The art of living long : a new and improved English version of the treatise / by the celebrated Venetian centenarian Louis Cornaro, with essays by Joseph Addison, Lord Bacon, and Sir William Temple.

  • Luigi Cornaro
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The art of living long : a new and improved English version of the treatise / by the celebrated Venetian centenarian Louis Cornaro, with essays by Joseph Addison, Lord Bacon, and Sir William Temple. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    61/224 page 57
    ever considers all this deliberately must declare it is indeed so. When a physician pays a visit to a sick man, he pre- scribes this as the very first condition of recovery, urging him, above all things, to live the orderly life. In like manner, when he bids good-bye to his patient upon his recovery, he recommends, as a means of preserving restored health, that he continue this orderly life. And there is no doubt that if the one so advised were to act accordingly, he would avoid all sickness in the future; because a well-regulated life removes the causes of disease. Thus, for the remainder of his days, he would have no further need either of doctors or of medicines. Moreover, by applying his mind to this matter which should so deeply concern him, he would become his own physician, and, indeed, the only perfect one he could have; for it is true that A man cannot be a perfect physician of any one save of himself alone. The reason of this is that any man may, by dint of experimenting, acquire a perfect knowledge of his own constitution and of its most hidden qualities, and find out what food and what drink, and what quantities of each, will agree with his stomach. It is impossible to have equally accurate knowledge of these things in another person; since it is only with difficulty that we may dis- cover them in ourselves. And to learn them in our own cases, great attention, considerable time, and much study are required. Nor must we overlook the fact that various experiments are absolutely necessary; for there is not so great a variety of features as there is diversity of temperaments and stomachs among men. Who would believe, for instance, that wine over a year old would be hurtful to my stomach, while new wine would be suitable to it? and that pepper, which is com- [57]
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3