Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Rosa Anglica (Author: [unknown])
section 17
17
And Averroes says, wine is good for sufferers from hectic fever, watery white wine, sweet-smelling, and every other watery wine, along with barley water, provided that it
p.89
be drunk after the digestion of the food. It will give greater relief than syrup,163 for the wine prevents the food from swimming about in the stomach, disperses the flatulence, provokes the urine and the sweat; and helps nature to expel excess matter, when those who have this fever suffer from want of digestion, and especially when they suffer from want of sleep and worry. Avicenna says moist things do harm in hectic fever, as they are heating, and wine should be understood here, for it is wet. But Isidorus says, wine is wet as regards melancholy, and dry as regards phlegm. It is wet according to complexion, but since it provokes the sweat and the urine, it is easily turned to choler; therefore it is dry as regards virtue, and not as regards material dominion,164 wherein it is wetter, nor as regards formal dominion, wherein it is drier; as is said, for example, that it is wet in substance, i.e. thin, or otherwise that it moistens according to its substance (substantially) because it is easily converted to red blood; nevertheless since it is dry, it is not good here, except thin watery wine taken seldom and in small quantities when the force is weak.