BOOK 1.

Not only in quality, but also in quantity, in number, in position, in shape, and finally in every kind, things differ very much. For example, hot and cold, wet and dry, hard and soft, thick and thin, and even large and small, many and few, high and low are opposites, which are specifically called "adverse." Other opposites are called "privative," Privative opposites are defined by the absence of a quality, such as darkness being the absence of light. such as full and empty, whole and corrupt, or continuous and broken. The most celebrated physicians have assigned all those remedies that can remove diseases and restore health into these three categories: medicine, surgery, and diet.

We have put off the treatment of surgery to another time, as we are here to pass down the powers of medicines and foods. Those things which are said to be "adverse" to diseases do not consist of a certain middle ground, but turn away from this middle toward the opposite. For that which is moderate, being placed in the middle of two extremes, will never bring back to the middle ground something that is already at an extreme or leaning toward an extreme. When those things meet, whether by mixing or by contact, they dull each other through mutual action and relax their own powers. Neither moves entirely into the nature of the other, but instead they move toward a middle point. Therefore, that which is cold is restored to a balanced temperature not by temperate things, but only by hot things. This is just as a rod that is bent original: "tortuosum," meaning twisted or crooked. will hardly turn out straight unless it is frequently bent back in the opposite direction. This is much more evident in "privative" things; because there is no middle ground between them, they achieve a cure only through opposites.

Therefore, the law of healing through opposites remains rare and constant. Many people believe that the supreme law of healing is overturned when they hear that certain diseases are driven away by "similar" remedies. But all such things, although they may be similar to the disease, primarily and by their own nature oppose its cause. They oppose the disease only by accident. They remove the disease not through themselves, but by taking away its cause. Thus, rhubarb rheumbarbarum A common medicinal root used as a laxative and to treat fevers. dissolves a fever even though it is "hot" in nature, because it purges the matter of the fever. Exercise eases weariness because it disperses the fluids poured out through the muscles. Vomiting settles vomiting because it drives out the fluid that is causing the irritation. And purging relieves dysentery once the harmful matter, which is its efficient cause, is dragged away. In almost the same way, a large drenching of cold water is thought to dissolve a convulsion, as is found in the writings of Hippocrates.

Furthermore, we are not examining such remedies here, but rather those which primarily and through their own nature affect the condition...