How to smell nice: Galen's advice for doctors
The last part of Galen’s comment on Epid. 6.4.7, here on smell, including advice on how to use deodorants and breath fresheners — and a nice Quintus’ story as well.
Odour. Some people naturally have an unpleasant smell, whether of the body as a whole or of the mouth, while others are naturally free of it. In other cases it arises from carelessness, when doctors think they are doing nothing wrong even if they go to see patients reeking of garlic or onions. Something like this actually happened to Quintus, who practiced medicine in Rome in our fathers’ day. After lunch he went to visit a wealthy and very influential man smelling strongly of wine. The patient was running a fairly high fever, with headaches as well, and so could not tolerate the smell coming from the wine. He asked Quintus to stand a little farther away, since he was distressed by the strong smell of wine. In saying this the patient seemed to be speaking reasonably enough. But Quintus handled it clumsily and told him to endure the smell. He said that he himself put up with the stench of the patient’s fever, and that it was hardly the same thing to smell a fever as to smell wine.
I also know of another doctor in our part of Asia whose armpits were foul-smelling, to the point that no sick person could bear his presence, or any healthy person either. He ought first to have treated this condition in himself, and only then attempted to treat others. For even if the smell is congenital, as it is in goats, it is still possible to make it milder, and then to reduce it further each day by using powders that blunt bad odours. At any rate, there was one man whose mouth was naturally foul, who took care to make it more moderate by cleansing and by taking suitable medicines for this purpose, and who each day took a very small amount of something aromatic, sometimes amomum, sometimes a leaf of malabathrum, sometimes some other fragrant substance, and in this way would leave the house.
ὀδμή. καὶ τῆς ὀδμῆς τοῦ σώματος ὅλου καὶ τοῦ στόματος ἡ μέν τίς ἐστιν ἐνίοις φύσει μοχθηρά, καθάπερ γε καὶ ἄλλοις τισὶν ἄμεμπτος, ἡ δ' ἐξ ἀμελείας ἐγγίνεται μηδὲν ἡγουμένων ἁμαρτάνειν τῶν ἰατρῶν, ἐὰν ἤτοι σκορόδων ἢ κρομύων ὄζοντες ἐπισκοπῶνται τοὺς νοσοῦντας. ἐπὶ δὲ Κοΐντου τοῦ κατὰ τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν ἰατρεύοντος ἐν Ῥώμῃ καὶ τοιοῦτό τι συνέβη· μετ' ἄριστον ἐπεσκέπτετό τινα τῶν πλουσίων τε καὶ πολὺ δυναμένων ἀνδρῶν ὄζων οἴνου σφοδρῶς. πυρέττων οὖν ἱκανῶς ὁ κάμνων ἅμα κεφαλαλγίαις καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μὴ φέρων τὴν ἐκ τοῦ οἴνου προσπίπτουσαν ὀσμὴν ἠξίου προσωτέρω χωρήσειν τὸν Κόϊντον, ἀνιᾶν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἐξόζοντα σφοδρῶς οἴνου. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ὁ κάμνων ἐφαίνετο μετρίως λέγειν· ὁ Κόϊντος δ' ἀβελτέρως αὐτῷ προσενεχθεὶς ἐκέλευσεν ἀνέχεσθαι τῆς ὀσμῆς. καὶ γὰρ ἑαυτὸν ἔφη τοῦ κάμνοντος ἀνέχεσθαι πυρετοῦ ὄζοντος, εἶναι δ' οὐκ ἴσον ἢ πυρετὸν ἢ οἶνον ὀσμᾶσθαι.
ἕτερον δ' ἰατρὸν ἐπὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας Ἀσίας οἶδα δυσώδεις ἔχοντα τὰς μάλας, ὡς διὰ τοῦτο μὴ φέρειν αὐτοῦ τὴν εἴσοδον ἄνθρωπον νοσοῦντα μηδένα καθάρειον. ἐχρῆν οὖν αὐτὸν ἑαυτοῦ πρῶτον ἰᾶσθαι τὸ σύμπτωμα καὶ οὕτως ἐπιχειρεῖν ἑτέρους θεραπεύειν. ἐγχωρεῖ γάρ, εἰ καὶ σύμφυτον ὥσπερ καὶ τοῖς τράγοις ἐστίν, ἀλλά τοι μετριώτερόν γ' αὐτὸ ποιήσαντα τὸ μέτριον αὖθις τοῦτο πραΰνειν ἑκάστης ἡμέρας διαπάσμασιν ἀμβλυντικοῖς δυσωδίας. ἄλλος γοῦν τις ἔχων δυσῶδες φύσει τὸ στόμα προὐνοήσατο μετριώτερον αὐτὸ ποιήσασθαι διά τε καθάρσεως καὶ φαρμάκων πόσεως ἐπιτηδείων εἰς τοῦτο, καὶ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ὀλίγιστόν τι λαμβάνων εἰς αὐτὸ ποτὲ μὲν ἀμώμου, ποτὲ δὲ μαλαβάθρου φύλλου, ποτὲ δ' ἄλλου τινὸς τῶν εὐωδῶν οὕτως ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας προήρχετο.
Galen, Commentary on Epidemics VI on Epidemics VI 4.10, 17B.151-152K = 206-207 Wenkebach
