Ferunt enim id sacrificii genus ideo institutum, quod earum caro sit [277] levissimae digestionis, ac perinde languentibus commoda, tum vero eo maxime, quoniam nulla fere in iis particula sit, (nec excrementa excipio) ex qua suam medicus non agnoscat utilitatem.

For they report that this kind of sacrifice has been instituted because their flesh - of hens -  is of very easy digestion, and therefore useful to patients, but especially since in it there would be almost no particle (I understand neither discards) of which a physician doesn’t would recognize the utility.

Quod iam astruere aggredior, a morbis universalibus exorsus. Plurima praeterea remedia ab ovis accipiuntur, quae, quod de Gallinaceis tantum intelliguntur, non ab re, im<m>o necessarium fuit hic pertractare. Hippocrates[1] medicorum omnium coryphaeus febrientem ovorum trium, aut quatuor candidum, id est, albumen bibere iubet in aquae congio concussum: idque valde frigefacere, atque aegrum ad alvum exonerandam conturbare pollicetur. Quod si verum est, ut certe credendum est, utpote ab Hippocratico oraculo pr<a>efectum, et a Brasavolo ante aliquot annos expertum, qui reperisse se ait, qui ex sorbili ovo ter, quaterve excernerent, frustra tam pretiosis remediis medici nostri temporis utentur. Quod si vero victum convenientem praescribere medicus velit, unde quaeso meliorem utilioremque hausturus? Galenus[2] in febri, quae {sincopem} <syncopen> coniu<n>ctam habet, ova (ovorum vitellos) ante quartam diem exhibuit, et post ea etiam carnem. Sed haec sit Gallinarum castratarum[3], etsi Galenus, caeterique veteres earum non meminerint. Harum enim caro candidior, melior, et friabilior est, et facile, et cito coquitur, teneraque est, ac grata palato.

Therefore now I begin to make my affirmations starting from systemic diseases. Furthermore, a lot of remedies are drawn from eggs which, since only those of hen are meant as such, because of good reasons it is quite necessary to deal deeply with them in this chapter devoted to the chickens. Hippocrates, coryphaeus of all physicians, bids the feverish patient to drink the white, that is, the albumen, of three or four eggs beaten up in a congius of water [3.27 liters]: and this induces a strong cooling and he assures that it stirs the sick man to the point where he empties his bowels. If this is true, as certainly we must believe, since it has been stated by Hippocratic oracle, and some years ago it has been experimented by Antonio Brasavola, who says he found persons evacuating the bowel three or four times after having drunk an egg, the contemporary physicians are uselessly resorting to very expensive medicines. Then if a physician wanted really to prescribe a proper feeding, if you please, whence can he draw a better and more useful one? Galen, in fever associated with faint, gave as food some eggs (egg yolks) before four days had gone by, and after eggs also flesh. But this has to be of castrated hens, although Galen and other ancients did not mention it. In fact their flesh is whiter, better, and more friable, and is easily digested and quickly, and it is tender and pleasant to the palate.

Sed hic minime praeterire volo, nec debeo Gelu[4] illud praestantissimum cum expresso Gallinacei pulli succo in Gallia usitatissimum, ut audio, pro febrientibus, et aliis ad vires restaurandas. Carnem pulli, et pedes vituli, aut vervecis discoques, donec caro incipiat dissolvi, tum percolabis, et exprimes succum, cui adijcies bonam partem sacchari, ac pollinis cin<n>amomi: purificabis cum albuminibus, et testis ovorum, colabis denuo, addesque crocum, aut aliud quippiam pro colore, quem desideras, viride, rubrum etc. Si acidum placuerit aceti aliquid, vel rob, id est, defrutum aliquod eius saporis, ut de ribes, aut berberis addi potest.

But at this point I don’t want, neither absolutely I have to pass over that excellent ice with juice made by squeezing a chicken, very used in France, as I hear, for those who have fever and for others to bring back their energies. You will cook for a long time flesh of chicken and foot of calf or of castrated ram until the meat begins to dissolve and thereafter you will filter it and press out the juice, to which you will add a good quantity of sugar and powdered cinnamon: you will purify it with egg whites and eggshells, strain it a second time and add saffron or something else of green, red, etc., according to the color you desire. If you like it sour, some vinegar can be added, or rob, that is, a juice of the same taste as that obtained from currant, or from barberry.

Perpetuo omnibus hectica[5] febre laborantibus, inquit Trallianus[6], Gallorum testes commodi sunt, cum abunde nutrire, et vires augere possint, ubi probe concocti fuerint. Quapropter id alimentum semper exhibendum est, ubi vires non ad extremum collapsae fuerint. In Epiala[7] febri, in qua exteriora calent, frigent interiora, iis cibis commode uteris, qui {haemitritaeo} <hemitritaeae>[8] phlegmaticae conveniunt. Gallus antiquus post longam cum altero demicationem occidatur, coquaturque cum hordeo, passulis enucleatis, pulegio, hyssopo, thymo, et violis, tempereturque cum oxymelite acri. Propinato quantum uno haustu sorbere potest aeger.[9] Vel pro eadem febri, cum a simplici pituita dependet praesertim in homine frigidae naturae, senescentem Gallum praedicto modo defatigatum parato ad hunc modum. {Chamomaeli} <Chamaemeli>[10] sesqui manipulum, ficuum aridarum, passularum enucleatarum, singulorum manipulum, hordei ab uno cortice exuti pugillos tres, coquito sufficienter, et colato. Cum libra[11] huius iuris misceto adipis Anatis recentis uncias tres, aceti albi e pulegio unciam, salis parum. Bulliant iterum donec permisceatur. Dato calidum quantum uno haustu sorberi possit. Efficacissimum est ad crassos humores, et lentos febrem generantes. Idem cum Capo, et pullo efficere possis, sed {inefficatius} <inefficacius>. Eiusmodi sorbitio ex adipe Anatis dici potest. Brudus Lusitanus in opere suo de victu febricitantium[12] haec recenset remedia, multaque alia cum pullis, et Gallinis coquenda praecipit febribus diversis salubria, ut cucurbitam, pruna, uvam acerbam, quae brevitatis gratia hic sponte praeterimus[13]. Sed postquam in iuris Gallinacei, cuius tam frequens apud nostrates medicos usus est, mentionem incidimus, in iuniorum gratiam paulo altius, fusiusque de eo dicendum nobis videtur.

Alexander of Tralles says that for all those persistently suffering from continuous fever the testicles of roosters are useful, since if properly cooked they are able to feed quite a lot and increase quite a lot the energies. Therefore such food must always be given if strengths have not dwindled till the end. In fever with shivers, in which external parts burn and those inside are frozen, you can conveniently use those foods suited for semi-tertian fever caused by phlegm. Kill an old rooster after a long fight with another rooster, and let him cook with barley, small raisins from which have had their seeds removed, pennyroyal - Mentha pulegium, hyssop, thyme and violets, and all is mixed with strong vinegar and honey. Give as much of it as the patient can swallow at one draught. Or for the same fever, when depending on a simple cold especially in a person feeling the cold for nature, you have to prepare in the following way an old rooster worn out in the above-mentioned way. A handful and a half of chamomile, a handful of each of dried figs, raisins without seeds, three fistfuls of naked barley with only a husk, let cook sufficiently and strain. Mix with a pound [327.45 g] of this broth three ounces [about 82 g] of fresh duck fat, an ounce [27.28 g] of white vinegar with pennyroyal, a little salt. They must boil again until they are not well mixed. Give it hot in the quantity that can be swallowed with only a gulp. It has a lot of effectiveness against obtuse and indolent humors which generate fever. The same thing you can do with a capon and with a chicken, but it is less effective. Such potion can be called with fat of duck. Manuel Brudo in his treatise on food of feverish patients examines these remedies, and he prescribes many other useful things in different kinds of fever which are to be cooked with chickens and hens, as pumpkin, plums, sour grapes, which for sake of brevity I willingly pass by here. But since we happened to mention the chicken's broth used so frequently by our physicians, it seems to me advisable to speak about it a little bit more deeply and widely for benefit of younger physicians.

Sciant itaque tyronum ingenia ius Galli iunioris, et Gallinae, diversa omnino, ac plene contraria a iure Galli veteris vi pollere. Iunioris enim Galli, Gallinaeve ius, maxime si et ipsa iuvenis fuerit, vitiosos humores temperat quidem, at non educit, et in ardoribus stomachi, authore Dioscoride, etsi ea verba Ruellius vel neglexit, vel illegitima iudicavit (leguntur enim in antiquissimo codice, teste Marcello, et a Serapione etiam referuntur[14]) simpliciter paratum datur: atque ita Plinius intelligendus est, dum Gallinaceorum decoct<or>um[15] <ius> acria molire, id est, mordaces humores temperare dixit. Nam, ut diximus id Gallinarum, earumque iuniorum iuri magis convenit, gallinaceorum, nisi plane iuvenes fuerint, minus et minime quidem veterum. Nam et Averroes ait[16]. Ius Gallinae iuvenis, et pinguis temperat complexiones, et est optima medicina leprosis. Porro, si Galeno[17] credimus, ius Galli veteris alvum ducit, Gallinarum astringit, et quod magis admirandum videtur, caro Gallinae veteris.

Therefore the minds of the beginners must know that the broth of a rather young rooster and of a hen are endowed with a different and quite opposite power to that of the broth of an old rooster. For the broth of a rather young rooster or of a hen, above all if she also is young, really restrains corrupted fluids, but doesn’t drive out them, and made in a simple manner it is given in heartburns, as Dioscorides affirms, although Jean Ruel either omitted these words or judged them as spurious (for they can be read in an ancient code, as Marcellus Virgilius alias Marcello Virgilio Adriani reports, and they are reported by Serapion too): and so has to be understood Pliny when he said that the broth of overcooked chickens drives away acidities, that is, it calms prickly humors. For, as I said, this more befits hen's broth, and of rather young hen, less that of rooster, except it is quite young, not at all that of old rooster. For also Averroes says: The broth of young and fat hen tempers individual constitution, and it is a very good medicine for lepers. Furthermore, if we believe Galen, the broth of old rooster rids the bowel, that of hens acts as astringent, and what seems to be even more surprising, the flesh of old hen.

Ius vero Galli veteris ad multa in actu practico commendatur. Lavat enim, abstergit, aperit, flatus dissipat, provocat, alvum solvit, atque melancholiam purgat, ut Serapio testatur, sed Antonius Musa Brasavolus[18], cum id experiretur verum esse non reperisse se scribit. Lenit enim, inquit, et ea educit, quae in ventriculo, et intestinis continentur.

In truth in practice the broth of old rooster is recommended for a lot of illnesses. For it purifies, washes away, acts as appetizer, eliminates flatulence, provokes the escape of intestinal gases, frees the bowel and removes black bile, as Serapion testifies, but Antonio Musa Brasavola, since he would have experimented this, writes that he didn’t find this as corresponding to the truth. It has lenitive properties indeed, he says, and it provokes the escape of what is contained in stomach and bowel.