Aristotle · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| Problems Concerning the Nostril Why does sneezing stop hiccups, but not stop belching? Is it because the two conditions do not belong to the same region, but belching is an affection of the belly, while hiccups are a cooling and an indigestion of breath and moisture around the lung? Now the regions around the brain communicate with the lung, as with the ears. This is clear, for people become deaf and dumb together, and the diseases of the ear shift over into affections of the lung. And in some people, when they scratch the ear, coughs arise. That the region around the part that sneezes, namely the nose, communicates with the lung is shown by the fact that respiration is shared between them. So a person sneezes when this region is heated; and because the lower region, where the hiccup is, is affected along with it, and heat concocts, therefore vinegar stops hiccups, and so does holding the breath, if the hiccup is mild. For the breath held back grows hot, so that in sneezing too, the counter-holding of the breath that occurs does this, and the expulsion happens in its own proper way, and from the upper region; for it is impossible to sneeze without breathing out. So the onset bursts the breath that has been shut in, and this is what produces the hiccup.
2| Why does a person sneeze less if, when about to sneeze, he rubs his eye? Is it because what produces the sneeze is a certain heat, and the rubbing produces a heat which, because the region by which he sneezes is close to the eyes, makes the other heat disappear, just as a smaller fire is quenched by a greater one? Why do people, as a rule, sneeze twice, and not once or many times? Is it because there are two nostrils? So each of the two small vessels through which the breath flows is split into two. Why do people sneeze more when they look at the sun? Is it because it moves them by heating, just as when they touch things with feathers? For both do the same thing; by heating through motion they produce breath more quickly out of the moisture. The exit of this is a sneeze.
3| Why does sneezing stop hiccups, and so does holding the breath, and so does vinegar? Is it because sneezing is a counter-shift of the breath below, just as purges applied above act on the belly below? And breath-holding stops mild hiccups because the small onset of breath moving upward, just as in the case of coughing, if one holds it back, is stopped-so here too it has been drawn down and stifled and forced together with the rest. And vinegar stops it because the surrounding moisture, which prevents belching, is turned into breath by the heat. For belching occurs when the moisture in the upper cavity is turned into breath and concocted, while hiccup occurs when superfluous breath is held back by moisture around the region of breath. For this breath, making an onset and being unable to break through, produces a spasm, and this spasm is called hiccup. And for this reason people who have chilled take hiccups, because the cold makes the moisture condense out of the breath that is still present; and as the rest is enclosed around it, it leaps, and the motion of this is the hiccup. Why, when blood flows from the nostrils, do we sometimes pour cold water even onto the face? Is it because the heat shifts inward in response? So if blood happens to be on the surface, the water rather moistens it away.
4| Why do we consider sneezing to be a god, but not coughing or a runny nose? Is it because it comes from the most divine of the parts around us, the head, from which reasoning proceeds? Or is it because the other conditions arise from people who are ill, but this one does not? Why do we stop sneezing when we rub the eye? Is it because a release of the moisture occurs by this means? For the eye waters after rubbing, and sneezing is due to an abundance of moisture. Or is it because the lesser heat is destroyed by the greater, and the eye, once rubbed, takes on more heat than that in the nose? For these reasons, then, if one rubs the nose itself, the sneezing also stops.
5| Why is it that the exits of the other winds, such as breaking wind and belching, are not sacred, but that of sneezing is sacred? Is it because, there being three regions, the head, the chest, and the lower belly, the head is the most divine? Wind from the lower belly is flatulence, wind from the upper region is a belch, and wind from the head is a sneeze. Because the region is the most sacred, then, the wind that comes from there is also revered as sacred. Or is it rather that all these winds signal that the regions named are for the most part in a good condition? For when the passages are not opening, the wind passing through relieves them, so that a sneeze relieves the region around the head, showing that it is healthy and able to concoct. For when the heat in the head overpowers the moisture, the wind then becomes a sneeze. That is also why people test the dying with a sneezing-drug, on the ground that those unable to undergo this are past saving. So they revere sneezing as sacred because it is a sign of health in the best and most sacred region, and take it as a good omen.
6| Why does man sneeze more than the other animals? Is it because he has wide passages, through which the wind and its rush enter? For when these fill with wind, sneezing occurs. And that his passages are wide is shown by the fact that he has the poorest sense of smell of all the animals; for narrow passages are more exact. If, then, into wide passages the moisture enters more abundantly and more often — and it is the vaporizing of this moisture that produces the sneeze — and men have passages of this kind more than any other animal, then it is reasonable that men would sneeze most often; and among men, those with the smallest nostrils would be expected to sneeze most, since the heated moisture can quickly get out once it has turned to wind, whereas in the others it cools first because of the greater length of the passage. Why are sneezes that occur from midnight to midday not favorable, while those from midday to midnight are? Is it because a sneeze is thought rather to check people at the beginning, at the outset of a thing? That is why, whenever a sneeze is going to occur to people just beginning something, we are especially deterred from acting. Now dawn [and] the period from midnight is a kind of beginning; that is why we are wary of sneezing then, for fear we may check something that has been set in motion. But toward evening and up to midnight is a kind of ending, and the opposite of the other; so that in the opposite case the same thing is to be chosen.
7| Why do old people sneeze with difficulty? Is it because the passages through which the wind travels have collapsed together? Or is it because, no longer being able to draw the upper regions easily, they then force the wind out downward instead? Why does hiccuping stop if a person holds their breath? Is it because hiccuping arises from chilling (which is also why those who are afraid or shivering with cold hiccup), and the breath, when held back, heats the internal region? Why do the deaf speak through their nostrils for the most part? Is it because their lungs are in a diseased condition? For this is what deafness is: a filling-up of the region of the lungs. So the voice is not carried easily, but just as the breath of those who are short of breath or panting from weakness comes out in a rush, so too does their voice. It is forced out, then, through the nostrils as well. And being forced out, it produces the sound by friction. For speech through the nose comes about when the upper part of the nose, at the point where it is pierced through into the roof of the mouth, becomes hollow; for it resounds like a bell, since the part below is narrow.
8| Why alone does sneezing not happen to us when we are asleep, while practically everything else happens when we are awake? Is it because a sneeze occurs also from some heat that has moved the region from which it arises — which is also why we turn our faces up toward the sun when we want to sneeze — or is it that, while we sleep, the heat inside redistributes itself? That is also why the lower parts of sleepers become warm, and the abundant breath there is the cause of our having erotic dreams. It is reasonable, then, that we do not sneeze; for once the heat from the head — which is naturally what moves the moisture there, the removal of which produces the sneeze — has departed, it is reasonable that the resulting affection should not occur. But people break wind and belch, rather than sneeze, more when asleep than when awake, because, the region around the belly being heated more during sleep, the moisture around it turns into wind more, and being turned into wind it is carried to the nearest regions. For there it is also pushed along together by the wind that arises during sleep, since a sleeping person is more retentive than expulsive of breath, and so he also draws the heat together inside. And a person who holds the breath in pushes it downward; for downward motion is against nature for the breath, which is also why it is hard to hold the breath in. And the same cause is responsible for our sleeping. For since waking is a kind of motion, and this motion occurs in our sense organs especially when we are awake, it is clear that if we were at rest we would also be asleep. And since fire is what moves the parts within us, and this, during sleep, redistributes itself inward, leaving the region around the head where the sense organ is, our sense organs would then be most at rest — and this would be the cause of sleeping.
9| Why do people shiver after sneezing and after urinating? Is it because in both cases the veins are emptied of the warm air previously present in them, and once they are emptied, other air, colder than what was previously in the veins, enters from outside; and air of this kind, entering, causes shivering? Why do sneezes stop hiccups? Is it because hiccup does not come, as belching does, from the belly that receives food, but from the breath, and it occurs especially from chilling — from a chill, or grief, or medication — occurring especially in the upper region? For that region, being naturally warm, when it is chilled does not release all its breath at once, but produces something like bubbles; that is why holding the breath makes it stop (for the region is warmed up again), and so does vinegar applied, being warming. Now since the heat comes about from warmth arising also from the brain, the upper regions being pierced through into the lung, and the lung being warm, both the holding-back before the sneeze and the downward striking-through from above dissolve the affection. Why are people with tightly curled hair, and those whose hair is twisted, generally rather snub-nosed? Is it because, if curliness consists in thickness, and thickness goes together with hardness, and blood that is hard is hot, and heat does not produce residue, while bone comes from residue, and cartilage is a kind of bone, it is then reasonable that there should be a deficiency of that part? A sign of this is that all children are snub-nosed.