Articella

red bile. ¶ Black alone signifies black bile. Red alone signifies an abundance of blood. The white and bluish color signifies that coldness is dominating the body. But the bluish color has its causes from melancholy, and the white has its causes from phlegm. ¶ Colors also arrive from external factors, such as from the cold in Scythians, from the heat in Ethiopians, and from many other accidents. ¶ There are also other special or spiritual colors, either from fear, or from anger, or from sadness, or from other movements of the mind.

¶ On the color of the hair.

There are four colors of hair: namely, black, red, bluish, and grayness. Black is made from an abundance of burnt yellow bile or the burning of much blood. Red comes from an excess of heat that is not burnt, whence hair is always red. Bluish comes from an abundance of melancholy. Grayness, however, is made from an excessive deficiency of natural heat and from the effect of putrid phlegm; this happens mostly in the elderly.

¶ On the tunics of the eyes.

The tunics of the eyes are seven, and there are three humors. The first tunic is called the retina. The second is the secundine. The third is the sclerotic. The fourth is the arachnoid. The fifth is the uvea. The sixth is the cornea. The seventh is the conjunctiva. ¶ The first of the humors is vitreous. The second is crystalline. And the third is the albugineous watery/egg-white-like, which is before the uvea tunic.

¶ On the colors of the eyes.

The colors of the eyes are four: namely, black, whitish, variegated, and bluish. ¶ Blackness is caused by a deficiency of the visual spirit, or from a disturbance of it, or from a scarcity of the crystalline humor, or because the crystalline humor itself recedes too far inward, or from an abundance of humors that are similar to the white of an egg, or from a disturbance of it, or from an abundance of the quality of the uveal humor. ¶ Whitishness is caused by the seven aforementioned contrary things: that is, from an abundance of the visual spirit or its clarity, or from the size of the crystalline humor and its prominence, or from a diminution of the albugineous humor and its clarity, and a deficiency of the quality of the uveal humor. ¶ The variegated and bluish color is made if they correspond with the things that cause blackness and whitishness. ¶ The variegated color signifies that the visual spirit is more abundant and clearer in its variety. ¶ The bluish color signifies that the visual spirit is more abundant and appears slightly blackish in its bluishness.

¶ On the modes of body qualities.

There are five modes of body quality: namely, excessive thickness, and emaciated thinness, synthesis a specific form of wasting or physical contraction, squalor, and equality. ¶ There are two species of thickness: namely, an abundance of flesh and fatness. An abundance of flesh is caused by an abundance of heat and humors. ¶ Fatness is caused by intense coldness and moisture. ¶ A decrease in fat or emaciated thinness is caused by intense heat and dryness. ¶ Synthesis is caused by intense coldness and dryness. ¶ Squalor is caused by coldness and intense moisture, or both together being intense. ¶ Equality, therefore, is caused by the equality of humors. These are the forms of the body.

¶ On the difference between the male and female.