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APHORISM APHRAATES	16 of them who are very lively." " Those who are very fat by natureare more exposed to die suddenly than those who are thin." " Those who eject foaming blood, eject it from the lung." " When two illnesses arrive at the same time, the stronger silences the weaker." The first aphorism, perhaps the best known of all, which serves as a kind of introduction to the book, runs as follows: " Life is short, art is long, opportunity fugitive, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult: it is necessary not only to do oneself what is right, but also to be seconded by the patient, by those who attend him, by external circumstances." Another famous collection of aphorisms is that of the school of Salerno in Latin verse, in which Joannes de Meditano, one of the most celebrated doctors of the school of medicine of Salerno, has summed up the precepts of this school. The book was dedicated to a king of England. It is a disputed point as to which king, some authorities dating the publication as at xo66, others assigning a later date. The dedication gives the following excellent advice:
Anglorum regi scribit schola tota Salernae.
Si vis ineolurnem, si vis to reddere sanum,
Curas toile graves: irasci crede profanum;
Parce mero: coenato parum ; non sit tibi vanum Surgere'post epulas: somnum fuge meridianum: Ne mictum retine, nec comprime fortiter anum
Haec bene si serves,tu longo tempore vives."
Another collection of aphorisms, also medical and also in Latin, is that of the Dutchman Hermann Boerhaave, published at Leiden in the year 17o9; it gives a terse summary of the medical knowledge prevailing at the time, and is of great interest to the student of the history of medicine.