A Medieval Treatise on Man (de Homine).

profit thereby should be purged or have their blood let.' One must note the disjunctive particle. Hippocrates did not prescribe that both of these remedies should always be used, as is the practice with some who consider it a crime to let blood without a previous purge. There are some women for whom blood-letting alone is beneficial, when they are rather plump, others who will derive advantage from purging, when their system is out of order, others again from both. These remedies can be used in Autumn as well as in Spring, especially purging to right the wrongs of the Summer, such as the voracious eating of fruit that ripens under Ora and Opora (late summer). It has given me great pleasure to propose these few medical cautions-many could be given-to nuns, for their good health, that they may go on with greater zest in the way of life they have nobly undertaken. It is assuredly a great task, comparable to any martyrdom, that a maid should vow perpetual chastity, for, St. Jerome puts it well, 'It is not only against nature but beyond nature to refrain from what one was born to, to do to death one's own root and pluck only the fruits of Virginity.'