The Art of Medicine

Composite matter consists of four elements, from the tempering of which all other things are generated. Matter is also spoken of as that from which something is made or born: as cloth from which a garment is made; just as houses are made from stones, bricks, wood, and plaster; statues from bronze, wax, lead, and other things of that kind; disease from the corruption of humors; and health from the agreement of qualities, which they call symmetria symmetry/proportion, and the apt composition of instruments. Honor is spoken of from virtue. Matter is also called the subject thing in which the arts are engaged: for instance, the human body is the matter of medicine. A form is that through which each thing has it to be what it is, and not something else. Some forms come from nature, of the kind belonging to a human, a horse, or a lion. Some are artificial, such as statues. A natural form is the principle of motion or action, as we were just saying; consequently, it also holds the status of an efficient cause. From these it is evident that a natural F form, like matter, is twofold: simple and composite. The simple one is that which has a simple and imperfect nature, such as the forms of the elements, which primary matter, as I have said, assumes. The composite one is not that which consists of several forms (for that is truly one, not many), but because it is the principle of more and more perfect motions than the simple one: such as the form of plants, which