The Laughable Stories Collected by Mar Gregory John

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84 THE LAUGHABLE STORIES OF BAR-HEBRiEUS.
''boiling water as the juice which cometh out from a
''gourd; macerate them together until the mixture be-
"cometh like fat (or oil) and drink it." The sick man
said to him, "Perhaps if I were beaten with a hundred
"stripes I might do the things which thou sayest, but
"without the stripes I never will."
CCCXLV. Another physician used to say, "Moderation
"is the friend of Nature and by it is health preserved;
"therefore let your toils, and meals, and motions, and
"intercourse with women be in moderation."
CCCXLVI. Another physician said, "The bodies
A "which have not experienced sickness are not remote
"from danger."
CCCXLVII. Another physician was asked, "What is
"the aim and end of the art of healing?" He replied,
"The preservation of health in [our] equals and friends,
"and the driving of sickness into [our] adversaries."
CCCXLVIII. Another physician said, "There are three
b "great sins in the art of healing:—The administration
"of a poisonous drug, the administration of the medi-
"cine of barrenness, and the administration of the drug
"which expelleth the child from the womb."
CCCXLIX. Another physician said, "Nature is the
"minister of the soul in the formation of the body, and
"in the depicting of its designs, and in the preparation
"of its foods; and it draweth in nourishment and keep-
"eth it, though it expelleth therefrom the useless super-
"fluity; and it digesteth it and throweth it into the
''member which is to be nourished."
CCCL. To another physician it was said, "Beans in
^their skins easily build up (?) the body." And he
replied, "Perhaps in the stomachs of those who are
"hungry, otherwise they digest better without their skins."