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In consultation 230, for an Italian abbot, he makes the patients' restlessness and impatience one of the chief reasons why this disease is so incurable. He therefore insists that anyone who hopes for relief should take medicine, not merely for a month or a year, but follow the physicians' prescriptions throughout his life.
Last of all, the patient must not be too bold in treating himself without a reputable physician's consent, or in making experiments because he has read a recipe in a book. In this way many make serious mistakes and do themselves more harm than good. What benefits one person in one case may at the same time harm another.
An ass and a mule were carrying loads across a brook, one of salt and the other of wool. The mule's pack happened to get wet; the salt dissolved, making his load lighter and giving him great relief. He told the ass, who, expecting the same good fortune, also wet his pack at the next stream. But it became much heavier, and he was completely exhausted. In this way the same thing may help one person and harm another, under different circumstances.
“Many things,” says Penottus, “are written in our books that seem excellent remedies to the reader, but those who use them are often deceived and take poison for medicine.” I remember a story in Valeriola's observations about a Neapolitan named John Baptist. He happened to find an Italian pamphlet praising hellebore and insisted on trying it on himself, taking one dram instead of one scruple. Had Valeriola not been sent for, the poor fellow would have poisoned himself.
From this he concludes, citing the second and third aphorisms of Damascenus, that it is extremely dangerous to practise from books without exact knowledge. How unwise it is to believe writers and take their statements on trust, as this patient learned at his own peril. I could tell another such story from my own knowledge: a friend of mine found a recipe in Brassivola and insisted on taking hellebore itself and trying it on his own person. Had some of his close friends not happened to visit him, his indiscretion would have put him in danger. I have observed many such cases.
These are the usual precautions that I think deserve attention. Anyone who observes them, as Montanus says, will certainly gain considerable relief, if not a complete cure.