Nature: Warm in the first degree, humid in the second. Optimum: The white, clear kind. Usefulness: It purifies the body, is good for the chest, the kidneys, and the bladder. Dangers: It causes thirst and moves bilous humors. Neutralization of the Dangers: With sour pomegranates. Effects: Produces blood that is not bad. It is good for all temperaments, at all ages, in every season and region. The Tacuinum Sanitatis is a medieval handbook based on the Taqwim as-sihhah, an 11th century Arab medical treatise by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad. Listing its contents organically rather than alphabetically, it sets forth the six essential elements for well-being: sufficient food and drink in moderation, fresh air, alternations of activity and rest, alternations of sleep and wakefulness, secretions and excretions of humours, and finally the effects of states of mind. From the Tacuinum of Vienna, 14th century. |