Aristotle · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| Book 3. Problems Concerning Wine-Drinking and Drunkenness Why, though wine is hot, are drunk people prone to chill, and quickest to be seized by pleurisy and similar diseases? Is it because much moisture, if it is chilled, becomes very cold, so that it overpowers the natural heat? For it becomes like a garment soaked in cold liquid — so is the flesh from within. Why is it not those who are extremely drunk who behave badly under wine, but rather those who are only half-drunk? Is it because they have neither drunk so little as to be in the same condition as the sober, nor so much as to be dissolved, which is what happens to those who have drunk a great deal? Further, the sober judge more correctly, while those who are extremely drunk do not even attempt to judge; but the half-drunk do judge, because they are not extremely drunk, yet judge badly because they are not sober, and quickly come to despise some people, while seeming to others to be treated with contempt. Why do those who drink wine more diluted suffer worse hangovers than those who drink it wholly unmixed? Is it because, owing to its thinness, the diluted wine penetrates into more and narrower places, while the unmixed wine does so less, so that the diluted is harder to expel? Or is it because people drink less unmixed wine, being unable to drink much of it, and vomit it up more readily? Further, being hotter, unmixed wine helps concoct the rest, and concocts itself as well, whereas watery wine does the opposite.
2| Why is the seed of heavy wine-drinkers generally not fertile? Is it because the mixture of the body has become too moist? And moist seed is not fertile, but rather seed that is compact and has thickness.
3| Why do heavy wine-drinkers tremble, and more so the more they drink unmixed wine? Wine is a heating thing, yet trembling arises above all from cold — that is why people shivering with cold tremble the most. Yet many who have used unmixed wine only, for nourishment's sake, have already had violent tremors befall them, so that they threw off their wrappings, and when bathing in hot water they had no sensation of it. Or is it rather that trembling comes about through a chilling, and this chilling comes about either when the internal heat is forced inward by an external cold, as in winter, or when the natural heat is being quenched — quenched either by its contrary, or through time, as in old age, or by an excess of foreign heat, which is what happens to a man burned by the sun or by fire? And this same thing happens to those who use unmixed wine. For being itself something hot, when it is mixed with the body's own heat and overpowers it in strength, it quenches that heat; and once the body's heat has been quenched and chilled, tremors result. But besides all the ways mentioned there is another mode of chilling. When the matter is taken away by which the heat in each thing is nourished, the heat itself is destroyed along with it. In lifeless things this is evident in the case of a lamp: once the oil has been used up, the flame goes out. In living things old age produces this same effect, and so do the long, wasting diseases.
4| For when the nourishment of the heat is being removed, or thinned out, the heat is bound to be extinguished along with it. The heat is nourished by moisture, but not by any moisture whatever — by moisture that is smooth and abundant. That is why, in those suffering from the diseases mentioned and in the elderly, once this kind of moisture is being destroyed and altered (for it turns sharp and dry instead of smooth and rich), the heat is bound to fail along with it. A sign of what has been said is the relief given to those whose life is ebbing away in a wasting decline: whatever nourishing moisture one drips into them is found to revive them, and this is plainly the case, since their dissolution comes about through the failing of this very thing. This same cause seems to apply to heavy wine-drinkers. For wine, being itself hot, combines with the heat naturally present in the body and thereby uses up all the more the body's stored resources through that heat of its own. That is why some of them become dropsical, others rheumatic, and others afflicted in the belly. For the rest of their fluids turn sharp, and what they take in, being soft through the weakness of their own heat, does not thicken properly. And the heat is weak because the matter in which it is still preserved is of that same weak sort — like a fire of reed-stalks, which for the very same reason, the weakness of its fuel, is weaker than a fire of solid wood.
5| Why are drunk men, though the wine in them is hot, unusually prone to chill, and quickest of all to be seized by pleurisy and diseases of that kind? Is it because abundant moisture, once chilled, becomes abundantly cold, so that it overpowers the natural heat? Now all the moister things are by nature the hotter. Here is a sign of it: they are heated by external things but not made moist by them. But if they are less hot, it is clear that their heat also leaves them faster than their moisture does, so that once the cold moisture is left behind, it is reasonable that drunk men chill more readily and suffer the affections proper to chilling. Why is it that children, though hot, are not fond of wine, while Scythians and manly men, though hot, are fond of wine? Is it because these men are hot and dry (for that is the state proper to a man), whereas children are moist as well as hot? Now the love of drink is a desire for something moist. Moistness, then, prevents children from being thirsty in this way, for desire is a kind of deficiency.
6| Why do we, when drunk, perceive salty and foul waters more sharply, but less so when sober? Is it because a thing is unaffected by what is akin to it, and by what is disposed in a like manner to it, while contraries are most perceptive of their contraries? Now the drunk man has sweet flavors within himself (for that is what wine seems to be), and so he is more perceptive of bad flavors, while the sober man has sharp and salty flavors within him. So once the nourishment has been concocted, the residue-producing elements rise to the surface. These men, then, are unaffected by things like themselves, and they make the person who has them the same way.
7| Why is it that to men who are very drunk everything appears to move in a circle, and once drunkenness is taking hold they cannot fix their gaze on distant things — which is why some people even make this a test of drunkenness? Is it because the sight is set in frequent motion by the heat of the wine? It makes no difference whether one moves the sight itself or the thing seen, since the effects described come about in the same way from either. And since it happens that in drunk men the sight is deceived even about things nearby, it is reasonable that they suffer this even more about things far off. That is why distant things are not seen at all, and near things are not seen in the place where they actually are. And things appear to move in a circle, not simply near and far, because in the case of the far, on account of the circular motion, the sight is less able to reach out to it — for it is not easy to do opposite things at once. Now the desire toward the far-off is a strong reaching-out, while the circular desire lies in the very shape the word signifies. So for the reasons given the sight does not reach far off; and even if it did reach both the near and the far, it would not see these things. For the thing seen would then be left behind, at one moment or the other, in the same place, and once left behind the sight could no longer see it. It moves in a circle because of the shape the sight itself has. For it is a cone, whose base is a circle, and moving within that circle it does see the object, because it never leaves it behind — but it is deceived about its place, because it is not the same line of sight that falls upon it each time. For it would come to the same thing whether this object were moved relative to the sight or the sight relative to it.
8| Why is it that to drunk men one thing sometimes appears as many, though they are looking at one thing? Is it, as has been said, that since the sight is in motion, the same sight can never remain still upon the same object for any span of time? And a thing seen differently within the same span of time seems to be a later seeing; for the thing seen is seen by a kind of contact of the sight, and it is impossible to touch the same thing with several contacts at once. Now since the interval of time in which the sight made contact and then shifted past the object seen is imperceptible, that time seems to be one single time in which the sight both touches the object and has shifted past it — so that, several acts of sight touching the same thing within what seems the same time, the things seen appear to be several, because it is impossible for these acts to make contact in the same manner. Why are drunk men incapable of sex? Is it because a certain part must be heated more than the rest of the body, and they are unable to do this on account of the great amount of heat spread through the whole body? For the heat generated by the motion is quenched all the more by what surrounds it, because there is much undigested moisture in them. Further, seed comes from nourishment, and all nourishment must be concocted; and it is when men are filled with concocted nourishment that they are impelled toward sex. That is why some people even recommend, for such an act, eating a large midday meal but a small evening one, so that the undigested part of their food may be less than the concocted part.
9| Why do sweet wine, unmixed wine, and the barley-drink, when drunk in between during drinking bouts, make people sober? And why are people less likely to get drunk when they drink from large cups? Is the cause the same in all these cases, namely the deflection of the heat that lies on the surface? For being drunk consists in the heat being in the regions around the head. Since sweet wine tends to float on the surface, why is it that if someone already drunk drinks sweet wine on top, the wine already inside is digested down and troubles him less? Is it because sweet wine is smoothing and sticky (so it blocks up the passages), while dry wine is roughening? And the one makes the rising of the heat easy, while the sweet wine seals it in by blocking the passages. And it has been said that drunkenness belongs to the parts heated above. Further, sweet wine is odorless, while dry wine is not; and every smell weighs down the head. Why do people suffer more from headache the morning after drinking wine that was mixed but rather strong than after drinking unmixed wine? Is it because unmixed wine, being coarse in its particles, does not itself fall into the narrow passages around the head, but only its power — its smell and heat — does; whereas mixed wine, being blended with fine water, itself makes its way in, and having body, and much of the power of unmixed wine besides, is harder to digest. For liquids are the hardest of all things to digest, and bodies are harder to digest than the powers residing in them.
10| Why can the unexercised drink more toward drunkenness than the exercised, and recover more easily? Is it because those who have residue and moisture in themselves become prone to urination, which enables them to drink and afterward to feel light, because a great deal of winy moisture does not remain in them? So the unexercised are moist and full of residue, while the exercised are dry, so that in these the winy moisture reaches into the body itself. so that in these the winy moisture reaches into the body itself. At once, then, this movement pulls against urination, and afterward this moisture, remaining in the body, produces heaviness. Why does wine make some people stupefied and others manic? For these are opposite conditions: the one is already more in motion, the other less. Is it as Chaeremon said — that wine is mixed with the characters of those who use it? So it produces opposite effects not on the same people, but on those who are not alike, just as fire dries some things and moistens others, though not the same things, and melts ice while it congeals salt. So wine too, being moist by nature, intensifies the slower and makes them quicker, but relaxes the quicker. That is why some who are melancholic by nature become utterly slack in their hangovers. For just as bathing makes the stiff and rigid-bodied more agile, but relaxes those who are already agile and moist, so wine, as if washing the insides, produces this same effect.
11| Why does cabbage stop a hangover? Is it because its juice is sweet and cleansing (which is why doctors use it to purge the stomach with an enema), while the cabbage itself is cold? Here is a sign: doctors use it against severe diarrhea, boiling it thoroughly, straining it out, and cooling it. Now what happens in those with hangovers is that the juice of it draws the moisture in them — being winy and undigested — down into the stomach, while the cabbage itself, remaining behind in the upper stomach, cools the body. And as the body cools, thin moisture is carried off into the bladder, so that on both counts — the moisture being excreted through the body, and the body being cooled — people naturally recover from their hangover; for wine is moist and hot. Further, as the moisture is drawn down and excreted, breath is drawn along with it, and it is precisely this breath, when it travels up alone from the wine into the head, that produces stupor and hangover. But once the body has turned downward and is cooled for the reasons stated, the pain of the hangover is released. For a hangover is a kind of boiling and inflammation that is subsiding. And it distresses more than drunkenness does, because drunkenness puts a person out of himself, while hangover causes pain to people who are in full possession of themselves — just as those seized by fevers play about more than they feel pain, but the same people, once they come back to themselves, relieved of the affliction, do feel pain. For the same thing happens in the case of hangover as in the case of drunkenness.
12| Why does watered-down wine cause vomiting more than either water or unmixed wine does? Is it because what most causes vomiting is what floats on the surface and whatever is unpleasant? Now wine is astringent, while water is thin and not unpleasant. Because it is thin and not unpleasant, water passes through downward quickly; and because it is not unpleasant, it does not cause queasiness. But wine that is too diluted is not thin enough to flow through quickly, and because it contains little wine it is unpleasant; for it disturbs perception by producing several movements in it at once, one from the wine and one from the water, since both become perceptible. But well-mixed wine makes the sensation of the water disappear, and produces the sensation of a mild wine; that is why it is drunk pleasantly. Watered-down wine, being unpleasant, floats on the surface, and what is of this kind causes vomiting. Why do we perceive salty and foul waters more when we are drunk, and less when we are sober? Is it because distressing things are more evident to those who do not desire something, while they escape the notice of those who do desire it? Now the person who is enjoying himself is in the same condition as one who desires, and the sober person is in that condition too — but the drunk person is full.
13| Why does everything appear to those who are very drunk to be moving in a circle, and why, once the drunkenness is already taking hold, can they not count things at a distance? For this reason some people even use it as a sign of drunkenness. Is it because the sight is set in motion repeatedly by the heat of the wine? So just as when someone presses a finger under the eye, things appear double, so it is too with the drunk. For it makes no difference whether one presses something under the eye and sets sight in motion that way, or whether the motion comes from outside or from inside; either way sight undergoes the same thing. So the thing seen will not seem to stay still, and this is even more so with what is far away; for sight, being extended further, has even less control of it, and this motion, close by, produces a proportionally greater displacement at the far end. And if the motion is vigorous and even, up and down, it will have even less control over what is far off. Now everything that is extended out is carried in a circle, for example arrows and things suspended and whirled around. And sight, through weakness, undergoes the same thing as if it were being carried far off. And it makes no difference whether one sets the sight in motion or the thing seen; for either produces the same effect as regards appearance. Why, when people drink all at once in a mass, do their stomachs become drier, at just the time when they ought to become more moistened by the greater quantity? Is it because the stomach does not master the large amount drunk all at once, but it passes through, unaffected, into its own place? And the place for undigested moisture is the bladder. But the stomach does master and digest a small amount, so that it stays and moistens.
14| Why do people who drink wine mixed with water get worse hangovers than those who drink it unmixed? Is it because, on account of its thinness, the mixed wine penetrates into more places, as happens with cloaks, and is harder to get out again, whereas water, though it has finer parts, passes out easily? Or is it because people drink less unmixed wine, since they cannot manage as much of it, and vomit it up more; and besides, the rest is thoroughly concocted? This is the same problem. Why do people die from unmixed wine, if someone drinks a great deal of it after fasting for a long time beforehand? And even without fasting beforehand, many heavy drinkers become dry after drinking a great deal all at once. For wine seems by nature to belong among hot things, and to be alive is to be hot, while to die is to be chilled. Is it as with hemlock, where the body's own heat is extinguished little by little, but in a different way? For hemlock, by its coldness, congeals the moist and hot element, whereas wine, by its own heat, wastes away the natural heat. So then, just as a small fire is put out by a great fire or by the sun, so too the heat in bodies is put out by the heat in wine, if it is excessive. Why are drunk people more given to tears? Is it because they become hot and moist, and so lose self-control, so that they are moved by small things?
15| Why are people less drunk when they take deep draughts from large cups? For in all cases the cause is the same: knocking-down, that is, striking on the surface. For drunkenness occurs in the regions around the head. [chapter 25a] Why does sleep not come upon drunk people? Is it because sleep requires the presence of a hot moisture within? For this is easily concocted. But if there is little moisture present, or moisture that is hard to concoct, sleep does not occur. This is why, after fatigue and after food and drink, people are most inclined to sleep, on account of the heat. But for melancholic people, and for those who have undergone great sweatings (the text is corrupt here), sleeplessness occurs — in the one case because the moisture has been chilled, in the other because there is none, or only a little. It is clear, then, that one must look to these factors in each of the affections separately.
16| Why do heavy wine-drinkers tremble, and more so the more unmixed wine they drink? Wine is a heat-producer, yet trembling arises most of all from cold, which is why people who are chilled tremble the most. Many who have already made a practice of using unmixed wine alone as their nourishment have developed severe trembling, so severe that they threw off those who tried to hold them still, and when bathed in hot water they had no sensation of it. Others, living in this same way, and also using massage and a diet of meat, were driven into apoplectic disorders; in these, trembling occurred less, because of their lack of movement, but instead there was severe pain and an inability to keep still. The cause of trembling is coldness; for as has been said, both people who are chilled and the very old are evidently affected by it. But of these two groups, in the one the affection is cold, in the other it is the age itself that is cold; whereas wine is most productive of heat, so that something contrary would seem to result. Or is there nothing to prevent the same effect arising from contrary causes, when they do not act in the same way — just as flesh is burned both by frost and by heat, when the frost concentrates the body's own heat all at once? So it is possible in one sense for the same affection to arise from contraries, and in another sense for the same affection to arise from the same cause.
17| Trembling arises from a deficiency of heat — not of just any heat, but of the body's own proper heat. Heat perishes either by wasting away or by being extinguished: by extinction, under the action of its contraries, cold and moisture; by wasting away, through lack of nourishment, as with lamps when they have no fuel and no oil left; or else through an alien heat, as the fire in a lamp is overpowered by the sun, and lamps set beside a fire. So people who are chilled tremble because their heat is being extinguished by cold. This is also why people who have hot water poured over them get shivers: for the cold, being shut in inside and forced to shift its position, makes the hairs stand up; and the chill that comes upon someone at the onset of a fever arises through a similar cause. In old age, the heat wastes away because nourishment fails; for nourishment is moisture, which serves the heat, and old age is cold. Heavy wine-drinkers tremble because their own proper heat is wasting away, as do any others who suffer this on account of wine — though not in the same way as those who suffer it through old age, but there was yet a third way in which heat perishes. For when people use wine to excess in the body, the great quantity of heat either extinguishes or weakens the body's own proper heat, the heat by which we have our strength.
18| For this happens whenever what moves fails to master what is moved — as when someone holds a long, heavy piece of wood without a firm enough grip, its far end trembles. This occurs either because the part held is too large, or because the moving force is too small. And it happens, when the heat is being extinguished (for this is thought to be the cause of motion in living things), that nature fails to master the moved part. A sign that the affection arises in heavy wine-drinkers and in old people through coldness is that the trembling occurs without shivering. Why is a person only slightly drunk more prone to act badly under wine's influence than one who is thoroughly drunk, or one who is sober? Is it because the sober person judges well, while the person who is completely drunk, since his senses are as it were plastered over, cannot bear the weight of judgment and so does not judge at all — and not judging, he does not misbehave under wine's influence? But the person only slightly drunk does judge, and because of the wine judges badly, so he does misbehave. It was just so with Satyrus of Clazomenae, a man given to abuse, who, when defending a lawsuit, in order that he might speak to the matter at hand and not fall into abuse, had his ears plastered over, so that by not hearing he would not be provoked into abuse. When his opponent stopped speaking they removed the plaster; but hearing a little more of him still speaking, he could not restrain himself, and spoke abusively — because he could perceive, but judged badly.
19| Why do people not become heavy wine-drinkers over sweet wine, even though it is more pleasant? Is it because the sweet does not have a flavor of its own, but one belonging to something else? So the person overcome by it will be a lover of sweetness rather than a lover of wine. Why do heavy wine-drinkers most enjoy being warmed by the sun? Is it because they need concoction? And also because they have been chilled; which is also why apoplexies and numbing seizures occur most quickly after drinking bouts. Why do drunk people sometimes see one thing as many? Is it because the starting-points of vision are moved inward by the wine, just as the whole head is, and when the starting-points are moved, the two lines of sight no longer converge on the same point, but each falls, so to speak, on a different part of the object seen — hence it appears as two. This same thing happens if someone presses on the eye from below; for this moves the starting-point of vision, so that it no longer converges with the other eye on the same point. This sort of movement, then, comes from outside, while the movement from wine comes from within. But it makes no difference; for however it is set in motion, it will produce the same effect.
20| Why does the tongue stumble in drunk people? Is it because, just as the whole body is unsteady in drunkenness, so too the tongue, being unsteady, stumbles and cannot articulate speech clearly? Or is it that the flesh of the tongue is spongy, and so swells up when soaked; and because this happens, the tongue, being harder to move on account of the bulk that results from its swelling, cannot achieve precision? Or is it because we are unable to speak clearly either in water, for lack of air, or when we have taken liquid into the mouth? So in drunkenness, since the tongue is in a great deal of liquid, we lack precision, and this lack of precision is what stumbling is. Or is it because in drunkenness the soul, becoming affected along with the body, stumbles? Since the soul undergoes this, it is likely that the tongue undergoes the same thing too, for the origin of speech is from the soul. This is why, apart from drunkenness as well, whenever the soul is affected in some way, the tongue is affected along with it — as happens with people who are afraid. Why do heavy wine-drinkers and people who live by the sea enjoy the sun? Is it because heavy wine-drinkers need concoction, and at the same time it happens that certain regions of their body have been chilled — which is also why apoplexies and numbing seizures occur after drinking bouts? And people who live by the sea do this because they are always in moisture.
21| Why are drunk men incapable of intercourse? Is it because a certain part needs to be heated more than the rest of the body, but drunk men are incapable of this because of the abundance of heat overall, so that the heat coming from the movement is extinguished, since it is already made hot by the surrounding wine? Or is it because the lower regions need to be heated, but wine is naturally borne upward, so that it produces heat there and draws it away from the lower regions? And men are least inclined to intercourse after eating, and doctors recommend eating a large midday meal but a small evening one; for when food is undigested the heat is carried upward, but when it is concocted the heat and moisture go downward, and the generation of semen comes from these. And men who are worn out with fatigue have emissions in their sleep, because fatigue is moist and hot; if then the residue collects in that region, the emission results. And for the same reason this happens also in the case of certain illnesses, whenever it occurs in them. And it happens in the same way to men who are frightened and to men who are dying.