easily find out themselves, but still it is easy for them to
understand these things when discovered and expounded by others. For
it is nothing more than that every one is put in mind of what had
occurred to himself. But whoever does not reach the capacity of the
illiterate vulgar and fails to make them listen to him, misses his
mark. Wherefore, then, there is no necessity for any hypothesis.
Part 3
For the art of Medicine would not have been invented at first,
nor would it have been made a subject of investigation (for there
would have been no need of it), if when men are indisposed, the same
food and other articles of regimen which they eat and drink when in
good health were proper for them, and if no others were preferable
to these. But now necessity itself made medicine to be sought out
and discovered by men, since the same things when administered to
the sick, which agreed with them when in good health, neither did
nor do agree with them. But to go still further back, I hold that
the diet and food which people in health now use would not have been
discovered, provided it had suited with man to eat and drink in like
manner as the ox, the horse, and all other animals, except man, do
of the productions of the earth, such as fruits, weeds, and grass; for
from such things these animals grow, live free of disease, and require
no other kind of food. And, at first, I am of opinion that man used
the same sort of food, and that the present articles of diet had
been discovered and invented only after a long lapse of time, for when
they suffered much and severely from strong and brutish diet,
swallowing things which were raw, unmixed, and possessing great
strength, they became exposed to strong pains and diseases, and to
early deaths. It is likely, indeed, that from habit they would
suffer less from these things then than we would now, but still they
would suffer severely even then; and it is likely that the greater
number, and those who had weaker constitutions, would all perish;
whereas the stronger would hold out for a longer time, as even
nowadays some, in consequence of using strong articles of food, get
off with little trouble, but others with much pain and suffering. From
this necessity it appears to me that they would search out the food
befitting their nature, and thus discover that which we now use: and
that from wheat, by macerating it, stripping it of its hull,
grinding it all down, sifting, toasting, and baking it, they formed
bread; and from barley they formed cake (maza), performing many
operations in regard to it; they boiled, they roasted, they mixed,
they diluted those things which are strong and of intense qualities
with weaker things, fashioning them to the nature and powers of man,
and considering that the stronger things Nature would not be able to
manage if administered, and that from such things pains, diseases, and
death would arise, but such as Nature could manage, that from them
food, growth, and health, would arise. To such a discovery and
investigation what more suitable name could one give than that of
Medicine? since it was discovered for the health of man, for his
nourishment and safety, as a substitute for that kind of diet by which
pains, diseases, and deaths were occasioned.
