Articella

¶ The Isagoge of Ioannitius in medicine begins.

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Medicine is divided into two parts: namely, into theoretical and practical. The theoretical is divided into three: namely, into the contemplation of natural things, and non-natural things, and those things which are against nature: from which knowledge of disease, and of health, and of neutrality, and of their causes and signs proceeds, when the four humors grow beyond their natural course, from which occasion or from which sign a disease is had.

¶ On natural things.

Natural things are seven: namely, elements, mixtures, compositions, members, virtues, operations, and spirits. And others have added to these four others: namely, ages, colors, shapes, and the distance between male and female.

¶ On the four elements.

The elements are four, namely: fire, air, water, and earth. Fire is hot and dry. Air is hot and moist. Water is cold and moist. Earth is cold and dry.

¶ On mixtures.

Mixtures are nine: eight unequal, and one equal. Of the unequal, four are simple: this is hot, and cold, and moist, and dry. And four are composed from these, namely: hot and moist, hot and dry, cold and moist, cold and dry. The equal is when the body is kept safe with moderation.

¶ On humors.

Compositions are four, namely: blood, phlegm, red bile, and black bile. Blood is hot and moist. Phlegm is cold and moist. Red bile is hot and dry. Black bile is cold and dry.

¶ On phlegm.

There are five modes of phlegm. There is salty phlegm, hot and dry, original: "salsum calid' & sicc'" infected by choleric humor. And there is sweet phlegm, pertaining to heat and moistness, infected by sanguine humor. And there is acrid phlegm, pertaining to coldness and dryness, infected by melancholic humor. There is also glassy phlegm, which is born from great coldness and coagulation, such as in old men deprived of natural heat. And there is another, cold and moist; it does not have a taste, but it retains its own coldness and humidity.

¶ On red bile.

Red bile consists of five modes. There is clear or pure red bile, naturally and substantially hot, whose origin is from the liver. Another is citrine, whose beginning is from the composition of watery phlegm and pure red bile, and therefore it is less hot. Another is vitelline, similar to the yolks of eggs, which is born from the mixture of coagulated phlegm and clear red bile, which is less hot. Another is prasinous bile, in the manner of a green leek, whose origin is more from the stomach than from the liver. There is also another, aeruginous, in the manner of green copper, and it burns in the manner...