From his bag, he removes his livre de raison and, beginning a new page, records his daily account: the amount he has spent on food this day, on drink, on gambling, on a book he had purchased in a shop in Ulm (Hugo Grotius' De Veritate Religionis Christiae), on a week's rent for the poêle.

He then takes inventory of his body, noting as accurately as possible the state of all his organs, spleen, stomach, lungs, etc. A troubling excess of phlegm receives special attention, as does slight discomfort in urination. His urine, he notes, seems warmer than usual. In keeping with the latest medical thinking, he resolves (and notes his resolve on paper) to eat only cold food tomorrow in order to correct this complication.