贝壳电子书 > 英文原著电子书 > the essays of montaigne, v13 >

第17章

the essays of montaigne, v13-第17章

小说: the essays of montaigne, v13 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



weight; the power of working; the country; figure; age; and dispensation;
and he must know how rightly to proportion and mix them together; to
beget a just and perfect symmetry; wherein if there be the least error;
if amongst so many springs there be but any one out of order; 'tis enough
to destroy us。  God knows with how great difficulty most of these things
are to be understood: for (for example) how shall the physician find out
the true sign of the disease; every disease being capable of an infinite
number of indications?  How many doubts and controversies have they
amongst themselves upon the interpretation of urines? otherwise; whence
should the continual debates we see amongst them about the knowledge of
the disease proceed? how could we excuse the error they so oft fall into;
of taking fox for marten?  In the diseases I have had; though there were
ever so little difficulty in the case; I never found three of one
opinion: which I instance; because I love to introduce examples wherein I
am myself concerned。

A gentleman at Paris was lately cut for the stone by order of the
physicians; in whose bladder; being accordingly so cut; there was found
no more stone than in the palm of his hand; and in the same place a
bishop; who was my particular friend; having been earnestly pressed by
the majority of the physicians whom he consulted; to suffer himself to be
cut; to which also; upon their word; I used my interest to persuade him;
when he was dead and opened; it appeared that he had no malady but in the
kidneys。  They are least excusable for any error in this disease; by
reason that it is in some sort palpable; and 'tis thence that I conclude
surgery to be much more certain; by reason that it sees and feels what it
does; and so goes less upon conjecture; whereas the physicians have no
'speculum matricis'; by which to examine our brains; lungs; and liver。

Even the very promises of physic are incredible in themselves; for;
having to provide against divers and contrary accidents that often
afflict us at one and the same time; and that have almost a necessary
relation; as the heat of the liver and the coldness of the stomach; they
will needs persuade us; that of their ingredients one will heat the
stomach and the other will cool the liver: one has its commission to go
directly to the kidneys; nay; even to the bladder; without scattering its
operations by the way; and is to retain its power and virtue through all
those turns and meanders; even to the place to the service of which it is
designed; by its own occult property this will dry…the brain; that will
moisten the lungs。  Of all this bundle of things having mixed up a
potion; is it not a kind of madness to imagine or to hope that these
differing virtues should separate themselves from one another in this
mixture and confusion; to perform so many various errands?  I should very
much fear that they would either lose or change their tickets; and
disturb one another's quarters。  And who can imagine but that; in this
liquid confusion; these faculties must corrupt; confound; and spoil one
another?  And is not the danger still more when the making up of this
medicine is entrusted to the skill and fidelity of still another; to
whose mercy we again abandon our lives?

As we have doublet and breeches…makers; distinct trades; to clothe us;
and are so much the better fitted; seeing that each of them meddles only
with his own business; and has less to trouble his head with than the
tailor who undertakes all; and as in matter of diet; great persons; for
their better convenience; and to the end they may be better served; have
cooks for the different offices; this for soups and potages; that for
roasting; instead of which if one cook should undertake the whole
service; he could not so well perform it; so also as to the cure of our
maladies。  The Egyptians had reason to reject this general trade of
physician; and to divide the profession: to each disease; to each part of
the body; its particular workman; for that part was more properly and
with less confusion cared for; seeing the person looked to nothing else。
Ours are not aware that he who provides for all; provides for nothing;
and that the entire government of this microcosm is more than they are
able to undertake。  Whilst they were afraid of stopping a dysentery; lest
they should put the patient into a fever; they killed me a friend;
'Estienne de la Boetie。' who was worth more than the whole of them。
They counterpoise their own divinations with the present evils; and
because they will not cure the brain to the prejudice of the stomach;
they injure both with their dissentient and tumultuary drugs。

As to the variety and weakness of the rationale of this art; they are
more manifest in it than in any other art; aperitive medicines are proper
for a man subject to the stone; by reason that opening and dilating the
passages they help forward the slimy matter whereof gravel and stone are
engendered; and convey that downward which begins to harden and gather in
the reins; aperitive things are dangerous for a man subject to the stone;
by reason that; opening and dilating the passages; they help forward the
matter proper to create the gravel toward the reins; which by their own
propension being apt to seize it; 'tis not to be imagined but that a
great deal of what has been conveyed thither must remain behind;
moreover; if the medicine happen to meet with anything too large to be
carried through all the narrow passages it must pass to be expelled; that
obstruction; whatever it is; being stirred by these aperitive things and
thrown into those narrow passages; coming to stop them; will occasion a
certain and most painful death。  They have the like uniformity in the
counsels they give us for the regimen of life: it is good to make water
often; for we experimentally see that; in letting it lie long in the
bladder; we give it time to settle the sediment; which will concrete into
a stone; it is good not to make water often; for the heavy excrements it
carries along with it will not be voided without violence; as we see by
experience that a torrent that runs with force washes the ground it rolls
over much cleaner than the course of a slow and tardy stream; so; it is
good to have often to do with women; for that opens the passages and
helps to evacuate gravel; it is also very ill to have often to do with
women; because it heats; tires; and weakens the reins。  It is good to
bathe frequently in hot water; forasmuch as that relaxes and mollifies
the places where the gravel and stone lie; it is also ill by reason that
this application of external heat helps the reins to bake; harden; and
petrify the matter so disposed。  For those who are taking baths it is
most healthful。  To eat little at night; to the end that the waters they
are to drink the next morning may have a better operation upon an empty
stomach; on the other hand; it is better to eat little at dinner; that it
hinder not the operation of the waters; while it is not yet perfect; and
not to oppress the stomach so soon after the other labour; but leave the
office of digestion to the night; which will much better perform it than
the day; when the body and soul are in perpetual moving and action。  Thus
do they juggle and trifle in all their discourses at our expense; and
they could not give me one proposition against which I should not know
how to raise a contrary of equal force。  Let them; then; no longer
exclaim against those who in this trouble of sickness suffer themselves
to be gently guided by their own appetite and the advice of nature; and
commit themselves to the common fortune。

I have seen in my travels almost all the famous baths of Christendom; and
for some years past have begun to make use of them myself: for I look
upon bathing as generally wholesome; and believe that we suffer no little
inconveniences in our health by having left off the custom that was
generally observed; in former times; almost by all nations; and is yet in
many; of bathing every day; and I cannot imagine but that we are much the
worse by; having our limbs crusted and our pores stopped with dirt。  And
as to the 

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的