Hippocrates on airs, waters and places / the received Greek text of Littré, with Latin, French, and English translations by eminent scholars.

  • Hippocrates
Date:
1881
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hippocrates on airs, waters and places / the received Greek text of Littré, with Latin, French, and English translations by eminent scholars. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    89/122 page 81
    Un^ hrouillard epais occupe les plaines de la Scythie pendant le jour; et e'est dans ces plaines que I'on demeure. L'hiver y regne tou- jours, et I'ete n'y a que peu de journees qui meme ne sont pas fort chaudes. Ges plaines, hautes et nues, ne sont pas couronnees de montagnes, mais elles vont en s'ele- vant jusque sous VOurse. 97. La aussi il ne nait point de gros animaux, mais ils sont de taille a se mettre a I'ahri sous terre ; ce qui arrete leur accroissement, c'est le froid de l'hiver et la nudite d'un sol qui leur refuse couvert et pro' tection.^ Les saisons, n'eprouvant des vicissitudes ni grandes ni in- tenses, s'ecartent peu de I'uniformite; de la provient la ressemblance que les Scythes ant entr'eux ; usant, ete comme hiver, de la meme nourriture et des memes vetements, respirant un air humide et epais, buvant des eaux de neige et de glace, et places hors des conditions d'une vie labo- rieuse; car il ne se pent que le corps et Fame travaillent beaucoup, la ou les changements de saisons ne sont pas considerables. ' C. translates this passage :— Les plaines sont pendant le jour convertes de brouillards epais; de sorte que ceux qui les habitant vivent dans I'humidite et dans nn hiver per- petuel, n'ayant que quelqnes jours d'ete, qui ne sont pas mfime assez chauds. Car ces plaines sont elevees et nnes, et vont toujours en montant dn sepcentrion [an midi], sans etre couronnees de moutaones (p. 91). Coray :— L'hiver [perpctnel] et la nu- dite du sol, qui n'offre aucun abri contre le froid, les empechont de profiler (p. 93). are thereby rendered uninliabit- able. A thick fog covers the plains during the day, and amidst it they live, so that winter may be said to be always present with them; or, if they have summerj it is only for a few days, and the heat is not very strong. Their plains are high- lying and naked, not crowned with mountains, but extending upwards under the Northern Bears. 97. The wild beasts there are not large, but such as can be shel- tered under-ground ; for the cold of winter and the barrenness of the country prevent their growth, and because they have no covert nor shelter. The changes of the seasons, too, are not great nor vio- lent, for, in fact, they change gra- dually; and therefore their figures resemble one another, as they all equally use the same food, and the same clothing, summer and winter, respiring a humid and dense atmo- sphere, and drinking water from snow and ice; neither do they make any laborious exertions, for neither body nor mind is capable of en- during fatigue when the changes of the seasons are not great.-- ^ Adams quotes Pallas (Voyage en Rnssie, i. p. 499) as confirming this observation, and also refers to Coray's note on the subject. M
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