...it heats, erodes, and wipes away. We might call these two the seasonings of foods. But that which wrinkles the tongue more is bitter; it occurs when heat, exceeding what is proper, has increased with a dominance of dryness and heat. The Arab physicians said that bitterness can arise from both heat and cold: from cold, when it becomes sweet after the bitterness, as we see happen in acorns; from heat, when it becomes bitter after sweetness, but it is a most certain sign of earthy dryness. A sharp original: acer; often referring to pungent or acrid flavors like mustard or chili. flavor scrapes and pierces the tongue with intense, acute heat; it happens when heat is increased to the highest degree, and for this reason it burns, rather than merely heating, and is poisonous to man. There are those who make tasteless original: insipidum a flavor, though they sense no flavor in it; they say it arises from a cold and moist quality because it is dulled by the moisture of water. They exclude from these the flavors of wine and milk, since in them not one, but many flavors are received: in the former, harsh, sweet, and pleasant; in the latter, sweet, fatty, and pleasant.

Furthermore, secondary and tertiary qualities take their origin from the primary ones. Specifically, a softening power comes from heat and moisture; a hardening power is born from cold and heat; a relaxing power is produced by excessive moisture; a tension-causing power proceeds from excessive cold; and a numbing power from intense cold. Qualities of the third order are those which provoke milk, semen, menstruation, and urine, dissolve stones original: calculos; kidney or bladder stones., and the like. That which creates milk proceeds from a familiar original: familiari; meaning natural or compatible with the human body's temperament. and moderately warm substance. That which diminishes the flow of milk comes from a constricting and thickening coldness. Similarly, creating genital seed proceeds from a totally familiar and moderately warm substance.

A restraining power comes from constricting and thickening cold. A simple medicine original: simplex medicamentum; a remedy made of a single ingredient, usually a plant. which has a drying nature and possesses very little heat has the task of crushing and wearing away stones; something hot, sharp, or of thin parts can stir the urine. The Greek, Latin, and Arab physicians said these qualities are contained in certain "classes," "recesses," or "seats," so that some are judged to be of the first seat, others the second, others the third, and others claim the fourth rank for themselves. Medicines of the first class are judged to be those which heat, dry, moisten, or cool with an imperceptible effect; second class are those barely perceived; third class are those which grow strong; and the last class are those which acquire the license to burn and create crusts original: crustas; scabs or eschars caused by cauterization. similar to burns. Not content with these, they even spoke of those that stand at the end of one degree and the beginning of another.

THAT THE ANCIENTS DID NOT PERFECTLY UNDERSTAND

the primary and following qualities of plants. Chapter IIII.

Behold, all these things are ignorant of the truth and are ingeniously devised; for many things depart from this rule, which weakens the instruction, since nothing in these matters can be established as permanent. Many things are bitter which are not hot, and sweet things which are not temperate; many which dry out and possess very little heat yet do not wear away stones; and those endowed with a familiar and moderately warm power are far from creating milk; nor do all things consisting of a familiar and moderately warm nature create semen; and many tasteless things have a deadly power. Indeed, they possess qualities contrary to their flavors, which more recent physicians—neither noticing nor testing, but devoted only to the writings of the ancients—have decreed as if they were truest laws.

Who could contain their laughter while seeing some who, while striving to ascribe the numerous powers and properties they possess to the flavors of herbs, say: "In the beginning they are bitter, a little later they become sweet, soon they turn sour, and finally they pass from sharp into harsh"; and while they reconcile all powers to flavors, they differ in the rest with unbearable error, contradict themselves, and shamefully impose ambiguities and falsehoods upon us. But who can endure those who distribute flavors into "degrees," yet do not write in what climate, site, or soil, or whether grown or neglected, the plant is born? For at the change of even one of these, the flavor is varied, let alone the color and form. The Arabs, living under the hot retreat of the zodiac original: signiferi; the "standard-bearer," a poetic term for the zodiac or the sun's path., declare the same herb to be hot in the third degree; likewise the Greeks and Lat[ins]...