Pharmacy

BOOK I. 15

On Extraordinary Treatment as Opposed to the Standard Method.

CHAPTER VI.

What it is to be urgent, and in how many ways.

When several ailments are connected, one must usually help the more urgent condition first, even if this requires a reversed or preposterous original: "praepostero". This refers to an "inverted" order where the symptoms are treated before the underlying cause, which was usually discouraged in Galenic medicine. order. Healing must begin where the greatest danger threatens the patient. The physician’s plan should be directed there first. A condition is considered urgent and dangerous in three ways: by the sheer magnitude of its own essence, by the importance of the function it impairs, or by the vital role of the faculty original: "facultatis". The internal powers or biological forces that govern the body's growth, nutrition, and sensation. it attacks while governing the entire body. Of these, the most dangerous is the one that strikes down the universal faculty and breaks the governing forces of the body. All treatment is established for the sake of preserving these forces. Next is the condition that harms an excellent and exceptional function. Less dangerous than these is a condition that is large in size but does not cause the loss of vital functions or forces. However, if the danger to the patient is greater from the loss of a function or the size of the ailment than from the loss of forces, the physician must start with whichever is more severe. Every care and thought should be placed first on what is most grave. This applies whether the condition was already present before treatment began or whether it appears suddenly while the standard treatment is being applied. You might call a condition the "gravest" if it puts the patient’s life at risk, or if it is the thing the patient complains about most. We are sometimes forced to yield to the patient’s prayers and wishes.

To make these things clearer with examples, let us recall the previously mentioned cold imbalance original: "intemperies". A disruption of the body's natural qualities of heat or moisture. of the stomach. This includes its indigestion original: "cruditas". Literally "rawness," referring to food that remains undigested in the stomach. arising from a distillation original: "destillatione". According to early medical theory, this was a flow of excess fluid or "catarrh" dripping from the brain into other parts of the body. from the brain. Let us consider the standard treatment for it. However, to serve our current purpose, let us add that the stomach is so cold that the entire patient shivers and can hardly stand. The force and magnitude of the disease encourage us to soothe this shivering first. Only then should we move to the distillation that is the cause of it. This is similar to how we often calm the burning heat of a fever before addressing its underlying cause. Again, consider a case where the power of accumulated phlegm original: "pituitae". One of the four humors, associated with cold and moisture. causes the appetite of the stomach to fade and its heat to diminish so much that it digests nothing. It allows whatever is consumed to be either passed raw or returned by vomiting. The necessity and excellence of the impaired function suggest that the stomach must be purged first, before the incoming distillation is stopped. If we were to establish this same phlegm in a third way...