BOOK I.

...remedies with equal cooling power are applied, and they are not yet weakened by the heat of the stomach, a balanced state will be restored through their application. If parts of the body have become intensely overheated, they will return to their former moderate state by coming into contact with these substances. In this same way, a medicine of equal strength cleanses away any sticky or sluggish humor original: "humoris lenti & glutinosi". Thick, viscous fluids like phlegm that were thought to clog the body's channels. that has adhered to the body. A medicine sufficient to remove it all at once will take away the entire excess of the harmful substance. However, if a remedy is weaker than the disease, it only reduces the condition. It helps in that way, but it does not entirely remove or heal the illness. A substance that is cooling in the second degree original: "ordine". In humoral medicine, medicines and diseases were categorized by four degrees of intensity. A second-degree remedy is milder than a fourth-degree disease. cannot remove a hot condition of the fourth degree all at once. It can only delete and take away a small portion of it.

Those diseases which should be driven out all at once by equal opposites.

For although the remedy might be defeated or extinguished by the more powerful effect of the disease, that struggle nonetheless removes a portion of the illness equal to or slightly smaller than itself. Therefore, to cure a condition, a contrary remedy must be applied. Sometimes it should be equal in strength, and sometimes weaker, according to these rules. A milder condition can be removed all at once by an equal opposite. This is because it does not inflict any significant violence upon the body or its strength.

Aphorisms, book 1, aphorism 6; and book 2, aphorism 22.

According to Hippocrates, extreme remedies must also be applied with the greatest care to extreme diseases. These diseases are sudden and severe, such as apoplexy original: "apoplexia". A sudden loss of consciousness or paralysis, often what we now call a stroke., and will soon overwhelm and extinguish the patient's strength. In diseases where the matter original: "materia". The physical substance or humor causing the disease. swells and disturbs everything with its instability and movement, a very powerful medicine must be applied immediately at the start. It is better to break up the disease even if it costs some of the patient's strength. This is better than allowing that matter to overwhelm a vital organ, which would cause the entire strength of the body to collapse without help.

Those diseases that are removed slowly and gradually.

A moderate condition is neither sudden nor dangerous. It is more safely removed slowly and by degrees. It is not possible to demolish a disease all at once without causing offense to the body and great disturbance to nature. A great conflict occurs when powerful opposites of equal strength meet. This is especially true if the substance of the body or the affected part is delicate or possesses great sensitivity.

Aphorisms, book 2, aphorism 51.

Hippocrates stated that it is dangerous to empty or fill, heat or cool, or move the body in any other way suddenly and all at once. Anything in excess is an enemy to nature. Whatever is done gradually is safe.