Nature: Warm in the third degree, dry in the second. Optimum: For the body, its beginning. Usefulness: It overcomes superfluities and cold diseases. Dangers: It slows down digestion and increases bilous humors. Neutralization of the Dangers: With a humid diet in a cool environment. Effects: Increases bilous humors and dry substances. It is good for cold temperaments, for old people, and in Northern regions. 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. |