Articella

¶ On the modes of foods.

Modes of foods are two. There is food that is good, which generates good humor. And there is bad food, which generates bad humor. Good food is that which creates good blood, and is balanced in mixture and operation: such as bread that is clean, fresh, and fermented, and the flesh of a lamb or kid. Bad food operates in the opposite way: such as bread that is not fresh, or old beef or goat meat. Furthermore, there are two modes of foods creating good and bad humor: heavy and light. Heavy food is pork and beef. Light food is that of pulses legumes or fish, or the flesh of animals that are more mobile, less fatty, and scaly. There is also a kind of oil that generates bad humor: namely red bile, such as nasturtium, mustard, and garlic. There are foods that generate melancholy, such as lentils, cabbage, and old goat or beef. And there are those that generate phlegm, such as the flesh of piglets, lambs, purslane, and orach. Furthermore, heavy food generates phlegm and black bile. Light food generates red bile, and both are bad.

¶ On the modes of drinks.

Modes of drinks are three. There is a drink that is nothing other than drink, such as water. There is another that is both drink and food, such as wine. And there is another drink pertaining to the two above, such as a potion that is given against some disease, such as honey-water, mulsa water mixed with honey/wine, or spiced wine. The food of this usefulness is that which repairs the integrity of the body in the right order. The drink, however, provides this benefit, that it carries food through the body. But the drink that we said pertains to a potion converts the nature of the body to itself.

¶ On sleep.

Sleep changes the nature of the body. First, it cools externally and heats internally. If it is prolonged, it cools and moistens. The body is also changed by vigils, because they heat externally, but internally they cool and dry.

¶ On coitus.

Coitus does this to the body: it dries the body and diminishes natural virtue, and therefore it cools. Often, however, through much agitation, it heats the body.

¶ On the accidents of the soul.

There are certain accidents of the soul that cause something within the body: such as those that move natural heat from the interior part to the upper part or to the surface of the skin. Either impetuously, such as anger. Or lightly with pleasure, such as delights and joy. There are those that draw toward coldness and conceal. Either impetuously, such as terror or fear. Or lightly, such as anxiety. And there are those that move natural virtue internally and externally, such as sadness.

¶ Here begins the treatise on things contrary to nature.

A decorative square woodcut initial 'T' features ornate foliate and floral patterns surrounding the letter.
Three things, therefore, are contrary to nature: disease, the cause of disease, and the accidents following disease. A disease is that which primarily harms the body without any mediator to aid it, such as heat in a fever that follows.

¶ On fevers.