denotes a strong hale constitution of body. Anciently it signified a full fleshy corpulent state, such as the athletic endeavoured to arrive at. The athletic habit is effected the highest pitch of health: yet is it dangerous, and the next door to disease; since, when the body is no longer capable of being improved, the next alteration must be for the worse. The chief object of the athletic diet, was to obtain a firm, bulky, weighty body; by force of which, more than art and agility, they frequently overpowered their antagonist: hence they fed altogether on dry, solid, and vicious meats. In the earlier days, their chief food was dry figs, and cheese, which was called arida faginatio, ἄριδα φαγίαν, and ἄριδα φαγίαν ἐπικάλυψις. Oribasius, or, as others say, Pythagoras, first brought this