Anonymus Londinensis

The papyrus, column 5, lines 23-45. In lines 35-37, the author quotes Aristotle/Meno: "Hippocrates says that gases (phusai, breaths, flatus) are the causes of disease, as Aristotle has stated about him." This is followed by a more specific explanation of how these gases arise from the residues (perissōmata, lines 42-43) of undigested food. The account is closely related to On Breaths in the Hippocratic Corpus.

Anonymus Londinensis (or Anonymus Londiniensis) is the name given to an anonymous Ancient Greek author of approximately the 1st century AD, whose work On Medicine (Ancient Greek: Ἰατρικά, Latin: De Medicina) is partially preserved in a papyrus in the British Library (PBrLibr inv. 137 = P.Lit.Lond. 165). The paprus was found in Egypt. It ranks as the most important surviving medical papyrus and provides important information about the history of Greek medical thought.