MEDICINE

A

original Greek: "τὴν ἀτοπίαν καὶ περιεργίαν..." [Erasistratus condemned] the absurdity and excessive meddling of mixing together minerals, plants, animal parts, and things from the earth and sea into a single concoction. For it would be better to leave those things aside and let the medical art rest upon barley-water, the cupping-glass, and a mixture of water and oil. But, by Zeus, it is the very variety [of the ingredients] that attracts and charms the appetite.

If you would rather hear these things in Latin, not being a scholar of Greek, they are as follows. Nay, it is much more the case when they prepare those "royal" and "effective" mixtures of various remedies, which they call the Hands of the Gods These were highly complex, prestigious multi-ingredient medicines, often used for universal cures.. But Erasistratus proves the absurdity and meddling of those who have mixed together minerals, herbs, animal parts, and whatever the earth and sea produce into one. It would have been well if, omitting these, they had ended the art of healing with barley-water original: "ptisana," a staple medicinal drink, the cupping-glass original: "cucurbita," used for bloodletting or drawing out humors, and water-oil.

Variety is the mother of imposture.

But truly, by Jove, the very variety of things imposes itself upon us and entices our desire. And so far speaks Plutarch.

Let us come to Celsus. Although he approves of some mixtures in his fifth book—where he says that simple things often help, but sometimes mixed things do as well—he nevertheless forbids immoderate mixtures in his first book. He says: "For a man, the most useful food is simple; a piling up of flavors is pestilential. And all seasoned foods are useless for two reasons: because more is consumed than is proper due to the sweetness, and yet it is more difficult to digest." If this is true regarding food, how much more so in medicines? There, heavy things are mixed with light, things with weight with those that have none; in one body, cold things fight with hot, moist with dry, and soft with hard.

Celsus.

There arises at last that which the poets tell in fables: a rough Chaos and an unordered mass,

Nothing but sluggish weight, and gathered in the same place
The discordant seeds of things not well joined.
The author is quoting Ovid’s "Metamorphoses," describing the chaotic state of the universe before creation to mock the state of complex drugs.

Galen, although he is among the "Newer" physicians, so little approves of those inept compositions that whenever an opportunity is given, he explodes them most severely. Such is the case with what he repeats more than once in his Method.

B

Galen.

original Greek: "καὶ μὴν ὦ ἑταῖρε..." And truly, my friend, in the intertwining of species, the active powers of the substances are not preserved, so that the specific benefit for the disease which must be cured is lost... and so forth. These words may perhaps be rendered into Latin thus:

But, oh friend, in mixed species, the action of each substance is not preserved in such a way that, in each type of substance, there remains that which is suitable for curing the disease. For if they were able to discover either the nature of bodies or the powers of the provided medicine, they would perhaps have no need for such variety—just as it would be for those who had ready at hand a single medicine that suited a single body. But now, since they are ignorant of both, they mix everything together incorrectly, striving to fashion one single medicine that might fit all natures. I believe this system of compounding medicines was devised by those earliest physicians, and I accept it as an ancient invention. However, I believe it is as far removed from the true medicinal method as a noble reason is from shifting sand through mutual sieves.

While I was writing these things, a copy of Scribonius Largus was brought to me from the Frankfurt Fair—a good and ancient author who lived in the time of Julius Caesar. In the beginning of his Therapeutics, addressed to Julius Callistus, he speaks thus: