ABSTRACT
THE qualities of the elements are rigorous in those lands, and men’s temperaments, too, are rigorous, especially those of noblemen and magnates, who readily outrage and affront Nature, so that the conscientious care of the doctor is disappointed of its due praise and the patient of his health. For this reason very few individuals devote themselves to this perilous art, for while they desire to tend weakness in another’s body, they fear that, because of the drawbacks and neglected regime I have mentioned, their own lives may possibly be endangered. 1 This is the gratitude of these madmen, to kill the very one who cares for them, as the young of vipers burst their mother’s belly. 2
