The Art of Medicine

administered to man, both to preserve health and to guard against future disease, and to drive away present disease. Of this kind are what Galen calls things to be assumed, things to be done, things falling from without, and things to be excreted or evacuated. For things to be assumed include food, drink, inhaled air, and medicines applied internally. Things to be done include friction, walking, being carried, riding, and every other exercise of the body: in this category are contained sleep, wakefulness, intercourse, and affections of the mind. Things falling from without include ambient air, ointments, baths, and other things of this kind. Things to be evacuated are those which are collected in the belly, the liver, the spleen, the veins and arteries, and the remaining parts of the body as superfluous, whether according to or contrary to nature. Therefore, all these things—namely, those to be assumed, done, falling from without, and to be excreted—when correctly administered to the body, add what is missing and remove what is superfluous, and thus preserve health and ward off or drive away diseases: but when poorly administered, they invite diseases. But so that they may be administered properly, the knowledge of bodies and diseases is necessary, then that of signs, and afterward that of causes. For they are administered differently to the healthy and differently to the sick. Since the nature of the healthy is not one—but some are altogether temperate, others deviate from the mean without reaching disease—we preserve those who are temperate in their state by restoring what has been exhausted: (constantly

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