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Mundane Summa |  |
Good health requires proper air, food and drink, exercise, rest, evacuation and mental activity. Health results if the body is in conformity with the air, water, food, land and soil.
Illness can result if intake and evacuation from the body is out of balance.
Good air is especially promoted by a wind from the East. Confined spaces and restricted air circulation e.g. in narrow streets, are unhealthy.
Emphasis on prevention rather than cure. The astrological position of the Sun can affect the conditions in an area, hence health of those in it.
The link between ill-health and bad sewerage, decay, putrefaction and noxious vapours is recognised. Problems of obvious water pollution and seepage from latrines into groundwater are known to be dangerous. Dust and smoke are unhealthy. Vapours rising from ill or dead bodies (human or animal) can pass ill health to others
An unhealthy environment can lead to a weak spirit: cowardice, meanness, envy, slander and intrigue. Stupidity can result from eating coarse food and drinking bad water. Effeminacy can result from excessive humidity in the air.
Customary physical exercise can dissolve superfluities and vapours that would otherwise accumulate in the body. Thus, peasants and workmen have greater strength and spirit. Moderate quiet makes bodies healthy and strong. Excessive, unaccustomed exercise exhausts the body and causes a build-up of smoky superfluities.
A body can tolerate poor conditions without becoming ill if it is accustomed to them. Hence, change and travel can be dangerous to health.
This takes into account:
Diseases move towards a crisis which can be:
The crisis usually involves the elimination of the offending Humours or excessive matter e.g. by vomiting, sweat, urination or defecation, even haemorrhaging.
Elimination maybe hastened by inducing and of these, as appropriate.
Other treatment used include carpets and skins to warm the floor in cold weather; jars of water and sprinkling of water if the air is dry or hot; perfumes or hanging bunches of herbs to sweeten foul air.
Water is purified by boiling it, letting it cool in the night air and then filtering it.
Causes of epidemic diseases are an abnormal change in the quality of the air, water, food and/or psychic events (e.g. oppression, anxiety lead to sleeplessness and affect the digestion and thence the natural heat of the body).
In Winter, viscid phlegm and filth can accumulate in the stomach, veins and canals. This will dissolve in Spring and create more blood. Purgatives should be taken at the appropriate time to remove the filth before it becomes absorbed into the blood. Similarly as Summer turns to Autumn.
Prescriptions for Compound Remedies that are Useful in Preventing Injury and Preserving Health
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