; and the like of pears. Note, that new cheese is better than old; and that old soft cheese is very bad, and causeth the headache and stopping of the liver; and the older the worse. Whereof it is said, that cheese digesteth all things but itself. Q. Why are nuts good after cheese, as the proverb is, After fish nuts, and after flesh cheese? A. Because fish is of hard digestion, and doth easily putrefy and corrupt; and nuts are a remedy against poison. Q. Why is it unwholesome to wait long for one dish after another, and to eat of divers kinds of meat? A. Because the first begins to digest when the last is eaten, and so digestion is not equally made. But yet this rule is to be noted, dishes light of digestion, as chickens, kids, veal, soft eggs, and such like, should be first eaten: because, if they should be first served and eaten, and were digested, they would hinder the digestion of the others; and the light meats not digested would be corrupted in the stomach, and kept in the stomach violently, whereof would follow belching, loathing, headache, bellyache, and great thirst. It is very hurtful too, at the same meal, to drink wine and milk because they are productive of leprosy. Q. Whether is meat or drink best for the stomach? A. Drink is sooner digested than meat, because meat is of great substance, and more material than drink, and therefore meat is harder to digest. Q. Why is it good to drink after dinner? A. Because the drink will make the meat readier to digest. The stomach is like unto a pot which doth boil meat, and therefore physicians do counsel to drink at meals. Q. Why is it good to forbear a late supper? A. Because there is little moving or stirring after supper, and so the meat is not sent down to the bottom of the stomach, but remaineth undigested, and so breeds hurts; therefore a light supper is best. _Of the Blood._ Q. Why is it necessary that every living thing that hath blood have also a liver? A. Because the blood is first made in the liver, its seat, being drawn from the stomach by certain principal veins, and so engendered.