THE HOME PHYSICIAN, OR PUBLIC DISPENSARY. PART THE FIRST.

How the causes and signs of diseases must be understood, and how remedies must be administered, and in what manner [the patient] is to be cared for, both at the onset of the illness and after recovery: 1. The proper medicating and care of the sick person depends upon firmly understanding the causes of the affliction that has befallen him and recognizing its signs; wherefore it is very necessary that either the sick person himself or his master [or guardian] relate in detail and in order to the practitioner the causes of the disease that has occurred, and the signs or changes that have appeared to him. 2. The practitioner must inquire whether the patient has perhaps slept in clothes soaked by the rain, or walked about barefoot in cold or wet places; from this sort of carelessness there will arise chills and a cough; concerning this it is written at length in the third chapter of the second part of this book, and so forth. 3. Whether in intense heat he has slept outdoors in the sun, and whether upon waking he felt a headache; from this will arise the disease mentioned in the second chapter of the second part, and so forth. 4. When exhausted, overheated, or perspiring, did he drink cold water or another beverage, or [did he], for the sake of resting and cooling off...

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